Saturday, May 31, 2014

Compelling Conversation at the TA Facebook Page

Damn good points being made there at the moment:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stpcvta/permalink/10152406618416690/

57 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn good points, yes. Being met with total silence, though.

Anonymous said...

Wow. At last. At least we're seeing a new TA. They aren't answering the questions about Brookfield and Guterman, but at least they;re not suprressing the dissent.

Anonymous said...

Well is the TA going to respond?

Anonymous said...

I don't have facebook. WHat was the summary of conversation? please...

Stuy Town Reporter said...

Well, there's a lot there, but a brief summary: People are wondering what the TA game plan is, aside from the rally, and if things are happening behind the scenes with politicians, etc. So far there has been silence from John Marsh or "Peter Stuyvesant." I think Marsh takes the weekends off from posting, though "Peter Stuyvesant" (whoever that is) has been around on the weekends once in a while, at least to delete posts.

A good amount of the posts are from one individual who writes about the problems in ST/PCV and how ineffective the TA and our politicians have been down through the years in saving affordable housing.

Anonymous said...

Did it ever dawn on ANYONE here that the TA is NOT going to show its hand on Facebook for the whole world -- including CWCapital, Fortress and every other equity predator -- to see?

Stuy Town Reporter said...

The TA hasn't been showing "its hand" on many matters. And where has that gotten us?

Anonymous said...

STR

My number one frustration with the TA over the years is that they operate in secret. I understand that in a number of cases, there will be a need to hide a move from the landlord until it's sprung. But not in every single case and certainly not regarding the so-called game plan you refer to.

I hate FB and don't use it, otherwiswe I'd take up the part about "ineffective politicians" there. Prattling on about ineffective politicians is counterproductive. We need to know exactly who our enemies and using broad strokes like "ineffective politicians" obscures who those real political enemies are. It's time for finger pointing. For years, Democrats in the State Assembly have passed pro-tenant legislation only to see it die in the GOP controlled State Senate. That's where rent regs got decimated during the Pataki reign of terror. They remain decimated because the Republicans still control the State Senate, thanks to a small number of turncoat Democrats who are siding with the GOP to keep them in the majority. (NOTE: Tenant activists have gotten pro-tenant liberal Oliver Koppel to primary Jeff Klein, the leader of the turncoat Dems). Then there's our Dem governor, Andrew Cuomo, who's been tirelessly working against his own party, using the GOP and turncoat Dem combo majority in the State Senate to get his way on his agenda, which apparently doesn't include repeal of vacancy decontrol and/or Urdstadt. So now Cuomo's about to get punished for it by the WFP and Bill Samuels, which ultimately may kill his chances for a run at the White House. Tough shit, Andrew.

For some final finger pointing. Permanent rent increases for stabilized apartments in NYC went sky high during the Bloomberg years because of Bloomberg. Period. Because the mayor calls the shots and makes the appointments to the RGB which determines those rent increases. I have a clear conscience. I never voted for the sonofabitch. I voted for Green, Ferrer and Thompson. But every single person who ever cast a vote for Bloomberg is directly responsible for those increases and every single person in ST-PCV who cast a vote for Bloomberg in his second term should swallow hard for his or her role in the Tishman-Speyer debacle.

Anonymous said...

They don't need to show their hand, but it would be nice if they knew how to play cards.

Anonymous said...

It's hand? Ha! What hand? They've put themselves in a fix. They're in bed with Brookfield, a big aggressive developer with big plans for Manhattan. But they hardly mention Brookfield now. They want the community to rally in opposition to Fortress. That's it. That's their plan. Nothing more than that. Garodnick is trying to kill Fannie & Freddie as sources for Fortress. Brookfield must not be looking to Fannie and Freddie but are thinking about a bid that is much less than 4.7B. So everything the TA & Garodnick are doing is just in favor of the Brookfield deal. But long time tenants are beginning to see that the TA has abandoned them in favor of this bullshit term...new stabilizers. And Marsh is trying to spin this New Stabilizer crap as a way of getting the long timers to go along with the program. The message is...benefit the 'new stabilizers' with the Brookfield deal and you'll get some scraps. Right. Just like we got scraps from the MCI deal. And now the long timers are beginning to see this and say F.U. The Brookfield condo plan is a bad deal for tenants. Bad! Almost any co-op plan would be better.

Anonymous said...

