A Co-op Hero One Day, a Dust-Spewing Goat the Next

It’s tough being an advocate for the elderly in this town. Yesterday we posted a story about how advocates for the city’s elderly lobbied in Albany to get a $1.65 million boost in state funding for the city’s 28 Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities, or NORCs.

“We applaud the leadership of the New York State Assembly and Senate for recognizing this important issue, and owe a great deal of thanks to our champions: Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz and Senators Marty Golden and Sue Serino,” says Bonnie Lumagui, director of the Co-op Village NORC on the Lower East Side.

Now comes word that Cyrbrowitz’s upstairs neighbors in his Brighton Beach co-op, octogenarians Anotoliy and Ninel Rubinovich, have sued the Democrat assemblyman in Brooklyn small claims court over dust stirred up by renovations to his apartment. “We were almost suffocated from the fog and dust which filled up our apartment,” the Rubinoviches claim in their suit.

In a statement, Cymbrowitz told the New York Post: “Upon hearing of the dust issue from management the assemblyman offered to have it cleaned or pay half the cost of the cleaning bill even though it was not his responsibility, which was rejected by the neighbor.”

Yes, a pol in this town can go from hero to goat in a New York minute.