http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/government/5574-new-phase-of-east-midtown-rezoning-prioritizes-public-benefits
These people are so transparent.
I stopped trusting our councilman, Dan Garodnick, when he eased himself into a third term as councilman after voting against extending term-limits. It was a blatant hypocritical maneuver that is typical of politicians and why people are so disenchanted with them. Of course, we had clues as to Dan's steadfastness when he presented a coherent argument against the commercialization of the Oval (at the time, Stuy Town's greenmarket) before disengaging from his stance by agreeing to the commercialization as long as it was meant "for residents and their guests," a stipulation that became almost immediately laughable given the lack of a landlord's enforcement. Even the tenant fight for "affordable housing" became something of a joke, and a cruel one, when the only option given was a buy-out of the property with the involvement of Big Real Estate that would have meant the steady evaporation of true affordable housing in this community. Then there are Dan's yearly dinner dates with the REBNY, one of the strongest organizations in the city whose goal is the elimination of rent stabilization and the pursuit of building taller and taller at the expense of livability, the working class who can still afford to live in Manhattan, and just the simple charm of living in a city and not in a mega-towered landscape bottomed with chain drug stores, Starbucks, and banks.
Now that Bloomberg is gone, Dan has assumed a position of more influence and attention, as the above article indicates. Dan's "high rise" is no doubt propelled by a vision of becoming mayor of the city one day. His other vision is the more immediate one: changing Manhattan, specifically the East Side, midtown.
Dan is a smart man, though, and, as a lawyer and politician (why are the two always so joined at the hip?), he knows how to say the right thing to whomever he is addressing. One could say that he plays both sides, something both politicians and lawyers become so adept at. Aside from his skills at defining positions with succinct "reasonableness," Dan is also an attractive candidate on a physical level. The ladies, both young and old, must like him. (But a warning: He should stop eating cannoli, as I've been noticing a slight girth advancing along his waist in recent photos. More of this and he'll start looking like Scott Stringer, another hopeful candidate for the position of mayor of New York City.)
Dan's position on the rezoning of east midtown is typical of his "reasonable" stances on other issues. On one hand, he is all for extra zoning privileges for Big Real Estate (the current curse of what's happening with the build-up of sliver high-rises in Manhattan), while on the other hand, he wants to upgrade transportation venues and give people mini-parks with waterfalls. Playing both sides.
So while New York is still turning into Bloomberg's vision of Dubai on the Hudson, the humanitarian perks are meant to assuage the peons and give politicians nice photo-ops, a win-win situation on the surface.
Unfortunately, I still see Big Real Estate winning, Big Time.
182 comments:
Dan Garodnick is owned, as in bought and paid for, by the REBNY and Big Law. The sooner we can toss him to the curb, the better.
...
"Still, some of the stocks raise eyebrows. Mr. Garodnick has been a critic of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial process for extracting natural gas from the earth that environmentalists argue pollutes groundwater. In testimony to the Department of Environmental Protection, Mr. Garodnick contended that hydrofracking, “raises too many significant questions” to be allowed to proceed “at this time.” At the same time, the East Side lawmaker owned stock in EnCana, a natural gas corporation that drew scrutiny for its hydrofracking practices. The stock, like much of the others Mr. Garodnick holds, is worth up to about $44,000.
Mr. Garodnick also holds stock of similar value in Barrick Gold Corp., a mammoth gold producer, which was implicated in alleged gang rapes and other human rights violations in a Human Rights Watch report.
And he holds up to approximatley $44,000 in stocks from General Electric, which drew fire recently for its efforts to skirt paying American taxes. (Despite recording a worldwide profit in 2010 of $14.2 billion, with $5.1 billion coming from the United States, General Electric’s American tax bill was zero, according to the New York Times.)"
Read more at http://observer.com/2014/01/contenders-for-council-speaker-boast-extensive-outside-income/#ixzz3S9nbXriW
http://observer.com/2014/01/contenders-for-council-speaker-boast-extensive-outside-income/
Murky RE deals plague his district.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/murk-article-1.1432305
Come on Preet, we are rooting for you to save our NYC and our PCV ST community.
