“COPA is a sensible, targeted tool to support organized tenants and vetted preservation buyers to fight displacement in the buildings where New Yorkers’ safety and stability is most under threat.”

Residents and organizers at a building on West 170th Street owned by “worst landlord” Daniel Ohebshalom in 2024. Gerardo Romo/NYC Council)

Across the five boroughs, organized tenants are fighting to ensure the livability and affordability of our homes—often alongside mission-driven preservation partners. The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (Intro 902-B), or COPA, would strengthen these efforts to preserve affordable housing and fight displacement. COPA would give qualified preservation buyers committed to long-term affordability the first opportunity to purchase properties when the landlord decides to sell. 

Backed by a coalition of over 200 community-based organizations, unions, faith institutions and more, the City Council passed COPA in December with a strong majority. But on his last day in office, Eric Adams vetoed the bill. Now, New Yorkers are demanding that the City Council override the veto and enact this essential anti-speculation tool for tenants and community-based organizations to protect our neighborhoods and our homes.

The tenants of 705 and 709 West 170th St. offer a stark example of why New York City needs COPA. Not long after Daniel Ohebshalom became owner about 20 years ago, conditions began deteriorating drastically. Ohebshalom was named the worst landlord in New York City in back-to-back years by the Public Advocate’s Office. Tenants have endured entire weeks, including holidays, without heat and hot water. They’ve dealt with mold, leaking pipes, and smoke from boiler fires. They’ve lived with malfunctioning front doors that made it easy for intruders and squatters to enter. Imagine so many rats at night you’d think the ground was moving. 

During the pandemic, conditions deteriorated even further. Tenants organized in protest and management retaliated with menacing phone calls and threats of eviction, heat and hot water shut offs, and further neglect of repairs. With the help of Manhattan Legal Services, tenants brought a harassment case against Ohebshalom that has dragged on for nearly three years. The tenants continue to organize alongside Northern Manhattan CLT and Met Council on Housing, to demand collective ownership and preservation of their homes. 

Tenants know that the court system alone will never deliver the long-term security they are fighting for. Even when they win repairs, buildings can still be sold to another slumlord, and the speculation and harassment cycle starts again. Tens of thousands of New York City tenants currently suffer from this system in which predatory corporations have the upper hand and perpetuate a status quo of neglected repairs, harassment and eviction.

COPA will change that dynamic, creating transparency and a real opportunity for tenants and mission-driven community partners to step in when a building is for sale. It covers a select subset of properties with deep distress and high violation counts that signal displacement risk. Instead of backroom deals and surprise sales, COPA would require notice and a fair window for qualified nonprofit buyers—including community land trusts, and those working with vetted private partners—to make a competitive offer. Sellers retain the right to approve or reject the offer, and preservation buyers have the opportunity to match third-party private offers. 

COPA is a sensible, targeted tool to support organized tenants and vetted preservation buyers to fight displacement in the buildings where New Yorkers’ safety and stability is most under threat. 

Nine years ago, residents of Washington Heights and Inwood came together to form the Northern Manhattan Community Land Trust (NMCLT). They were tired of reacting to displacement and speculation, and were determined to advance an alternative: permanent affordability through community control. 705 and 709 West 170th St. tenants began working with NMCLT to help transition the buildings to permanent community ownership. Faced with possible sale of the buildings without their knowledge, the tenants now want more than another landlord; they want a path to ownership. COPA is a necessary tool for tenants to intervene in and end the predatory cycle, keeping homes livable and affordable for the long haul.

Our elected leadership should choose now to promote a basic value that shouldn’t be controversial: housing is a home first. For tenants living and working in this city, our homes are not vehicles for investment and profit; they are where we raise our families, rest our heads and build our communities. COPA would help families preserve these homes, and the fabric of our city, for generations to come. We urge the City Council to override Eric Adam’s veto.

Gilbert Butcher is a tenant leader at 705 and 709 West 170th Street, Manhattan. Paloma Lara is President of Northern Manhattan Community Land Trust.

The post Opinion: The Council Passed COPA. Now It Must Override Eric Adams’ Veto. appeared first on City Limits.

A special election for a vacant St. Paul legislative seat will be held Tuesday.

The 64A seat was vacated by Kaohly Her after she won the St. Paul mayor’s race in November. District 64A, which includes the Union Park,

Dan Walsh. (Courtesy of the candidate)

Macalester-Groveland and Summit-University neighborhoods.

Meg Luger-Nikolai, a labor lawyer who won a December DFL primary, will face the sole Republican candidate, business owner Dan Walsh.

Luger-Nikolai received nearly 30% of the vote in a six-candidate contest last month. Walsh was the only Republican candidate so a primary was not needed.

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DFLers generally dominate elections in St. Paul. Her won four consecutive two-year terms with more than 80% of the vote.

Meg Luger-Nikolai. (Courtesy of the candidate)

More information on the candidates can be found at their web sites — megfor64a.com/ and walshfor64a.org/about.php.

Prior to Her’s resignation, the state House has been tied 67-67.

To find out what’s on your ballot, where to vote and other election information, visit the Minnesota Secretary of State’s elections page at sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting.

By Melody Baetens, The Detroit News

DETROIT — Change your perspective heading into the new year with a visit to Detroit’s new Museum of Illusions.

The attraction debuted on Woodward in the Himelhoch building near Grand Circus Park in early December. It’s the 67th Museum of Illusions that has opened around the world. Each location features exhibits and artwork specific to the city.

In Detroit, there’s a vibrant mural of what looks like a Motown singer with eyes that are always locked on you, and a “reversed room” inspired by the auto industry. Look for the illusion that makes you look like you’re sitting on — or hanging from — the marquee of the historic art deco Majestic Theatre a few blocks up Woodward.

“We have received the warmest welcome from the Motor City,” said Museum of Illusions CEO Kim Schaefer at a museum preview in December. “We feel like we are truly family here.”

“We’ve been around for a decade now and this is number 67 and we are proud of being all over the globe,” she said, adding that the museum is filled with “nods to the beautiful, vibrant, historic nature of what makes Detroit so special. We’re excited to be here.”

The first Museum of Illusions opened in Zagreb, Croatia, a decade ago, and it has become the largest and fastest-growing chain of privately held museums in the world.

The wheelchair-accessible, hands-on museum is set up like a path, with guests taking about an hour to get through and experience everything, depending on how crowded it is. Visitors are invited to touch, climb and take plenty of photos.

Your camera is as essential to your visit as your eyeballs, because some of the illusions aren’t fully effective until you see your photo. This includes the Beuchet Chair, which places two people in a room for a forced-perspective trick that works best once a third person takes a photo. The museum walls give tips on taking the best photographs.

Others don’t require a camera, like the giant pinscreen, a full-body-size version of the famous desk toy; strike a pose, press yourself into it and then view your impression on the other side. Gaze at the grid illusion and see dancing black spots that aren’t really there. Like many of the installations, the museum offers text that explains the science behind it.

Hold on tight in the vortex tunnel, which is a stationary platform with a revolving tunnel around it that makes you feel like you’re spinning into oblivion. (Just close your eyes to recenter yourself.)

Like any museum, there’s a gift shop, which is a whole Woodward-facing storefront. They sell Museum of Illusions apparel and giftable toys that challenge the mind. The museum is rentable for weddings, birthdays, corporate team building and field trips.

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If you go

Museum of Illusions

Open 10 a.m. daily

1545 Woodward, Detroit

moidetroit.com

Admission starts at $24.72

©2026 www.detroitnews.com. Visit at detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.