Come One, Come All

From the TA Facebook: Screen shot of an internet conversation at http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2012/05/free_shows_at_s.html concerning publicity about Stuy Town concerts.

I think we need to admit that there is nothing that we, as residents, can do about the summer events that happen at the Oval. We are not the current custodians of ST/PCV.  Because these events are free, they don't even need to be advertized for zoning purposes as "for residents and their guests."  Indeed, there is ample evidence that the powers that be are publicizing these events to people outside this community, without using the disclaimer, in the hopes of attracting larger crowds than usually come to these gatherings meant, or so their representatives claim, for "our community."

There is probably a purpose to this madness of summer events advertized to all of NYC, and that is to make Stuyvesant Town seem like a happening place--in the words of the publicity, a place where "there is something always going on."  These summer Stuy Town events, btw, were first set in motion by our previous lords and masters, Tishman Speyer.

Of course, producing and managing these events costs money, and the bigger the crowds the more cost involved and the less such events become places where Stuy Town neighbors can meet other neighbors, a congenial get-together that has also been stressed in Stuy Town publicity, this time to residents, as if neighbors can't meet other neighbors aside from the events planned here at Stuy Town.

It would probably be beneficial to stress that our current custodian, CWCapital, is most interested in selling this property for the highest price in a year or two, while showing that it's financially booming and an exciting, lucrative property to own.  The company is investing in its holding, which is why you are seeing the new plantings (at a cost of $2 million!), the Oval Cafe, the summer events, and Lord knows what else coming down the line. So this is CWCapital's primary concern, and everything else is reduced to less of a concern.

Which gets us to the residents of this community.  How "concerned" is CWCapital about us, the residents?  Surely, chiefly as dollar signs, which is why long-time rent-stabilized tenants must be the bane of a company like CWCapital, or any enterprise that will own this place.  Brutally speaking, a landlord of this complex just waits out the day when long-term RS tenants will die out, and no apartment succession happens, placing apartments quickly into market-rate category where the rent can be doubled, at the very least.

Yet, surprisingly, I've heard from people who are paying market-rate prices that even they, as the renters whose rent matters most in the eyes of the landlord, are being squeezed for even more come lease renewal time. Some, already stretched thin with high rents, can't afford the extra that's being asked of them, and they move out, to be replaced by an eager renter who wishes to make New York his or her home and finds it hard to find something suitable with the current tight rental market in Manhattan.

There is something uncomfortably merciless about all this, but I think it underlines a truth we may find unpleasant.  Absent a "beneficent" dictator approach, landlords are not our friends.  That's why we need laws and the upkeep of laws, that's why we need a tenant organization, and local politicians who will truly fight for (and I mean fight, not pay lip service to) tenant rights.

Meanwhile, it seems that CWCapital can do anything it wants with the Oval events, and who it lets into the complex to make use of these events.  For residents and their guests.  Or not.