Daily News from New York, New York • 125

MniilhtliMnr Jf I lgsgaMrtMfialtoMIMafll "il HI I'M ir Oaity News, Wednesday: V4cember 13, 1981 Citywged to redefine 'residential' 'in hotel code v. v.v BY BRUCE CHADWICK fl ANHATTAN BOROUGH President I Andrew Stein and two Manhattan Council mWU members yesterday Urged the city Department of Housing Preservation and to scrap its review of amended hotel industry, regulations until new provisions concerning con- troversial residential hotels are written into it i i The public officials joined dozens of residential i hotel tenants at a public hearing yesterday at 125 Worth St in calling for clear definitions of what is -or is not a hotel as well as for increased hotel -tenant protection. Tenants in residential hotels charge that they haveto pay. far higher-rent increases than they should because their apartments are classified as hotel rooms for the most "technical of reasons. Thft proposed amended code of the Metropolitan Hotel Industry Stabilization Association includes; rrew lease provisions for SRO (single-room-occtipancy) hotels but new provisions for residential hotels, which tenants charge are really apartment houses earning a lot more money at hotel rates.

The hearing also became a battleground for SRO tenants, who charged that the city's proposal that hey receive mandatory six-month leases will not help-their often-tragic plight Many tenants evicted from low-rent SROs-as their, hotels have been inverted to elegant co-op residences have wound Aip Sleeping in the streets. Susan Kamen cavorts with her pooches in Houston Sis architecturally designed dog run. York's most exclusive dog run straddles the border of SoHo and NoHo No landlords testified at the hearing on the Issue By PAUL LA ROSA SRO tenants and their ere furious over proposed hotel regulations. See page 2. ALL IT PoHo, short for "Dogs on Houston St It a little-known but exclusive area at the corner of Mercer and Houston Sts.

where pt reclassifying residential hotels, but their repre-, tentative. Hotel Association chairman Max Golden-jberg, said he was against the proposal because "these, have always been hotels and still are." Others disagreed. laws on residential hotels are total bastardization of any -code to protect tenants," said Council woman Ruth Messinger. (D-Manhattan), "K-hose West Side district Is home to most of the fity's residential hotels. i -She said residential hotels should be given ipattment-house and rent-stabilization status.

hotel fesidential-tiotel tenants tniist pay IL67o per-year rent increases. Under apartment i yules; they would pay a total of only 18 over three case of some unforseen dog crisis. Members' are screened, but In a purely physical way. "All we want to see is the dog's vaccination certificatt," Kamen says. "We want healthy dogs in there." Kamen, who paints dog portraits for living, knows of what she speaks.

She has five African some of which are champions. Does that mean that the members are a bunch of purebred snobs? Not on your life. Says Kamen: "We have our share of mutts." The dog run actually has a history, behind it Born of necessity 12 years ago when neighborhood residents needed somewhere in Lower Manhattan to walk their dogs, residents took over a small piece of land and made it theirs and their dogs'. All was fine until New York University announced plans to build their $16 million Jerome" S. Coles Sports and Recreation Center.

The sports complex was built on the old dog run, which war obliterated. As part of a concession to the community, NYU agreed to pay for a new dog run as well as a children's park that was also overrun when the sports complex was built Architect Richard Dattner was called in to design the park and, while he was at it NYU asked him also to design the dog run so that the strip would have the same "look." Dattner admitted that designing the dog run was a simple job but, according to Kamen, "It had to be legally architected to comply with Parks and Health Department requirements. The dog run is working like a dream so far and everyone's happy, from the dogs to the architect a rather elite group, of dogs go to bask in the sun, get their exercise and, dogs do. Built at a cost of about $50,000, Do Ho is probably the swankiest place in town for dogs to drop their droppings and get off a leash and relax. It's the.New York Athletic Club of The actual name of the small corner strip is the Mercer-Houston Dog Run Association and it's a members-only club which opened on Oct 26 for people -who love their dogs a lot All it really consists of is a small piece of land, 100 feet by 36 feet, that is blacktopped with a fence surrounding it However, within its confines, members can look foward to the latest la sanitary features, including a hose to keep the area clean and a large garbage can for the dog droppings.

"It's not just for the dogs, it's a big social scene," says Susan Kamen, president of the association, "We get a very nice run of people." Every day, from 7 a.m! to 11 p.m., lower Manhattan residents take their dogs into the fenced-in area and then shoot the breeze with-each other while their dogs run about "With the leash laws in Manhattan, it's the only place you can let the dogs run around and be free," Kamen said. The $15 membership fee goes toward liability insurance for the association so nobodygets sued in I i cars. vf fj "These hotel rooms are, In reality, two and hree-bedroom apartments and should be treated as bach, said uessinger. Stein said he will meet with HPD Commissioner Anthony Gliedman later this week. "I'm going to ask him to halt this study on the "intended code until the city does something to help I esidential-hotel tenants.

There is nothing in this lode that helps them," he said. Harry Garland, president of the tenants associa- t. Continued on page 3.