Saturday, March 9, 2013

Spring is Almost Here



Spring in the air, and Stuy Town is still full of Christmas cheer with a star atop the pine tree and a string of lightbulbs swirled around the branches. Clearly, this place is understaffed.  Do you want to buy it?

And let us see how long it will take for Playground 10 to re-open.  Last year it took months due to the damage the rink created, something not mentioned in the glowing reports about the rink in recent issues of Town & Village.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for what staff they have left. Even though the recycling bins in my building are very, very clearly marked, the numbnuts who live here continue to put just about everything and anything in whatever bin they feel like chucking it. I guess the porters are supposed to sort it all out which makes it understandable why they don't have time to clean the buildings. I am going to throw everything, except glass bottles and jars which break in the compactor and could shoot of splinters of glass into the faces of the porters, down the garbage chute because I suspect that very little of what goes into the recycling bins actually gets recycled. Too much of it is dirty and contaminates the other stuff. People even throw their dirty kleenex tissues in there. Yuk!

Anonymous said...

STR, I'm not sure why this place being understaffed has any relevance as to whether or not someone may want to buy their apartment. I would argue that that is precisely why one may want to buy, for this very reason among many. It seems like you are inferring that the management now will be the same once we buy which is absurd. Having said all that, yeah, the place looks terrible, but yes, I want to buy.

Anonymous said...

But it was a nice day

Anonymous said...

I've seen a couple of robins already. But you know what would really be nice for spring? Getting rid of the shipping containers (containing water-logged items from the free storage) that litter PCV and the implementation of the planned redo of the swampy big lawn near First Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets.

Anonymous said...

Playground 10 will be open by May 1st MAYBE. remember, they will have to replace all that brand new artificial turf yet again!!!

Anonymous said...

But those 3600 one bedrooms are flying off the shelves.

Only in nyc.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>STR, I'm not sure why this place being understaffed has any relevance as to whether or not someone may want to buy their apartment.<<

Because condo owners will have to pay part of the maintenance fee, no?

Anonymous said...

"Because condo owners will have to pay part of the maintenance fee, no?"

That's exactly right, and how it works everywhere. The question is not how much the M fees are but what the total monthly nut is as compared to a real RS rent. If it's not similar they will not have the participation they want and it won't work. I agree there are issues to be concerned about, like the dog shit and piss for example, but having to pay maintenance shouldn't be one of them.

Anonymous said...

STR - thanks for all the work you do on this blog.

Would like to invite you to PCV to photograph and post the mud pits and trampled landscape, pot holed pavement, and rusted bikes all over the place.

Better yet come at dusk/night and see over 1/5 of the lamps inoperable.

Overall the place is a real dump!

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>Would like to invite you to PCV...<<

I've been there, but fear for my health with those lines of mammoth bins outside that contain--what? I actually got nauseous a couple of months ago passing by them, as they exuded some strange danky, acidic smell. How do you do it?

Anonymous said...

"I've been there, but fear for my health with those lines of mammoth bins outside that contain--what? I actually got nauseous a couple of months ago passing by them, as they exuded some strange danky, acidic smell. How do you do it?"

Probably have some dead bodies in there. Any rent stabilized senior citizen tenants gone missing lately?

Anonymous said...

"I've been there, but fear for my health with those lines of mammoth bins outside that contain--what? I actually got nauseous a couple of months ago passing by them, as they exuded some strange danky, acidic smell."

I haven't walked past the containers, so I can't attest to the smell. What I saw being put into them was stuff from the historically free storage--metal trunks, old suitcases, etc.--presumably from the basements that flooded. We can expect mutant creatures to burst forth at any time.

Some tenants are unfazed by the mud pits. Two hale and hearty 20-somethings set themselves up for a game of catch (baseball gloves and all) but were warned off by an elderly gentleman with a walker and myself. Today a father and his very young son thought our local swamp was the perfect place to practice hitting a softball. Is there no common sense anymore?

As for inoperable streetlamps, I have twice reported them. More than a month has passed and nothing has been done. Thank you, Sean Sullivan. Heckuva job.

Anonymous said...

yes-PCV is a mess-a slum!!!! the bikes on 23 st. that are tied to the railing-what's with that?? -been there for months!! even though they put up "fences" around some of the lawns-people take their pets & let them do their business on the edge of the fenced area. they clearly do not understand THAT IT'S FENCED OFF FOR A REASON. this place is going downhill fast:(:(

Anonymous said...

Those containers are terrible. Management should explain what they are doing there parked in PCV. Also tell us when they will be removed. No communication. Disgraceful!

Anonymous said...

I am tired of poeple not cleaning up after their dog. AND I HAVE A DOG! This morning I was out at 6am and witnessed 2 people just let their dog go and walk away. I was so shocked.
It is not being a good neighbor or person.

Anonymous said...

Was anybody else woken up at about 4 this morning by the loud, sustained roaring noise which I assume was Con Ed blowing off some steam? It reminded me our beloved Lux Living's description of one of Stuyvesant Towns "selling points" being "next door to an unstable power plant!" He was quite on target with that one!

Anonymous said...

To 9:26a.

That's why dogs weren't allowed in this place for almost 60 years.

Tommyboyardee said...

Do you have a feeling we are living the real life version of "The Producers" ?

Anonymous said...

As for inoperable streetlamps, I have twice reported them. More than a month has passed and nothing has been done. Thank you, Sean Sullivan. Heckuva job.

