Remember how not too long ago there was at least a pretense that the summer musical events were for "residents and their guests"? Well, no more, as these days the advertising via social media and news pages is rampant. Why they've even placed a banner at the busy corner of 1st and 14th to advertize the summer events with absolutely zero information about "residents and their guests." Of course, crowds are needed, as events in years past were, in general, not that well attended and an embarrassment to the powers that be and the person, or persons, scheduling these events. Oh, and don't forget: the "Hood" where Stuy Town is located is the East Village (according to My Social List).
* * *
Spotted this morning at the Starbucks on 1st Ave--Lady Maya (!), who walked out with some delectable brew. Doesn't say much about the coffee at Oval Cafe, does it, when the person behind that cafe and menu chooses Starbucks coffee instead. Well, truthfully, the Oval Cafe is meant for the peasants around here, the naive tenants of Stuy Town who are too lazy to go to the perimeter to purchase a better brew and get better food.
* * *
A letter to the Town & Village editor that's of interest to read:
http://town-village.com/2012/07/12/letters-to-the-editor-july-12/
Ha! Even Lady Maya won't drink the swill at Kubrick Cafe! Speaks VOLUMES!
ReplyDeleteLady Maya works for ST/PCV but won't say so on her resume.
ReplyDeleteShe forces this Oval Obesity cafe on us yet won't even get her OWN coffee there.
How does she sleep at night?
Rosie say: we all residents somewhere! Everyone else is a guest...
ReplyDeleteExcellent letter to T&V by Mr. Roth.
ReplyDeleteI would be willing to give odds that Mr. Sullivan turns out to be no better than his predecessors. He may be a fine individual but, as they say, the fish stinks from the head. We are still getting the same head even if the fish has changed.
Lady Maya often relaxes in Starbucks. It's the only place left to relax now that the Oval is a theme park.
ReplyDeleteThis is mass tenant harassment.
ReplyDeleteMr. Sullivan knows that apartment turnover is the most important thing here.
Lots of loud concerts.....things will not get better. And I'm an optimist!
Once again ,
thank you Councilman Garodnick.
stuyreporter. you are great. that's all . you do this for all the people.
ReplyDeleteI swear I didn't write the last comment, but I'm waiting for the axe to descend.
ReplyDeleteI also want to commend you, StuyTown Reporter.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your GENEROUS AND DEVOTED SERVICE to this community!
Thanks. Now I'm ready to call it quits. (Just joking.)
ReplyDeleteThe best thing about these crappy "concerts" being held in the summer is that you can crank up the air conditioners and drown them out! There is plenty of really good live music in New York that we don't need to listen to the garbage they bring in here.
ReplyDeleteAs always the music was far too loud. I ended up running errands I didn't feel like running to escape the noise. Nothing like being driven out of my apartment on the weekend.
ReplyDeleteI need some suggestions. I've lived here for decades and never had a roach problem. Whether because an everchanging clinetele of students in the apartment just below me where loud late night parties are held or the rehabbing of vacant apartments on several floors I've been getting some-the cause doesn't matter since I can't do anything about it. It is just a few NOW, but I want to prevent an infestation. What has worked for other people? I have motels down and some spray. Does management have an extermination option that works? I'll call them, but want to hear about other's experiences. I have a clean apartment and this makes me crazy. Would greatly appreciate any solutions. Thanks from a beleagured neighbor.
ReplyDeleteThis is the third time I'm trying to post this. Proving I'm not a robot is difficult. For the first time in decades at Stuy town I'm seeing roaches-I guess because of construction in the building or all the students that occupy the apt. below me. It doesn't matter because I can't do anything about it. Does anyone have a remedy. Has anyone tried the Stuy Town exterminator. I have a clean apt. and it's driving me crazy. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI'd make sure any slots between walls and the floor are sealed. Same with any openings underneath the kitchen sink. And use roach motels, too. If you have messy neighbors who leave food out, etc, that's sure to affect your roach problem.
ReplyDeleteDo call management if this becomes a problem. Perhaps they will have a a more permanent solution.
Are there any other subjects to post on? I think this "for residents and their guests only" subject has been beaten to death...
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with whomever said this on another thread, but what is up with that code generator? Why do we have to enter the 10,000 character Soviet code breaking pattern just to post a comment here?