These pro-business politicians with RE filled coffers focus on building a "competitive" city in an ego driven pursuit of money are competing in a game that comes at a great cost - livability. These politicians have no interest and pass no laws making NYC livable and it shows in NYC ranking as a least livable city. These politicians are for the business, by the business, of the business, and not for the people, by the people, of the people. That is evident everywhere especially in the PCV ST business deal between REBNY, Brookfield and Dan.
Maybe a group of us should write to Preet with any or all the illegal, unsafe, hazardous conditions and acts in PCVST asking for investigation from the DOB to the City Council to NYU to Albany. What a bunch of anything-for-money crooks.
Governor Cuomo “Power corrupts, and government is a source of power, you have it in the City Council, you have it in the state Legislature, you have it in the Congress of the United States, so, that continues.”
Said by a man taking no accountability for himself. Power does not corrupt. Power is inanimate. People have a choice on how they use power. Good people use it to do good. Bad people use it to do bad. Power does not corrupt. People who are already innately corrupt make a conscious choice to use inanimate objects in manners that suits them.
Most interesting is Cuomo's finger pointing to City Council, State Legislature and Federal level Congress as if making a threat to anyone who exposes Cuomo's corruption - he will
expose theirs. This statement reads as a threatening call to action for his fellow corrupt colleagues to circle the wagons around Cuomo - because he know where the skeletons lie.
http://nypost.com/2015/02/17/cuomo-says-there-will-always-be-some-corruption-in-albany/
Everytime we at PCVST speak up Dan quiets our voice. The minimall in the Oval is but one example. Politicians are supposed to raise our voice, be our voice, not quiet our voice telling us it is perfectly legal or squashing our complaints all together.
How many had their quality of life or fraudulent acts in PCV ST complaints to Dan go nowhere and why is he suppressing them?
Being legal does not equal being moral, ethical, or even of the times. Our laws are as weak and as strong as our politicians who make them. This administration is making weak laws for people and strong laws for business, especially Wall Street and RE.
They try to cover and wrap RE business deals with appearance of having "benefits for people" that in reality are at great cost to people and great benefit to REITs and shareholders. Seriously, the RE deals in Dan's district are some of the most corrupt RE deals that benefit the one-percenters, increasing their hoarding of money at the expense of the overburdened working class taxpayers. We need someone in the office of councilperson who is for equality, not inequality.
Someone should take a wrecking ball through REITs (REITs were invented by SL Green who is destroying regal Vanderbilt Avenue and Grand Central.)
Vanderbilt Avenue is going from Regal masonry with solid young buildings to cheap glass materials made in China. Only in America is a building old when it is still under a hundred years.
Pathetic statement on construction industry and on the Made in America motto.
The destruction of Vanderbilt Avenue is cheapening America. NYC's contribution to the country is cheapening of "Made in America" and a How To Guide to wipe out middle working class communities with poster child PCVST. With the common denominator of both atrocities being they are occurring in Dan's district while he celebrates with REBNY. Lost PCVST middle class, billionaires row on 57th, and now Vanderbilt Avenue a cheaper version of itself.
Dan's district is a land of rapidly increasing inequality -- a strange bloomberg-esque legacy he made for himself.
We need a third option.
Dan's Brookfield REBNY deal and Fortress are both hazardous to our safety, quality of life, homes and the land. Probably hazardous to our neighboring communities too.
Are all the 5 big robber-baron RE tax break deals, eg Extell, that Preet is investigating by RE owned politicians Shelly, Skelos and Cuomo in Dan's district? We know one is. How many others are?
Another con-artist, fraudster, just like the rest of them, interested only in their own self interests. Here to serve the people? THE PEOPLE? Yea, OK!
That's alright. What goes around comes around.
Mayor one day? Because of term limits, Dan Garodnick looks more like a guy at the end of his political career. Unless Carolyn Maloney retires there's not much on the horizon for him. There won't be many city slots available when his term's up.
Regarding the mid-town east rezone. It's about expanding the tax base. Right now, the financial industry is responsible for about 40% of it and that's not healthy. The city wants industry back and think tech's a good 21st century fit. So the idea was to rezone Midtown East to attract tech. The problem is, that's an architecturally rich area that a lot of people, me included, favor retrofitting which is what tech seems to favor anyway (well maybe except for Facebook). But developers and the construction industry are big players and want to build so there are two sides and there will inevitably be political compromise. There are a lot of forces at work here and Garodnick's a player, but the mayor will be the one calling the final shots.
