Monday, December 15, 2014

An Open Letter to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village Community from Coucilman Dan Garodnick


I wanted to take this opportunity to give an update on where things stand regarding the future of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

As you all know, I have spent much of the past nine years of uncertainty working to make sure that the Tenants Association is in the strongest possible position to fight for this community, and to deliver a positive outcome from the mess left from the last sale. I am not going to rehash it. You know it, you have lived it.

I will, however, take a moment to bring you up to speed on what has and has not happened, and give you a sense of where things stand.

Recent History

Let's pick up in June of this year. You will recall that CWCapital announced that it was going to conduct a UCC foreclosure on June 13 -- and by doing that, wipe out all of the mezzanine loans, and formally transfer ownership to the bondholders.

To ensure that nobody forgot about the interests of the 25,000 people who live here, we showed up strong on the steps of City Hall on June 13 -- in the rain -- to demand fairness for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper tenants. We were joined by many of our friends -- Congresswoman Maloney, State Senator Hoylman, Assemblymember Kavanagh, Comptroller Stringer, Borough President Brewer, and our senior Senator Chuck Schumer, all united to make sure that Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village remains an affordable, stable community -- and free from predatory practices, designed to push rent stabilized tenants out of their units, like what we just experienced.

CWCapital decided to call off the foreclosure, and instead transferred the deed of the property to the bondholders in a procedure called "a deed in lieu of a foreclosure." The outcome was the same -- the bondholders (the lenders in the $3 billion first mortgage) now own the property, and for better or worse, CW continues to represent their interests.

One result that CWCapital did not want, however, was that they got sued by one of the mezzanine interests -- another lender in the initial transaction (now owned by Centerbridge) -- which said that the process that CW employed was not consistent with the agreement between the lenders. This lawsuit is for monetary damages only and likely would not result in any reversal of the action they took.

A few weeks later, I hosted a meeting with tenant leaders, elected officials and Mayor de Blasio in my Peter Cooper apartment, where we pushed the Mayor for his support, and he reiterated his commitment to preserving the long-term affordability of this community. He expressed a strong desire to be supportive here, a rather stark difference in the approach from his predecessor. We shared some cannolis from Veniero's, and I can report that the Mayor is a lovely houseguest.

Positions of the City, the Tenants Association and CWCapital

After that time, CWCapital had several meetings with City Hall, and several meetings with representatives of the Tenants Association. Most meetings that have taken place have been preliminary, to share preferences and to reiterate positions.

Let's review what those positions are at this point:

CW's position -- CW has a desire to deliver a full recovery to its bondholders, and there has been some public suggestion that they believe they would achieve that at $4.7 billion. They are open to conversion, but only if it allows them a full recovery.

The City's position -- maximize long term affordability. They are neutral on most other points, including our plans for conversion.

And of course, our position has not changed -- we want to first protect the rights of long term rent stabilized tenants, so that they are not again subject to the same sorts of predatory actions that we saw in 2007 and 2008. In support of that goal, I co-founded and built built a City-wide coalition against predatory equity to fight back against these sorts of practices -- and in an early success, we got a commitment from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that they would not lend to any bid for the property that is not supported by the City and the tenants. Thanks to Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Maloney for their support of that effort.

Second, we want to maximize tenants' choices by offering them a chance to buy their units if they wish. We continue to push this point with both City Hall, and with CWCapital. My impression is that while both the Mayor and CWCapital are open to a conversion as a conceptual matter, they are far from sold, and we have work to do.

It bears noting that a unit's sale price would be dependent on the sale price of the entire property. And if CWCapital can get $4.7 billion -- a far cry from the less than $2 billion when we initially started this conversation -- that means that in a conversion, the cost of units would inevitably go up. And if the units are all to be sold at levels that are unaffordable to the people who live in the community, that is not the outcome we want.

Third, we want to protect the long term affordability of this community -- for the next generation of tenants. To that end, the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Housing Commissioner, and staffs, have all made it directly clear publicly and privately that they want the City to participate here. We will hold them to that.

How could that happen? To achieve long term affordability for future residents, it would require City support in terms of tax abatements or subsidies It would mean that once long-time rent-stabilized tenants vacate their units, there would be a mechanism to allow another New Yorker to move in, provided that they meet a certain -- perhaps middle income -- threshold. I should again note that all of this is a change from the last Administration, which viewed our issues as purely private, and without any need for City involvement as a policy matter.

Finally, we continue to be determined to protect the historic configuration of the property, and to not allow anyone to build on our playgrounds or other open spaces. This has not changed, and our position on this is well understood and recognized.

Given the complicated issues facing this property, whatever we negotiate will probably not be a simple, off the shelf solution to our situation.

Potential timing for next steps

So what is the timing for resolution of all of this? While CWCapital has said they plan to sell sometime in the next year, there is no legal requirement forcing them to do so. The law allows for CW to represent the bondholders -- a REMIC trust -- for up to 6 years. This includes an initial three year period, beginning from the date of the deed in lieu transaction (June 2014), with an option to renew for an additional three years.

Now, we don't necessarily think that they would really want to use all of those six years - and as a term-limited Council Member I certainly hope they move it along already. But if CW wants to take their time on these negotiations, they can do that.

Some scenarios that might unfold

How might this all go down? As I see it, there are three possible scenarios here:

First, the tenants, the City, and CW could agree on a package of outcomes that we would want to see -- like conversion, long term affordability, etc -- and then that structure could be put out for bids. Doing that would ensure the outcome, but not the owner. That could even be a point where Brookfield, which has stood ready to assist us since the beginning, could participate.

Second, all negotiations could fall apart, and CWCapital could just put the property up for a straight up auction. Much like we saw last time.

A third - unlikely, but possible - scenario, would be CWCapital simply sponsoring a conversion themselves, and disposing of unsold rental units after six years.

Of course, there are variables like the Centerbridge lawsuit that could change these expectations.

I think the best opportunity for us is a pre-negotiated deal where we know the outcomes, we have tenant protections built in, and the core questions are resolved before an auction. And that is what we are working toward.

Conclusion

The most important takeaway here is that we have been working for years to use our leverage to get a seat at the table. We are now finally there, and nobody is going to shut us out of this process.

We don't know what the final product will look like here - but what the Tenants Association is calling for, and what I support, has not changed. We all realize we may need to be flexible or creative to find the best possible resolution for this community.

We may need to show up and make some noise, and remind the powerful interests out there that we are not messing around. And we will call on you for that. It is an important weapon in our arsenal because the real estate world knows that this community is organized, and it is committed to this cause.

But we now have more tools, and more allies, and I am more optimistic than ever about our ability to deliver a positive outcome here. So, I thank the Tenants Association for its leadership, and I thank all of you for the time and for your patience as this process unfolds.

188 comments:

Stuy Town Reporter said...

"And if CWCapital can get $4.7 billion -- a far cry from the less than $2 billion when we initially started this conversation -- that means that in a conversion, the cost of units would inevitably go up."

Yup.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

And, Dan, why aren't Tishman-Speyer paying fines to cover the debt that this community acquired when Robbie Speyer fucked up? I'm not even asking for jail time here, just heavy fines to eliminate the debt or significantly lower it. These guys can afford it.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Dan.

Robbie and his dad just walked away basically saying "Fuck you Stuyvesant Town / Peter Cooper Village!"

Yeah Dan.

Anonymous said...

In short there noting that can really be done about a situation that is totally out of our control.

But the TA could organize & direct a massive campaign against all these bogus MCIs and Dan Garodnick could make personal inquiries for every complaint that the department of housing doesn't respond to. That would be doing something.

Anonymous said...

The Speyers are scum. Just want to get that on the record. They are avaricious, opportunistic, greed-driven scum. They took a lovely rent stabilized middle class complex and fucked it over and terrorized many of its long-term residents, some old, some infirm, but all of whom were living here legally, and made them feel like they were in a concentration camp waiting for their numbers to come up.

Don't bother us, Dan, unless you are willing to stand up to the Speyers of this world. As wealthy as they are, they just had to add this wonderful place to live to the notches on their belts. We hate them; we don't trust you. You are part of the disease, not the cure. You and your kind are destroying lives and destroying New york City.

Anonymous said...

Dan, you and your ilk, your hungry, greedy amoral friends have destroyed New York. You have stripped it of every vestige of historical significance and feeling of a livable city that it ever had. You have turned it into an homogenized, bland, vanilla hipster/yupster/college dorm town and you have disenfranchised and alienated the very people who made it the great city it once was.

You will be gone soon, and we will never miss you or remember you. New York City will be just another over-built, over-priced blah American City that nobody who has any blood in their veins will want to live in.'

Hope you and your dismal friends feel satisfied with yourselves for having destroyed one of the greatest cities of this world by emasculating and annihilating the heart and soul of this City. Enjoy counting your shekels, Dan. We won't miss you when you are gone.

Anonymous said...

Tishman Speyer and Blackrock are no better (maybe a lot worse) than Bernie Madoff. They are crooks and have no conscience or morals whatsoever. We despise them with as much hatred as we would despise the Nazis and the Mafia. Get the picture, Dan?

Anonymous said...

Is Dan Garodnick that stupid, conceited and ridiculous that he doesn't see that most of us in the Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village Community don't see him as anything more than another parasite looking to suck of us as did Tishman Speyer and their gang of robers? What the fuck have you done for us, Dan? They destroyed the Oval, cut down all the trees and replaced the quiet oasis that WAS Stuyvesant Town with a tacky road show, worthy only of rural Ohio!

I don't think we need you Dan, so why don't you just go away, play with your kids, be nice to your wife and get a job as so-so lawyer again. As a politician, you have completely and utterly failed your constituents. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Anonymous said...

At some point Mr Garodnick you should have stopped on that path you were taking and realized your plan is the same as Tishman Speyer, relying upon the eviction of thousands of families here so banks will give mortgages to buildings of 80% market rate.

At some point you should have changed your course of action so zero middle class PCVST residents lost their homes.
So zero open space was commercialized.
So zero dorms were installed destroying QOL for remaining residents.
So zero hard working, working class residents were illegally overcharged by the mci and gouging renovation costs.
So zero PCVST residents were paying the Tishman Speyer debt. So zero PCVST residents were subsidizing the billion dollar RE deal for the billionaire hedge fund and developers.
At some point you should have changed your course of action so the working class middle class people were not giving their last dime to pay for the risky gamble by the hedge funds and developers who can afford to cover their own risky bets.

Mr Garodnick at some point you should have realized your plan is no different than Tishman Speyer, a business model reliant upon death of elderly and eviction of working class.

Because you chose your course of action for a seat at the Tishman table and now the Fortress table, PCVST is commercialized, the park is destroyed, thousands of residents lost their homes.

Because you chose to "position the tenant association" and they followed your lead, they have not represented or fulfilled their obligations to the working class residents who are being overcharged, their role to protect the quality of life of the residents, and their role supporting residents in protecting our homes, QOL, and the property.

When you "positioned the tenant association" in its new role it should have stepped aside so another group could have taken on the responsibility of protecting residents from overcharges and evictions instead of betraying and blocking residents from protecting themselves and each other.

In a way what the tenant association did is worse than the developers.

Anonymous said...

So what are you doing for US NOW DAN? Why aren't you fighting the shameful bogus MCI bills? Why aren't you fighting the phony 124,000 renovations in 'upgrades' that really are not? Why aren't you Dan? What do you do exactly?

Anonymous said...

This feels like a Bush Sr moment where he is so out of touch with the people.

Evicting your constituents to replace them with "new stabilizers" of higher incomes is wrong. Plain and simply wrong.

Anonymous said...

Tishman gambled. They lost. Their debt. Not ours.

We should not have to pay for the risky gambling debt by RE. The middle class should not have to pay for the risky gambles by hedge funds, developers, and bankers.

We need new politicians who will stop the robbing of the middle class to subsidize the banker, hedge funds, developer gambles. This is why we did not vote and you still don't get it.

Anonymous said...

AGREE 8:59! We should not be paying off Tishman Speyers real estate gambling debt! It is not our debt! Geez, we have our own debts. Dan needs to get this debt off the backs of the residents and onto his buddy Robbie!

Anonymous said...

"Third, we want to protect the long term affordability of this community?" HEY DAN, HOW ABOUT DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THESE BULLSHIT MCI'S, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE? HUH? LET'S SEE SOME REAL ACTION AND NOT A 10,000 WORD ESSAY THAT YOU JUST POSTED?

Stuy Town Reporter said...

I agree with all the statements above, of course. Last night I was reading some of the back story to the sale of this place to Tishman-Speyer, and though I know the story well, the reading still made blood shoot out of my eyes, as if I were finding out the details for the first time. Despicable that all this happened to the middle class here.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

And, btw, "long term affordability" is gone for this place, barring a court decision that will rock the NYC real estate world. And that's what the TA and Garodnick should be planning. There's enough crap going on here behind the scenes (and in front of our eyes) to make something stick, surely. But we aren't even trying.

Hippo said...

Danny Boy Garodnick is truly scum of the earth, a "man" without self-respect or shame. The performance he put on at the Tenants Meeting last week was SHAMEFUL. He did not address the bogus MCI's which are driving out the poorer and older residents , the QLL issues, the commercialization and mall-like "development of the Oval, the "dormitization" of our formerly quiet homes, the killing of so many beautiful trees, decreased maintenance...and who can forget the dog sh*t in the halls and elevators? Fortunately, Danny is term-limited but don't be surprised if he has the cojones to try to run for Mayor in 2017. Just go away and disappear you cheap pol.

Anonymous said...

