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B'klyn Co-Op Row Rages By LORE CROGHAN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Saturday, May 1st, 2004 Efforts to hammer out a deal that would allow disabled Holocaust survivor Chaim Indig to live in a wheelchair- accessible co-op in Brooklyn proved unsuccessful yesterday. But Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice David Schmidt ordered that the talks continue Monday. He also put a stop to the sale of the Premier House apartment to a co-op board member who made a deal to buy the unit after the board rejected Indig. The judge ordered the board member, Solomon Rokowsky, to appear personally in court Monday to participate in the settlement talks, not just send his lawyer as he did yesterday. The afternoon was an emotional roller-coaster ride for Indig's family. "All I really wanted to do for my parents is give them a better place to live, and let my father live out the rest of his life with comfort and dignity," daughter Shevie Sinensky said afterward. Sinensky's husband, Gary Sinensky, arranged to buy an apartment at the snooty high-rise at 1401 Ocean Ave. in Midwood to house Indig and his wife, Sara. But seven board members unanimously turned him down last month - and days later Rokowsky made his own deal for the unit. Indig and the Sinenskys sued, alleging discrimination against the 81-year-old Auschwitz survivor because of his disabilities. Indig suffers from Parkinson's disease, is incapable of speaking and uses a wheelchair. Board members said they gave Indig the thumbs-down because he gets federal Section 8 rent subsidies - and Gary Sinensky wanted to sublet the apartment to Indig and take the Section 8 payments as rent. Indig came to court for the hearing, looking frail but alert. He lives as a virtual prisoner in a two-family home in Borough Park because he can't get down the steep front steps. Schmidt proposed that the two sides settle by having Gary Sinensky buy the apartment for his in-laws without collecting Section 8 payments, and then sell it to Rokowsky after their deaths. Rokowsky insisted through his lawyer that Sinensky could buy the co-op - but that as soon as Indig dies, his wife would have to move out so Rokowsky could buy it. "He wants the apartment," Rokowsky's lawyer, Lawrence DiGiovanna, said afterward. "He's already got it." SOURCE: New York Daily News, NY http://www.nydailynews.com/front/v-pfriendly/story/189146p-163541c.html * * * Family of Elderly, Disabled Man Charges Co-op Board With Age Discrimination He is an 81-year-old holocaust survivor who lived through Auschwitz. But this man from Brooklyn -- who is also battling Parkinson's disease -- is fighting a local co-op board. Video: Watch the Story http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/video/wabc_042804_coop_video.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn