“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.

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ

NEW YORK (AP) — Beth Brown was assigned to a major project at work when hardship struck. First, her 6-month-old daughter fell ill with COVID-19. A few days later, her mother passed away.

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Brown, director of health and well-being at a company that provides employee mental health programs and absence management services, sent a note to the senior ComPsych director who was her partner on the project, explaining she would have to miss work to care for her daughter and to make funeral arrangements. “The guilt that I felt for knowing I was going to leave her dry on my end,” she recalled.

Instead of calling to go over remaining tasks, the director reached out to ask whether Brown was OK and to tell her not to worry about the project. “In the grand scheme of things, this is not important,” Brown recalled her colleague saying. “It’ll be here when you get back. I’ll be there when you’re back.” Hearing the kind words, Brown “felt like there was a brick taken off my chest.”

The importance of treating others with kindness is one of the first lessons most parents and guardians try to teach children. But the skill sometimes falls by the wayside in work settings that encourage competition and where adults face deadlines and pressure. Financial worries and fears of layoffs also can stifle generous impulses.

Perhaps that’s why acts of kindness on the job often are so memorable for those on the receiving end. Molly MacDermot, director of special initiatives at Girls Write Now, a nonprofit mentorship and writing program, feels lucky to have a boss who was kind to her when MacDermot’s father died eight years ago and her mother passed away six months ago.

As technology accelerates the pace of many types of work, “it’s really important to feel human, to be allowed to be human, which is getting the grace to just deal with the bumps in life,” MacDermot said.

Kindness can also mean sharing hard truths in a productive way, going out of the way to welcome a new coworker or bending the rules for the sake of love.

Here are some examples of kindness in action and ideas for spreading goodwill at work.

Create safe spaces

Treating others with warmth and consideration may be especially meaningful at a time of heightened political divisions that has many people feeling like they have to choose sides, said Anna Malaika Tubbs, a sociologist and author of “The Three Mothers” and “Erased.”

“Especially in a workplace, where you can level the playing field and really make sure people know, ‘Hey, you’re welcome here and you’re seen here,’ that can really make a difference at a time when on a national level people feel really divided from each other,” Tubbs added.

One way to encourage empathy at work is to create an environment where people get to know each other, Tubbs said. Organizing staff retreats where family members are welcome, bringing in guest speakers, starting book clubs and scheduling fun offsite activities like going to an escape room are ways to generate shared experiences and facilitate healthy dialogues, she said.

The goal isn’t “to erase political difference or erase being able to disagree with each other” but to promote a cultural shift by encouraging behavior and actions different from the ones that often get rewarded at work, Tubbs said.

“Let’s not show up to meetings thinking that we have to compete and show who’s going to be the loudest and who’s going to be the most dominant,” she said. “What would look differently if we were collaborating with each other? If we were more focused on community?”

Creating a supportive culture within an organization requires daily attention, said Maya Nussbaum, the founder of Girls Write Now and MacDermot’s boss. She starts meetings with “heart warmers,” a time for staff members to share their thoughts on topics as simple as a favorite candle. She also encourages actively listening to different perspectives.

“Productivity is better when people feel that they’re valued and they’re listened to and they matter,” Nussbaum said. “They’re going to work harder and they are going to care, and they’re going to channel their passion as opposed to feeling dismissed.”

Provide real feedback

Compassion can mean sharing hard truths in a tactful way. For example, it’s challenging to let people know they aren’t meeting performance expectations, but “sometimes kindness is getting out of your comfort zone and telling someone the truth so they can shine,” said Chantel Cohen, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based CWC Coaching and Therapy, a counseling and life coaching practice in Atlanta.

When providing feedback as a manager, give specific examples to illustrate the behaviors that need improvement, she said. “Kindness isn’t a conflict-free workplace. Kindness is a workplace where repair is possible or improvement is possible,” Cohen said.

However, remember to acknowledge successes. Karla Cen recalls a former boss who she says criticized her several times a day. She learned a lot, but felt unrelenting pressure.

A manager at the retirement community in Florida where Cen works now brought her a potted plant on her first day after driving four hours to meet her. Another manager provides encouraging feedback daily.

“Having her pass by and say, ‘You did that really well today,’ it just really uplifts the mood of the whole department and makes us ready to come in for the next challenges,” Cen said.

Give back time

Before scheduling a meeting, consider whether the goals can be accomplished another way. For example, a manager can tell a working group, here’s what’s on the agenda, take time to think about it and send your ideas in writing, Cohen suggested.

“Sometimes, the gift of time is such a kindness,” she said. “Maybe you can’t give your team time off right now, but what you could do a couple times a quarter is just say, ‘Hey we’re going to skip tomorrow’s meeting and here are the things I want you all to think about. Submit this in writing so that you can have the time for yourselves.’”

Keeping meetings structured and focused also frees up time, Nussbaum said.

Reconsider rules

Meher Murshed began dating a colleague, Anupa Kurian-Murshed, more than two decades ago when they both worked at Gulf News in Dubai. The couple wanted to marry, but the newspaper prohibited spouses from working in the same department. They feared one of them would have to quit if they wed.

So they appealed to their editor-in-chief, who raised the issue with the managing director. The top managers decided the couple could keep their jobs and get married as long as one of them didn’t report to the other.

“It changed our lives. Life could have been very different,” Meher Murshed said.

Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well