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June 10, 2002 VNN7379 Related VNN Stories
Legal Troubles For Temple's 'Special Spiritual' Food
FROM THE NEW YOK TIMES
NEW YORK, Jun 10 (VNN) — THE CITY WEEKLY DESK | May 26, 2002, Sunday NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: EAST VILLAGE; Legal Troubles for a Temple's 'Special Spiritual' Food
By JIM O'GRADY (NYT) Late Edition - Final, Section 14, Page 5, Column 1
Kapindra Swami says there is a difference between the food served by his Hare Krishna temple at Avenue B near First Street and the upscale cuisine available at the area's dozens of restaurants. For one thing, the food at the temple of the Prabhupada Sankirtan Society is free. For another, he said, "It is offered to Krishna, so it has a special spiritual taste to it." "And," he added, "we serve it to everyone, from kings to the homeless."
Hare Krishnas have been a fixture in the neighborhood since 1965, when the group's founder, Srila Prabhupada, traveled from Calcutta and began attracting devotees while chanting in Tompkins Square Park. But a kitchen that the group recently installed may soon result in the organization's being evicted from one of two adjacent storefronts it rents.
Kapindra Swami, who pre-sides over the temple, says he entered into an unwritten agreement last summer with his land lord, Howard Lifshitz, to install a new kitchen and a circular stairway to the basement in the second of the storefronts. Construction was cornpleted in October.
But Mr. Lifshitz said in an interview that he never agreed to the work. He took the temple to housing court in March, claiming it had violated a clause in its lease that prohibited cooking in the second store front, which the group began renting in 2000. He also said the group may have harmed the structural integrity of the six-story building, which contains 25 apartments in its upper floors, when it carved a hole in the storefront's concrete floor to allow space for the stairway. Finally, Mr. Lifshltz said the group had illegally installed a commercial stove without a vent.
He won the case. On May 3, Judge Cynthia Kern ruled that eviction could proceed, even though there are two years left on the temple's lease for the second storefront. The group can stay in the first storefront, which it has rented since 1988.
Asked If he had verbally approved renovations at the second storefront Mr. Lifshitz said, obviously the judge not believe that.' The group is angry over the verdict. In court papers and an interview, it accused Mr. Lifshitz of greed for seeking to replace them with a commercial tenant that could pay a higher rent. The group, which the first storefront for $844 month and the second for $1,872 a month, has not decided whether to appeal the decision.
As devotees chanted in the' background Kapindra Swami stood in the second storefront and lamented that the groups daily servings of lentils, vegetables and pudding may soon end. "We're here to serve humanity he said "not to fight with landlords." Mr: Lifshitz's response? "When somebody bald-faced lies to me does work that he knows he's not allowed to do, I want my space back."
JIM O'GRADY
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