New Letter from Gerald Guterman

To the Tenants of STPCV from Gerald Guterman

I have been reading the Stuyvesant Town Report for a few weeks now, without making a single comment about any subject or concern of the residents.

I am sick to my stomach and completely disgusted, by the mis-information "floating" around the community and the latest round of actions taken by CW and Compass Rock. 

There appears to be a deliberate attempt by the No Knowledge or Experience Tenants Association ("NKETA"), to create the false impression that they, the NKETA, have any power or authority, to agree with, make deals with, or represent directly or indirectly, the interests of any tenant of STPCV, except those very few tenants who have joined the NKETA and signed a specific representation agreement. NO POWER, NO AUTHORITY, NO EXCEPTIONS, Period!!       

Unless you actually agreed in writing to be represented by the NKETA, you are NOT represented by the NKETA. No agreement between the NKETA and CW, or Compass Rock, Fortress, Moellis & Company or Paul Weiss, et al, has any force or effect on you as an individual tenant, if you did not sign an agreement with the NKETA  to represent you, or you did not specifically agree (in writing) with CW or their "gang," to a specific matter. NO POWER, NO AUTHORITY, NO EXCEPTIONS, Period!!

I have now explained the power of the NKETA twice in the last two paragraphs and several other times, in several previous statements made on this Blog. 

I am not an attorney and I do not practice law.

I am one of the most experienced New York City Landlords in the history of New York City rent regulated housing, as well as probably the single most experienced condominium and cooperative converter of  rent regulated housing in New York City's history.

That's it. That's what I bring to the table. Just knowledge and forty-four years of pragmatic experience in the Trenches...    

When I speak or write, my message is coming from my experience. after I have given thought and consideration to the subject at hand. Usually, I will have had discussions with my partners and in some cases, my attorney and legal partner, who himself has about forty years of experience in New York City rent regulation law.   

 I don't believe that speech or worse, actions, taken without full, experienced consideration of the possible and (in the hands of professionals) very probable results, has any merit.

The speech and actions of the Tenants Association and the continuing actions of CW or their management subsidiary Compass Rock, are not based on long term, practical, "on the ground" experience, with New York City's Rent Regulated Housing.

CW and its property management subsidiary are "green" service organizations without the New York City Rent Regulation experience "under fire", that would normally govern their actions. 

I  believe that the significant portion of the rent and management decisions taken by CW and their subsidiary, Compass Rock,  will ultimately fail and be reversed, when properly tested through the New York State legal system.

·         I have previously explained to you, that expecting any positive, meaningful results from the Department of Buildings or any political representative, is simply a waste of good ink and paper.

·         I have previously explained to you, that we believe the significant portion of the MCI charges can be successfully challenged and reversed.

·         I have previously explained to you, that we believe the use of STPCV for dormitory housing can be successfully challenged and reversed. 

·         I have previously explained to you, that it will take a sophisticated and extensive legal challenge (as I specifically explained in a previous letter), to obtain the desired results.

·         I have previously explained to you, that while this challenge is going forward in the legal system, there are additional actions that may be taken to protect the Tenants, during this period of stress.

·         I have previously offered to advise you, as Tenants of STPCV.

·         My Offer stated that you may cancel our consulting agreement at any time and for any reason or no reason.

·         My Offer included a charge of $10.00 per quarter and stated that you would be billed separately and later. 

·         I have explained to you in a previous letter, that the substantial portion of the funds ($10.00 per quarter) would be used to pay initial retainer fees for the legal and engineering professionals required to successfully litigate the Tenant positions. 

·         I have previously indicated to you, that I would meet with Tenants in New York, to introduce myself and answer questions about where you stand as Tenants of STPCV.

·         I have previously explained to you, that I expected at least a few hundred Tenants (who read Stuyvesant Town Report) to read, sign and return the Consulting Agreement.

·         I have not made any arrangements for a meeting in New York, because as I previously told you, only one Tenant returned a signed Agreement.

As it currently stands, Guterman Partners, LLC, withdraws from our offer to provide Rent Regulated Housing advice and consultation.

Thank you for your consideration,

Respectfully,

Gerald Guterman                 

Would you prefer to live in a community that feels like an extension of a college campus or a suburban community?

Click photo to make larger.