Cannolis with Dan and birthday cake with Tishman Speyer REBNY head Robbie.

What is our mayor thinking?

Get the Tishman Speyer CWCapital and complicit Brookfield debt off our backs Mr Mayor!

Anonymous said...

Nice picture! Staring right into space.

Anonymous said...

The TA and Dan have been complicit in all the acts against this community from the dorms to the evictions to the construction. They can't now change their tune and fight against these things or they will be called out by CW for their hypocrisy and role in the frauds. Worse, they may feign a fight then intentionally lose it and say "we tried". They have not been and are not on the side of affordable housing for this middle working-class community. They have always been on the side of "luxury housing" for the "new stabilizers" of higher incomes.
We would be foolish to have them lead a fight for us now. Frankly the "new stabilizers" are fools too and will pay higher prices if they buy on top of paying (illegally) higher rents up until purchase.
We all, buyers and renters would have been a lot better off had we aligned and fought the illegal increases put upon us to cover the REBNY members debt.

CompassRock personnel will be partying alongside Brookfield, Robbie and Dan at the Liars Ball in a few weeks while we pay off their debts....and our own.

Anonymous said...

Neither the Brookfield plan nor the Fortress plan can be considered affordable housing. If either are implemented that will be 11,500 units that need to be deducted from the Mayor's affordable housing plan if he is being honest in his count. By latest count, Stuy Town and Peter Cooper have almost 5000 less units of affordable housing - wiped out under the Garodnick/Marsh/Steinberg Brookfield plan and the CW Fortress plan.
A well earned stain on all your records.

Anonymous said...

Every person not aligned with the Tenant Association did not have a representative on the city council these past years. Dan was supposed to be councilperson for all his constituents, not only those involved in a business deal with him.

Anonymous said...

To the person who didn't get why fuel costs and air conditioner charges were mentioned and need correction, here is Schumer sort of addressing it but only for the wealthy travelers and companies with traveling executives. If fuel costs have dropped so to should our annual air conditioner fees which were raised due to the excuse of increased energy fuel costs.

http://gothamist.com/2014/12/15/flights_fuel_schumer.php

Anonymous said...

I can see how Dan is thanking the Tenant Association for their "leadership" if by "leadership" Dan means that the TA obeyed his commands and followed his "positioning them" then I can see why he is thanking the Tenants Association.

But from the Resident's point of view the Tenant Association provided no leadership, no voice, no opposition to the many atrocities against this community. The Tenant Association suppressed attempts by Residents to protect ourselves.
A betrayal of position.

Anonymous said...

Hey everyone. Beating on Garodnick (NYC official) for MCI’s at this blog, is beating a dead horse. If you are going to hit Garodnick, his utter helplessness in face of the NYC DOB/Zoning (another corrupt city agency) is one to go for. MCIs are a NYS DHCR issue. These are politicians to press. Andrew Cuomo, Governor. His minion, Darryl C. Towns, DHCR (another corrupt state agency) Commissioner/CEO., our two state representatives, Brad Hoylman, who is our State Senator and Brian Kavanagh, who is our State Assemblyman. Guess what? Cuomo is a Republican light. He’s running for President in 2016 as your typical Clinton style corporate Democrat. He’s in bed with the Republican Senate. Cuomo and his new Lt. Governor, Kathy Hochul, do not give a shit about us. Hoylman and Kavanagh are decent men but they are terrified of Cuomo’s take no prisoners, Chris Christie type political machine. Where does that leave us? Dead. It’s over; enjoy the ever shrinking, not even bearable QOL of PCVST and New York City in general while you can. Start making escape plans. Yes, I went to the voting booth this year, (voted in the Democrat primary as well, did an anti-Cuomo vote) pinched my nose, and voted for Cuomo. Curious about the major blasters who post here. Did you vote for Pataki? Did you vote for Paladino, then Astorino? Did you vote for Bloomberg, then Lhota? If you all did, then you cannot really complain about the dorm shithole this place has become because if the Democrats are a bunch of corporate shills (they are), at least they believe in some government rental housing regulations. The Republicans believe in ZERO regulations for everything, unbridled capitalism at its worst, the “free” market is always correct.

Anonymous said...

Aaahhh Yes. Our tax dollars hard at work. Always was a joke, always will be. We are basically being held hostage by the top 1 percent, and there is basically nothing we can do about it, and THEY know it too! Though I think the most sincere politician is Chuck Schumer. He's the only one who appears to care. Here that Danny Boy?

Anonymous said...

Don't even bother fighting the m ci or the overcharges. Dhcr and the Dob is in partnership with them, not us. Apparently they don't answer to complaints, filed complaints or investigate any wrongdoings here.

Bravo NYC, we can all be so proud of our Democrat city here. not.

Anonymous said...

@12:41

I guarantee that all those posting negatively against DG and his tireless advocacy are Fox News watching Gop voters who want the government to keep it's hands off their Medicaid.

Anonymous said...

no one here or anywhere in nyc has the balls to take on the landlords.

Anonymous said...

"By latest count, Stuy Town and Peter Cooper have almost 5000 less units of affordable housing - wiped out under the Garodnick/Marsh/Steinberg Brookfield plan and the CW Fortress plan."

Actually, it was MetLife that started removing those apartments when they began renovating to get the rents up--legally. My floor has one of those interim renos. TS continued the plan and so does CW. Landlords all over the city are doing this so they can make more money. Even if we didn't think our various landlords padded the bills they submitted, they would eventually get the rents over the limits in the law. It's just a matter of time. This is how the law screws us and why the big issue when the RS law expires in June is to make a big push to get rid of vacancy decontrol.

Anonymous said...

This Garodnick open letter is so condescending. The residents here are not stupid so stop talking down to us. We know what went down here. And it is not as you are trying to portray.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>I guarantee that all those posting negatively against DG and his tireless advocacy are Fox News watching Gop voters who want the government to keep it's hands off their Medicaid.<<

Huh???

Anonymous said...

So all these "allies" are on record supporting a plan to make the working class bear the burden of the billionaire Tishman Speyer risky RE gambling debt.

Wake up! This scheme is wrong. It is not the debt of the working class people here in PCVST. Shame on all the "allies"!

Anonymous said...

A Serene Community of Equality

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/media/accidental-utopia-stuyvesant-town

to its now state of being

The noise-polluted poster child for inequality by wiping out the Middle Class

From a success story to a monumental failure of society by the politicians orchestrating this deal.

"An Accidental Utopia in Stuyvesant Town"

Anonymous said...

Nope. Not a Fox news watcher. Sounds like that poster MIGHT be though. Also deluded.

Anonymous said...

Dan and the DOB he "closely monitored" used a lot of false information and there is a lot of missing information on the paperwork filed for each and every of the construction projects in the Oval.

Very dodgy.

Anonymous said...

They should have frozen the residents rents the moment Tishman Speyer chose not to make that January mortgage payment and kept residents rents frozen until new owners were in place to protect the residents from being wrongfully charged with the Tishman Speyer debt.

That would also have deterred other RE companies who are hoarding rental properties from walking away when they no longer feel like making a mortgage payment despite being able to pay it.

Instead this group of Democrats participated in the plan to put the debt on the working class residents here.

Thank you Dan for listing many of the politicians here who believe the middle class should bailout the wealthy developers and bankers.

These Allies prioritize the real estate property deal over the people living here.

We need a court to get the debt off the backs of the hard working people here and onto Tishman Speyer and their Allies.

Anonymous said...

" DG and his tireless advocacy" is directed at the wrong place. The tireless advocacy you see and speak of is for your RE business deal to profit the lawyers and developers in the millions while stealing homes and cheating hard working New Yorkers hard earned money. Maybe DG is a tireless advocate, but his advocacy is not for the residents here.

Anonymous said...

7:07 good point and it points straight to those making the laws. Those who have coffers filled by RE and who got laws made in record time for RE just last year which they bragged about in their 2014 annual report a commentator posted on this site. The lawmakers, the politicians, are screwing the people and favoring the business deals.
It is a straight line from the laws you speak of to the lawmakers.

Anonymous said...

The fix is in!

Anonymous said...

Wow, sounds like Dan has not been talking at all to his constituents here. Sounds too like his manipulated robotic "positioned" Tenant Association who also has not been in a two way dialogue with residents here is a farce since they represent a very small portion of residents (less than 15%) and they have a similarly very small portion of residents who want to purchase. All of these politicians are ignoring a majority of the population of Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town as they have been since 2007.
Wow.

Anonymous said...

Nobody thought that CWC would take 2 billion so I'm not sure why DG is throwing out that figure. Full recovery was always 3 billion. Of course, everyone also knows that after 3 billion we are left with a lot of lonely money with no place to go as per Mr. Blattman.

If the reason why DG is talking about 4.7 billion now is because of these "left field" fees, then why wasn't this possibility brought up by any of the "experts" that DG brought together for us?

I'm just flabbergasted!

Anonymous said...

Uggh

Instead of taking action to protect the people and the property Dan and his positioned puppets jumped on CW's Destroy the Community bandwagon in a desperate play for a seat at the table. A desperate buyer willing to make his constituents pay $2billion more than we should.

Anonymous said...

This place is an absolute joke. Run by nothing more than investors probably scattered throughout the world. We are only a number in their portfolios. Nothing more, nothing less. Boy I miss Bill Potter and the way things used to be around here. Oh that's right, I have to accept change. FOR THE WORSE!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I wish this guy would just go away and take the "Tenants" Association with him. We have no voice here, nobody fighting to save our homes. Just predators looking to kick us out and rake in the money. Dan is a Real Estate man, he does not serve his constituents unless they are looking to make a buck off the backs of the middle class. Not that there is much of a middle class left in New York now. It will be soon be a city comprised totally of the very rich and the very poor. So much for DeB and his cronies trying to change the Tale of Two Cities status quo.

Anonymous said...

@ 11:41 am: You said it all! I totally agree with you. This place has been ruined by greed and avarice and no intelligent planning. Just anyway to make a buck is ok by CW and its lackeys (e.g. Dan Garodnick and the TA).

Anonymous said...

Wake up. You people are idiots. You scream, yell, and clamor, take out your frustration on Mr. Garodnick, but is he REALLY what you're angry about? He's not your mommy or daddy. He's doing his best - I certainly don't believe his motive is to screw over PCVST residents. All the things you complain about are a direct result of being owned by either greedy landlords ore bottom-line obsessed special servicers/investors. Period. He;s at least TRYING to get the ownership of this place transferred to tenants. It;s the only hope. And to those that say this means the loss of affordable housing - you are just 100% flat wrong. Again, wake up. Or shut up.

Anonymous said...

It is true then. At the last round of MCI negotiations where we got screwed, the Tenant Association threw this community under the bus to better position itself at the buyers table. The residents were not represented at the last round of MCI negotiations which should have been flatly rejected INSTEAD of negotiated! They should have fought the MCI charges and thrown them all out, and could have had the TA not been corrupt, pretending to represent renters when all along acting in the interest of property owners.

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for the residents who are trying to fight against the illegal mci charges and sketchy rent calculations and the illegal construction and rezoning who were attacked by the the "Allies." I see why the First Avenue Loop neighbors fought so hard this year to protect their open space and refused to go to the "tenant" association Marsh DOB Garodnick ambush meeting as it was OBVIOUSLY a set up to single them out and harass them. I see why Garodnick and Marsh negotiated against the residents here when they aligned with CW on the bogus mci charges...to position themselves at the rip-off sale of the property.
Dan you and your allies betrayed this community and are positioned for the bad end of the deal paying far far too much. You didn't even do your "positioning" well. You failed this community, time and again, failed the renters on purpose, and failed the buyers begging for a seat at the table where the price is too inflated (but it is a good price to help cover your buddy Robbie's debt).

Shame on all these Allies for betraying this community. Your names are cemented to the largest mass eviction of the middle class in NYC history.

Anonymous said...

WHO HERE HAS FILED COMPLAINTS WITH THE DHCR ABOUT THE MCI AND OVERCHARGES?

NO ONE. Not one tenant. Everyone here is afraid.

Anonymous said...

AND
this explains why the DOB is allowing a lot of false information, outright lies, and illegal acts sail through the process and on the paperwork for construction in PCVST.

The DOB is not fulfilling its duties and obligations to keep safe our buildings, property, and lives when the DOB is compromised by corrupt politicians to be an Ally on a real estate deal.

How much pain has been caused and how many lives uprooted and ruined by this alliance of yours, Dan? This alliance of yours against the people, the peaceful residents of PCVST?

You took down a peaceful community with your alliance of city agencies, city and state politicians, commercial developer Brookfield, and "inside man" willing to betray the community calling itself a tenant association.

That is not something to boast about.

I find your bragging open letter distasteful and telling.

Anonymous said...

Is this why when I call 311 they sometimes shut down after I say its Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town and won't take my complaint on record? The entire city system and the state too is in this alliance against the community to oust us for their land grab. Anyone else having trouble getting a city agency to do its damn job?

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>Wake up. You people are idiots. You scream, yell, and clamor, take out your frustration on Mr. Garodnick, but is he REALLY what you're angry about? He's not your mommy or daddy. He's doing his best - I certainly don't believe his motive is to screw over PCVST residents.<<

Neither do I. But I consider him and the TA incompetent in dealing with the serious problems we are facing. And this tenant ownership business, and the focus over it, is one of the things that has led both Garodnick and the TA off the track. Affordable housing? Even years ago, Garodnick was talking about have only 20% of units here affordable.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>You people are idiots.<<

Do I ALWAYS have to remind certain posters that the viewpoints here are wide-ranging and that I do not agree with every view that is presented here? I'm getting very tired with such blanket statements.

