As Jerry and Rob Speyer pride themselves on what they've done to Stuyvesant Town [The Speyers said they are proud of their work revitalizing Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Tishman Speyer has spruced up the grounds, adding bushes and flowers, new intercoms, a fitness center and a movie screening room.], the truth is that they have damaged this community and this property, probably forever. Everyone who has lived in Stuyvesant Town for a number of years, and who remembers how it once was, knows this to be a bitter fact.
The photo above, taken today, speaks for itself.
Wouldn't it be something if a Stuy Town dog took a dump on that sign?
ReplyDeleteFar from having "revitalized" our community, Tishman Speyer has sucked the very life out of our community. Their ruthless predatory greed and avarice has destroyed the quality of life in Stuyvesant Town and damaged the lives of innocent people near and far. They have sucked the life out of tenants and the people whose pensions were invested in their corrupt and sleazy "business plan." They and their co-criminals at Blackrock should be investigated and hopefully become cellmates with Bernie Madoff (their role model).
ReplyDeleteI've been here a decade, and though I know I'll be crucified by the bitter TS haters, I think Stuy Town is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH nicer than it was a decade ago. Admittedly, I'm not one of those 80 year olds who wish it could be like a retirement community, but I AM pushing 60.
ReplyDeleteMuch, much, much nicer in how?
ReplyDeleteI think it is safe to say that, any improvement in the physical plant (which I would debate, by the way), has been eclipsed by the degradation of the quality of life in general resulting from the now transient, dormitory-like nature of the community.
ReplyDeleteI have lived in PCV for more than 20 years and ,on a whole, I believe this place is far worse than it was under Metlife. Sure Metlife in the "old" days had ridiculous rules like no walking on the grass but even they liberalized that rule.
ReplyDeleteThe only positive thing I can say TS did are the shuttle buses.that one positive vs. ruining the landscaping, turning many apartments into dorms, illegal walls in apartments, specious claims of non primary tenancy to force RS tenants out of their apartments and just generally being assholes
Anonymous who wrote the MUCH, MUCH, MUCH nicer post--have you seen the central Oval grounds this year?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that the term "revitalized" meant the Vampire Kiss of Death! Revitalized the Vampire maybe, but not the community.
ReplyDeleteNot everyone understands the decline of community standards that we have witnessed in the past few years.
ReplyDeleteWhen this was a rent stabilized community, people took pride in maintaining the quality of life here. They also were under the threat of losing their apartments if they acted (very) badly, and that helped to maintain the status quo.
Then, Met decided to turn apartments to market rate, and the business plan dictated that they would no longer enforce many community standards, lest they offend a market paying renter. Tishman's purchase only made that problem much, much worse.
Now we have seen this community populated by many people who seem to think that everything revolves around them. They flaunt the rules (of all kinds) because they know that the landlord won't do a damm thing to them, lest they lose a 3k a month paying customer. Dogs are allowed to be curbed everywhere despite their owners signing a lease rider to the contrary. Security no longer enforces parking regulations with an even hand, issuing summonses randomly and infrequently. Cars are left parked in the loops for months without moving, handicapped parking privileges are abused with impunity. Motorcycles litter the sidewalks and the "no standing" zones and bikes are chained up all over the complex.
The landlord has stopped vigorous enforcement of the requirement to cover your floors, a necessity because of the concrete and wood construction of the floors, and all this has created needless friction between neighbors.
And the landscaping is just plain ugly with mud fields replacing the sprawling lawns that once blanketed the grounds, and scores of mature shade trees cut down for dubious reasons. And of course as others have mentioned, our once beautiful and lush Oval has been trampled and poorly maintained.
Add to all this the atmosphere of fear created by Met's and Tishman's random "Golub" spree and the incessant MCI filings which only serve to make this community less affordable for its core residents and you have a place that is much, much, much less pleasurable to live in.
Personally, I think that all this business with "Roberts" is a red herring. Rent Stabilization is severely threatened and on top of that I think that the Real Estate lobby will work mightily to legislate Roberts out of existence which will result in re-instituting Luxury Decontrol for all RS properties.
My opinion is that this environment will only serve to push out those who cannot afford market rate rents and need to protect their cost of living expenses going forward, as ST/PCV will likely not be a place where people will be able to live out their lives until retirement (as the original generations did). The investment of sweat equity we all made here, working in jobs that support this once great city and maintaining a community that had standards far above the norm is likely to be lost, very soon.
I hear that he went to take a look and sunk into the mud and hasn't been heard from since.
ReplyDeleteTS is now claiming that the muddy oval is his real residence and is moving to evict! They cashed his rent check, though...
Well stated and thought out, "Not everyone understands" Anonymous. Though I will do what I can to maintain affordable housing here, I'm not optimistic about the future.
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