By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities
When a regulatory agency does its job, justice is served.
Readers may recall previous reports of abuse at a Sunnyside, Queens condominium. Residents complained that their property manager, Neal Milano, had transformed the lobby into a display of Nazi imagery. Residents said Milano and some members of the condo board enforced onerous and discriminatory house rules, imposing steep fines for minor offenses.
The bully behavior of Milano got so out of hand, that one resident had to move out of the building, and obtain a protection from abuse order.
Last fall, a condo owner filed complaints with the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
According to recent reports, after Commission investigated multiple complaints against property manager Neal Milano and two board members of a 47-unit condominium in Queens, the three were ordered to resign from their positions.
The Commission also issued a court order for the removal of fascist posters and propaganda from the condo’s lobby, and compelled the association to amend its discriminatory house rules.
Also according to reports, NY Attorney General continues to investigate the association for other Civil Rights violations.
The strong response in New York City stands in stark contrast to inaction or weak enforcement of state and federal law by regulatory and fair housing agencies in other cities and states across the U.S.
Queens Condo Manager Forced to Resign Over Controversial Images in LobbyPictures of Hitler and Mussolini Decorated the Building
BY MICHAEL ODENTHAL 12 APRIL 2018
The Cooperator
It was a bizarre story that generated local media attention last fall, including from The Cooperator: Neal Milano, property manager of a 47-unit condo in Sunnyside, Queens, was arrested in September 2017 for allegedly accosting a 43-year-old former resident of the building.
But that’s just part of a larger, weirder saga. In addition to allegedly berating his neighbors and violating their personal spaces, Milano had been accused of papering the building’s lobby with pictures of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, along with other controversial Nazi- and fascist-related imagery.
As of mid-February of this year, there appeared to be a resolution surrounding those issues at the building. As the Daily News reported, the city Commission of Human Rights announced that Milano and two fellow board members were to quit their positions and remove all of the offensive images from the lobby. Additionally, those images were to be replaced by posters explaining the city’s fair housing policies and basic owners’ rights.
The Commission also required the association to amend its house rules to adhere to the city’s Human Rights Law. A previous provision requiring owners to prove their immigration status must now be excised.
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