Today loved ones, friends and colleagues are remembering Lower East Side tenant activist Marie Christopher, who lost her battle with cancer this week. Christopher was the tenant president at 210 Stanton Street, a subsidized housing complex. She was also a member of GOLES, Good Old Lower East Side and a citywide leader in the fight for affordable housing.
This afternoon, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez released the following statement:
Many of us in the Lower East Side have lost a neighbor and we have all lost a tireless champion for better communities. Whether it was her work to expand community policing, get drugs out of our communities or her passion for tenants’ rights, one cannot dispute that Marie Christopher made our City a better place. Her spirit will live on in the progress she made and the causes she held dear. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and all those who knew and loved her.
Wasim Lone, the director of housing services for GOLES, said Christopher was an invaluable resource and a good friend who will be missed. “Her dedication and commitment were incredible. She was an amazing leader in New York City’s tenant movement,” he said.