Call management NOW!!! That's the starting point. They will send exterminator and then see how it progresses from there. I've been very lucky and have seen maybe 3 roaches in my 13 years here. I'm clean as are my neighbors and one has to realize that it's quite easy to bring one in in a shopping bag or whatnot. I still had them send the exterminator though. I don't think it was absolutely necessary (and i don't like the idea of those toxic chemicals all over my kitchen) but i did. If I were you I would definitely call them and proceed from there.
ReplyDeleteWe have an ant infestation in our apt for the past two summers that never happened before. For anybody else who wants to get rid of ants, use the Tarro liquid gel or baits, which wipes them out within only a few days. It's non-toxic because it only contains boric acid and sugar. This could work for roach problems, too, because I've heard boric acid is also effective against them. The hardware store on 19th and 1st carries it, but the new hardware store in the old Blockbuster store does not (shocker).
ReplyDelete"Do call management if this becomes a problem. Perhaps they will have a a more permanent solution."
ReplyDeleteOf course they will. The more permanent solution is for the tenant to move out! Note that the poster has lived here for decades. Shoot, management probably hired the roaches just to harass them!
>>Are there any other subjects to post on? I think this "for residents and their guests only" subject has been beaten to death...
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with whomever said this on another thread, but what is up with that code generator? Why do we have to enter the 10,000 character Soviet code breaking pattern just to post a comment here?<<
The code generator is mandated by the blogger format. I, too, wish it wasn't there.
Regarding "residents and their guests," if it's a subject that's been beaten to death, there's a reason for it, as it seems to be the legal way for the powers that be to absolve themselves from zoning restrictions, while at the same time ignoring its enforcement.
Keep up the good work, STR. You are The Best!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen roaches in my apartment for a while, but as I recall, the last time I had the exterminator come, he didn't spray but put dabs of some sort of substance inside the kitchen cabinets. Having once lived with a horrific roach problem here, I would rather have the spray than live with the filthy buggers. And don't wait. Those things multiply exponentially.
ReplyDeleteThe "residents and guests" topic has not been beaten to death. Management is directly and indirectly marketing events and services to outsiders and is hiding behind that boilerplate disclaimer.
ReplyDeleteIt's a real problem and it is at the heart of their efforts to commercialize the property and erode the community.
rent strike.
ReplyDeleteHit CW/Rose where it hurts....
"For residents and their guests" can't get enough coverage. It won't be an issue when zoning laws are observed and "residential" means "residential."
ReplyDeleteI was having a roach problem and I used some of that gel stuff (I think Combat makes it) and it certainly got rid of them. Only thing is, the stuff is brown and looks horrible. It's also quite difficult to remove.
ReplyDeleteNONE of this bothers me. Not really anyway. I wish the food were better in the cafe, but it doesn't bother me in the least that there's a cafe. It's only harassment if it bothers me and it doesn't. I don't see all the hysteria. Who else IS going to go there but residents and their guests? I don't get how this violates anything but your own view of how they should run Stuytown?
ReplyDeleteAnd why does this site make the not a robot letters/numbers so hard to read????
Again, I have no control of the code generator of Blogger.com
ReplyDeleteYes, a very sincere Thank You for your site, I do miss Lux-Living and most of all snarky contributed Lho Rent
ReplyDeleteOf course Dame Lady Maya would frequent Starbucks, it is more convenient for her, plus the Barista knows about her fondness for heavy foam & an untraceable residue of deniability.
ReplyDeleteThe cafe would bother anyone who lives above it. And it's a commercial establishment in a residential zone, which is disturbing to many people here. What don't you get about it? Just because it doesn't bother you doesn't make it right. That's part of the problem here. Everyone's for themselves, their comfort, couldn't care less about anyone else, Mayo is for Rose and Rose is for his bottom line. It's just not right.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's a commercial establishment in a residential zone
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more. Those who object to it should barrage feckless Dan Garodnick whose swoon on the zoining issue is the diect cause of this and ever expanding commerial exploitation of the Oval.
"Yes, a very sincere Thank You for your site, I do miss Lux-Living and most of all snarky contributed Lho Rent"
ReplyDeleteYou miss so much you misspell name! It "Lo," not "Lho." I let slide this time ONLY!
7:36 pm, you don't seriously think Feckless Dan is going to go against one of his biggest campaign donors, do you?
ReplyDeleteHey, Lo Rhent! So glad you're still around!
ReplyDeleteThey own the property, it is not against the law, and they can put a cafe for residents on the ground floor if they want. It is for residents in that no one else would schlepp across 14th Street or First Avenue to go there, when there are all these others across the street. But residents can go anytime they want. You can complain all you want, but it's not your building. It's theirs. They are leasing a unit to you. You can't call a cafe for residents on the ground floor of a residential building any kind of interference/violation of the lease b/c this is NYC--you'd get laughed out of court. If you don't like it, you can move.
