BRICE MARDEN

Dear Friend and Colleague:

I am writing to ask you to support renewal of the Loft Law, which will expire on June 30, 1999 unless it is renewed by the New York Legislature and signed by Governor Pataki. As a highly respected and successful member of the art community, the weight of your name in solidarity with New York City’s artists and their advocacy organization, Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants (LMLT), will have a tremendous effect on the effort to lobby support for this issue in Albany.

Many of you are already familiar with LMLT and the struggle to protect artists’ living/working rental spaces from unwarranted eviction, harassment and hazardous living conditions. In the past, you have generously donated your time and resources to help win passage of the original 1982 Loft Law as well as the subsequent 1987 amendment and the renewals in 1992 and 1996. Today, thanks in large part to your support, almost one half of the approximately eight hundred mixed-use buildings covered under the Loft Law have been legalized and provide residential protection for the artists who live and work in them. But this percentage is far short of the total number of artists whose residential status remains unchanged and who are still in jeopardy of losing their lofts unless this law is renewed. It is on their behalf that I am soliciting your help again.

The art community of NYC is pleased that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the City of New York recently endorsed renewal of the Loft Law. However, it is still crucial that you urge our state legislators to renew this law. A number of renewal bills are expected to be circulated in the NYS legislature, it is also essential that you specify your support of Assembly bill no. A-8361, sponsored by Assembly member Deborah Glick and Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver, and its Senate companion bill, S-5656 sponsored by Senator Roy Goodman.

These bills have the endorsement of LMLT because they keep the basic provisions of the existing Loft law intact while providing the most equitable arrangement between artists and landlords.

Effective political lobbying cannot be accomplished without the aid of an organized grassroots constituency -- elected officials pay attention when they receive large numbers of letters, telephone calls and faxes advocating for an issue. For this reason, I am asking you to please take the time, on or before June 10th, to write the four key legislators listed below urging them to champion the renewal of the Loft Law. Please mail a copy of your letter to LMLT so that your name and reputation can be used in face-to-face lobbying with additional influential legislators.

When the numbers are counted, your voice could be the one that tilts the balance of legislative support needed by our artists -- please use it.

         Sincerely,

            Brice Marden

cc:    Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants
       P.O. Box 276
       New York, New York 10018
       (212) 539-3538