Dave Smith, the long-time leader of Penn-South -- the union sponsored housing development in the Chelsea section of Manhattan -- died at 90 a few days ago. A New York Times obit is here . He'd been sick for a long time. An obit and report from an informal memorial gathering appeared in the Villager, here

Mr. Smith, whom I knew, but not well, over many years, emerged as the key figure in the struggle to keep the Penn-South as a non-profit cooperative. As union-built coop housing (Seward Park, Hillman Houses) became market-rate housing for wealthy New Yorkers, Penn-South stood for the principle that affordable housing should be maintained. The union members and other tenants of the development gave up, under Dave Smith's leadership, the possibility of personal profit so as to allow other low and moderate income people to move in. His active leadership continued into old age. He opposed Mr. Bloomberg's West Side Stadium . As The Villager reported: "Dave Smith, 85, former president of the Penn South Co-op in Chelsea, epitomized local sentiment. “If they would use this money for education and affordable housing instead of a stadium it would go a long way to keeping the city strong and preserving the neighborhood,” Smith said."  read more »