ReplyDelete"They own the property, it is not against the law".
ReplyDeleteThat's just patently false. You're ignoring the zoning law, and the flimsy accessory use argument that CW is using to justify the facility.
I am officially renaming the "residents and their guests" rule the Garodnick rule. This way I will be reminded of all the crap he helped dump on us. I wouldn't want to forget what he did to us each time he runs for some other office so I can remember to select the other person (no matter who they are) when I VOTE, and I do Vote. Now I won't have to venture over to Dan's way (where we used to have a nice oval) to be reminded of how well served we were by this fraud.
ReplyDeleteNeither CW or Rose OWN's Stuy Town. It's in their control until it can be sold again.
ReplyDelete"Hey, Lo Rhent! So glad you're still around!"
ReplyDeleteLo always around but always busy working! I just take part time job at Oval Calfe! They need someone that know how make PBJ sandwich. I tell them how!
They also need person with recipe for ice but I no tell them that right away. Wait for first raise.... ;)
Graci
ReplyDeleteIt's not. Saying it is doesn't make it so. The city said they can, so they can. NO ONE BUT RESIDENTS ARE GOING TO GO THERE. The cafe really is only intended for residents--they do not expect a grand rush of Brooklynites hurrying over to our very special cafe to get chicken fingers.
ReplyDeleteAgain, my only complaint is that the food isn't very healthy or tempting sounding. People in say, 451 live over Associated, and the world isn't coming to an end. It's fine, nothing really to get stressed about.
"It's not. Saying it is doesn't make it so. The city said they can, so they can. NO ONE BUT RESIDENTS ARE GOING TO GO THERE. The cafe really is only intended for residents--they do not expect a grand rush of Brooklynites hurrying over to our very special cafe to get chicken fingers."
ReplyDeleteYou keep saying the same thing over and over again as if someone is going to believe you if you just keep repeating yourself.
No one is saying the Cafe will be a destination. However, since many non residents do come into Stuy Town for the crappy concerts or to (illegally) shop at Dan's way Green Market. Maybe just one or two of those people might want to stop there.
The point is the cafe shouldn't be there. If Dan Garodnick wasn't on the take it wouldn't be there. If we had a TA that wasn't in bed with management so their plan gets preferential treatment, it wouldn't be there. However, since Dan is going to take campaign contributions over doing the right thing and since we have a Buyers Association not a TA we have the crappy cafe. Period!
336p just doesn't get it.
ReplyDeletePeople who live over Associated CHOSE to live there.
People who now have to live above a greasy spoon in the once placid Oval are getting the royal screw job.
Oh yes, once again, thank you Coucilman Garodnick FOR NOTHING!
It's kind of too bad that you don't think I get it. I get it. There's a cafe, I don't love it either, but I don't really care. There's absolutely NOTHING you can do about it, other than not patronize it. But all you do is sound like malcontents because this is yet another atrocity in your long list of atrocities. After the 200th atrocity, why are you still here?
ReplyDelete"It's kind of too bad that you don't think I get it. I get it. There's a cafe, I don't love it either, but I don't really care. There's absolutely NOTHING you can do about it, other than not patronize it. But all you do is sound like malcontents because this is yet another atrocity in your long list of atrocities. After the 200th atrocity, why are you still here?"
ReplyDeleteA-hole @ July 16, 2012 9:36 PM is right!
Do not patronize this abomination. I'm guessing most of us--besides this guy--are already doing it but, hey, worth a shout out anyway.
Best way to run these guys out of business is by cutting off the source of funding.
July 16, 2012 9:36 PM
"People in say, 451 live over Associated, and the world isn't coming to an end."
ReplyDeletePeople don't live OVER Associated. There are no apartments on top of Associated.
At Cafe Kubrick there are lights and a patio ten feet from the apartments windows. But it's not YOUR apartment so it doesn't count, I get it.
@July 16, 2012 9:36 PM
ReplyDeletePeople that DO care about the community will take whatever steps are available to them to fight for their quality of life. There are legitimate issues about CW's usage of the Accessory Use provisions of the zoning laws, and they could be challenged in court. Making generalized false statements (in all caps) like saying there's NOTHING you can do, just isn't true. Do some research on these issues before posting next time.
