About 30 protesters from Queer to the Left and the Rogers Park Community Action Network ( RPCAN ) demonstrated outside Spin nightclub Saturday, looking to draw attention to residential buildings recently acquired by the bar's owner, David Gassman.
The groups claim Gassman, who bought a building at Lunt and Sheridan on Nov. 1, has been illegally evicting his new tenants and has been negligent in keeping up building maintenance. They are both claims that Gassman has denied.
Noting that Gassman has refused to meet with tenants as a group, Jeff Edwards of Queer to the Left, said, "We thought that one way to help the tenants would be to make this thing public."
Their goal, he said, was to pressure Gassman into a meeting by hurting his business.
While Gassman acknowledged that he has refused to meet with people from the building or from RPCAN, he said he doesn't feel a need to.
"I am within my rights as a building owner," he said. "The time for talking was well past."
Anyone looking to engage him in discussion, he said, should contact his legal representation or schedule a court date and attend it.
According to Gassman, the building at Lunt and Sheridan was in dire disrepair when he acquired it, and he immediately began repairing and remodeling. It was a process that involved replacing the building's boiler, meaning tenants lost their heat just as winter began. But, he said, he had no choice. "I knew that thing couldn't last," he said.
Also involved in his housekeeping was giving 30-day notice to tenants who were delinquent on their rent, a right he said he has as a landlord because the tenants were on month-to-month leases.
Edwards has countered that most tenants didn't realize they were on month-to-month until Gassman asked them to leave. He alleged that in order to make the building more attractive to a potential buyer, the former manager changed tenants' leases to say "M-M" in an attempt to make them month-to-month but didn't notify tenants.
He said the groups aren't taking issue with Gassman's right to remove tenants, but they want him to allow tenants to stay until their leases legally end, something they say he hasn't been doing.
Gassman said tenants who had problems with him have peacefully moved out of the building "of their own free will," and he characterized Saturday's protest as a vendetta being carried out by one disgruntled tenant who was delinquent on his rent.
According to Edwards, however, several of Gassman's tenants attended the demonstration.
"The tenants involved have never done anything like this before," he said. "Once ( they ) got there they were really emboldened."
RPCAN has been leading the efforts for tenants of Gassman's buildings, and they called in Q2L when they found that he owned Spin, a gay nightclub, Edwards said.
"I'm kind of astounded that they would try and turn this into a gay issue," Gassman said, adding that "using the gay card is completely out of line."
In a letter to WCT, Gassman said, "Since taking over Spin [ three years ago ] I have become more heavily involved in the gay community. Spin is at the forefront of gay causes and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for gay charities."
The letter goes on to say, "I have never, and will never, base my decisions on race, religion or sexual orientation."
Edwards said many passersby reacted well to the protest, and he said the group persuaded several people not to enter the bar.
"Many people stopped and talked about their own landlord problems," he said. "I think it struck a chord."
Edwards said the protest was the beginning of a campaign against Gassman until he agrees to meet with tenants and address their concerns.
Gassman owns 18 buildings in the Lakeview area, and two in Rogers Park.