STR - It's pretty clear that you have it in for the TA. So be it. It's your blog. You can write whatever you want. But to expect the TA to show its hand, whatever that might be, on their Facebook page is just plain silly. Everyone knows that CWCap, Compass Rock and other predatory equity types read that page.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>But to expect the TA to show its hand, whatever that might be,<<

The suspicions now are the TA doesn't even have anything in their hand to show. And those are not just my suspicions, as one can tell by the comments on the TA's own Facebook page.

There should be a new TA after the dust settles on the sale of this complex--and it has to be a TA that is far more transparent and for more tougher on the landlord than this one has been.

Anonymous said...

"The suspicions now are the TA doesn't even have anything in their hand to show. And those are not just my suspicions, as one can tell by the comments on the TA's own Facebook page."

I would tend to agree with that statement STR.

Anonymous said...

"There should be a new TA after the dust settles on the sale of this complex--and it has to be a TA that is far more transparent and for more tougher on the landlord than this one has been."

You got that right!

Anonymous said...

Silence in response to questions has been the M.O. of the Board for years. They solicit people to show up at rallies and to distribute literature- I have done that in the past- but they believe that they have the sole right to determine the future of our community and will tell us peasants only when they feel like doing so.

Anonymous said...

STR...if the Brookfield deal wins, the current TA board would have no problem leaving. They'd go onto the condo governance board. Folks like you would take over the TA. No idea who's blogging about the TA having a hand. But there's no hand. CW hasn't talked to them to date. They're next to nobody in all this.

Anonymous said...

BTW...that post on the TA facebook page with many comments doubting & questioning the TA...it's gone. True to form.

Anonymous said...

The TA will change its stripes once it becomes apparent that their Brookfiled buyout deal is dead. Suddenly it will be much more about preserving affordable rental housing and rent stabilization, and quality of life issues related to NYU student transients. In other words it will go back to doing what it should have been doing about $10 billion in real estate transactions ago.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>BTW...that post on the TA facebook page with many comments doubting & questioning the TA...it's gone. True to form.<<

It's still there for me.

Anonymous said...

The comment page is still there (for now)

Anonymous said...

you're all sounding stupid at this point. They are not selling to tenants, CW will take over completely, and it remains a rental.

How do you people not know this.

Anonymous said...

Just because you don't want a conversion isn't going to stop it from happening. Need to stop the magical thinking 3:46.

Anonymous said...

For Christ's sake, the TA are a bunch of schmos just like you and I who volunteered to do this at the end of a workday. Stop bitching and start running for TA so you can do this when you get home from work.

Anonymous said...

After conversion, will we be able to buy units other than our own?

Anonymous said...

9:25 that is half the problem - that they are a bunch of as you say, schmos. They aren't business leaders in their day jobs but they play "business leader" in their TA role. They aren't qualified for the role of TA. Which explains why they aren't operating like a TA should. But I doubt they are just inept - they have shown worse. Worse , they are self serving. And they are not performing the functions a TA is supposed to on behalf of tenants. It is pretty awful when you review the track record of the past 7 years.

Anonymous said...

6:41 i don't want or nor want a conversation - Tbh, I could care less.

I'm saying that you and the other 3 are wasting your time and efforts trying to make it happen since it won't. Sticky this because you'll be dreaming for another 40 years (the TA has been talking about conversion foREVER). Ain't going to happen.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:57 - While the TA may or may not be made up of business leaders in their day jobs, whatever that means, they have access to and take advantage of the advice and guidance of well-qualified professionals like Attorney Tim Collins, etc.
Who, BTW, was not going to get better than he did on the MCIs no matter what you think. You want better? Then Albany has to change and DHCR has to change and the Governor has to want to change DHCR. Period.

And EXACTLY who do you suggest should be on the Board? The Board is run by volunteers. No one is paid for the time consuming, challenging, stressful work they do. If we had a paid Board, I can only imagine the complaints and accusations of self-dealing then.

Anonymous said...

10:25--then RUN! You/We elected them. Run or ask someone you think is qualified to run. But it's all people who live here who do this when they get home from work. If you have more time, then you can do it so you can stop judging the commitment of those who are doing it. Then we can talk about how badly you are doing the job.

Anonymous said...

7:11 AM - Exactly!

Anonymous said...

