THE BRONX

At a Labor Day party in 1998, New York University political science major A. James "Jamie" Warfel was murdered in Edgewater Park, a co-op comprised of 675 single-family homes in the Throgs Neck section of The Bronx. Friends and family created an impromptu memorial at the site of the tragedy, but the co-op board objected, and after years of contention the memorial was removed in 2007. But now, reports the Bronx Times, the board has relented and allowed the memorial, a rough-hewn stone with a plaque, at a recently installed athletic track a couple of hundred feet from the murder site. “It helps to heal some of the animosity that has built up over the years,” said the victim's father, Alwin Warfel, at the unveiling, adding, “You can’t erase history, but you can put it in the proper perspective.”

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, it's co-op shareholders vs. rental tenants at Chelsea's London Terrace over access to a pool. We've also news of a new, retroactive property-tax abatement; the Brighton Beach bathrooms get put on hold; and as Stevie Wonder sang, we're very superstitious, writing's on the wall — just not the wall of the 13th floor. Plus, for boards, co-op taxes are up, and Concourse Village workers are up in arms.

Sept. 16, 2009 — New York City hasn't been hit as hard by bankruptcies and mortgage foreclosures as other parts of the country, but this recession has been taking its toll. So it was no great shock when a shareholder at a 77-unit, red-brick co-op in Riverdale, The Bronx, started falling behind on his monthly maintenance payments.

What is remarkable is how the board turned one shareholder's misfortune into a bonanza for the entire co-op.

A New York City court has ruled that existing State law forbidding private landlords from prohibiting day-care centers also applies to residential co-ops. The Housing Court decision, in a case involving a Bronx cooperative, invalidates a provision of that co-op's proprietary lease that says apartments can be used only as residences.

You can hear the smile in Mary Ann Dowling’s voice when she talks about the sense of community in her Bronx co-op. “It’s a mixture of people — some young, and the majority of [recent] sales are young couples with kids  but there are people who have lived here since the building was built” in 1953, says Dowling, the board president at Briar Oaks in Riverdale. “It’s a real community.”

Call it a “professional business with heart.”  Or call it an “Oasis” in the Bronx. In fact, you can call 1 Fordham Hill Oval many things, but most of them would be positive. And much of that is because of the hands-on board led by Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, 57, the charismatic board president. In the following interview, Pilgrim-Hunter speaks frankly about the frustrations and rewards of board service, and the challenges she faces in supervising 12 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, 1,119 middle-class apartments, and nine high-rises. Those buildings encircle the “Oval,” a verdant meeting space that gives the co-op its nickname: “Oasis in the Bronx.” The gated complex was built 60 years ago, and Pilgrim-Hunter has lived there for half that time.

What motivated you to serve on the board?

I was training to be a community organizer [with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition] when I started to hear rumblings about the board, that it was engaging in some really bad behavior. Then I started hearing about really rancorous board meetings. We finally had to organize the shareholders to vote out that board. The goal was to remove the four worst board members; we ended up replacing the entire group.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, residents' outrage over rodents reaches a roar in one middle-class Bronx neighborhood's historic old co-ops (albeit spelled "coops"). Meanwhile, in a more upscale area of the borough, a condominium gets millions in tax breaks. Life as usual, in other words. And speaking of taxes, we've news on the class-action suit aiming to make New York City's crazy property-tax calculations fairer, and an Upper East Side condo is suing the MTA for Second Avenue subway-related damage. Plus: Celebrities buy penthouses!

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, one of the world's richest condominiums has a big, circular driveway it won't let limo drivers use. Why should it? The NYPD looks the other way as a half-dozen or more limos idle daily in a no-parking zone, spewing fumes to other, less connected buildings. Very nice, 15 Central Park West. Meanwhile, rent-controlled seniors in a co-op are forced to evict their son, and a co-op board president admits that people were ahead of him in line when he took a four-bedroom apartment at the affordable-housing East Midtown Plaza. He doesn't have six people in his family like City rules say, but so what? He's just practicing to be the kind of people who live in 15 Central Park West.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, the Realty Advisory Board is negotiating on behalf of boards and landlords as it continues contract talks with the union representing doormen and other building workers. New York State has some questions about NYSERDA money at Co-op City. A Queens co-op seeks money to repair a Sandy-battered seawall. And who's the best building manager and which is the best property-management company in New York. Well, there are many factors consider including continuity of leadership, responsiveness to clients, stability, experience, expertise, sufficient staffing and industry reputation and good will. Or you could just go check out the NYARM Awards.

An attorney for Co-op City, the more than 15,000-unit Bronx cooperative of high-rises and townhouses, is accusing recently elected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio of reneging on a campaign promise to end an asbestos-abatement order the lawyer calls unnecessary.