Dakota Co-op Board Is Accused of Bias

The Dakota, the legendary New York apartment building, has long been famous for its celebrity residents, including Leonard Bernstein, Lauren Bacall and John Lennon. A suit by Alphonse Fletcher Jr., a Wall Street investor, accuses the Dakota and several of its board members of racial discrimination and defamation. But it is also well known for having among the most restrictive co-op boards in... [more]

The Dakota, the legendary New York apartment building, has long been famous for its celebrity residents, including Leonard Bernstein, Lauren Bacall and John Lennon. A suit by Alphonse Fletcher Jr., a Wall Street investor, accuses the Dakota and several of its board members of racial discrimination and defamation. But it is also well known for having among the most restrictive co-op boards in Manhattan, having turned down would-be buyers including Billy Joel, Cher and the acting couple Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas. Now a lawsuit by a former board president is offering an inside look at how its enigmatic decisions are made, and to hear him tell it, the process is not at all in keeping with the Dakota’s rarefied reputation. The former board president, Alphonse Fletcher Jr., a prominent black Wall Street investor, has sued the Dakota, accusing the building and several of its board members of racial discrimination and defamation. Mr. Fletcher, 45, who has lived in the Dakota since 1992, filed the lawsuit after the board denied his application to buy an adjacent unit to accommodate his family. The lawsuit’s explosive allegations include claims that board members made ethnic slurs against prospective residents, including describing one couple as part of the “Jewish mafia” and suggesting that a Hispanic applicant was interested in a first-floor apartment so that he could more easily buy drugs on the street. The applicant, who was rejected, was married to a “prominent financially well-qualified white woman,” according to the suit, and though neither is named, the timing and circumstances suggest that it was Mr. Banderas. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/nyregion/02dakota.html [less]