6:54 stop insulting volunteers. Business leaders volunteer too. Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes, leaders, middle managers, junior level support staff, white collar, blue collar, no collar, all professions, all shapes and sizes.
That comment is saying the TA is not skilled to do the job needed for a TA of PCV ST.
So stop using their pitiful excuse of "we are just volunteers"
These volunteers are in the wrong positions.
My company's CEO and executives (who don't live here but I wish they did) run the company because they are the most decisive, most action, problem solving, acumen that has made our company thrive. I am not qualified to do their job and I admire what my executives come up with.
Our community is struggling to survive because we have the wrong people in leadership positions. They don't have the same thinking and skills. I have come to believe they don't have the right intentions for tenants.
I volunteer. I am good at volunteering. And I let others run the volunteer organization because I would not be good at running it. But I am good at doing the volunteer work.
Our PCV ST TA does what the local pols tell them to do because our TA is a bunch of do-ers not a bunch of leaders.

Anonymous said...

No one knows how this sale is going to come out. But no matter what, in the end the tenants have only one leverage. No politician to the rescue. Your only power is to rally, demonstrate and get bad press for any predatory developer. Or give NYU a black eye in the press. PR matters to these people. No matter how they behave under the covers, they want the world to see them as upstanding. These discussion we have now a re important. We see our differences only to one advantage. We need to see what needs to be overcome in order to come together when the right time comes.

Anonymous said...

I see the TA is allowing comment about the Guterman plan survive. I note the 3 arguments the TA gives against this plan...all bogus.
1. Concern about Guterman ability to raise finances. Every developer will have this problem. No unique to Guterman. CW is in a better position to judge this than the TA.
2. Short term partner. Right. Guterman wants the tenants in control quickly. That's what we should all want. I don't want Brookfield pushing us around for 5 years. Don't see this as an argument against at all.
3. Financial instability or risk of the co-op format. This is just a big, misleading lie to play on people's fears. Co-op is the oldest, most stable form of ownership. There have been many condo defaults and several condo reorganizations whereas in the history of co-ops in NYC there have not been any major defaults.

The TA needs to answer for these misrepresentations.

Anonymous said...

It's because they have had no hand for 8 yrs, or else they would've played SOMETHING! I don't even think they have a full deck.

Anonymous said...

True, true, sadly true. If u voted for BLOOMBERG and didn't protest his third "term" you are partially to blame for rents being what they are today.

Anonymous said...

YES FINALLY someone understands and speaks to the truth!!!

Anonymous said...

Love it. Just don't need the next to part.

Anonymous said...

No, I think u r the one thinking magically 6:41.

Anonymous said...

Well said 7:11 AM (shame about the time) everyone loves to complain about the TA but no one wants to do anything about it, the TA work for free and are elected by tenants, if someone on this blog thinks they can do a better job, then do it.
One of the best things is, if we do ever go CO-OP, is we can form a CO-OP board, and vote not to rent or sell to anyone who does not intend to live here, which would cut out 90% of the students who's parents CO sign there lease.

Anonymous said...

Precisely my point! The TA are well meaning yet unqualified volunteers. They can't motivate people for the smallest of rallies yet they want us to take them seriously as a powerhouse when it comes time to purchasing the property? Sorry, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Anonymous said...

12:34 - The TA has trouble motivating people because we now have too many transients who are not invested in living here AND we have too many other people who also either don't care, don't understand, are lazy, don't get what's at stake or are willing to let others do the heavy lifting for them.

Anonymous said...

SOMEONE IS TAKING OFF THE signs in the buildings about the rally.

How many of you have one or more signs in your building? SEVERAL have NONE.

Anonymous said...

9:31 - 6:54 here. You make the TA Board sound like a bunch of dopes, which they're not. But even if they're not Masters of the Universe in their day jobs, like I said, they have access to and are wise enough to take advantage of the advice and guidance of many well-qualified professionals. They're not making decisions based on nothing, so stop making it sound like they are. Maybe you don't like the decisions that have been made, but they've been made with a lot of professional input. Our community is not struggling to survive, as you say, because we have the wrong people in leadership positions, it's because big real estate companies, Albany, DHCR and Cuomo have stacked the deck against us.

Anonymous said...

The TA is not gonna change between now and June 13, but by all means continue arguing about the Guterman plan, what we know or don't about the TA/Brookfield plan and/or how powerhouse-y or not the TA is. It's not like we don't know the one thing that's absolutely certain is that CW Capital just sprung about the worst possible plan for ST-PCV and it happens in less than 2 weeks. All I can hope is that the TA and city gov't are more focused on this than commenters here.

Anonymous said...

