A reader sent in several photos of Security vehicles parked in a No Standing zone that's close to 14th St. I see this all the time, too. I guess it's better than seeing them parked near a food truck on the Oval. (BTW, there's been an absence of food trucks the last couple of days, but I don't think we should breathe freely just yet.) The photo below shows one car in the No Standing zone. On occasion I see more cars behind the sign.
Some controversy arose as to just how popular the Summer Oval events were. Photos don't lie, and here's another set, but not from me. I didn't take any photos of this particular event, held on July 16, but I did pass it by, and, yes, it was poorly attended, as the photos show. Only a couple of the summer events were successes; the rest were a big FAIL and a waste of money and energy.
The Green Market area badly impacts the southern part of the Oval Lawn. Remarkably, we've had a commentator think it looks okay. Perhaps that was Adam Rose or Maya Autret. A reader sent in a photo showing how okay it is. When it rains, it's mudsville.
The 522 East 20 St. building has been mentioned before. (That's the one maintenance staff carts furniture and other bulky tenant garbage out of, waking up the entire neighborhood in the process.) A resident of that building sent us photos of just what a dump that place is. Remarkable.
The terrace level. I've been informed that this is the door you see when you wait for an elevator. Can you imagine bringing in company to your 4K market rate apartment and having them see this? How about a paint job at least?
Walk through the door and you'll find The Dump. Did someone say "fire hazard"?
A couple of months ago, the pipe in the stairway was redone (or some such thing). Happened in other buildings, too. But gaping holes, with wads of insulation (hopefully not aesbestos-related), still haven't been plugged up and painted over.
A couple of holes in the wall on the M level. Apparently they are too high up to be glory holes.
That's all, folks! At least for now.
I frequently vacuum the hallway on my floor because nobody else ever does it. The laundry room in my building is a definite health hazard. There is a roach catcher that is filled with roaches' rotting corpses and has been there for weeks. The carriage room/recycling area is unbelievable. It makes the Staten Island Landfill look clean! I don't know what Rose's motive is. Maybe they want to slumify the property to the level where they can offload it real cheap and get out of it, or maybe this is just Rose's way of running a property. I've heard that they don't have a very good reputation in the industry. It's too bad that we tenants have to put up with these substandard conditions.
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't anyone calling the fire department? There's no explanation or excuse for this mess.
ReplyDeleteRose doesn't know how to manage this property. Rose should be fired.
ReplyDeleteThe garbage in the building appalling! Stuy Town has a lot of transient skeletons in its closet.
ReplyDeleteRose is trying to drive out the rent stabilized tenants because we are the ones who care about the quality of life here. The transients and dormies don't care. It's just a temporary place that they'll be out of in a few months, a year at the most. I don't believe there are too many real, grown up market rate tenants here who live in real apartments (as opposed to the chopped-up ones with the pressure walls) and if there are they can always not renew their leases and find somewhere better and cheaper when they move on. It's a different story for the rent stabilized tenants. We have been here for a long time; this is our home; we can't afford to pay market rent (or we would be outta here like a shot) and we are the very people that CW and Rose want out of here so that they can carry on with their big picture plans. Those plans probably involve either tearing the place down and building luxury buildings on the land or selling the property to NYU. This is just my opinion, but I don't think I'm too far off the mark.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there will be some major changes coming in the next five years or so, changes that will leave many here pissed off.
ReplyDeleteSTR, I'm sure you mean these changes will leave the RS tenants pissed off, not the transients/MRs/dormies?
ReplyDeleteWe've had a solid five years of them trying to run us out of town. On balance, it was a failed experiment. Not only have they torn the place apart, they've also burned through literally billions of dollars in the process.
ReplyDeleteThe recent Roberts ruling makes it look all the more dicey that they will be making progress on their crappy plans going forward.
This said STR, why do you think that the next five years will leave us tenants yet more pissed off? At least more so than the last five!
If I were to agree with you (and I might), my rationale would be that the "deep pockets" that funded last five years of fun have been turned inside out and are now empty. The law seems to be on our side so no one is about to fill up those pockets up again any time soon. Makes me think that times ahead may be a bit lean. Unless, of course, the siren song of big profits resonates in the ears of CW Capital and they start spending money around here in the hopes of unloading this place on the next greater fool.
I think P.T. Barnum had a saying about that but it eludes my thoughts for the moment...
Mercenary management must go.
ReplyDeleteIs there still a tenants association here? Can someone wake them up? Duh?
ReplyDeleteYes, I can easily picture RS tenants getting shafted in some future "deal" with the city and whoever will eventually buy ST/PCV. And I don't think the buyer will be tenants. Seriously, do we think that all these old buildings will be standing in 20 years?
ReplyDeleteI don't think these buildings will still be standing in 20 years. They are long overdue for demolition. However, they are going to have to compensate me to move or I'll be still in my apartment when the wrecking balls start swinging!
ReplyDeleteSTR, I wrote the comment you replied to and, yes, I do think the buildings will be standing in 20 years. Just a hunch. The plumbing will be an issue but the basic structure is sound and the layouts are very nice by NYC standards.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that the tenants will not be the next owners of the complex. Good for us! Sort of.
The next sale will have to be either a "greater fool theory" purchaser or to someone with an exceptionally long time horizon. In 20 years, the property will likely have substantially greater value than it does now--but not until they can disenfranchise the RS tenants (now, all of us). I don't think that most tenants are willing to pay what will amount to a purchase premium simply to control the destiny of the complex. It will take an exceptionally forward-thinking financial institution to take on that mindset as well.
This place is going to be a cash sinkhole for some time to come. Probably better to let someone else sink the cash into that hole instead of the tenants and, in twenty years when they are able to start recouping their "investment," we will probably all have moved or passed on.
I'm not sure we can keep our hold on this place forever but we sure can do it for the next ten years--nd do it at the cost of our our "benefactor du jour!"