Anonymous said...

"Wake up. You people are idiots. You scream, yell, and clamor, take out your frustration on Mr. Garodnick, but is he REALLY what you're angry about? He's not your mommy or daddy. He's doing his best - I certainly don't believe his motive is to screw over PCVST residents. All the things you complain about are a direct result of being owned by either greedy landlords ore bottom-line obsessed special servicers/investors. Period. He;s at least TRYING to get the ownership of this place transferred to tenants. It;s the only hope. And to those that say this means the loss of affordable housing - you are just 100% flat wrong. Again, wake up. Or shut up."

I don't disagree. I do, however, take exception to DG and the pollyanna crew he performed with during the last five TA meetings. More caveats should have been discussed as opposed to whether or not residents would be able to buy apartments other than their own.

Anonymous said...

PART 1
Allies (A): Pleeeeeeease give us a seat at the buyers table.
CW: We both want the same thing. We want $2billion and you want to wipe out Robbie's $2billion debt. Will you commit arboricide, kill thousands of trees and shrubs?
A: Yes
CW: Will you pretend to represent tenants, quieting their voices?
A: yes
CW: Will you kill Oval park, install Verizon wi-fi and have a state Senator handling grievances?
A: yes
http://town-village.com/2014/07/24/letters-to-the-editor-july-24/
To the Editor:

I was dismayed to read in the July 17 issue about Seth Shire’s unfortunate experience when he sought to renew his Verizon FiOS contract (“My Verizon FiOS Nightmare”).

I want to remind readers that I am a resource when you experience customer service issues, and you should feel free to contact me at (212) 633-8052 or hoylman@nysenate.gov.

I can help you cut through the red tape and ensure your problem gets the attention it deserves.

Sincerely,

Brad Hoylman,
New York State Senator, 27th district"

CW: Will you block tenants from reporting overcharging, illegal calculations to DHCR?
A: yes

CW: Will you fix zoning to install Oval commercial entities?
A: yes. Pleeeease can we sit at your table?
CW: not yet. Will you block tenants from opposing construction at DOB?
A: yes
CW: will you provide all after hours construction permits?
A: yes
CW: will you suppress noise complaints?
A: yes
CW: Will you install movie theatre / indoor winter sports building?
A: yes. we will pretend not to know and to monitor noise while you put up interim tent. Later we will address noise complaints by constructing permanent building.
CW: will you refuse assistance request by tenants and keep quiet the number of mass evictions?
A: yes

to be continued

Anonymous said...

PART 2

CW: will you open loopholes and write favorable laws?
A: yes
CW: Will you dig up contaminated soil?
A: Yes, dig and dump away.
CW: Will you bury alive squirrels during construction?
A: yes
CW: will you allow false occupancy claims to DOB?
A: yes
CW: will you cover up 700% mark up on renovation?
A: yes
CW: will you add $2,000,000,000 to the purchase price?
A: yes but don't tell tenants until the end
CW: Will you put in separate entrances for dorms, poor door and luxury condos?
A: yes but don't tell tenants yet!
CW: will you increase population by 40% with mostly unnamed occupants?
A: yes
Cw: will you change the character of the community?
A: yes
CW: will you kill / develop all open space?
A: yes
CW: will you support mci charges for NYU campus and ALL mci charges we apply for?
A: yes but let us look like we pushed back.
CW: Will you distract residents and put in 10,000 dorms?
A: yes, we will talk about bikinis and laundry rooms.
CW: will you evict 90% of tenants to meet banker requirements for mortgages?
Allies: yes. Pleeease can we sit with you?
Cw: not yet. Will you go on record to eliminate 90% of renters so PCVST is 10% renters?
A: yes. here it is.
http://ny.curbed.com/tags/stuyvesant-town-tenants-association

"So what would a utopian, tenant-owned Stuy Town actually look like? It's not quite clear, though the tenants association will be taking recommendations at a public meeting this weekend. Sources who've been involved in the process so far tell the Times that around 10 percent of the apartments would still be rentals, and residents who buy could choose to purchase cheaply (maybe those $290/square foot apartments aren't a pipe dream) with restrictions on resales or at something closer to market rate with fewer rules about reselling. Of course, the rent overcharge debate will probably need to be resolved before another property transfer can happen. "

CW: Will you track who to target for eviction?
A: yes. here is our plan.
http://www.stpcvta.org/flyers/unity/tracking_grid_10-068.pdf

We will pretend to be on their side
http://www.stpcvta.org/flyers/unity/canvasser_talking_points_02-2010.pdf

A: We will kick out 90% of renters, churn stabilized apartments to market rate, bring in higher incomes call them "new stabilizers", bury alive squirrels and kill trees. Pleeease can we sit at the buyers table?

CW: yes, you can sit with us. We may or may not speak to you. We may or may not sell to you. But you can take your position and sit with us.

Anonymous said...

Remember the TA unity pledge that appealed to the college kids who got hazardous walls to dvide the apartments for mass housing and the TA promise to buy at $200,000 for a 2 bedroom? The Tishman TA deal that appealed to the college kids? Tishman never left here, the same people who worked the Tishman TA deal worked the CW TA deal. Same plan all along.

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/04/26/stuy_towners_unite_in_pursuit_of_200k_apartments.php

Anonymous said...

The Guterman plan was the ONLY Affordable Housing option.

Brookfield TA and Fortress CW TA are both luxury plans with barely 10% affordable housing renters allowed.

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/12/02/war_is_on_for_the_hearts_minds_and_wallets_of_stuy_town.php

Anonymous said...

I remember too when Dan and the so called tenant association talked to us about only 20% renters, it was in 2010, yes? Watching him and his cronies overcharge and evict some of the kindest people to reach his goal has been just awful to witness.

The lack of moral conscience it takes to sabotage this community then bully us when we stand up to protect our homes, our wallets, our QOL, our Park... to hurt one person, steal the safety and sanctity of their home, let alone thousands and be oblivious to the pain and chaos you cause, abusing and neglecting the basic human rights we have to a home then write this open letter justifying your actions doesn't fly.

The abuse on this middle class community needs to be reported everywhere in every way possible everyday as the biggest assault on the working class in the history of NYC by an administration.

Anonymous said...

Co-Op is the only way to affordable housing.

Those wanting to buy at a decent price and those wanting to stay renting should all with hold rent and demand the city do their rightful job, fight against the corrupt REBNY fueled luxury condo plans of Brookfield and Fortress and take back our community. The buyers and the renters are getting screwed by this deal.

Anonymous said...

5:51 I agree with you. How else can we report the overcharges when we know the DHCR will report us to Dan and his Allies? We don't want to be harassed like our neighbors are for speaking out but we don't want to be overcharged. What else can we do to get back these overcharges? How can we get DHCR to do what they are supposed to do? The people at DHCR were nice when we spoke to them and wanted to help us but the decision to support the Allies comes from their bosses and commissioner. Even 311 gasps when we mention noise complaints in PCV ST. Is there no official in the entire city or state allowed to help us?

Anonymous said...

8:54 wake up. All the condo conversion buyers, Fortress, CW, Brookfield, Dan - Marsh - Steinberg association have the same goal. Ownership by mass eviction and commercial development of open spaces.

Anonymous said...

8:54 you are incorrect. A condo conversion requires 80% to 90% of the families here evicted, kids uprooted from schools and friends, families torn from homes. That is what Dan did. He evicted thousands of his constituents from their homes so Dan could position his tenant association, Brookfield and law firm Paul Weiss to purchase the luxury condo property that is now overtly announced on the PCVST facebook page. CW and Fortress could not have turned into PCVST condos unless and until Dan and his allies evicted 90% of the residents.

Dan should have protected his constituents and chosen the option with the least homes lost - co-op conversion a la Penn South.

But Dan chose money over constituents.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't possibly disagree more with the statement that Dan Garodnick is not out to screw PCVST tenants. All his actions point to the exact opposite and as I try to teach my children actions speak louder than words. Anyone can cheer lead. His actions prove that he would rather support a small special interest group (the former PCVST-TA now known as the CWCTA) and further his future political ambitions than anything else. He cares more about seeing his former law firm buddies get paid for all their work on this secretive deal hammered out without tenants consent than he is interested in doing what the vast majority want. If he was interested in not screwing tenants he wouldn't have allowed all the screwing so far and he would stand down on this deal as would a real TA. This is all about politics for Dan and future contributions (bribes)to his election funds from the RE industry and lawyer buddies and the folks at Moelis helping advise on his campaign for Mayor (although since the employ Eric Cantor why would you want their help?). You are very naive if you believe anything else. Remember Dan lost at least 1 in every 3 or 4 supporters in his last re-election bid. Of course he won after all he's a Democrat in NYC, they never change unless we are fortunate enough to have term limits that can actually be enforced. Regardless, he did give up 30% to an unknown Republican opponent who didn't spend a single dollar on her campaign. Dan's entire political future rests on him selling PCVST tenants out and he is using the TA to try and do just that, stop fooling yourself! Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!!! Not gonna let Dan fool me again. What about you???

Anonymous said...

5:51 how do you know no one has filed with the DHCR? They aren't allowed to disclose that information. Did they tell you?

Anonymous said...

Yes they would expose it. If there are multiple complaints on a building, one can look it up. I have not filed (I am not that poster) but I do believe they look into only multiple complaints.

Anonymous said...

10 21! What? How does CR know who filed a complaint on overcharges? Are you joking now?

Anonymous said...

"WHO HERE HAS FILED COMPLAINTS WITH THE DHCR ABOUT THE MCI AND OVERCHARGES?

NO ONE. Not one tenant. Everyone here is afraid."

How the hell do you know who did and did not file a complaint? I filed one about the MCIs. Did you?

Anonymous said...

11:11 geez, did DG steal your lunch money....your first girlfriend? Laying it on a bit thick, no?

Anonymous said...

I think Dan Garodnick is wrong. The commentators are right. The best deal for tenants here is to put the Tishman Speyer debt where it belongs, on Tishman Speyer and off the backs of the working class here. The residents did not screw over the investors. They invested in a business model based on our dying and being evicted. Some of us are still alive and some survived their eviction assault and now they want us to pay for their bad investment because we lived and survived their gamble we would die off or be kicked out of house and home. The whole thing is ugly and evil. They took out a hit on us and their hit man failed then crawled away. We should not pay for their hit on us.

Anonymous said...

Bullshit

"Finally, we continue to be determined to protect the historic configuration of the property, and to not allow anyone to build on our playgrounds or other open spaces. This has not changed, and our position on this is well understood and recognized."

I do not believe you when you say this. If you were being truthful, then you are failing at doing this.

Either you are lying or you are failing. Either way you, sir, are not the right person to represent or protect this property and community.

Anonymous said...

11:11 geez, did DG steal your lunch money....your first girlfriend? Laying it on a bit thick, no?

As if he could do either...that's laughable.

No, actually I left out tons of other offenses and abuses but I try not to be too honest as there are so many people who live here with their heads up their asses who turn a blind eye to the corruption and incompetence of their elected officials, especially when its a Democrat. Moreland commission ring any bells???? Plus,lets not forget the 100+ story spaghetti box of a building (the first of many) on Park avenue that will be a permanent reminder of Garodnick's greed. However, you feel free to keep your head right where it is!

Anonymous said...

I just saw the tracking form for the Unity Pledge. Had no idea they kept track of which tenants signed and which tenants refused. That is a little creepy!

Stuy Town Reporter said...

A caution: If you want your comment to appear, please temper your language. I also please ease up on opinions that seem a bit far flung and that make charges against individuals or an organization that lack proof (at least that I can see or understand). Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Dan, go away. Just go away and stay away.
Most of us don't trust you (or any political, for that matter.). You promise The World and deliver nothing.
You can't deliver The World that you promise because, in the system that hasn't changed much since Boss Tweed, you are simply unable to.
The REBNY, Cuomo, Speyer (the absolute scum of the earth), Stringer (a toad, if ever there was one), De Blasio (big old phony) all OWN you, Dan.
We cannot trust you, Dan. Because you are part of this big network of corruption

So, please understand if many of us never vote for you again. You see, between your kind and the republic, it's six of one and half doze. Of the other.

Anonymous said...

STR, you keep us in line. You are the best!

I'm sure you realize that some of us are so frustrated and so concerned about what is going on in PCVST that we sometimes loose it a bit! When people feel very passionately about something, especially if it is something that threatens their homes, stability, security and sense of having any kind of control, they are likely to get heated and use language that is not entirely appropriate. It's just human nature.
Many of us feel threatened, discriminated against and in the cross-hairs of a determined plot to eliminate us, inasmuch as this vile landlord and its cohorts have no qualms about ripping our homes away from us, tossing us to the curb and, in general, treating us like the garbage that the Sanitation Department hauls away every day. We used to feel that we could rely on the Tenants Association to stand up for us and empathize with us; unfortunately, that has proven over the last few years to be far, far from the case.
We are angry. We are scared. We go overboard with our rhetoric and language at times.
We truly, from the bottom of our hearts appreciate your blog. We do not mean to offend you, STR. Maybe we want to offend CR and the TA, but we certainly don't mean to offend you. You have done more for us inasmuch as you give us a voice and a truly open and uncensored forum, than the TA ever has done. We can't voice our true feelings on the TA facebook or the official landlord facebook without risk of being censored if we don't toe the party line.
Thank you, STR. When this war is over, you will be our HERO, whether you identify yourself or not! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Tommyboyardee said...