1:19 That is the problem.
If you have been following this blog the past few months you would see:
The TA has not represented the tenants to the Politicians.
The TA has represented the Politicians to the tenants.
The TA isn't getting "input" they are taking direction from self serving Politicians who are taking direction from REBNY.
Residents of this community have not had a voice in years, nor at any important negotiations Roberts and MCI. This TA and Dan too quiets the voices of the residents who have been fighting against the MCI, the Roberts settlement, the Oval Construction and all the construction. Then when their scheme to purchase via predatory Brookfield (a Cuomo favorite) when their scheme gets backstabbed by Fortress and falls apart this TA comes running to residents and says now I want to use your voices so speak up.
And all I can think to say to this TA is shut up. You have done more harm than good.

Anonymous said...

Arguments that supports the TA's positions because they 'volunteer' are difficult to understand, especially when it comes to supporting the group that the TA put together to buy this place. It's the TA, without tenants knowledge or approval, who selected this group. It's the TA who orchestrated the plan and strategy, again, without any approval.

It was argued on this blog and the conversion blog years ago that the TA was mis-stepping, that they were agreeing to relationships without any approval from us and with no knowledge shared regarding the what's, with's, and how's.

I think we can always appreciate the goodness in people who volunteer. But we must have the right to dissent when the actions of those who volunteer are contrary to the mandate, take actions among or by themselves that are not sanctioned, act in the less than best interest of the association or are incompetent in the duties.

Anonymous said...

"All I can hope is that the TA and city gov't are more focused on this than commenters here."

Really. And just what do you think these entities will do? They have no more power or influence now than they did back when Tishman Speyer won with its bid.

And to 'the TA isn't going change'. Well, the TA hasn't answered my questions so guess what...I'm also not going to change. If you want people to follow you, you have to do things right, persuade and answer tough questions. The TA has failed on all 3 scores.

Anonymous said...

There is no TA here. There hasn't been for years. There is a group led by Dan Garodnick that has approved every change that CW wanted including building in open spaces, re-zoning for commercial entities, allowing MCI's that hit one group harder than another, etc. However, this group has no interest in tenants, only prospective buyers. No one has done more harm to residents of PCVST than Dan Garodnick and the board of the former TA.

MBaaar said...

Just got my form from the TA asking that I sign giving them authorization to represent me. They must be kidding, For me to sign, they would have to change and since I've already been told they're not going to change, I guess I'll have to tear up the form. They don't include an option for them not to represent me.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>If you have more time, then you can do it so you can stop judging the commitment of those who are doing it.<<

Sorry, everyone who does something, whether in a volunteer capacity or not, can be judged by the work they do and its efficacy.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

The TA is abominably secretive. I don't buy the argument that they have to be so as not divulge plans to the landlord. Members are flailing in the dark and need to know what is going on behind the scenes, if anything. At least say, "We are working behind the scenes but can't say on what." But there is just silence from the TA. Bad form.

Anonymous said...



More signs up in pcv and st about the new 'upgrades'. woohoo…

More mci charges.

Anonymous said...

The quisling troll who is constantly bashing the TA on this site must be an agent if CW or Gutterman.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

I think facts or opinions should be discussed and evaluated, no matter from whom they originate. We may have "agents" posting here once in a while, but it has to be admitted that the TA is not beloved by all tenants and that tenants have some serious concerns about the organization, as witnessed by the voices complaining over at the TA Facebook page.

Anonymous said...

The quisling troll who is constantly bashing the TA on this site must be an agent if CW or Gutterman.

That is just the dumbest comment that keeps getting posted over and over again. I am a 50+ year resident and I think the TA sucks and should not only be bashed but they should be sued. Anyone wants to take the lead on that and I will contribute both time and money!!!

Anonymous said...

UHOH there are a lot of men hanging around doing a lot of wiring here on property , in the buildings.

I can't wait for more charges in the form of Mci. I just can't wait , thank you TA, Thank you TS, and thank you CW.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I think it's WAY worse than an MCI...I have a bad feeling we're talking submetering. You think your rent is high now, try it with two hundred dollars in electric charges each month.

Anonymous said...

I think it's sub metering too.

They are finding multiple ways to increase us by chunks. These corporations don't want to be in the tenant residential business, that's for sure. They have their sites on much larger entities. It's almost laughable that we all do not believe and know this. We are finally screwed once and for all. This won't stop until they are 70/80% MR (not long away) and then they do what they want, building by building.