When is Dan's term up?
Nice picture?
"So while New York is still turning into Bloomberg's vision of Dubai on the Hudson, the humanitarian perks are meant to assuage the peons and give politicians nice photo-ops, a win-win situation on the surface."
A win win situation on the surface built on a toxic foundation underneath. Dirty Money. Dirty Soil. Dirty Hands.
"Even the tenant fight for 'affordable housing' became something of a joke, and a cruel one, when the only option given was a buy-out of the property with the involvement of Big Real Estate that would have meant the steady evaporation of true affordable housing in this community."
"involvement of Big Real Estate" is a misnomer minimizing the "tenant led purchase" scam going down at ST-PCV.
Garodnick and the TA are engineering a wholesale give-away of the entire ST-PCV complex to Brookfield that will leave an overwhelming majority of tenants with nothing they don't already have - eroding RS on a death march. Their cynical "purchase option" strategically targets minimal 15% participation from highest earning, most ripped off RS paying MR tenants coerced into buying expensive Brookfield condos at price levels intended to eliminate middle class affordability.
Join the voices of nearing One Million and growing people around the world speaking out against Tax Injustice and Inequality. Avaaz means "voice" in many Asian and Middle Eastern languages.
ADD YOUR PCVST NYC VOICE TO THE WORLD'S AVAAZ
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/hsbc_tax_dodge_loc/
New Yorkers need to demand an end to 421A and not support Hoylman in using 421a as a negotiating point to get scraps of rights for renters. RE does not need 421a to survive - they want it to fill their already deeply filled pockets. Renters do need regulations to survive. Just to survive.
No to 421a.
People's Rights First.
Taxes used to support quality of life for people and not used to make the rich even richer while making the middle class poorer.
No to 421a.
NO MORE TAX INEQUALITY
NO MORE HARASSING AND CRIPPLING PROGRAMS AGAINST WORKING CLASS LIKE TAKING THEIR CARS
NO MORE GIVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO WEALTHY 1% TO HOARD
NO MORE GIVING AWAY TAXPAYER DOLLARS AS TAX BREAKS TO RE TO FINANCE THEIR COMPANY'S COSTS AND EXPENSES CONSTRUCTING BUILDINGS AND FINANCING THEIR MARKETING PROGRAMS WITH ENTICEMENTS TO FLIPPERS, SUCKER BUYERS, AND MONEY LAUNDERERS TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR RE TO SELL CONDOS BY ATTACHING TAX FREE STATUS.
NO MORE NY ALBANY ABUSE OF TAXPAYERS AND TAXPAYER DOLLARS AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK!
NO MORE LAUNDERING INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC CRIMINAL'S MONEY IN OUR BACKYARD!
TAX EQUALITY. NOT INEQUALITY.
>>When is Dan's term up?<<
Four years is a term, so he's going to be around for a while.
Avaaz is a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere.
Avaaz is only five years old, but has exploded to become the globe's largest and most powerful online activist network.
— The Guardian
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/hsbc_tax_dodge_loc/
HSBC bank has just been caught red-handed helping some of the world's mega-rich dodge taxes! We'd go to prison for this, but governments are treating these powerful people like they're too big to jail. Let's show them they're not.
Our governments are losing $3 trillion a year to tax dodging -- enough to end extreme world poverty many times over! This leak is the biggest in banking history -- if we don't seize it now to get prosecutions, we may never get a chance like this again.
UK finance minister Osborne faces an imminent election, while US Attorney General Lynch is yet to be confirmed in her new job. They're both very sensitive to the public right now, so our million-strong call, delivered via ads and with legislators, could get them to investigate, prosecute, and send the tax-dodging elite a powerful signal: no one is too big to jail!
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/hsbc_tax_dodge_loc/
ADD YOUR VOICE TELL THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINALS THEY CANNOT PARK THEIR MONEY HERE IN NYC TO DRIVE THE MIDDLE CLASS OUT!
Garodnick and the TA are engineering a wholesale give-away of the entire ST-PCV complex to Brookfield...
I'm a 20+ year STer. I'm not crazy about the Brookfield deal either. It's a really crappy choice, but I have yet to see anything anywhere, here included, that addresses the problems we have.
