Photos yesterday by Stacie Joy
Supporters gathered outside the Sixth Street Community Center on Wednesday to announce they've filed a formal complaint with the New York State Attorney General, demanding the reinstatement of ousted Executive Director Howard Brandstein and the removal of the Center's current board of directors.
The event, organized by the Friends of Sixth Street Community Center, comes amid allegations of governance failures, financial mismanagement, and retaliatory practices at the Center, which they say threaten to upend nearly 50 years of community-driven work on the Lower East Side.
The text of the AG complaint states: "Without immediate intervention, the Center's financial stability, physical assets, and community trust will be irreparably harmed."
In April, the Center's four-member board abruptly fired Brandstein (seen below), who had led the organization for 35 years. The move followed a complaint Brandstein filed with the State Division of Human Rights in January, accusing the board of harassment and intimidation.
Since then, supporters allege, the board has dismantled critical anti-displacement efforts, including sabotaging a $100,000 planning grant to create low-income housing through a Community Land Trust.
Brandstein, a co-founder of the Center, stated that he was abruptly dismissed without severance pay or notice on the morning of April 8.
According to him, the termination letter alleged financial impropriety and misconduct — claims he categorically denies.
"This board is out to destroy me, plain and simple," he wrote in a public statement, citing not only his dismissal but also the loss of access to personal items, digital files, and ongoing project work, including a community land trust partnership to develop affordable housing.
The volunteer board has declined to discuss specific employment matters, citing legal limitations.
In a public statement in April, the board announced that it had made a "very difficult decision" to transition leadership "in the best interest of the center and its mission," adding that it is committed to maintaining SSCC's programs and its role in the neighborhood.
"We remain focused on strengthening our programs, engaging with the community, and keeping the Center accessible in all ways," the board wrote, acknowledging the disruption caused by protests and urging respect for the safety of youth program participants and staff.
Both sides agree that tensions had been escalating for over a year.
Founded in 1978, the Sixth Street Community Center, between Avenue B and Avenue C, has been an invaluable resource in the neighborhood, offering youth programs, organic food through its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative, and free meals and produce during the pandemic. It has also played a role in advocating for community land trusts and affordable housing.
The Center, meanwhile, continues its programming, including enrollment for the Sixth Street Youth Program for the 2025-26 academic year.
Previously on EV Grieve:
7 comments:
I was a member of the Board two years ago when one Board member, Sarah Johnson, announced in executive session that for years she's felt that so long as Howard Brandstein was associated with the Sixth Street Community Center she would refuse to raise funds for it, and that her position went back for many years. The rest of the Board went along with that, and NONE of them has raised a dime for the Center. Since that time, Sarah Johnson put that statement into writing over her signature, and that email indicating a longtime vendetta against Howard Brandstein is included in the filing to the Attorney General.
We have so few community institutions left; we can't afford to lose another. I can't read the minds of the directors who have seized control of the Center, but it is more than reasonable to draw conclusions when the executive director of 35 years, a co-founder, is fired in a 1 a.m. email and then the board member who styles himself a "police abolitionist" calls the police on the founder! The Sixth Street Community Center would not exist without the tireless work over decades of Howard Brandstein and Annette Averette, both of whom the board is attempting to erase from history. Why?
Brandstein should publish the letter from the Board to make clear what the allegations are. If there were financial improprieties involved with the administration of a long-time nonprofit, that should be a matter for the state, but we have not heard about an investigation. You can never completely discount accusations of misconduct, but without any clarification it's hard to think the Board is acting in good faith.
The abrupt ending of things.
It was announced a few days ago that the TPS program will end and 50,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans will have to return to a country they have barely known, uprooting their families and social networks they have built over decades. A 12 year old child was left alone screaming on NYC streets as her mother was illegally whisked away by ICE (assisted by NYPD). She was just a tourist visiting the city. Daily, we witness people being picked off the streets and removed from the lives they have built over decades, their contributions to their communities being destroyed.
And in our own front yard, a 72 year old activist and community leader is picked off in the middle of the night and whisked away by police. The many causes he and others built over decades being destroyed.
Why on earth would you do this NOW when every social program and grant is being decimated?
You can’t measure the value of 6th street Community Center in dollars and cents. It is so much more than a center. It has always been a sanctuary.. a place where people can gather take care of their survival needs and connect not only with each other but with a kinder, simpler side of themselves. I know this because when I first came here in my 20’s, I was looking for that and I found it. Howard and Annette touched the lives of everyone in this community. They always put the needs of everyone above their own. You don’t know how much it means to the 1500 who signed the change.org petition, the over 300 on FSSCC, the over 330+ on the Instagram. It is a home.. a place where people from all walks of life can feel safe and welcome. Losing this center under Howard’s kind leadership has put a hole in the heart of everyone in this community. It’s wrong to take away the home of the entire community.
This ongoing fight is a failure of basically good people on BOTH SIDES not knowing how or not wanting to use their imaginations to create and sustain something better.. that involves ALL stakeholders, not just the few.
PLEASE LES COMMUNITY STOP THE ABRUPT ENDING OF THINGS BECAUSE YOUR VERY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT ..THE LIFE OF OUR COMMUNITY DEPENDS ON IT.
A human tapestry being ripped to shreds…AND
being salvaged by FSSCC (Friends of Sixth Street Community Center)
Sixth Street Community center served as a hub for ALL. Here is a partial list of the vital community groups connected with sixth street community center co-created over 4 decades by Ms. Averette and Mr. Brandstein.
All the people who have been doing events and using space at Sixth Street during the past 3+ decades including parents, yoga groups, martial artists, teens, kids, EV Loves food distribution, HDFCs, Jewish groups; (Workers Circle, Jewish Liberation Learning, If Not Now, JFREJ), Earth Celebrations. Also NYCHA LES 2 and 5 Tenant Associations, El Jardin, 6BC and 6&B gardens, LES Hispanic Committee, Loisaida Center, Village Preservation, MORUS, Rev. Billy & Earth Chxrch, CSWA, NMASS, Coalition to Protect Chinatown & LES, and East River Park Action, Middle Collegiate Church, 12 former staff members whose voices were silenced.
Some of the above will actively protest, some are too afraid to go public, some on the fence but ALL know that the human tapestry of connections being ripped to shreds is wrong
There seems to be some attempts going on to destroy the neighborhood's community centers and let them rot. First , CHARAS and now 6th. St. are not open for the community and protests seem to be ignored by the powers that control both of them. Seems to me that the more neighborhood property values go up the more these 2 community centers are being taken over by pro gentrification forces. Too bad the old squat occupation takeovers are now historical relics and does not seem to be an option anymore. Where is Frank M. and his calls to take back the 6th. St. center that was published here ? Does this "board" live in the neighborhood ? How about doing non-violent peaceful protests outside their apartments to let their neighbors know about this takeover ? Also , when is EV going to do an update on CHARAS after publishing about it for over 20 years and never seeming to publish the real story for the whole time ?
Since I did this so much in the past before I could not afford to live in the neighborhood anymore I suggest that when people organize them and any more protests happen send a press release to AP for their Daybook listings. This might get some TV Trucks and mainstream media reporters to show up and cover the demonstrations.
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