6:51--that makes no sense. Basically what you are saying is once you rent an apartment, NOTHING on street level is ever allowed to change from the moment we rent it. That's just plain silly. If Associated became a restaurant, assuming they got the permits, that would be one big too bad for the residents of 451. It's the owner's decision, if a tenant doesn't want to live above a restaurant, he can move out.
ReplyDeleteBetter than isolating the residents only rule as the Garodnick rule, why not use it as a verb, I just been garodnicked again by Rose Associates.
ReplyDeleteAnd Lo I look forward to your waitering at the Oval Cafe & Beer Garden
As a long term market rate tenant who is facing a 30% rent increase this year - which will force me out of my home, I would gladly live in a non-market rate apartment, in the building above the Oval Cafe and NOT complain about it! Count your blessings and be thankful for what you have - the Manhattan rental market is the highest it has ever been!
ReplyDeleteI got garodnicked last night!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs a long term market rate tenant who is facing a 30% rent increase this year - which will force me out of my home, I would gladly live in a non-market rate apartment, in the building above the Oval Cafe and NOT complain about it! Count your blessings and be thankful for what you have - the Manhattan rental market is the highest it has ever been!>>
ReplyDeleteThat's your problem. Nobody made you come and live here. You're the victim of bloodsuckers and the rest of us don't have to be grateful for having non-market apartments, especially as "market" rate is so ridiculously more than the apartment is worth. If a man is starving and you tell him you'll sell him a crust for $100 or he can just drop dead, does that make you right?
Amen to anon at 1018 p.
ReplyDeleteJuly 17, 2012 10:18 PM is a good neighbor.
ReplyDelete@Anon July 17, 2012 12:54 PM
ReplyDeleteSo as a "long time market rate tenant" another 30% increase must mean you're paying what, $8000 a month by now ?? You're not the apartment with the built in Jacuzzi, and lap pool are you ?
You are right – it is my problem and nobody made me come and live here. When we moved in five years ago it was a good option for my wife and I and our 6 and 2 year old daughters. The size of our PCV apartment is good and the rent was fair and the community is a good place to raise children. We do not have a “Jacuzzi and lap pool” – we go to the Asser levy Recreation Center pool. Now it is my problem to tell my 10 and 7 year old daughters we have to leave our home, it is my problem our daughters have to leave the friends they have made in the community, it is my problem to find an apartment for a fair rent where my family will be able to live comfortably, and it is my problem to find a new school for my daughters. Sorry, but the Oval Cafe doesn’t keep awake at night – I just want to give another perspective and the perspective of others in our community. Be thankful, may you find peace and happiness along the way, and may God bless you!
ReplyDeleteJuly 19, 11:07 AM. I feel genuinely sorry for your plight. You are one of the honest, well-intentioned market raters who was lured into renting here, thinking it was all that management said it was. To a large extend they told you the truth; it was a nice and safe place to raise a family. What they didn't tell you was that they were setting you up to fail because all they want to do is churn the apartments and mark up the rents to such an outrageous sum that nice people like you will have no alternative than to move out. They want to fill the apartments with as many students and transients (NOT families, but young, single kids, most only parental dime) who will squeeze in together, change roommates often and vacate within months so that the apartments can be marked up yet again. I don't know where it will end, because there must surely be a limit even for that demographic, but the thing is they don't want people like you and me. You because you are family people looking to stay and help make this a community again and pay a fair market rent to do so; people like me because I am a long-term tenants in a rent stabilized unit and they want to make both our apartments rabbit warrens/flophouses and wring as much money as they can out of them. I'm here for the duration, no matter what they do, but I no longer have kiddies to consider and they are limited as to how much they can gouge my rent (hear their teeth gnashing?). I wish you well and I am sorry that nice people like you have been driven out of our community by these disgusting vultures/con-artists who have taken over the complex. God bless you and yours.
ReplyDeleteA two year renwal in 2008 was 8.5%, in 2010 was 6%, and in 2012 it is 30%!!!
ReplyDeleteIf all the units are rent stabized, how does management get away with these obscene rent hikes?
ReplyDeleteI'm missing something here.
"If all the units are rent stabized, how does management get away with these obscene rent hikes?"
ReplyDeleteGood point! Just how do they get away with it?
Market Rate Tenants have two rents on their lease - a legal rent and a preferential rent. During the past five years the preferential rent has been charged and renewals were rent stabilization increases on the preferential rent. This year the renewal does not offer the preferential rent only the legal rent, which is 20% higher than the preferential rent, and the legal rent is being increased by the rent stabilization increase.
ReplyDelete