But all that seems besides the point when by all appearances, CWCap intends to hand the place to its parent company when its time is up in 3 years (or is it 6 years?).
Do you women consider him handsome, really?
The root cause of Inequality and of Poverty is Tax Injustice.
Let's get a million NYC renters and a million New Yorkers and another million Americans to sign and say NO MORE to NY and US politicians pillaging and overtaxing middle class while giving tax dollar handouts to big business to cover their costs and turning a blind eye to their buddy one-percenters evading.
Let's get as many Americans as we can to sign and show the world the people of America are better then the government.
LINK TO THE GLOBAL PETITION OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/hsbc_tax_dodge_loc/
To UK Chancellor George Osborne, US Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, finance ministers and prosecutors:
B
Evidence published all over the world shows how HSBC helped criminals and the super rich hide their money and evade taxes, leaving the rest of us to pay for public services. We demand that you investigate and prosecute the bankers who facilitated tax dodging and their clients who enriched themselves at our expense, and tighten our tax laws to stop this happening again.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/hsbc_tax_dodge_loc/
"Garodnick and the TA are engineering a wholesale give-away of the entire ST-PCV complex to Brookfield that will leave an overwhelming majority of tenants with nothing they don't already have - eroding RS on a death march."
I do not disagree with your statement, however, the argument that the TA makes is that the numbers do not add up to anything other than a conversion. The feeling is that we would be better served having some say in the engineering of said conversion.
The asking price is now 4.7 billion. The current rent roll will not cover a debt like that and I don't believe that another company will follow the path of our previous clowns.
Please remove his photo from this blog. It upsets me.
"Do you women consider him handsome, really?"
NOOOOOOOOO!
Well, not this woman.
"Please remove his photo from this blog. It upsets me."
And his ugly (beyond ugly!) owner, Rob Speyer.
I agree with 3:11. A conversion at some point is inevitable. For one reason. It's the only way any rapacious owner can squeeze the most out of the place. Some here have speculated that the place will just be sold to be torn down. Nah. Too many political and legal challenges to that. The developer will only be interested in one thing. Getting the most easy money possible. So it's like playing the stock market. When do you sell a stock when it's going up? The developer will make a judgment...has real estate hit a high yet...and are there bigger opportunities out there for which I could use the money. And then bingo, that's when the conversion will occur. There are other considerations, too. Like the guy in driver's seat at the development company may think to himself...how long am I going to wait for this windfall...I'm not getting any younger, I'd like to buy my own island now and would also like to get another trophy wife (current one starting to sag). All considered, I think a sale will occur within 3 more years or whenever the lawsuits are over. But the conversion may not occur for another 5 to 10 years from now. And for most of us here, don't hold your breath. The prices will NOT be affordable.
Nice headline. Great post.
As for the above comment on the $4.7 billion -- that number should be investigated and reduced by half.
From their Twitter
MetCouncilonHousing @Met_Council · Feb 18
Subsidies our our house, not the Penthouse! #SubsidizeMyPenthouse #421aGoAway
!!!!!!!!!!
https://twitter.com/Met_Council
PETITION on METCOUNCIL TWITTER to ALBANY NO MORE 421a
MetCouncilonHousing retweeted
CASA New Settlement @CASAbronx · Feb 18
A building gets sold by $100.5 million. Gets 95% tax cut.
SIGN TODAY: http://bit.ly/WeWontSubsidize #SubsidizeMyPenthouse
ASK ALBANY TO END SENSELESS SUBSIDIES FOR LUXURY DEVELOPMENTS
Governor Cuomo, Assembly Members, State Senators
https://twitter.com/Met_Council
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ask-albany-to-end-senseless-subsidies-for-luxury-developments
MetCouncilonHousing retweeted
Real Affordability @AffordabilityNY · Feb 18
Our taxes paid for that pool! The billionaires won't let us in! #SubsidizeMyPenthouse
https://twitter.com/Met_Council
FROM THE PROTEST AT ONE57
MetCouncilonHousing @Met_Council · Feb 18
This is our building. Our tax dollars paid for it! #SubsidizeMyPenthouse #421aGoAway
https://twitter.com/Met_Council
MetCouncilonHousing @Met_Council · Feb 18
Our TV show airs tn on Manhattan Neighborhood Network at 6PM. Tune in 2 get the latest on #YearOfTheTenant! @WestEndResNYC @tenantneighbor
MetCouncilonHousing @Met_Council · Feb 18
NO! We won't give you tax breaks to build luxury high-rises anymore! #SubsidizeMyPenthouse
We get regulations while billionaires get subsidies. We need regulations to curb the billionaire's robbing us. It would be better to stop them from robbing us. And even better if we who deserve and need the subsidies get them rather then the billionaires who do not need them.