You've got some time to wait on the street lights. The one by my building in ST was just replaced after being out for MORE than 2 years.

Anonymous said...

I don't think that Sean Sullivan really works here. I think he is like the Wizard of Oz, just a fabricated character with not real authority or even a pulse.

Anonymous said...

Instead of writing only here (btw, thanks STR!) about all the sundry shortcomings & disgraces, perpetrated on us by our CWCapital overlords, try writing to a newspaper/magazine (Observer, NYTimes, T&V, V.Voice, WSJ, Barron's, etc.) or local news station, all of whom have covered this property. The national blogs, too (HuffPo, Curbed, RealDeal, Daily Beast, etc.), have also featured STPCV somewhat regularly.

CWCapital seems to respond ONLY to public humiliation so HUMILIATE THEM! Write that letter. If you want those streetlamps fixed just make reference to the "broken windows" theory and how this place is just one broken streetlamp away from a true project. Feel free to lay it on fast & thick; you've a wealth of topics from which to choose! Then step back as CWCapital races, stumbling over itself, to correct any perceived "misunderstandings" that we tenants may possibly have. There was a hurricane (4 months ago) you know...

Or, wait for a warm sunny day when you've a light schedule, be prepared to spend an hour or two. Go stand outside of the rental office with a sign (Bedbugs and laundry rooms are always good topics) or not. Be sure to stop and talk with your (potential) new neighbors before or after they've entered. Ask them if they're aware of the Bedbug Registry. Ask them if they were notified whether the building that they just signed a lease in has had bedbugs within the past year (MOST of them HAVE and the law requires this be disclosed!). Ask them if they were told they only have 24 hours to sign the new lease as there's only one apartment available. Ask yourself if you think that's really true. Ask them how they feel about illegal hotels. Never, ever getting their calls returned once their lease has been signed. Dormitories. No laundry facilities. Urine in the stairwells. Go ahead, be creative. You are doing a public service AND may as well enjoy yourself.

Or, you could write a letter or two...

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>I don't think that Sean Sullivan really works here. I think he is like the Wizard of Oz, just a fabricated character with not real authority or even a pulse.<<

The handsome and dashing Sean Sullivan exists. I've seen him numerous times walking about the complex, and this morning he was about five feet away from me at Starbucks.

Anonymous said...

NYT reporter Charles Bagli's book on the STPCV real estate debacle, "Other People's Money: Inside the Housing Crisis and the Demise of the Greatest Real Estate Deal Ever Made," is being published on April 4 ($15.98 hardcover). He's going to be at the community center that day, giving a talk. The book cover features an aerial view of ST/PCV, and this is the copy on Amazon (probably from the cover):

In just over three years, real estate giant Tishman Speyer and its partner, BlackRock, lost billions of investors’ dollars on a single deal. The New York Times reporter who first broke the story of the sale of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village takes readers inside the most spectacular failure in real estate history, using this single deal as a lens to see how and why the real estate crisis happened.

How did the smartest people in real estate lose billions in one single deal? How did the Church of England, the California public employees’ pension fund, and the Singapore government lose more than one billion dollars combined investing in a middle-class housing complex in New York City? How did MetLife make three billion dollars on the deal without any repercussions from a historically racist policy of housing segregation? And how did nine residents of a sleepy enclave in New York City win one of the most unlikely lawsuits in the history of real estate law?

Not only does Other People’s Money answer those questions, it also explains the current recession in stark, clear detail while providing riveting first-person accounts of the titanic failure of the real estate industry to see that a recession was coming. It’s the definitive book on real estate during the bubble years—and what happened when that enormous bubble exploded.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>How did the smartest people in real estate lose billions in one single deal?<<

Perhaps because they were not smart.

Anonymous said...

All those folks who had items stored in flooded free storage should start writing to management demanding to know where their stuff is.

Anonymous said...

Still no resolution to the mold problem at 285 Ave C terrace entrance. All calls to management ignored.

Anonymous said...

"All those folks who had items stored in flooded free storage should start writing to management demanding to know where their stuff is."

Come to PCV--it's in the shipping containers that are all over the property. I saw old suitcases and metal trunks (remember summer camp?) loaded into them months ago.

But, yes, pressure management, and get compensated.

Anonymous said...

Will Lady Maya's Rock 'n Roll Riot concert series on the Oval be back this year? New season, new nuisance.

Alice said...

Oh yes! The handsome and dashing Sean Sullivan can seed my Oval Lawn anytime! Burn! My Oval lawn is like the real Oval Lawn, barren.

Anonymous said...

Everyone loves the summer concerts on the Oval!

I, for one, can hardly wait.


Please Lady Maya......more music, more events.


We can't get enough entertainment. After all New York City is such a boring place otherwise.

Hurry summer......HURRY!

Anonymous said...

Alice said...
Oh yes! The handsome and dashing Sean Sullivan can seed my Oval Lawn anytime! Burn! My Oval lawn is like the real Oval Lawn, barren.

March 21, 2013 at 3:55 PM

What an offensive comment!

Anonymous said...

"Alice said...
Oh yes! The handsome and dashing Sean Sullivan can seed my Oval Lawn anytime! Burn! My Oval lawn is like the real Oval Lawn, barren.

March 21, 2013 at 3:55 PM

What an offensive comment!"

The person who wrote it specializes in Offensive and does it very well.