All you need to understand about the demise of this once great complex. Take a look at the monster tent over the playground, it so freaking big

Anonymous said...

GEEZ, DOES NO ONE IN NY WITH THE POLITICAL CLOUT HAVE THE BACK BONE TO SAVE THESE MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES HERE?

Anonymous said...

December 19, 2014 at 11:48 PM

LIKE

Anonymous said...

I was thinking about this thread. We should not hold signs that say "affordable housing" because that is the political ad.

We should hold signs that say STOP THE ASSAULT ON THE MIDDLE CLASS IN NYC AT PCVST.

Anonymous said...

CompassRock, CW and PCV ST employees come to work here every day and terrorize this community. Then they all go home at the end of the day to their peaceful quiet neighborhoods and would never allow anyone do to their homes, their families, their block, their communities, what they are doing to our homes, families, block and community.

Anonymous said...

8:52 you are 100% flat wrong. Dan's plan all along is the same as CWCTA, evict 90% of residents so PCVST is only 10% rentals by turning 90% rent stabilized rents into market rate rents. You know it is true and are trying too hard to convince this community otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should think about a way to post factual information somewhere (here?) instead of just complaining and ranting. Not that that's not good, but what are we actually doing about issues?

I for one have put in 3 calls on noise issues this week - a blog could show that - and the outcome.

A neighbor we have filed complaints with dhcr and outcome .....

no names necessary. but why not?

Anonymous said...

A complaint/ file/ issue:::::

272 1st avenue - Human ___ Dog ___ found in hallway - 12/15/2014 - OUTCOME: ???

434 E 20 - Noise Party until 3 am - complaint filed - 12 / 17/2014 - outcome????

Anonymous said...

Concerning outcome blog sounds like a good idea, say like a comstat for renters.
I called maintenance a couple of weeks ago and they actually sent a poor nice fellow over. Whatever the engineers say that the heat sensors are working I'm convinced they are on timers to be off all day except weekends when many are home. The heat pattern is totally erratic. If you are on a north side wind tunnel you are doomed, whereas my neighbors are on an enclosed court area get heat,while my pipes are stone cold. Someone came out with a new heat monitor tech to accurately focus stats as doing your own indoor stats go nowhere with 311 complaints. This app is being tested in a Brooklyn specific area; we need it here.
On another complaint occasion I was told if someone had a space heater on, say the 5th floor, where typically sensors are,it would mess up the sensor.
Last time I tried asking where the outside sensors were, given I'm on North wind tunnel; I was told: "outside"
Check out weatherhead site
Any engineers here?
By bldg. there is no way to know how many are complaining or pattern.
Same deal goes with noise issues.
anytime I put in complaint goes nowhere except nasty retaliation from neighbor so I dare not call complaint.

Anonymous said...

I have to keep my space heaters on 24/7. We got virtually no heat yesterday. The windows are so drafty, even with blankets over the AC units. We are paying an mci for the past 20+ years for defective windows.
I couldn't survive winters here without my 2 oil-filled electric radiators.

Anonymous said...

11:32 Retaliation? Call a lawyer and keep calling ST, NYPD, 311 and document it all. This worked for friends (lawyer) and it was not expensive. Call Property manager also. Signs need to be posted in hallways this is not a football field, this is not a playground - der we have many, this is not a bar -nightclub.

Anonymous said...

Quality of Life in PCVST is at shameful low levels.

Anonymous said...

The cold air draft in our apartment is more like a constant wind through the flawed windows, that got worse since they cut down the tall trees in the Oval and otside our windows. The trees blocked the wind gusts in the winters, gave us gentle cool breezes and shade in the summer.

Idiots.

Anonymous said...

It's true, the arborcide here has indeed made Stuyvesant Town a very windy place. There was intelligence and forethought in the planting of those trees where they were and how they were configured. They protected the grass from the sun, oxygenated the air and acted as wind-breaks during storms.
The intelligence-challenged morons who cut them down probably had no inkling about the benefits they provided. They were just in the way of their strip mall plans.

Oh, yes. Thank you Dan! You a*&hole.

Anonymous said...

We should have had our rents rolled back to the correct amount on our Roberts case but the TA and Dan Garodnick were only interested in getting our apartments up to market rate for their purchase. We were robbed twice, once with the fraudulent charges that financially hurt us every month, then with the "settlement" that was designed to get our 4400 apartments to a bankers favorable mortgage amount for Dan and his plan and against the families in those apartments to clear us out. Shame on you.

Anonymous said...

12:24 you are 100% correct.

Anonymous said...

"It's true, the arborcide here has indeed made Stuyvesant Town a very windy place. There was intelligence and forethought in the planting of those trees where they were and how they were configured. They protected the grass from the sun, oxygenated the air and acted as wind-breaks during storms.
The intelligence-challenged morons who cut them down probably had no inkling about the benefits they provided. They were just in the way of their strip mall plans."

You are correct about the trees having protective, as well as aesthetic and environmental value. Sadly, there is no cure for stupid, especially when it is fueled by greed.

Anonymous said...

It is true what people said, the inspections are for inventory for renovations. The Tenant Association had an obligation to stop the years of inspections that were clearly for fraudulent reasons. That is, unless the TA wanted the inspections too, which I am believing more and more.

Anonymous said...

Philosophy of CW and the REBNY toward rent stabilized tenants:

"Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend," observed the Marquis, "will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof," looking up to it, "shuts out the sky."

From the original "Tale of Two Cities"

Anonymous said...

It comes to a point where people need to either STFU or move out. For the pittance you're saving in rent, how much are you paying in time fighting with CW, Handsome Dan, the retarded TA, your neighbors, etc?! At what point do you decide you deserve a better life than shitty Stuy Town?!

Anonymous said...

8:43

It is easy to stand with the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone. Mahatma Gandhi

The crowd of allies and new "stabilizers" is wrong. The community, the land is worth fighting for - that is why they are stealing it in the first place. That is why the allies stole the Roberts ruling from us instead of returning 100% of overcharges plus interest and rolled back our rents. They wanted our homes for their greedy greasy palms and pockets.


“Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about.”
― Winston Churchill

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”
― Winston Churchill

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm”
― Winston Churchill


“Success is not final...Failure is not fatal...it's the courage to continue that counts”
― Winston Churchill



“Never, never, never give up.”
― Winston Churchill

8:43 whether or not you are going down because the allies are deeply corrupt and outnumber you, you go down fighting with your head held high and never ever give up.

From what I've followed on this blog, all those fighting are doing so on principle, a damn good reason to fight. It is a basic human right to live without fear, to keep our homes, to fight for our safety and quality of life.

"Only be you strong, and very courageous, then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Joshua 1:7-8

As a retiree, fighting for this good cause to help my real neighbors is the best use of my time, better than all the years in my old crappy job combined.

On a side note, do you actually think he is "handsome"?

Anonymous said...

2:57 nice quote.

2:57 ans 8:43 your comments are interesting when read back to back.

We should not STFU and return to being herded sheep and obedient dogs. And all this talk of getting good rents as if we should shut up because we are getting more than we deserve is crap.

Robbie lives his life to get something for nothing and does not compromise or tuck his tail between his legs and STFU. Hell, that is how they bought this place, with other people's money.

Getting something for nothing is what the Langones and Speyers do.

They get and take all the breaks because they believe they deserve to get a break, and they may be right. We all deserve to get a break.

And 8:43 you think because we get a break in our housing cost, that we don't deserve it or should shut up because we dare to get a break? No way!

Robbie and RE get breaks and subsidies and ask for more.....We should not feel guilty if we get a break in life, we should feel grateful and try to find a way for others to get the same break in life.

We deserve the rent stabilized rents and should not be quietly grateful, but should loudly fight for more middle class to get stabilized rents.

Anonymous said...

When your neighbors are partying all hours keeping you up night, how can you not fight?

"Disturbing the peace is a crime generally defined as the unsettling of proper order in a public space through one's actions. This can include creating loud noise by fighting or challenging to fight, disturbing others by loud and unreasonable noise (including loud music), or using profanity."

Anonymous said...

The quality of life absolutely SUCKS here.

Anonymous said...

8:43 I have to disagree. Now is the time to get louder. We are not alone in this fight to keep our homes from being stolen by sadistic-minded get the rich even richer schemes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/progressive-groups-call-gov-cuomo-return-ken-langone-donations-blog-entry-1.1733212

A coalition of liberal activists for the poor sent a letter this afternoon to Gov. Cuomo calling on him to not only repudiate the comments made by a Republican supporter who linked the left's class-based politics to the Nazis, but also return his donations.

It's one of the rare times the progressive groups find themselves on the same page as Republican Rob Astorino, who earlier in the day also called on Cuomo to disavow the comments to Politico made by billionaire Kenneth Lagone, a co-chairman of Republicans for Cuomo.

...

Here is the letter:

Dear Governor Cuomo:

We ask you to repudiate today’s remarks by Ken Langone and to return the money he has personally donated to you, as well the money he has raised as Chairman of Republicans for Cuomo.

Our groups have worked in recent months to encourage elected officials in New York to address our state’s worst-in-the-nation income inequality.

The issues we’ve raised are serious ones: the need for fair funding and good schools for all children, fair taxation for Wall Street and the wealthy, more pay for low-wage workers, universal pre-K for all children – and the fundamental unfairness of cutting services and the safety net to pay for hundred of millions of dollars in new tax breaks for the 200 wealthiest families in the state.

Income inequality is a serious economic and moral issue, and the need for action by government to address inequality raises important public policy and political questions -- particularly in New York, where our economy remains stalled and our inequality is the worst in the nation.

These issues are entirely appropriate for public dialogue, discussion and debate. But they have been outrageously mischaracterized by one of your most important supporters, Ken Langone.

“I hope it’s not working,” Ken Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot and major GOP donor, said of populist political appeals. “Because if you go back to 1933, with different words, this is what Hitler was saying in Germany. You don’t survive as a society if you encourage and thrive on envy or jealousy.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/the-rich-strike-back-104753.html#ixzz2wKwfVoa5

Vigorous debate over how best to address issues of social and economic inequality is necessary and vital to our democracy. But characterizing those who may disagree with you about the solutions to these problems as Nazis is simply unacceptable.

Our groups have worked across the state with community, labor, business, student and faith groups to build and support an honest dialogue on issues related to inequality. We’ve worked with you at times to make progress, and we’ve also opposed positions you’ve taken with which we disagree.

Mr. Langone is clearly not interested in a real dialogue or debate on these issues. But New York needs such a debate. We hope that you will make it clear that you disagree with him and that you don’t think talking about economic fairness and broader prosperity is equivalent to Hitler’s rhetoric in Nazi Germany.

Thank you for your consideration.


Yours very truly,


Zakiyah Ansari
Alliance for Quality Education

Deborah Axt
Make The Road New York

Ron Deutsch
New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness

Billy Easton
Alliance for Quality Education

Michael Kink
Strong Economy For All Coalition

Bertha Lewis
The Black Institute

Sara Niccoli
Labor-Religion Coalition of New York

Camille Rivera
UnitedNY

Bill Samuels
EffectiveNY

Karen Scharff
Citizen Action of New York

Lisa Tyson
Long Island Progressive Coalition

Jonathan Westin
New York Communities for Change

Anonymous said...

REBNY Spinola Claims NYC is his.

“New York City is not a Wall Street town; we are a real estate town,” said Steven Spinola, the longest-serving president of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) at a recent event hosted by the New York City chapter of NAIOP.

We need to continue to be the invisible engine in NYC. We need to generate more revenue and create new jobs, and we do that by developing new construction projects.”

HEADLINE "Spinola: Real estate has earned its place at political table"

NYC is not a Wall Street Town. NYC is not a RE town.

NYC is the People's town! Real New Yorkers who live here full time, raise families here, work here.

Mr Spinola "bought" not "earned" REBNY's place at the political table. The claims of jobs don't add up - it is "temp work" without any of the benefits or longevity of a job. REBNY creates temp work, builds housing for the wealthy with poor doors for the tax breaks, and eliminates the middle class all together.
A REBNY NYC is a Tale Of Two Cities in the making.

REBNY is not invisible. We see you. People will more and more make sure REBNY and its behind the scenes operations are not invisible.

REBNY political donations are being exposed.

REBNY Moreland subpoenas will somehow someday see the light of day.

REBNY is on the radar of many progressive groups fighting for the People.




Anonymous said...



VJ Machiavelli • a year ago

Nothing new here, thats the way the "game" is played

Money = access = Senator Schumer & others who say

SHOW ME THE MONEY

From Cuomo in Albany to Bill deBlaso in NYC to Schumer in Washington DC

Before there was the "Oracle of Delphi" there was Count Vampire J. Machiavelli

VJ Machiavelli
On Tweeter @vjmachiavelli

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/files-schumer-got-230g-from-langone-fundraiser-1.6296794

Meanwhile our homes and basements were and still are a mess

Anonymous said...

Seriously 8:43? Do you think REBNY ever STFU? They are vocal, present, front and center, loud, unrelenting, and prevailing. When something happens they don't want they get rid of it like the the squashed subpoenas from the Moreland commission.

They are getting louder in 2015 with their Republican Albany and not going away ever. We CANNOT get quieter or go away!

Either we be a worthy adversary worthy of keeping our homes, or we do as you say, let them take our homes, really steal them with all the illegal acts here, and give up like a loser would.

Why do you want people to quit standing up for themselves here when they help you too, and me?

I'm a republican. Some here are anti-Kenny Langone. But Kenny and those fighting for us are alike in some ways.