Downstate and Upstate United!
http://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/02/16/new-york-westchester-need-strong-rent-laws/23501561/
Now that is an authentic, genuine real, gusty, honest, hard hitting PROTEST! Way to go Met Council!
PCVST'ers should email this Met Council link petition to everyone we know and get them as many signatures as we can on this message to Albany:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ask-albany-to-end-senseless-subsidies-for-luxury-developments
3:11 PM and 9:12 PM Yup. $4.7 is more than the property's worth. Junior lenders say that it's only worth around $3.5B which is probably based on current rent rolls. That excess $1.2B is a windfall for CWCap in the form of fees and a bunch of other horseshit that would get tossed out in bankrupcy court.
IMO, CWCap is familiar with STPCV's actuarial tables and intends to hang around another six years when a lot of today's seniors in unrenovated units will be gone and filled with students/transients and rent rolls are up. At that point CWCap has to end their role as special servicer and will try to sell to their parent company.
Fortress is a global investment management firm, they will not make the same mistakes as TS. Whatever they have in mind to make that $4.7B work isn't good for long term tenants in STPCV.
This is what ought to be setting people's hair on fire, not the conversion conspiracies that get promoted here ad nauseum.
OATH WHEN ONE TAKES OFFICE
The moment Dan out in the office for Brookfield and CWCR PCVST became a business and no longer a residential community. Dan installing the Oval strip mall because as he, playing many roles, politician, lawyer, real estate deal maker, says it is "legal" and he should know he makes the laws and loopholes, and rezoning. The offices belonged on Ave C to maintain the integrity of the residential community. Installing the office building on the first ave loop and destroying that beautiful open space, garden and trees is disgusting. Unforgivable. No more neighbors on the walk way the few times I went by. Just office management people. The space is ruined. I no longer belongs to the community. Putting that huge generator in the children's playground is stupid enough. Putting an oversized Train installation for kids to play on that is too big for the space with barely room for the kids to run around is obviously a failed attempt to hide the huge generator. The ta board and Dan failed this community. Too disgusted to ever walk by there again on my way to the L train.
FUTA
1:37...people talk about conversion scenarios...so what? You see any movement toward any action at all? No. So what does it matter what people choose to talk about?
So far as what Fortress or any developer has in mind...we already know. More bogus MCIs & more student rentals. And what are we going to do about them?
Men with no lips are not attractive.
Just woke up.
No heat in bedroom. No heat in living room.
Thanks Dan.
Fortress may not make the same mistakes as Tishman Speyer Brookfield but they make their own mistakes that will bankrupt us. Read their wikipedia page for a long list of Fortress Hedge Fund scandals and bankruptcy schemes.
City State Federal
Criminal Investigations of NY Politicians -- Preet Bhara / AG Schneiderman rounding them up.
Hey Cy - did your DOB arrests uncover any of the PCVST ones?
"If the head of the fish stinks, you can bet the body is rotten, too.
But this is not merely an enforcement problem; the issue demands the attention of state lawmakers, themselves. Surely there are enough honest legislators to draft and pass tough new ethics and disclosure laws that will cause even the sleaziest of Albany’s crooks to think twice. Aren’t there?
http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/buffalo-news-editorials/us-attorney-preet-bharara-gives-new-yorks-crooked-politicians-something-to-fear-20150222
"No heat in bedroom. No heat in living room."
Same here. We had no heat AT ALL all day until a few minutes ago. What is it with these assholes? This is such a cold winter and it is the worst in my memory when it comes to management being stingy with heat. It is even worse than the TS days. They not only have no conscience, but they clearly have no fear of getting fined by HPD for not supplying sufficient heat. Are they paying off someone in HPD, like they did in DOB when they wanted to erect that ugly management bunker and shift toxic soil? I think that a lot of city agencies have their pockets lined by the stinking crap known as CW/CR.