The question isn't answered in this Street Easy listing for 3 Stuyvesant Oval #MD. Note the recessed AC unit, which I believe that apartment does not have. Nor would an M apartment have such a view. The broker is Citi Habitats, which is the "exclusive" broker for Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village. Really, the chutzpah of implying that our community feels like a suburban one and not an extension of a college campus! Why is it that everyone who deals with ST/PCV on a business level has no shame or is a comedian?

http://streeteasy.com/building/stuyvesant-town/md

Also note the "Price History" of this apartment:

Steep increases for a "rent-stabilized" apartment!

This Was the 1st Clue that ST/PCV Would Change Forever

The plaque. Situated on the West Side of the Oval path. Honoring Met Life Chairman Frederick H. Ecker. Removed in 2002 by Met Life in advance of an eventual sale of ST/PCV.  The words on the plaque were the reason for the removal (not ST/PCV's early racist rental policy). Left there, the words would have made a mockery of what was to come.

These are the words, the vision, that no future landlord of ST/PCV could leave standing:

"... who with the vision of experience and the energy of youth conceived and brought into being this project, and others like it, that families of moderate means might live in health, comfort and dignity in park-like communities and that a pattern might be set of private enterprise productively devoted to public service."

The removed plaque has never been seen again. No one knows where it is.

While it Falls Apart, Let's Listen to Stuy Town's Musical Celebrity

Garland Jeffreys, the only artist approved by the Stuy Town Report blog to hold a concert here.

Website:

www.garlandjeffreys.com

TA Please Take Notice. Can We Ever Get to the Bottom of This???

I'm going to try again on a subject that's been raised here before....

Partitions have been put in by the landlord for years now.  What are these partitions?  Are they partitions that convert, say, a two-bedroom apartment into a three bedroom apartment, as we see in the diagram below? (Click on any image to make larger.)

This is the type of DoB application that is filled out by the builder to create partitions, presented here, for our purpose, in its more important three sections:

Please note that the alteration type checked off is Type 2 and not Type 1.  A Type 1 alternation contains a check mark area for "Change in Room Count/Dwelling Units" and one for "Change in Occupancy/Use".

So if the partitions created in this application for three Stuy Town apartments are partitions to create an extra bedroom, as in the diagram above (which is not of any of these apartments, btw, but just an example), how is it possible that these partitions were legally put in, as the paperwork was not properly filled out?

These partition applications are very numerous in Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village and can be accessed at the DoB site:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/home/home.shtml

From there, go down to the left and see "Buildings Information"... and fill in.

It's obvious that the creation of extra bedrooms serves the landlord very well, particularly in renting out apartments to hordes of students. This complex may now have 5,000 more tenants thanks to the creation of extra bedrooms.

So, TA, have you looked into this at all?  And, if so, what is the outcome of your research?

UPDATE: 9/19/14:

The info below I found on a site that is not official, but it tries to explain "Alteration Type". The insertion of partitions to create a new bedroom (if that's what those partitions are for) is considered by CW and before them, TS, as Type-2. Here's the info:

An Alteration Type-I Application is required when there is a major change to the Certificate of Occupancy of a building, such as converting it from commercial to residential, an interior conversion of the building or a space within a building, or due to a building addition. Most commonly, an Alteration Type-I Application will be used to change the Maximum Number of Persons for a space, to change the Occupancy or Use Group of a space, and/or to change the Description of a space.

Alteration Type-II Application is an alteration that doesn’t change the use or occupancy of the building but requires several types of work, such as plumbing and construction. An Alteration Type-II Application may be used when there is no change to the Certificate of Occupancy due to the proposed alterations, such as with an interior fitout or alteration. When an Alteration Type-II is filed under Directive-14 (such is the case 99% of the time), the Applicant or other NYS Registered Professional Engineer or Registered Architect may signoff the application with a Directive-14 Final Inspection.

Alteration Type-III is a minor alteration that involves only one type of work, such as a curb cut or a construction fence. ALT-1s and ALT 2s must be filed by a registered architect or licensed engineer; some ALT3s don’t require detailed plans and can be filed by a non-professional.

UPDATE: 9/24/14:

UPDATE: 9/25/14:

Meet the New Official Mascot of ST/PCV: NUTS

Well, that's not his name yet, but can one hope?  So, the complex is filthy, dog and human crap here and there, including in elevators; there's noise to wake the dead at all hours of the night (partying, Con Ed work, etc), many of the laundry rooms are not working at full capacity; not all buildings in Peter Cooper Village have fully recovered from Hurricane Sandy; the construction of the new management office is not yet finished and has created a nightmare for those living nearby; the complex is becoming more and more of a dorm; residents are in the dark about the future of this place....

So what is CWCapital/CompassRock's latest effort?

A toy squirrel mascot for the complex that residents are urged to name!!!

