NEW YORK--The residents board of the famous Dakota building in New York are racist and are unfairly discriminating against tenants they disapprove of, according to a lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Roberta Flack and Antonio Banderas have both been discriminated against by the Dakota Building.
The lawsuit also claims a black Wall St investor living in the Dakota was refused permission to buy a neighbouring flat because of his ethnicity.
Legendary singer Roberta Flack, also a tenant, was supposedly forced to take the service lift with her dog while white dog owners were allowed to use the regular one.
The lawsuit has been brought against the Dakota building so no individuals have been named but its residents include screen legend Lauren Bacall and dozens of established New York names.
John Lennon lived in the building before he was assassinated outside the entrance in 1980.
The claims are in legal papers filed by black Dakota resident Alphonse Fletcher Jr who runs his own Wall St investment company and is worth $80million.
He has accused the building and several of its board members of racial discrimination and defamation.
Mr Fletcher, a former president of the residents’ board, has lived there since 1992 and filed the lawsuit after being refused permission to buy the apartment next to his to accommodate his family.
Dakota building residents include screen legend Lauren Bacall and dozens of established New York names
Shortly afterwards a member of the board on the same floor put her flat up for sale and included the apartment he had wanted as part of a package, the lawsuit says.
According to the New York Times, Mr Banderas is referred to as a Hispanic man and Ms Griffith a ‘prominent financially well-qualified white woman’ who were turned down when they tried to buy in to the Dakota.
Although they are not actually named, the paper says the timings indicate it does refer to them.
The lawsuit also claims that Ms Flack, 73, was asked to submit multiple applications to fix her bath which residents’ board members openly laughed about.
She said several residents were 'up in arms' over the row. 'I don’t know if there’s just discrimination, but inadequacy, on the part of the people who make the decisions,' she added.
The allegations shine a light on the restrictive rules which operate in the most expensive buildings in New York, particularly the Upper West Side where the Dakota is situated.
Such rules are usually run by a residents’ board, also known as a co-op board.
The lawsuit says: ‘Although such conduct by a co-op board on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at the beginning of the 21st century may seem surprising, this behaviour was consistent with the defendants’ extensive pattern of hostility toward nonwhite residents of the building.'
The Dakota’s board said in a statement: ‘Mr Fletcher’s application to purchase an additional apartment in the Dakota was rejected based on financial materials he provided.
‘Any accusations of racial discrimination are untrue and outrageous.’
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Wednesday, February 2nd 2011 at 2:29PM
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