Yeah, thanks Dan. Thanks for SHIT!
A well said commentary from or neighbors in Staten island on whining politicians
Go, Preet, go! (editorial)
http://www.silive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/02/go_preet_go_editorial.html
ASK ALBANY TO END SENSELESS SUBSIDIES FOR LUXURY DEVELOPMENTS
Governor Cuomo, Assembly Members, State Senators
Petition is at 130 and climbing. No more taxpayer dollars to subsidize the developers, bankers, and hedge funds cost of business!
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ask-albany-to-end-senseless-subsidies-for-luxury-developments
LOllll of course they're 'friendly' with Hpd amongst other landlord friendly city government agencies. Keep voting these idiots in people.
February 21, 2015 at 5:26 PM More bogus MCIs & more student rentals. And what are we going to do about them?
• The MCI law as written is way too pro-landlord.
• Our landlord can't *not* rent to students. But CWCap prefers renting to students because they're transient and CWCap can take advantage of the vacancy increase that RS law allows (15% or 20%, depending) when RS units flip.
what are we going to do about them?
Both of those laws are state laws. Pressure needs to be applied to the Assembly and Governor to play hardball when they negotiate with the landlord-owned GOP majority in the state senate when the fight over over extending rent laws takes place this June. Instead of tenants giving ground like in the past - MCIs, vacancy decontrol, vacancy increases, etc - we want landlords to give ground.
So our Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh and Cuomo need to hear from you. Tell them that renewing and strengthening rent regulations are your number one, your absolutely highest priority - phone calls and personal letters are critical. (Do it. Don't laugh. It's what the NRA has its members do. It obviously works.) Lobbying in person is also critically important. Tenants groups are organizing that now. Volunteer to help a tenants rights group you like, or send money. Now's the time. Silver is gone and the political ground in NY is gonna shift dramatically in 2016, esp if Clinton runs for pres. Cuomo knows that.
Read more here at the Real Rent Reform Campaign: http://www.realrentreform.org/
Real Rent Reform is the umbrella group for a lot of the tenants rights groups in NY and is focused on getting rent laws renewed and more pro-tenant this June.
February 23, 2015 at 7:06 AM
Great link! 421-a is a huge tax break that NYC developers desperately want to keep.
421-a is coming up for renewal in Albany this June, the same time that RS regulations are coming up for renewal. Let's horse trade. Developers want 421-a renewed? For starters, we want the fucked up MCI law fixed. And we want the vacancy increase when RS units flip dropped...
Actually many of us are not voting these idiots in. There is nobody to vote for so we don't vote anymore. Who in good conscience could vote for any of the recent candidates, incumbents and challengers alike.
Bears repeating
"These people are so transparent.
I stopped trusting our councilman, Dan Garodnick, when he eased himself into a third term as councilman after voting against extending term-limits. It was a blatant hypocritical maneuver that is typical of politicians and why people are so disenchanted with them. Of course, we had clues as to Dan's steadfastness when he presented a coherent argument against the commercialization of the Oval (at the time, Stuy Town's greenmarket) before disengaging from his stance by agreeing to the commercialization as long as it was meant "for residents and their guests," a stipulation that became almost immediately laughable given the lack of a landlord's enforcement. Even the tenant fight for "affordable housing" became something of a joke, and a cruel one, when the only option given was a buy-out of the property with the involvement of Big Real Estate that would have meant the steady evaporation of true affordable housing in this community. Then there are Dan's yearly dinner dates with the REBNY, one of the strongest organizations in the city whose goal is the elimination of rent stabilization and the pursuit of building taller and taller at the expense of livability, the working class who can still afford to live in Manhattan, and just the simple charm of living in a city and not in a mega-towered landscape bottomed with chain drug stores, Starbucks, and banks."