So let's name it.

Good luck, guys!

And I mean it.

Tenants at Riverton (the brother complex to ST/PCV) sue their management company. And guess what company that may be?

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140915/central-harlem/tenants-at-riverton-complex-sue-management-company-over-rent-hikes

There should be several lawsuits arising from what's going on in ST/PCV, but that surely would hold up the dream of tenant ownership, so no go.

Rezoning the East Side for Massive Towers is Going to Happen. Thank you, Dan.

How did I miss this?

http://ny.curbed.com/tags/1-vanderbilt-avenue

http://therealdeal.com/blog/tag/midtown-east-rezoning/

If you thought that rezoning of the East Side to allow for massive towers and huge windfalls for Big Real Estate was not going to happen, you were wrong. Mayor de Blasio (!) and Dan Garodnick, the councilman in whose district this will be happening, have agreed to a "reincarnated" zoning plan that is currently limited in scope, but which will pave the way for a thorough transformation of the East Side that will please Big Real Estate very much while giving us peons perks such as new subway entrances, stairways, entrances/exits, etc., all to get workers moving efficiently (it is hoped) from outside of the castle where they live (the outer boroughs) to inside of the castle to work for the nobility who will be the only ones left to afford living in Manhattan.

First up is One Vanderbuilt, which, when built right next to the stately Grand Central, will be the second tallest building in the city. You may as well squash Grand Central and be done with it.

Pardon the cynicism, but it seems Dan's previous contrariness toward our former mayor, Mike Bloomberg, on this zoning issue may just have been a case of "let's wait out the rezoning until I get more clout" or "let's wait out the zoning until after election time."

With the massive development of this area (which, despite the perks, will create even more nightmarish congestion in Midtown), here's another neighborhood that true New Yorkers will be staying away from. Soon, only Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will be left to remind people of the real New York.  And, yes, that is a joke.

Out of Service

Not even when all residents were paying rents that were truly rent-stabilized was this acceptable. How does a management company treat its residents like this? How does a management company try to impress prospective tenants that ST/PCV is a fine place to live? How does a management company take any pride in a result like this? Or does the management company agree that we have project living now and that everyone should be content with this result?

Click on image to make larger.

Stuy Town is Now Shit Town

Pardon the bluntness, but it needs to be said and it needs to be that shocking.

This morning I took a walk from the Oval to 23 Street, through Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. As I walked I came across five areas of dog turds or dog turd splats (dog turds already stepped on). Five. And I didn't deviate from my walk, so I wasn't walking through the many other areas of the complex.

Here's the evidence:

To make matters worse, two reports came to the TA Facebook that HUMAN TURDS were left in the lobby of a building and in an elevator.  Yes, human shit.  And today we received a report of a plastic bag filled with stinking shit of some kind left in the stairwell of a building.

This is what living here has come to. We are overwhelmed by dog shit and human shit.  I've walked through the projects on the Lower East Side and haven't come across the amount of shit laying on the ground as I've come across here. And now we have people taking a crap in lobbies and elevators.

To you who are newbies to ST/PCV, let me assure you that Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village was NEVER like this. NEVER. And a message to the person who thinks the rain cleans it all away.  Perhaps if it were a deluge, but otherwise it turns turds into mud pies, as I've seen when passing one of the areas above after the rain in the afternoon.

Congratulations, CWCapital and CompassRock, on a splendid job excellently done!  You surely must be proud of the way you are managing this complex.

UPDATE 9/14, Sunday Morning:

On the east side of the 20th St Loop, this morning.  I guess this is what some dog owners consider "curbing your dog"... on the sidewalk...  Of course, the law requires a pick up of these turds.

Dan the Real Estate Man

http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-councilman-daniel-garodnick-faces-tough-tests-in-real-estate-battles-1410569682

A generally positive article on Dan, but I couldn't help but notice these tasty sentences:

"In January, about a week after City Councilman Daniel Garodnick lost the race for council speaker, he was the belle of the real-estate industry's annual ball. Mr. Garodnick sat on the stage with other dignitaries at the New York Hilton, two seats down from Alicia Glen, a powerful deputy mayor who oversees housing and economic development. No one at the Real Estate Board of New York's banquet attracted a bigger cluster of executives and lobbyists waiting for a word than the 42-year old councilman for Manhattan's East Side" 

"The city's real-estate world continues to open its wallet to Mr. Garodnick. In the most recent election cycle, he received more than $200,000 of contributions from the industry, out of about $1 million, according to a Wall Street Journal calculation."

