Meanwhile, it appears that the Stuyvesant Town planting graveyard still lives, though it's now a small one and hidden behind a fence:
Monday, February 23, 2009
Hooliganism or Is the Super Glue Not Working?
If you walk around the 20th Street Loop, you should spot this, both handrails damaged and obviously presenting a hazard.
Meanwhile, it appears that the Stuyvesant Town planting graveyard still lives, though it's now a small one and hidden behind a fence:
Meanwhile, it appears that the Stuyvesant Town planting graveyard still lives, though it's now a small one and hidden behind a fence:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Peter Cooper Village's Planting Graveyard
Or--you can run, but you can't hide....
Alerted by a comment responding to my previous entry (thank you!), I headed over to Peter Cooper Village to check out its own "planting graveyard." It was late, so the photos are nighttime ones, but you will still be able to see that Tishman Speyer's wasteful non-use of trees and plants continues. Many of the plantings are still alive, but some are clearly already dead, while others are on their way to meet the Gardener in the Sky. In the daylight, all this must look really impressive, in a depressing sort of way.
I wonder what the excuse from management will be now? Perhaps it would be best if they just go with "no comment." After all, what needs to be said?
Alerted by a comment responding to my previous entry (thank you!), I headed over to Peter Cooper Village to check out its own "planting graveyard." It was late, so the photos are nighttime ones, but you will still be able to see that Tishman Speyer's wasteful non-use of trees and plants continues. Many of the plantings are still alive, but some are clearly already dead, while others are on their way to meet the Gardener in the Sky. In the daylight, all this must look really impressive, in a depressing sort of way.
I wonder what the excuse from management will be now? Perhaps it would be best if they just go with "no comment." After all, what needs to be said?
Monday, February 16, 2009
Liar, Liar, Tishman Speyer Pants on Fire
Or the Planting Graveyard Revisited....
I'm convinced that Stuy Town reps read this blog and Lux Living's blog, as at times I see action being taken when a problem is addressed on either blog. And certainly any mention by the neighborhood's newspaper Town & Village makes Stuy Town notice--and sometimes, though rarely, respond with actual answers from a Tishman Speyer employee.
In last week's Town & Village (dated Feb. 12, 2009), a sidebar mentioned the planting graveyard situation this blog brought up in a pervious entry.
"As of last Friday, some of the plants and trees still appeared to be alive, but others were brown and bone-dry," the article stated. "According to the rep for management the plantings were removed later that day."
Oh, really?
Well, this Stuy Town Reporter checked the area over the weekend. I found that, yes, most of the trees have been removed (curiously a few were left behind), but that many of the potted plants were still around and still in a process of dying or already ensconced in the great green heaven beyond. Here are the photos:
Now, I was tempted to take two or three living plants to adorn my Stuy Town windowsill and save those plants from death, but it would be my luck to be arrested by security somewhere along the way for taking Tishman Speyer's property. (No doubt, all "squad" cars would have decended on me in a scene out of Police Academy.) So the plants remain in the planting graveyard.
What I found most exquisite in the T & V piece is that a spokesperson was quoted on this matter, and here's what this person said:
"In keeping with our ongoing effort throughout the community to produce landscapes that are fresh and vibrant all year round, some trees are removed during the winter season and stored for future installation. The storage area had been maintained temporarily on site but has now been removed."
I have to ask: Where does Tishman Speyer get these idiot spokespeople? For one, take a walk about Stuy Town now and help me find "landscapes that are fresh and vibrant." Pure bullshit spin because there are no such landscapes at this time of the year. Even the winter cabbages are gone because they rotted and were eaten by rodents. And two, does this spokesperson really think that dead or dying trees are being removed "for future installation"? Because there was a significant amount of them in the planting graveyard, and the ones that were still alive have no doubt died by now in whatever storage area Tishman Speyer currently uses. (My bet is that all trees were disposed of somewhere--off site, of course.)
No wonder that TS generally chooses not to offer up any comment when requested! When a response is given it is usually part laughable spin, part obvious lying, and 100% avoidance of the real issue. And it just makes Stuy Town tenants detest these bozos even more.
I'm convinced that Stuy Town reps read this blog and Lux Living's blog, as at times I see action being taken when a problem is addressed on either blog. And certainly any mention by the neighborhood's newspaper Town & Village makes Stuy Town notice--and sometimes, though rarely, respond with actual answers from a Tishman Speyer employee.
In last week's Town & Village (dated Feb. 12, 2009), a sidebar mentioned the planting graveyard situation this blog brought up in a pervious entry.
"As of last Friday, some of the plants and trees still appeared to be alive, but others were brown and bone-dry," the article stated. "According to the rep for management the plantings were removed later that day."
Oh, really?
Well, this Stuy Town Reporter checked the area over the weekend. I found that, yes, most of the trees have been removed (curiously a few were left behind), but that many of the potted plants were still around and still in a process of dying or already ensconced in the great green heaven beyond. Here are the photos:
Now, I was tempted to take two or three living plants to adorn my Stuy Town windowsill and save those plants from death, but it would be my luck to be arrested by security somewhere along the way for taking Tishman Speyer's property. (No doubt, all "squad" cars would have decended on me in a scene out of Police Academy.) So the plants remain in the planting graveyard.
What I found most exquisite in the T & V piece is that a spokesperson was quoted on this matter, and here's what this person said:
"In keeping with our ongoing effort throughout the community to produce landscapes that are fresh and vibrant all year round, some trees are removed during the winter season and stored for future installation. The storage area had been maintained temporarily on site but has now been removed."
I have to ask: Where does Tishman Speyer get these idiot spokespeople? For one, take a walk about Stuy Town now and help me find "landscapes that are fresh and vibrant." Pure bullshit spin because there are no such landscapes at this time of the year. Even the winter cabbages are gone because they rotted and were eaten by rodents. And two, does this spokesperson really think that dead or dying trees are being removed "for future installation"? Because there was a significant amount of them in the planting graveyard, and the ones that were still alive have no doubt died by now in whatever storage area Tishman Speyer currently uses. (My bet is that all trees were disposed of somewhere--off site, of course.)
No wonder that TS generally chooses not to offer up any comment when requested! When a response is given it is usually part laughable spin, part obvious lying, and 100% avoidance of the real issue. And it just makes Stuy Town tenants detest these bozos even more.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Tishman Speyer's Planting Graveyard
Before the snows came, Stuy Town Reporter took a journey to find out what happened to the several new trees that were dumped to an area near Ave C a couple of weeks ago. What he found amazed him--not only those trees, but a graveyard of unused, unloved trees and plants that mar this back area between buildings 271 Ave C and 245 Ave C.
This green death perfectly symbolizes the wasteful spending and tragic mismanagement of Tishman Speyer. At least some of these plants could be saved if they were offered to residents. But no, they sit or lie there dying. I can't imagine how residents whose windows overlook this graveyard must feel about their luxury living in Stuyvesant Town, as they look outside. As for the trees and plants themselves, they look as if they feel acutely their abandonment, while they shiver in their death throes.