REFERENCE:

"In October 2004 interview with Fortune magazine Langone defended the massive payout he authorised as New York Stock Exchange compensation committee chair to the former NYSE head Dick Grasso.

Commenting on some of the members of the NYSE Board of Directors Langone said

"They got the wrong fucking guy. I'm nuts, I'm rich, and boy, do I love a fight. I'm going to make them shit in their pants. When I get through with these fucking captains of industry, they’re going to wish they were in a Cuisinart — at high speed. If Grasso gives back a fucking nickel, I’ll never talk to him again."

Kenny doesn't apologize for taking more than he deserves or needs. He takes whatever he wants.

Words to live by Kenny. Words to live by.

Whether or not you agree with the massive payout to Grasso, Kenny's passion and strength of conviction are words to live by and to pass onto our children. We could all have a bit more strength of conviction.

Anonymous said...

Tolerating the abuse of CWCapital, Andrew MacArthur and the rest of these cretins is not noble. You will not save Stuy Town, only perpetuate the misery YOU endure. Do you think it's going to get better? Do you think the dorms, feces and circus tents are going to go away? Do you think the TA is going to help you?

Anonymous said...

Please dust off the prehistoric quotes before you trot them out. There's nothing here worth fighting for. They want the land, not the crummy apartments. And they'll get it. You're fughting a losing battle. Actually, raging on in the comments isn't technically fighting...

Anonymous said...

Langone is such corrupt and avaricious dirtbag that he just stopped short of demanding his donated money back from the Catholic Church because the Pope decried the evils of the super-rich who live only for money.
I don't know if he's a Catholic, but if he is he should remember "It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Anonymous said...

"Do you think it's going to get better? Do you think the dorms, feces and circus tents are going to go away? Do you think the TA is going to help you?"

No, no, no, no and no. However, I am not giving up my [real] rent stabilized apartment no matter what. Dorms, feces, circus tents? So long as they don't cross my threshold, I don't care. As for the TA: who the fuck are they/it? We haven't had a TA ever since Danny Dickhead slipped them a roofie and told them they would become buyers/owners if they stuck with him and sipped the cup he offered! LOL! They fell for it hook, line and sinker. That guy's smoother than Cosby left alone with a gullible girl!

I wish we did have a TA, but that ship sailed long ago. I think around the time Al Doyle ceased to lead and that Marsh/Steinberg duo took over, the TA ceased to exist as an actual TA. Pity. It used to be an organization with balls.

Anonymous said...

Downstate NYC and Upstate Buffalo screwed by Albany for billionaire buddies.

Working class residents of PCVST are paying billionaire Robbie Speyer's gambling debt.

Buffalo gets screwed too.

Billionaire Musk isn't paying taxes or rent in exchange for his $750,000,000 factory. The exchange is the old formula that does not work or bode well for people.
Billionaire: My factory will bring jobs.
People: We get low paying jobs, fewer municipal services and heavier tax burden to cover billionaire's taxes.
Politician Cuomo: I get to boast "jobs creation" to further political my aspirations.

Buffalo, we feel for you and love you - NYC.

Definition of a New York Deal - tax and rent breaks for the rich and heavier burdens for the working class, fewer services for the people, verging bankrupt towns and cities.

http://dailysignal.com/2014/12/25/the-billionaire-whos-making-deals-with-andrew-cuomo/

And for a little Christmas fun,

After workers cover the billionaires taxes this is how the government is spending the taxpayers money.


http://dailysignal.com/2014/12/24/12-days-waste-mas/

If a family spent like the government:

http://www.heritage.org/multimedia/infographic/2014/12/what-if-a-typical-family-spent-money-like-the-federal-government

Seriously folks, what are we paying for here and what do we want our government to do? In 2015 we need to demand Albany clean up its act and put people, New Yorkers, first.

Tolerate this? Hell No!

People have to be LOUD in 2015.


Anonymous said...

12:43 you are absolutely right on every point. Plus not only won't the TA help you - the CWCTA will block you from helping yourself.

The TA thinks residents are too stupid to figure out how to help ourselves.

The TA will give advice that goes nowhere to discourage us as we try.

The TA thinks they are smarter than everyone else living here, remember the condescending comment by TA President Marsh to have a debate when residents pushed back on the illegal overcharges, mass evictions, etc? The TA purchase cannot happen unless the open space is built up with construction projects and the 90% of residents are evicted. Period.

The TA believes they are the only smart people who live here and the rest of us need to be told what to do and how to do it. They discourage anyone who challenges them, wanting us to fight to keep our community instead of replacing our community with wealthier "new stabilizers".

The TA is not interested in doing anything for the residents. They are only interested in doing what is needed for their purchase, evicting 90% of the residents and developing the open space as we have seen over half dozen open spaces built upon with much more to come.

Anonymous said...

I think that hideous, heinous management office that is an absolute affront to all sensibilities should be named "The Garodnick-TA Wing."

Anonymous said...

CompassRock is renting the dorms with wall partitions as 1 Bedroom with Den.
Did they file the paperwork for the additional number of rooms with DHCR and recalculate the MCI charges against the number of rooms in those apartments or calculate that when they implemented the NYU campus MCI charges we are all paying for thanks to the CWCTA?

Anonymous said...

Ok let's do nothing to help ourselves and wait around for another hedge fund to buy us and then the republican state senate will protect us by strengthening the RS laws. Who's the delusional one in this equation?

Anonymous said...

Yes my quotes are a little dusty. LOL. So am I. The greatest thing about being old is you speak your mind a lot more. Diplomacy be damned.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think that hideous, heinous management office that is an absolute affront to all sensibilities should be named "The Garodnick-TA Wing."

December 25, 2014 at 12:36 PM

TOTALLY AGREE. I need to apologize to a tenant who I saw on First Avenue at 16th street corner a year ago pleading with the TA board members not to destroy the open space and kill the trees for the new office building. But the TA, Marsh and a woman on the Board whose face I recognize but name I don't know, screamed and yelled at the resident that it is the only place to put the office building. I am sorry I did not back up the resident at that moment but I did not fully understand what the argument was about and couldn't believe they were screaming at the resident. To her I am sorry I just walked by and did not help you.

Anonymous said...

Just walked by the hideous heinous office building and long lost trees and open space.
Permits posted for 15 days straight of after hours permits AGAIN on First Avenue loop and again not for emergency purposes. How many days of after hours and how many weekends does that make it now? 40? 50? 75?
Remember Garodnicks February 20 email to residents claiming there would be no work on weekends except for emergencies or the other lies they tried to shove down our throats at the CWCTA meeting for Garodnick's hideous CWCTA office building.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't figure out why Chuck was not on our side helping middle class families here but was siding with real estate interests. How could Senator Schumer not be on the side of constituents in PCVST on all or any of the matters?

They just told me Chuck's brother Robert works at Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison the TA law firm.

And Chuck steers toward favoring business.

How can Senator Schumer be directly involved with the real estate deal in the first place when his brother's firm is financially involved in purchasing the land?

Isn't there a conflict as in the Time Warner Comcast deal where it wasn't until AFTER The Public Accountability Initiative Lil Sis exposed brothers Robert and Chuck in the Time Warner Comcast done deal that Chuck then made it appear to recuse himself.

http://blog.littlesis.org/2014/02/17/schumer-reassures-new-york-about-comcast-time-warner-cable-deal-doesnt-mention-his-brother-was-the-dealmaker/


http://www.paulweiss.com/professionals/partners-and-counsel/robert-b-schumer.aspx



http://www.williamsburgobserver.org/2011/10/13/occupy-chuck-schumer/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/business/14schumer.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1419602706-pc8MOMEsby4G3E3uDrplVg

As long as I can remember, since the 70's I always thought Senator Schumer was on the side of serving the people. Boy was I wrong.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

Interesting about Schumer and his brother. I'll check into this. Of course, that law firm is the one Garodnick used to work for and which he has strong ties to.

Unlike you, however, I never thought Schumer had much credibility. Another politician who makes great speeches, but comes up short in action.

Anonymous said...

I am sick over the BIG LIE that this was a "tenant bid" when it was a Brookfield bid designed to evict 90% of the tenants.

Sicker over use of saving "affordable housing" that is really about evicting the middle class to populate with mostly wealthy residents and the token poor so the wealthy owners get the tax breaks.

What a dirty rotten to the core scheme by all of them.

It is just as bad as Speyer promising investors he will make investors millions from kicking us out and elderly dying off and having management have spies all over monitoring and reporting which neighbors are dying soon or just died.

All these people disgust me. Stinky rotten people.

Anonymous said...

"But the TA, Marsh and a woman on the Board whose face I recognize but name I don't know, screamed and yelled at the resident that it is the only place to put the office building."

I think we all know who that woman was. Awful creature.

Anonymous said...

Schumer is a slimeball. He's as slimy as Garodnick. Garodnick is very pally with the lawyers that represents Brookfield and they wash each other's hands.

There should be a thorough investigation into the carryings on of all the political (and TA) players in this diabolical mess. The stench of corruption and collusion is rank.

Anonymous said...

It is so, all it takes is a contribution and the politicians will "work with you".

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/04/chuck-schumer-i-was-for-the-koch-brothers-before-i-was-against-them.php

I am tremendously disappointed but not surprised to learn Schumer is siding with the business interests of RE Brookfield Paul Weiss and against the community of people in PCVST.

Anonymous said...

How did I not see the hypocrisy? Now with finding out Senator Schumer's brother is at Paul Weiss and the brothers have a history of using each others positions to further business deals it is so obvious. Thank you to the commentator who made the connection of these two. Even wikipedia doesn't mention they are brothers. Are there any photos of these two together anywhere? Their secrecy is more telling then their words. This Paul Weiss firm seems to be working not for the community but for RE.

How did I not see this?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/pj-gladnick/2014/04/08/2009-chuck-schumer-thanks-un-american-koch-brothers-campaign-contributi

Anonymous said...

At Christmas this year I am reminded how it always bothered me that after being rejected, Dan overturned the rejection to get the office building construction permits over the Christmas holiday week last year while some were out of the office at the DOB. Dan did not have the power to do this alone, but with his allies now coming forward it seems clear it was at the urging of them the DOB gave permits to what should have been flatly denied.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

Do you have a source for that info, that Garodnick overturned the rejection to the permits?

Stuy Town Reporter said...

Yup, Chuckie's brother is a partner in that Paul Weiss law firm.

>>Schumer's brother, Robert Schumer, was named "Dealmaker of the Week" by The American Lawyer on Friday for his work on on the agreement. He is a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.<<

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/17/chuck-schumer-brother-comcast_n_4805126.html

What a cabal!

I'll have to do a post on this in the very near future.

Anonymous said...

STR at 10:22 it was after the construction meeting with DOB, TA and CW that they told me. I will see if I can get more information for you.

Anonymous said...

If Garodnick did go under the table to get that hideous management office built, then he should be exposed. I have always suspected that he was a slippery, two-faced slimeball.

Anonymous said...

It is the way of lawyers when they do things that they know are wrong and will be met with disapproval, to do them in the dead of night, on a holiday or on the eve of a holiday when people are diverted by other happenings. Notice how when major entities file for bankruptcy it is always done on the QT on the eve of a major holiday or over a holiday weekend?

Anonymous said...

So obviously corrupt its laughable

"State legislators of both parties in New Jersey and New York voted unanimously to reform the Port Authority, an agency with a $7.8 billion budget racked by patronage and opacity, and most recently used to exact revenge on an entire town. But shortly before midnight on Sunday, Governors Christie and Cuomo announced they would veto those laws and thus block that hard-earned reform.

Democratic Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle of New Jersey sponsored the bill in her state, and called Cuomo and Christie's decision "spineless."

“We crossed party lines to pass Port Authority reform, and they crossed party lines to obstruct it,” she told NJ.com.

In a joint statement, Cuomo and Christie announced that they supported the "comprehensive and sweeping changes" proposed by a panel that they created themselves. Nowhere in their statement do they mention their decision to veto the legislation."

cuomo and christie wrote the reform themselves HAHAHAHA!

http://gothamist.com/2014/12/28/spineless_cuomo_christie_use_midnig.php

Anonymous said...

The last two lines in the article are just the best holiday gift..

What a pair!

"Governor Christie is still under federal investigation for his role in the "traffic study" in Fort Lee."

"Governor Cuomo is also under federal investigation for his role in snuffing out his own corruption commission."

http://gothamist.com/2014/12/28/spineless_cuomo_christie_use_midnig.php

Anonymous said...

That is unbelievable. Schumer brothers.

There are barely any mentions, photos, even wikipedia that normally lists siblings does not mention Robert and Charles Schumer's relationship as brothers as if it is intentionally omitted everywhere. This astoundingly boggles the mind.

Is there any good reason to hide the fact that two siblings hold positions of powerful deal making, one in government and the other at a big business law firm? Or only a billion bad reasons that readily come to mind.

Good sleuthing.

Anonymous said...

5:56 / 6:00pm Legislators boycotting Cuomo events over their own pay raises - they should boycott the events over the Cuomo Christie unraveling the corrupt MTA reform package. But hey, if legislators motives for a boycott are solely selfish over their pay raises then we'll take that too, anything to boycott after what Albany has done to the one million NYC renters.

http://nypost.com/2014/12/29/legislators-eye-boycott-of-cuomo-inauguration-and-state-address/


Anonymous said...

January 15 is REBNY’s 119th Annual Banquet from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the New York Hilton!

Join us at one of the most celebrated events of the year as we recognize and honor our industry’s top professionals and bring in another successful year!

