Friday, September 30, 2011

Management Spins Bad Survey Reports: Yes, Stuy Town is Happy with Rose Associates!



If you listen to the spin from Adam Rose, co-president of Rose Associates (our management firm), you'd think most people are happy with the way things look and are being run here.

This weeks Town & Village's front page article, "Residents Rate Changes in ST/PCV," contains the following mind-blowing statement in its introductory paragraph:

"... the firm has said tenants have responded most positively when asked about the conditions of the grounds and buildings as well as their quality of life." [Emphasis mine.]

The justification for such a statement?

First off, there were two surveys conducted a while back, around May. One was done by Dan Garodnick's office and the other by the Kingsley company for Rose Associates. Over 400 tenants responded to the Garodnick survey, while 2,400 responded to the Kingsley one. There are over 25,000 tenants in ST/PCV, with some knowledgeable people stating the number is over 30,000 if every single tenant, legally here or not, is included. Already, in these two surveys, we have a very small pool of tenants upon which to base a generality on, but, whatever.... Let's try to glean from the article the numbers. Unfortunately, a detailed listing of the results and the questions asked were NOT presented in T&V article, so we have to do a little detective work here and guessing at the precise questions, as we extrapolate the info found in the T&V article.

Garodnick Survey:

Condition of grounds: 44% Improved greatly or somewhat. 20% Gotten worse. 36% No difference. Summary: Less than half of the respondents thought the grounds had improved.

Response to service calls: 32% Improved since Tishman Speyer. 12% Gotten worse since Tishman Speyer. 56% No change. Summary: Only a third of respondents felt there was an improvement in service calls responses since Tishman Speyer days. (Remarkably, the T&V article spins this as Rose getting "a passing grade.")

Cleanliness: 19% Improved. 38% Worsened. 43% No change. Summary: Only 19% of respondents thought that Rose Associates had cleaned up Stuy Town/PCV better than Tishman Speyer.

Noise: 13% Improved. 38% Worsened. 49% No change. Summary: Only 13% of respondents thought that Rose Associates had dealt with the noise issue better than Tishman Speyer.

Dog Policies: 16% Better. 51% Worse. 33% No change. Summary: Only 16% of respondents thought that Rose was dealing with the dog issue better than Tishman Speyer. (Adam Rose's response to this is completely dumbfounding! "It seems very clear that the dog policy is fair and rational, and that most residents do not object to the way that it is being run." WTF!!!)

Laundry facilities: 8% Better. 55% Worse. 37% No change. Summary: Only 8% of respondents thought that the laundry facilities had improved since Tishman Speyer days.

Now let's head over the Kingsley survey, which was only mentioned by Rose AFTER the Garodnick survey was released.

Cleanliness: 2/3 of respondents stating that the state of cleanliness is either "good" or "excellent." (I'd love to see the breakdown here. Fat chance, I know. My hunch is that the majority of this 2/3 stated "good." From this, Adam Rose opines: "We are pleased to noted that two thirds of the PCV/ST tenants express happiness about the state of cleanliness...." [Emphasis mine.] Of course, it should be remembered we are talking about "respondents," as his survey is missing over 23,000 tenants voices, the vast majority of tenants living in ST/PCV.)

Security: More than 50% stating it was a major factor in their likelihood of renewing their lease. (It's not clear if this comes from the Kingsley survey, but I assume so.) On this survey, dogs were not an important issue as regards whether a tenant would renew a lease or not.

Bottom line is that both surveys, when combined, do no paint a favorable picture of the current management of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. I'll be doing a "grade report" on management soon, and I will be fair and balanced. Believe it or not.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I participated in the Kingsley survey. What Adam Rose conveniently “almost” forgets (and of the course, the T&V, that bastion of journalist integrity also seems to mostly ignore as well) was that the survey, if you were to answer it honestly, was a comparison of what Rose is now doing VERSUS the previous reign (The Horror….The Horror!) of Tishman Speyer. TS was the baseline of the survey. That is a pretty low bar to clear.

Anonymous said...

How could 8% say the laundry rooms have improved!?

Anonymous said...

Disgraceful results. Best thing they can say is that SOMEONE thought SOMETHING improved. But not by much and not by many.

Can't wait to get my STR survey!

Anonymous said...

THOSE WHO SAID THE LAUNDRY FACILITIES WERE IMPROVED WERE THE 8% WHO ACTUALLY FOUND A MACHINE THAT WORKED! THE OTHER 92% NEVER WAS SO LUCKY!

Anonymous said...

So, how many questions in the Rose survey dealt with cleanliness inside the buildings?

My recollection is zero.

Rose and their mercenary mangement team are more of a failure this time around than they were the first time around. They ought to be removed, along with the CW crowd.

Anonymous said...

Why even ask the question? Since they have no intention of cleaning, why ask if it is clean enough?

Duh.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating. All my neighbors(myself included) complain about the filthy laundry rooms, the garbage that piles up over the weekends, the carpets that are not vacuumed for weeks at a time. I won't even elaborate about the bedbugs and roach problems that are not properly addressed. It's all smoke and mirrors. The truth is that this place has gone downhill since Metlife went public and then Tishman followed up with their greedy tactics. The current management are the same people who worked for Tishman. What does that tell you?

Anonymous said...

Everything is dirty and filthy. The rose management employees are awful and rude. J. Yasser and D. Sabintino are the worst. I had no idea I'd be verbally attacked in my own home by them multiple times when trying to resolve a water damage issue that has been going on for OVER TEN MONTHS. Oh but silly me, it must obviously be my fault. I am after all, in J. Yasser's words, a liar. Good to know he's keeping it professional.