With the right councilperson who actually served their constituents in the PCVST community, and a city council made up of politicians serving the people and not using their office as a deal broker in exchange for financial favors from RE, NYC could have thrived. Instead Dan helped REBNY eliminate the rent stabilized community here. this is on top of REBNY eliminated the Robert's ruling with the most corrupt settlement. The Robert's ruling settlement robbed the Courts of their integrity when it robbed the tenants of the ruling. Those lawyers should be disbarred. Allowing the midlease increase term into the deal is the most shameful and embarrassing part to the lawyers but really the entire settlement is the most unethical robbery the lawyers committed on their tenant clients and on the courts. The Bar Association should disbar every attorney who played a role in that disgraceful settlement. Every tenant who is effected by the Robert's ruling should complain to the Bar Association about the lawyers negotiation of the righteously undoing of the favorable ruling that made no one whole and put tenants further in the hole with un-rolled back uncorrected rents and everything else. Thanks Dan.
I know off topic but...
NO F*CKIN" HEAT
It is 10 degrees out and these co*ksu*kers have the nerve to play games like this.
Shameless, money grubbing whores!?
Sorry for the rant but I'm freezing in here.
12:29 problem is Kavanagh and Cuomo are the ones who got us into this pro landlord mess and have kept us there for years. Kavanagh and Cuomo both need to go!
High rise to where? He is following Quinn's REBNY owned foot steps to a cushy job in the Cuomo administration just like Quinn.
After a failed attempt by REBNY to buy the New York Office of the Mayor placing their deemed Queen Quinn she will land in REBNY owned office of the governor. Agree with STR that REBNY gets their way most of the time or as STR says REBNY wins. But not always - voters, NYC residents, squashed REBNY's purchase of the office of mayor. Why do you think REBNY are trying so hard to remove us from our residents? To own NYC outright for all its money scams by eliminating the opposition. Greedy REBNY has no respect for its own greatest asset - the land. They will destroy and overdevelop every inch until they kill all the trees and squeeze all the air out. REBNY sucks life out of everything it touches.
Again in 2010 Verizon and Tishman (and their politicians) invited the public to attend concerts in PCVST.
http://www.sentimentalistmag.com/2010/05/04/nycs-stuyvesant-town-and-peter-cooper-village-present-2010-free-season-of-music-on-the-oval/
The deal is illegal and needs to be investigated.
The endless carping about the mayor and Garodnick and the ciy council tells me that a lot of commenters here still don't get the nature of the threats tenants in STPCV and the rest of the city face.
There's not a lot that the city council or the mayor can do about affordable RS housing in NYC as long as state law grants the state legislature and governor the power to overrule them. What the city has is control over RS rent increases via the mayor's Rent Guidelines Board.
That's why De Blasio's so fixated on creating new so-called affordable housing - he can't protect the affordable RS apartments we already have that's rapidly getting lost due to vacancy decontrol and MCI increases. All he can do is try to keep RGB increases to a minimum and lobby on our behalf in Albany and maybe do some kinds of trade-offs with the governor. At least now we have a mayor who's now willing to do that.
De Blasio did much more than Cuomo to try to get a Democratic majority in the State Senate in last November's election. It's been the GOP majority in the State Senate that's screwed tenants and when Pataki was in office they had an ally who helped them kill RS law via MCIs and vacancy decontrol. With a Dem State Senate, De Blasio was hoping for a rewrite of state law this June when rent laws expire and (hopefully) get renewed that would have given him and the city council more control over our RS housing stock. That didn't happen because the landlord lobby and the charter school both spent $millions to keep a GOP majority in the State Senate and voting Democrats stayed away per usual for the midterms.
Tenants rights people also place a lot of blame on former Speaker Sheldon Silver of the Democratic majority State Assembly for letting MCIs and vacancy decontrol happen. Silver ruled by fear and with an iron fist and had a lot of means at his disposal to ruin the careers of his caucus members who crossed him. Now that he's gone, the entire Assembly will be free to negotiate on our behalf and that's good.
Also, the Roberts Decision was good for tenants. That's why landlords are spending a lot of money in Albany right now to get legislation written in June that would negate Roberts. It was the settlement that, IMO opinion anyway, was bad. That settlement is entirely on the judge and attorneys (and maybe to some extent the original plaintiffs), not the city council or the mayor or any politician.
How flipping annoying are the building renovations. On and on and on. Loud,unnecessary and cannot even work. Sick of this place. Not renewing lease.
1:22 the line you describe between city and state is not as cleanly divided as you say. the lines blur with quinn garodnick cuomo rebny skelos on the same side. remember cuomo's hard push for garodnick for speaker over viverito?! this is not a city versus state fight. it is a tenant versus rebny / rebny owned pols fight.