REBNY advises those wishing to attend to purchase tickets early.

For more information, contact MaryAnn Aviles at 212-532-3100 or at MAviles@rebny.com

Anonymous said...

REBNY Christmas message - another desperate push on Stuy Town studios:
"As we reported in September, several new studio apartments were built in the former management office building and terraces added to 11 new apartments."

http://www.rew-online.com/2014/12/25/have-you-heard-stuy-town-studios-to-rent-for-3000/


The "we" who reported it in September is REBNY reporter Sabina Mollot in the REBNY public relations publication Town & Village that misleadingly calls itself .

http://town-village.com/2014/09/10/coming-soon-to-stuy-town-studio-apts-terraces/

This is the 4th or 5th advertisement "article" REBNY has run on Stuy Town Studios.



Anonymous said...

More Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village Tenants want a Co-Op conversion and not a condo conversion.

Schumer must take that into account if he true in his words that Fannie and Freddie will not take action without speaking with the tenants.

Speaking with the tenants. Not speaking with the "Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village Tenant Association", but actually speaking with the tenants.

But WOW. JUST WOW Senator Chuck Schumer's brother Robert Schumer is the Paul Weiss deal maker?!!

Does Schumer care what the tenants want or is he helping his brother on the deal with his agreement with Fannie and Freddie?

CO-OP OVER CONDO CONVERSION!
PEOPLE OVER PROFITS!
COMMUNITY FIRST!

Anonymous said...

Now Smelly Shelly Silver is under Federal investigation! Why am I not surprised? Long overdue!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Preet Bharara!

11:06 good find. Shelly is being investigated for substantial payments from two lawyers who lobby to get tax breaks for landlords in NYC and the lower east side.....

"Federal authorities are investigating substantial payments made to the State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, by a small law firm that seeks real estate tax reductions for commercial and residential properties in New York City, according to people with knowledge of the matter."

http://gothamist.com/2014/12/30/feds_investigating_powerful_assembl_1.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/nyregion/us-said-to-investigate-new-york-assembly-speaker-over-pay-from-law-firm.html?_r=0

Thank you Preet Bharara for picking up where the Moreland Commission dropped the ball!

Maybe we can get landlords to pay their fair share of taxes in full too.

Thank you Preet!

Anonymous said...

Sheldon Silver is so frustratingly bad for society in too many ways to list all at once.

Here is one way.

Shelly Silver, who took highly questionable money from these lower east side landlords is their backer and councilperson for the corrupt Lowline project - taking underground MTA property and turning it into a private money-making commercialized business party event space but lying to the public saying it will be a public underground park, like the high line but underground. Its a load of crap. Sheldon Silver and his lower east side moneyed are at the center of it.


"When a hedge fund investor, a professional marketer and a self-described “high-end” designer hatch an idea for a “community driven park” in a vacant subterranean transportation facility, “the community” should evaluate this novel proposal with a critical eye, and should certainly be involved in the process. As the Lowline juggernaut gains more high-profile supporters, it should strike anyone that there has never really been a meaningful community vetting of the proposed use for the MTA trolley turnaround. Two Bridges has suggested to our elected officials and the community board that the space be assessed as a potential bus terminal; but without celebrity support, our proposal has fallen on deaf ears.

So what is the Lowline, and who is it for? The Lowline developers consistently refer to it as a bottom-up, community driven park. From the steady promotional push and constant fundraising events, the Lowline is a high-profile celebrity cause. What is to be made of the disconnect between what is being said by the Lowline developers (this is a community park) and the apparent reality (this is a celebrity-driven marketing campaign to fund the creation of a tourist attraction and event space that may be “a Trojan Horse for the real-estate people”)?"

http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2014/10/oped-is-the-lowline-a-community-driven-park-or-a-trojan-horse.html

Yes, Sheldon is a backer. Glen too. So are Schumer and Brewer who plagiarized a letter lifting marketing data from the developers to ask the MTA to turnover the property for this event space, er I mean community park.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/14/the-lowline-goes-late-night-imagining-lowline_n_1886030.html

The Observer summarized why this is the worse city planning idea ever and how it failed in Dallas.

http://observer.com/2014/10/pipe-dreaming-over-the-lowline/

Besides it being an obvious outright lie calling it an underground community park, then in the same breath saying the community park would be maintained from millions made from party events; another reason to rethink the MTA decision is.....well....couldn't it also be a ready made sanitation terminal instead of building a new one at 25th street or 15th street?

Sheldon Silver, Schumer, Brewer, Garodnick, Glen all these guys are deep in RE crazy land. Even The RE publication New York Observer sees the obvious idiocy!

Anonymous said...

I hope that Preet Bharaha takes up where the Moreland Commission ended. Cuomo terminated that investigation when it started to get too uncomfortably close to home. It is obvious that the Gov has a lot to hide. He is one of the sleaziest scumbags in the whole gang of sleazy scumbags known as New York politicians. The whole bunch of them are probably making Boss Tweed spin in his box because they have made him look like an honest man!

Anonymous said...


Its not one or two or ten people in Albany that are corrupted. It is the DNA of the entire Albany culture.

Sheldon Silver is the tip of the iceberg.

Those connected to him, his lobbyists and strategists, are linked to many highly questionable business dealings. The best thing that could happen for the safety and prosperity all New Yorkers is to unravel this web of deceivers.

Anonymous said...

They are all in deep.

Shelly Silver's closest confidante top strategist is Jonathon Rosen of Berlin Rosen PR Firm.

"Mr. Rosen is a top strategist for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, NY State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and real estate titan Bruce Ratner. Recent clients include the nationwide group Rock the Vote and a coalition of Brookfield Properties and tenants looking to buy Stuyvesant Town..."
http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/40under40/profiles/2012/jonathan-rosen

By now we at PCVST all know Berlin Rosen, PR agency hired by Brookfield Properties to disguise Brookfield bid as Tenant bid.
http://berlinrosen.com/our-clients


Jonathon Rosen, Park Slope Brooklyn neighbor of Mayor de Blasio takes credit for getting him elected
http://berlinrosen.com/
http://berlinrosen.com/blog/city-and-states-power-100-features-jonathan-rosen-and-valerie-berlin

Berlin Rosen is under scrutiny as a lobbyist pretending its a consultant. Specifically playing both sides of Mayor's "Affordable Housing" plan acting in interests of RE clients and as Mayor's advocate for "Affordable Housing".

No wonder affordable housing is seriously flawed already with no housing for middle class, only housing 90% wealthy and 10% poor.

"Mr. Rosen is not a registered lobbyist. Yet he regularly meets with government officials. The mayor's schedule from his first five months in office shows Mr. Rosen was in at least 9 meetings and on 2 calls.

Shortly after Mr. de Blasio became mayor, Mr. Rosen's firm was also hired to advance one of the mayor's pet causes: securing funding for universal pre-k. Rather than advocate directly on behalf of the mayor, however, the company represented a nonprofit group set up to lobby on the issue. That organization, Campaign for One New York, was founded by former de Blasio campaign manager Bill Hyers to lobby the state for pre-K funding. Campaign for One New York paid BerlinRosen $363,000 through June, according to its lobbying disclosure.

In helping to control the media message around the pre-K funding effort, BerlinRosen acted as if it were part of the administration. The company returned reporters' calls made to the City Hall press office about pre-K, while Mr. Rosen closely advised government officials on pre-K talking points, according to email messages obtained through a records request.
'Planning' meetings

For example, in January, Mr. Rosen forwarded a blog post published by The Nation to Mr. de Blasio's budget director, calling it a "great piece" they should "talk from" that day. It was similar to pre-K talking points distributed by the firm a day earlier.

Since pre-K funding was secured in the state budget in late March, Mr. Rosen has sat in on administration "planning" meetings at City Hall. Campaign for One New York is now expected to advocate on behalf of other issues important to the mayor; Mr. Rosen has said that likely includes Mr. de Blasio's plan to build and maintain 200,000 units of affordable housing during the next decade.

BerlinRosen also represents developers Forest City Ratner and Two Trees Management, potentially putting the firm on both sides of a contentious issue: how much affordable housing must be part of residential projects. Two Trees clashed with de Blasio officials on that issue last winter but ultimately resolved the dispute."

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140907/POLITICS/140909888/just-dont-call-these-consultants-lobbyists

There is clear conflict, typical PR pretending to do right by people with affordable housing while undermining, sabotaging it with programs, policies that benefit RE clients SL Green, Brookfield, etc.

Didn't pre-k effort fall short?

There are only 2 reasons to hire PR firm
1. Spin reality - distort truth to make something look like something else entirely eg Brookfield bid look like Tenant Bid by repeatedly calling it that in press.

2. Crisis management - cover up to make something very bad look good or go away.

Anonymous said...

NYTimes questions relationship between politicians (eg Mayor's office) and consultants at PR firm Berlin Rosen who act in interests of private business and RE.

"A couple of weeks back, I called the mayor’s press office and asked about Mr. de Blasio’s perhaps too-optimistic cost projections for prekindergarten.

Twenty minutes later, I heard from Dan Levitan of Berlin Rosen, which is the “it” P.R. firm of the city’s left and a close adviser to the mayor. He advised that I should study the mayor’s proposals carefully if I presumed to take “a skeptical look” at prekindergarten.

I asked if Berlin Rosen had a contract to handle queries placed with the mayor’s office. He replied that he handled the “campaign” for pre-K."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/nyregion/for-de-blasio-no-magic-lost-in-budget-draft.html?_r=0

How Come Berlin Rosen Is Not Registered As A NYC Lobbyist?
Berlin Rosen Operates In the Dark Pools of Power and NYC Lobbyist
NYT Michael Powell - A couple of weeks back, I called the mayor’s press office and asked about Mr. de Blasio’s perhaps too-optimistic cost projections for prekindergarten. Twenty minutes later, I heard from Dan Levitan of Berlin Rosen, which is the “it” P.R. firm of the city’s left and a close adviser to the mayor. He advised that I should study the mayor’s proposals carefully if I presumed to take “a skeptical look” at prekindergarten. I asked if Berlin Rosen had a contract to handle queries placed with the mayor’s office. He replied that he handled the “campaign” for pre-K. Lobbyists Search for Berlin Rosen * When Campaign Aides Are Lobbyists, Questions Mount - City Limits(City Limits) * 8 Lobbyists Consultants and Citizen United * True News (The Bund): Dark Pools
* City Hall's new 'in' crowd of lobbyists (CrainsNY) Lobbyists behind the campaigns of ascendant power brokers are now poised to cash in.* The Perma-Campaign: For Bill de Blasio, the Race Never Ends(NYO)

http://truenewsthebund.blogspot.com/2012/11/lobbyist.html

Anonymous said...

Just how shadowy is the dark money flowing through Shelly Silver's top strategist and the Mayor's in-house consultant/lobbyist and Brookfield's PR firm Berlin Rosen?

"City Hall's Inhouse Lobbyist Political Consultant
Real Estate developers now understand if you want to get an OK for your housing plan hire Berlin Rosen"


http://nybloggersnewspaper.blogspot.com/2014/10/lobbyists-berlin-rosen-takes-over-nyc.html

Anonymous said...

Map of Sheldon Silvers Web

http://www.progressqueens.com/news/2014/12/31/law-firm-at-center-of-sheldon-silver-investigation-services-controversial-clients

Anonymous said...


Tenants standing together are calling for De Blasio and Cuomo to return the offensive corrupt Extell $$


If not for the reason that Extell was the target of investigation by the Moreland Commission before the panel was disbanded, then for the reason that Extell is forcing low-income residents to use a segregated entrance -- also known as a "poor door" -- Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo need to disgorge Extell's campaign contributions.

https://www.change.org/p/andrew-cuomo-give-back-extell-poor-door-campaign-donations

Anonymous said...

Berlin Rosen makes up this tall tale of a Tale of Two Cities campaign while De Blasio takes money from Extell who builds poor door entrance for affordable housing .... BS

https://www.change.org/p/andrew-cuomo-give-back-extell-poor-door-campaign-donations

Anonymous said...

"Recent clients include the nationwide group Rock the Vote and a coalition of Brookfield Properties and tenants looking to buy Stuyvesant Town..." "

Coalition of Brookfield Properties and tenants?

Read Coalition of Brookfield Properties, Dan Garodnick and the Board of the Tenants Association.

Anonymous said...

So Berlin Rosen PR Firm clients include all three, Brookfield, Mayor De Blasio and Dan Garodnick!

That explains the ill-conceived staged PR stunt for a bakery, a book, and Brookfield RE deal at the unofficial venue (Dan's living room) where the Mayor was given a book as if he somehow missed the biggest RE deal and foreclosure during his tenure as Public Advocate, a local bakery got a mention plug, and they slipped in a plug for de Blasio's affordable housing plan which Rosen Berlin is both RE lobbyist and City Hall consultant for, and that has had no good impact on saving the middle class PCVST community and livable open space.

That contrived fluff stunt was a distraction from serious issues here, completely absent of any dialogue on any of the many serious issues we are facing.

The grand PR plan was to follow this with an affordable housing rally on the Mayor's city hall steps with photo ops of "allies" putting their thumbprints on this RE Brookfield deal masquerading as a Tenant bid as if we would fall for that?!

Then they wrapped it in a "heroic" Fannie Freddie power move by a Senator who is the brother of the Deal Maker at Paul Weiss, Robert Schumer...thinking it would all go down smoothly?

How stupid do they think the working middle class community is?

Those PR stunts are a BIG insult to this community.