Public Safety Absent?

I assume CWCapital/CompassRock wants to save money, that's why there's not ONE Public Safety officer around the Oval right now, nor half an hour ago, an hour ago, etc.

So residents can do anything they like. Two dogs sitting on the Oval Fountain plaza, one person in the fountain, guys playing football on the Oval Lawn....

Enjoy, everyone, because Public Safety is gone for the day!

Papers, Papers, Come and Get Your Papers (Either on T or M Level)

Perhaps the New York Times is giving away their newspapers, or perhaps this is just a new delivery method, or perhaps "whatever," but the Times is now being dumped on the M or T levels, and today, not even in the hallway, but outside. Pictured is the weekend edition which still needs the Sunday news of the day, so perhaps tomorrow someone will come around to work that into the weekend edition and deliver appropriately to each resident who orders the Times. Perhaps. I know if I were a subscriber and if one of those papers were mine, I'd be furious. Another example of luxury living at its finest.

UPDATE 9/7/14

NY Times subscribers have to rummage through the papers to find their own:

This can't be approved by CWCapital. Newspapers are not supposed to be dumped like this in front of the building door. Another instance of "project living."

Sex and S@%T at the Oval

My response to the recent Guterman letter is taking a bit of time, as it's quite lengthy.  Meanwhile, I just couldn't hold back from uploading these photos taken this morning.

Yes, sex is occurring around the Oval....

 

And be careful where you walk. I almost stepped into this due to the surrounding camouflage of leaves. Note the trail of urine that accompanies the crap. If you dare, click on photo to see the captivating details!

What a pig stuy!!! Luxury living at its finest!

Meanwhile, a STR reader sent in this photo that should be filed under "Entitlement." Yeah, it's a cute dog... but, it's off leash and in a playground, both no-nos as stipulated on the sign. The person being so attentive to her iPhone just makes the photo more priceless.

A New Letter from Guterman

GUTERMAN PARTNERS, LLC

Gerald Guterman

stpcv@gutermanpartners.com\

September 3, 2014

To the STPCV Tenants:

It has now been several weeks since I made my Consulting proposal to everyone on this blog. I have explained what my partners and I will do several times and have answered questions both on this blog and in private emails.

While I didn't expect 5,000 signatures just from this blog, I did expect several hundred of you to take the time and make the specific effort, to print and sign the Agreement and send it back to me.

I even gave you all a separate email address, to maintain confidentiality.

The result of all of your talk, your condescending remarks and your know-it-all attitude, is exactly one signed Agreement. One signed Agreement.

Tonight, I read on this blog that I am expecting too much from too many of you. Nonsense....it is you that reads this blog night after night and continues to just "blubber" about the injustice that has befallen you, that is to blame for the ongoing, negative changes to your community.

My partners and I have offered our services for "nothing" and the services of a special group of professionals, each of whom has agreed to accept a small on-account "retainer" from my firm, with the balance paid only from a success based, conditional fee. The fee is payable only from a Court award or Settlement Agreement. Still, a number of you continue to make condescending, anonymous  remarks.

The next comment I expect to read, is that my firm is not working for nothing, but is being rewarded with the handsome, substantial fee of $10.00 per participant per quarter....$40.00 per year. Even with 5,000 participants paying, it doesn't cover the retainers to be paid out to the professionals and a small amount for my firm's overhead costs for this matter. 

If you want to realize changes for the better in this Community, all of you will have to come together and force those changes. You will have to physically copy the Consulting Agreement, sign it for yourself and bring one to your neighbor. You are all intelligent people. You can explain what we are doing and what your neighbor can do to help.

Absent this effort from all of you, we will withdraw.

Gerald Guterman                

Giant Spiders Attacking Stuy Town Residents

Coming to the Oval Lawn Soon?

Okay, I'll admit the above headline is a bit too 1950s sci-fi film-like, and I wouldn't joke like this if things hadn't turned out well, but there is some truth to the headline, unfortunately. A resident of Stuy Town went into anaphylactic shock and had to be taken to Beth Israel Hospital when a spider bit him four times on the arm. The doctors couldn't tell what kind of spider it was, other than it was "a big one."

I'm pretty sure that residents shouldn't fear getting bit by spiders, giant or not, unless they have an allergy to such bites, but this is another concern for us who live in these, yes, projects. And just how in the hell did large spiders get into Stuy Town in the first place?

You can read the full story over at the Town & Village blog:

http://town-village.com/2014/08/29/reaction-to-spider-bite-sends-stuy-town-man-to-hospital/