People lose. RE wins. Making us pay for the Tishman Speyer debt and the Brookfield / CW property inflating programs and the inflated price in either a Brookfield, Fortress or whoever condo conversion.

We know past and all present residents are being overcharged and ripped off on the short end of this deal. We will find a way to get back our hard earned money. The people deserve better then this shoddy, bad deal with its needed PR stunts to convince anyone listening its good for the people.

I can't look at a cannoli in the same way ever again. Sorry Veniero's you lose too, I can't stomach any of this. I have eaten my last cannoli.....



Anonymous said...

Light reading on Sheldon scandal, the law firm, his Rabbi's son NYC's notorious "worse" landlord, and how NYC Agencies failed to stop him with appropriate consequences, penalties, punishment, indictments, incarceration, anything..... for years.

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2014/12/did-sheldon-silver-help-a-notorious-slumlord-because-his-rabbi-asked-him-to-456.html

NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/nyregion/05blaze.html?fta=y&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A11%22}

Anonymous said...

Goldberg & Iryami, the firm who made payments to Sheldon Silver, Goldberg & Iryami's top client is Leonard Litwin who REBNY gave honorary Chairman for his million dollar donations to fill political offices with "business friendly" servants rather than public servants.

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/12/31/real-estates-top-donor-is-client-of-sheldon-silvers-second-firm/


http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20141103/POLITICS/141039941/cuomos-biggest-donor-is-also-the-oldest

Remember this quote from a previous commentator, REBNY is at the bullseye of the Sheldon Silver scandal


"REBNY’s influence over Cuomo laid bare"

"In a memo to REBNY members seen by the newspaper, Spinola said that based on private meetings with Cuomo, the Senate majority leader [Dean Skelos or Jeffrey Klein] and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, he had come to a clear conclusion: REBNY’s “past efforts to maintain a personal and supportive relationship was critical in shaping the outcome” of legislation.

Our future ability to adopt favorable legislation, stop terrible legislation or modify legislation to limit the pain to our industry is directly tied to our continued positive relationship,” Spinola continued in the memo.

- See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/07/24/rebnys-influence-over-cuomo-laid-bare/#sthash.PhrzwDZI.dpuf

Some of the tax breaks and welfare programs REBNY got from Sheldon et al:

The real estate community thanks Governor Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Silver, and Senate leaders Skelos and Klein for including these much-needed programs in the state’s city’s fourth consecutive timely Executive Budget.

http://www.rebny.com/content/rebny/en/newsroom/columns/2014/State_budget_extends_incentive_programs_industry.html

With all the welfare and tax breaks those REBNY'ers who can afford to pay their taxes get, they have some nerve saying the hard working people at PCVST don't deserve the one break we get, rent stabilized housing to raise our families and live our lives. We deserve that and MORE.

Anonymous said...

Gee Dan did your PR firm (and Mayor De Blasio's and Brookfield's) help you write this fiction-filled solicitation to get residents to rally for you????!

Anonymous said...

Is this all a joke?

"Third, we want to protect the long term affordability of this community -- for the next generation of tenants. To that end, the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Housing Commissioner, and staffs, have all made it directly clear publicly and privately that they want the City to participate here. We will hold them to that."

You will hold them to it? Really? You are going to hold them to your already agreed to prearranged deal that needs no holding - its a done arrangement and you all wrote this little open letter together. If you all spent half the time and energy doing your jobs as you do trying to make it look like you are doing your jobs instead of RE deals the people wouldn't be hurting so badly in NYC.

You're killing the middle class with your RE deals!

Anonymous said...

This letter reminds me of the time Dan told STR to take down a post so he could fake write a letter to Andrew Macarthur to make it look like Dan got Macarthur to give residents a graphic illustration of their vulgar office building as if we didn't know he was coordinating with CW all along.

This fake letter has all the same trappings and authors.

Anonymous said...

The way Berlin Rosen operates demonstrates how the middle class is under assault at work and at home. We go to work and are robbed, we go home and are robbed.

Making the wealthy richer and giving a pittance to the poor just to look good.....while taking it away from the middle class to subsidize it all.

This is the usual way of doing things for Berlin Rosen who themselves made millions in recent years from having low wage workers attack middle class franchisees instead of going after the wealthy policy making executives at the big corporations as McDonalds.

None of the pols took on the billionaire corporations, instead they went after the lower hanging fruit franchisees and got a few photo ops at protests along the way. The corporate execs laughed as hard as they did when the Government handed out TARP aka bonus expense accounts.

Same formula at PCV ST, get the middle class to pay for the RE debt so PCV ST can be turned into a wealthy condo complex with 10% poor housing aka affordable housing with contrived photo ops along the way to further their political ambitions.

http://freebeacon.com/issues/the-one-percenters-behind-fast-food-protests/

We need pols with backbone who go after the real culprits that are robbing the middle class blind; to take on the big guys and stop this Berlin Rosen way of doing business that is making them very very rich, their rich clients richer, while wiping out the middle class everywhere, in this community too.

That is the Berlin Rosen Sheldon Silver et al way.


Anonymous said...

No way Dan, no way are we attending any of the fake rallies and protests.

Quote on how BerlinRosen further politicians as Shelly and Dan, and the wealthy and enrich themselves by using people as pawns in their game:

"The quarterbacking of all communications for these events helps explain the similarities of the carefully stage-managed protests."

Excerpt (edited to fit) is how BerlinRosen uses people as pawns for staged events.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/fast-food-strikes-short-workers-long-unions

"Today’s demonstrations are misleadingly called “strikes” by their organizers. In reality, they’re nothing more than Potemkin village protests led by national labor unions. It’s part of a larger corporate smear campaign against the fast-food industry, stage-managed from the top down.

The financial and organizational muscle behind these protests is the Service Employees International Union. According to filings with Department of Labor, the national labor union has spent $15 million+ on fast-food protests since January 2013.

Until recently, majority of funding was distributed directly to so-called “worker centers” that are the face of the protests, most notably two groups called Fast Food Forward and Fight for $15.

After these connections came under scrutiny during last year’s protests, however, the SEIU added another layer of darkness to obscure its ties to the movement: “Workers Organizing Committees.”

Purportedly independent of the SEIU, Workers Organizing Committees are essentially front-group entities that serve the union. They receive nearly all of their funding from SEIU national headquarters, then send it right back out to worker centers.

eg Fast Food Workers Committee in New York reported zero members last year, took in $1.8 million from SEIU (99% of its revenues), then sent $1.6 million out the back door to New York Communities for Change.

"While SEIU is the muscle behind today’s protests, the brain (if you can call it that) is the public relations shop BerlinRosen. Founded by Democratic Party flacks Valerie Berlin and Joshua Rosen...

BerlinRosen’s involvement with these campaigns previously had been far less conspicuous than SEIU. But recent annual union filings with Labor Department reveal level — and price — of its contributions.

In fiscal year 2013, BerlinRosen received nearly $4 million from various unions. Since 2012, it has received more than $3.25 million from SEIU and its local unions alone, including for the fast-food protests.

BerlinRosen isn’t being paid that money for press releases.

The quarterbacking of all communications for these events helps explain the similarities of the carefully stage-managed protests.

As the Daily Caller reported last year, nine fast-food employees on nine separate occasions complained of not being able to afford shoes for their children.

The media has begun catching on to the fact that these are union-orchestrated PR stunts, not grass-roots expression by disgruntled employees.

Reporting on a recent protest, The Associated Press noted “it wasn’t clear how many participants were fast-food workers, rather than campaign organizers, supporters or members of [BerlinRosen].”

Such heavy media focus can also lead to the exploitation of very people the SEIU claims it is helping. Speaking to labor publication In These Times, one employee described his experience with union organizers at a corporate shareholder meeting last year: “I don’t like the fact that these people, the workers, are being used like pawns. Shuffle them in, shuffle them out, tell them what to say, what makes the best story for the media.”

Pawns indeed. Which gets to the larger issue: These protests aren’t about fast-food employees organically banding together for higher pay.... So if you encounter one of these bogus protests while out for lunch today, (ask them to) hold the spin."

Just as Dan's protests are NOT about affordable housing or protecting PCVST. We are being used as pawns in their RE deal.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the conversion effort, its a species of self-determination. Some would rather be passive and rely on the kindness of strangers and others prefer to take control of their future. Its a matter of temperment and spine.

Anonymous said...

Seen it before. Lobbyists BerlinRosen and the fake letter to mislead the community scheme.

"Berlin Rosen’s letter was designed to mislead the community on the quality of life threatening available emergency care. Founding Father Thomas Jefferson said, “An informed citizenry is the basis for a healthy democracy.” Because of the media drought on this years Assembly race, Berlin Rosen will have the opportunity with Sikora's large six figure campaign account to create a fake image with the voters of the 52AD like they did last year with the de Blasio hospital arrest (which was Sikora's idea according to Councilmember Steve Levin, also a client of Berlin Rosen)."

http://dougbiviano.com/index.php/press-releases/5-berlin-rosen-suppresses-assembly-debate


TITLE: "Dark Money Letter Lobbyist Berlin Rosen is Pressuring Local Media and Community Groups to Not Schedule Debates"

Fed up with political corruption!



Anonymous said...

All this makes me sick. The Roberts ruling was stolen from us because it effected the value / price of the property. We should have gotten all our money back with interest and had our rents corrected to their rightful amount.

We were robbed all over again to keep up the value of the property for Brookfield and CW who are both acting in the best interest of the shitty investors who invested in a vile deal with Rob Speyer. None of these guys have ever been acting in the best interest of us tenants.

http://gothamist.com/2011/11/30/tenants_would_still_like_to_buy_stu.php

Brookfield CW TA Dan and your PR lobbyist firm are the worse thing that happened to Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village.

Anonymous said...

REBNY getting laws made to steal our rightful Roberts ruling that merely gave us back money that was wrongfully taken but that Adam Rose calls a windfall. We weren't making money on this, just getting stolen money back!

"Stuy Town Rent Victory Close To Being Erased By "Democracy"

Way back in the rosy-colored days of 2009, tenants of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper village rejoiced after a the Court of Appeals ruled that their landlords illegally raised rents on 4,400 formerly rent-stabilized apartments while simultaneously collecting city tax breaks. But how would the poor landlords get out from under the steel-toed boot of "the law" so they could once again nobly raise rent, for capitalism? Easy! Just "empty [your] piggy bank" into a legislator's piggy bank and voila! A law is born!

Today's NY Times reports that State Senator Catharine Young's bill, which would force landlords to give back the tax benefits and thus allow them to raise rent at "free-market rates," is called "a legislative solution" by people who light their cigars with 9-week-old kittens the Real Estate Board of New York.

Councilman Daniel Garodnick tellingly says "why you would allow a landlord to benefit from circumventing the rent regulation laws is beyond me." Take it away, Adam Rose, president of Stuy Town/Peter Cooper's management company: "it makes no sense that these well-heeled tenants should gain a windfall from this court decision." Well-heeled (do Rockports count?) tenants like Thomas Shamy, who had to uproot his family in 2006 after being informed of a 28% rent increase. "At the time, my wife was four months pregnant with our first child, and we anticipated remaining in the child-friendly Stuyvesant Town community," he whines. Oh please, just sweat it out at your summer home."

http://gothamist.com/2011/05/02/stuy_town_rent_victory_close_to_bei.php


Why do all thieves think when they have to return what they stole the victim is getting a windfall? That excuse does not work to cover up your crime. You stole our money! You got a windfall stealing millions from us with your overcharges. Then you stole the Roberts ruling.

Can we sue over this?

Anonymous said...

They didn't want to become Stuy Town. That says it all.....we are the poster child for the demise of the middle class in NYC.


http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2008/06/02/starrett_city_back_on_sale_but_as_the_antistuy_town.php

Anonymous said...

Watchdog Group Sees Reported Sheldon Silver Probe As Opportunity For Ethics Reform

“We should expect that our public officials are interested in complying not only with the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law,” he added.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/12/31/watchdog-group-sees-reported-sheldon-silver-probe-as-opportunity-for-ethics-reform/

RE newsletter Town & Village ran a press release with a PR quote from Dan saying he would make sure the PCV ST studio apartments follow the law. I assume the same way he made sure CW and Brookfield followed the law tearing out the Oval open spaces to put the strip mall in the Oval and out of the other side of his mouth saying his position is to preserve the open spaces. Dan is still being the in-house council for RE instead of the constituents The Oval destruction councilperson violates the spirit of the law as any good lawyer of good intention clearly sees.

Anonymous said...

“The public has a right to know if an elected official has outside business interests that may conflict with their role as a public official,” Horner told the Times. “That’s why the laws are on the books, and anything that undermines that disclosure fuels suspicion.”

WE, THE PEOPLE, HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW ALL THE DETAILS ON THE PCVST BROOKFIELD TENANT BID, THE ROLE THE POLITICIANS / DAN PLAY FOR BROOKFIELD, PAUL WEISS, MOELIS; WE AS BUYERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW ALL OF THIS IF IT REALLY IS A TENANT BID!

"Blair Horner the New York Public Interest Research Group called on Silver to explain why he failed to list Goldberg & Iryami on his financial disclosure statements."

http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2014/12/followup-a-sheldon-silver-baruch-singer-connection.html

THIS IS OUR RIGHT.

Anonymous said...

BUYER'S RIGHTS

Right To Have All Offers Presented. By law, real estate agents are required to present all offers to a seller.
Normally real estate agents will not solicit buyers or continue to show property after acceptance of an offer, unless otherwise agreed. Even if a buyer makes an offer for the full listing price, the buyer cannot legally require the seller to accept it.

Nature of Seller's Duties To Condition Of The Property.

Every seller has the duty to respond fully and accurately to any request for information about a property.

This is true whether the information is requested directly by a prospective buyer or by a real estate agent who, in turn, may pass along the information to a prospective buyer.

Answers that are misleading or are half-truths are improper. If a seller is unsure of information, the seller should not guess, but should qualify his answer.

OTHERWISE THE BUYER MAY BE MISLED.



Anonymous said...

The best interests of residents was not prioritized, or even considered at the "MCI negotiation" table.

The best interests of the residents are not being prioritized, possibly not even considered in the "seat at the table," by design in the "tenant bid".

Anonymous said...

Dan you have rendered your word worthless.

No way are we doing anymore of your fake rally photo ops so you can run a headline in your fake newspaper that a token consolation prize is a victory for tenants or a victory for the middle class.

No way Dan.

Anonymous said...

NY is a welfare-to-build culture with high tax breaks and subsidies given to billionaires RE then the debt put on the backs real taxpayers, the working class.

The billionaire / millionaire welfare system in NY killing New Yorkers.

Fix that!

Anonymous said...

A lot of money flowed through Robert Schumer's firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton Garrison to brother Charles.

http://influenceexplorer.com/organization/paul-weiss-et-al/f1a49f2685454b1b818b6e266b065610

Is Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton Garrison any different than Shelly Silvers sugar daddy law firm?

What role does it play in the Brookfield bid?

How can we get a real Tenant Bid on the table?

Anonymous said...

Why / how is NY not the #1 place to live and PCV ST being stolen from the middle class living here?

The TA law firm has a very big conflict of interest.

Paul Weiss Rifkind Garrison Wharton lobbyists for Partnership for New York City whose #1 mission is to grow Big Business / 200 CEO's calling the shots.

They don't see us as human beings. They see working people as "human capital"

"Human capital is the stock of knowledge, habits, social and personality attributes, including creativity, embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value."

They don't see our homes, they see land.

They don't care about people, or protecting our homes. They care only about increasing the financial take from the land.

http://littlesis.org/org/49188/Paul,_Weiss,_Rifkind,_Wharton_&_Garrison_LLP


http://littlesis.org/org/37068/The_Partnership_for_New_York_City

Top listed members Robbie's daddy Jerry Speyer and Laurence Fink chairman ceo of BlackRock.

The conflict of interest is how they are orchestrating and covering up having us pay for the debt on PCVST with illegal overcharges and an overly inflated purchase price.

Dan and his Board of Directors of the PCVST Tenant Association hired a law firm that is controlled by Speyer, BlackRock et al who is screwing us without blinking an eye because we are not human beings deserving of a home.

SHAME on the Board of directors for hiring the law firm that is controlled by Speyer and Blackrock -- who could afford to make the mortgage payment but chose not to because they were not getting as much money from us as they wanted.

Now for putting the debt on us in Dan's spearheaded tenant purchase. A quote from Dan in an email he sent to reporters during his unsuccessful run for comptroller.

"As a community leader, I’ve led the fight for affordable housing for 25,000 of my neighbors at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village and have been a spearhead for the multi-billion dollar tenant-backed bid to protect our homes."

Read more at http://observer.com/2012/04/garodnick-makes-comptroller-run-official/#ixzz3Ns8oImjO
Follow us: @newyorkobserver on Twitter | newyorkobserver on Facebook

Most of those 25,000 neighbors Dan mentions have since lost their homes, no longer living in PCVST.

Anonymous said...

We need a real tenant-backed bid with a law firm that is not controlled by the Speyers.

Anonymous said...

Who else is masquerading as serving the people while being a pro-business operative in politics... a former general counsel to Robbie/Jerry Speyer's Partnership for New York Senator. click link on side of lil sis page for the name.

http://littlesis.org/org/37068/The_Partnership_for_New_York_City/political

There is a lot of information out there on who the politicians are really working for and getting results for and it is not us as evident by the loss of neighbors and the commercial businesses in tents and new buildings where there once was open space.

We may not have the money but we will again use what tools we have Dan, our vote and our voices.

Never will we vote for any of the incumbents for any office they ever run for because they all failed the people miserably.

Anonymous said...

How could the PCVST Tenant Association Board of Directors think it is a good, sound-minded idea to hire Paul Weiss Rifkind for a tenant led bid; a law firm controlled by the Speyer family who is also third generation head of REBNY, REBNY who spearheaded the effort hiring the lawyers to undo our Roberts ruling?

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2009/03/16/rebny-hires-attorney-to-fight-pro-tenant-stuy-town-ruling/

Whose side are you on TA Board - Dan's or Residents?

Anonymous said...

All those energy awards RE is giving itself is a smoke and mirrors scam to increase our rents by renovating our apartments and to tear down the buildings.

When an independent report from New York City’s Benchmarking Report, as well as studies performed by preservationists, asserted that existing and older buildings perform better and are inherently “greener” than new construction - REBNY conducted a self serving study, its own Green Building Study to manipulate the facts and figures and easily got DOB to dismiss the independent study and follow the REBNY study so they can unnecessarily take our homes and buildings in the name of new energy efficient ones (which actually are not more energy efficient).


page 16
http://www.rebny.com/content/dam/rebny/Documents/PDF/News/AnnualReports/REBNY-2012-annualreport-web.pdf


This has started here in PCVST with CW and Dan collaborating on how CW is improving the resident living experience.

http://www.rew-online.com/2014/11/26/stuy-town-lands-at-top-of-list-of-multifamily-energy-champs/


page 16
http://www.rebny.com/content/dam/rebny/Documents/PDF/News/AnnualReports/REBNY-2012-annualreport-web.pdf

Dan, CW and REBNY working together to set the stage to tear down our buildings in the name of being energy efficient when the facts are older buildings are more energy efficient.

REBNY, Dan, Andrew Macarthur think they are so much smarter than us they openly brag their schemes and successes in controlling the DOB.

Anonymous said...

REBNY pulls all the strings on all the puppets.

Safety be damned. REBNY will not allow DOB to put safety before $$$$$

page 18
http://www.rebny.com/content/dam/rebny/Documents/PDF/News/AnnualReports/REBNY-2012-annualreport-web.pdf


page 19
Small business be damned. REBNY dictates to City Planning to allow lucrative RE leasing to megastores to replace small businesses on Upper West Side.

page 24
REBNY orchestrates NYU expansion so no wonder dorms have not been opposed by Dan.

And on our ROBERTS RULING
Page 27 and 28 talk to how REBNY is laws, having lawmakers they own manipulate their j-51 tax breaks to continue benefiting them while reducing benefits to us, the people.

Anonymous said...

When REBNY wants to ruin a community and neighborhood they do it. In SoHo and NoHo REBNY controls Department of City Planning getting them to get remove artist occupancy requirements for lofts and when REBNY wants to expand NYU real estate Department of City Planning and DOB break occupancy rules and write new ones to install 5000 dorms here.

The 2011 REBNY annual report where they brag controlling the city politicians and the city council and write definition to terms to favorably clarify how they can get around zoning rules. They brag the loopholes the 2011 city council puppets gave them.

page 8 and the entire report brags REBNY's control over City Hall and Albany, writing laws, writing loopholes, writing terminology definitions, .... what a pathetic weak corrupt governing body NY has.....

Here is the 2011 REBNY annual report is you can stomach it.

http://www.peterashe.com/admin/docs/content/AB760C23-C7ED-5B12-F709FC81A4DDB488.pdf



Anonymous said...

A condition of sale should be that all surplus and escrow funds are dedicated to pay for mci's and our roberts apartments are retroactively rolled back to rightful rents with money paid back to us to make us whole plus interest for the overcharges. whether the seller, the servicer or the buyer pay it, whoever. Put that in the terms Paul Weiss Rifkind if you really are doing a tenant led effort. I have seen no terms benefiting tenants in this purchase.

Anonymous said...

There is a 6% cap on annual mci charges yet every apartment is being charged much much more than that. Management is not allowed to bill us mci charges beyond 6% of our annual rent. My mci charges I pay are way higher then 6% of my annual rent. How do we get back our money and get our rent reduced to within the 6% mci cap?

Anonymous said...

DHCR needs to get out of REBNY control.

page 17 and 18 of the REBNY 2011 annual report clearly say DHCR is controlled by REBNY and allowed landlords to violate j-51 to rip off tenants.

http://www.peterashe.com/admin/docs/content/AB760C23-C7ED-5B12-F709FC81A4DDB488.pdf

Anonymous said...

The REBNY annual reports are a wink wink show and tell with language and photos of who they own and how they operate to write NY laws.

Anonymous said...

Garodnik is one of the worse things to happen to PCVST. He is definitely not a friend of the long term tenants. He is with the home-wreckers.

Anonymous said...

Albany and NYC City Council biggest briber is the REBNY PAC Jobs For New York

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/10/14/rebnys-political-arm-raises-1-86m/

Shady dark money from 90 llc's having only 16 addresses - yup that is 90 companies with only 16 addresses.

Politicians attending the upcoming fundraiser gala are raising money to help REBNY hurt tenants in Albany in 2015.

Anonymous said...

Landlords don;t have to take a bus ride to Albany and beg for fair treatment. They just buy a politician and get absurd favoritism, above and beyond what is fair treatment.

"At least 27 clients of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s recently revealed second law firm received state-authorized real estate tax breaks, a Capital New York analysis has found.

That they could even take advantage of the tax abatements in question is due in no small part to Silver, who has provided crucial support as speaker for the program that made those breaks available."

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/01/8559466/silvers-actions-aid-clients-second-firm

"An examination of Silver’s record reveals he has regularly used his position as Speaker to help lower taxes for developers, several of whom have also employed his second law firm, Goldberg & Iryami, to secure lower city property tax assessments.

Silver reportedly was the “anonymous benefactor who tucked” into a housing bill controversial 421a tax breaks for five luxury developments in 2013 despite fervent opposition from tenant-advocacy groups, according to the Daily News. "



Our time is valuable. Not to be wasted on pointless efforts to beg for and at best get scraps.

Tenants are asking for fair treatment while landlords are asking and getting above and beyond what is fair treatment. We should already be treated with fairness and asking for above fair.
No bus rides or rallies until city hall and albany clean house.

Anonymous said...

Sheldon Silver is anti-tenant, and worse, takes steps to appear pro-tenant while betraying tenants with crafted legislature that cannot pass muster.


"When Silver’s Assembly has passed bills that have gained the support of tenants groups, they have often been symbolic one-house pieces of legislation that stood little chance of actual enactment.

So, for example, when rent control came up for renewal in 2011, the Assembly passed a bill expanding tenant protections, even though the companion bill in the Republican-controlled Senate had little chance of passage since it was sponsored by a Democrat.

During these negotiations, Cuomo earned the praise of tenant advocates by suggesting he had the power to suspend the Urstadt Law, a provision of the rent control regulations that prohibits New York City’s government from enacting rent regulations more stringent than the state’s.

Silver, however, disputed this, and claimed the governor did not have the power to use this as a cudgel against landlords.

McKee, of the Tenants PAC, views Silver’s tenure as one in which the speaker has failed to use all the leverage at his disposal to support programs like rent control.

“In 1997 ['s renewal of rent control], he sold us out big time,” McKee said. “He screwed us again in 2013 with the one big ugly. After making a pledge that he would not renew J-51 without getting significant improvements in the rent laws, he just gave that up entirely.”

There is no fairness in the Assembly and our assemblyman should have been apprising us of these details all along. Who is our assemblyman and what is his relationship with Silver?

Anonymous said...

http://nypost.com/2015/01/05/de-blasios-man-in-blue-is-sheldon-silver/

Considering these two share the same close confidante/consultant/lobbyist/top strategist Berlin Rosen puts a lot into question on all the RE deals. De Blasio needs to ditch Rosen Berlin if he wants to keep a shred of integrity.

Anonymous said...

We work hard and act with decency our entire lives.
But
These men like Shelly Silver and Bill Cosby who get away with decades of crimes and bad behavior then near the end it starts becoming public the crimes all along with Shelly's Real Estate and lawyer payoffs that hurt a lot of people like you and me for decades and Shelly's sexual harassment cover up payoff that hurt women like Cosby did. How many people these guys hurt for years living life the way they do, taking whatever they want from whoever they want.

All we want is to be able to come home after a hard days work to a peaceful, livable, quiet home that used to be.

This is Shelly's last year to show a shred of decency for people and for the first time actually be the tenant advocate he says he is instead of betraying and failing tenants again.

Anonymous said...

Jan 13 @ 6:22 am: Amen to that. Life has become so fraught over the last few years since MetLife sold the property for an obscenely inflated amount to the gullible and avaricious Rob Speyer and pals. We have been the victims of unbridled evil and avarice and haven't had a moment of peace since then. We pay our rent, obey the laws and just want to live in peace. When we became the targets of these evil bloodsuckers who just wanted to turn our modest homes into faux luxury apartments in order to sucker gullible folks into paying a ridiculous rent just for the privilege of living in Manhattan, we haven't had hardly a day without harassment. When Manhattan (or this part of Manhattan) was a drug-infested, crime-ridden slum NOBODY wanted to know about it. Soon as the drugs and crime were cleaned out (or put under wraps) this neck of the woods suddenly becomes highly desirable and we are made to feel we have no right to be here.
All I can say to MetLife, Tishman Speyer and Compass Rock and NYU is: FUCK YOU TO HELL YOU PREDATORY BASTARDS.
Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Well said 9:08....well said.