Albany stiffs NYC
Albany stiffs NYC Middle Class tenants and entrepreneurs and gives HUGE sums to the one percenter buddies
....
"While Albany may be rightly focused on electing a new Assembly speaker for the first time in more than 20 years, it is crucial to remember that we still have a state budget to hammer out — and that any spending plan must fairly address the challenges confronting New York City.
Too many working families are living paycheck to paycheck. Too many entrepreneurs still see government as an obstacle, rather than a partner, to growth. And too many of our young people still lack the resources they need to succeed in the 21st century job market.
While the state’s proposed budget takes steps to address each of these issues, we must recognize, as budget negotiations proceed, that the current spending plan does not provide New York City — the economic engine of the Empire State — with our fair share of funding."
***
Maybe NYC should stiff Albany until Albany gives NYC our just due ...
appropriate amount for infrastructure and restored and stronger renters protections.
The strongest message NYC could send Albany this Spring / Summer is not a busload of people. Albany-types only feign to care about people while they worship money and only money. Its time NYC withhold from Albany until Albany cleans up its act and begins to be a government for the people. If Stringer wants to be a Mayor of this great city one day he will need to make strong acts on behalf of this great city, our home.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/scott-stringer-cuomo-budget-stiffs-new-york-city-article-1.2098503
1.22 PM
I generally agree with your post ( a voice of reason on this blog) but please remember back in 1997, under the leadership of Peter Vallone, a Democrat, how the NYC Council screwed us on Vacancy Decontrol. Anthony "Junk" Weiner was also part of this crap.
http://tenant.net/Alerts/Guide/innings/intro920.html
Brand new carpeting and painting completed in my hallway. Really intelligent using bright colors. BRIGHT COLORS! You know how filthy it's going to look in just a few months? These people definitely have their heads up there %*!#$. Just like everything else that goes on in this place.
Could not be more disappointed in Mr Garodnick.
Sometimes you have to look at what someone is doing and sometimes you have to look at what they are not doing. It is a very long list, the things our councilperson could have done for this community these recent years since the MetLife sale to protect the residents and the property but he chose to take no action on our behalf. Equally so, the long list of things politicians should be doing to protect us all from the mass immigration of criminals buying up real estate in NYC to park and launder their money is left undone.
Doing nothing is as bad as doing bad things when your job is in public office. Although I am not sure at this point if doing nothing is the worse some of these guys are doing.
"I know off topic but...
NO F*CKIN" HEAT
It is 10 degrees out and these co*ksu*kers have the nerve to play games like this.
Shameless, money grubbing whores!?
Sorry for the rant but I'm freezing in here."
Same here. We have had to BEG for heat almost every day this winter and we usually don't get it until late afternoon or early evening. They are the greediest, most venal bastards and only marginally above the status of slumlord.
5:42 PM Unfortunately for us plebes, SCOTUS's ruling on Citizens United four years ago tossed out 100 years of campaign-finance legislation. Then SCOTUS extended the scope of Citizens United by ruling in another case that some contributions by corporations can't be regulated because corporations are people and money is speech. Further the Court ruled that the only legit restrictions on campaign finance were those that prevented "quid pro quo corruption” which in everyday English is referred to as out-and-out bribery.
The only way to change the effects of those SCOTUS rulings and allow feds and states to regulate and set limits on candidate money raising would be to pass a constitutional amendment. That requires a two-thirds majority in both the US House and Senate. That's not going to happen anytime soon.
In NY state, approximately one percent of small donors make campaign donations. The other 99 percent comes lobbyists and big donors.
The big donors give money to both parties, but more to whoever holds the power at a particular time. The Moreland Commission concluded that the big donors are paying for access and that they tend to give money to those pols who wield power over decisions that affect their particular interests.
City Council members have no say in the state regs that govern landlords, but they do have say over zoning and other NYC issues that affect developers. If they get REBNY money, that is probably why.
I don't like seeing the mayor and my city councilman at REBNY dinners any more than others on this site, but until there's SOME sort of parity between what small donors give and what the big indy donors and lobbyists give, that's how it's going to be. There is no pol anywhere in NYC who's going to get elected via small indy donors alone, so policing pols to make sure that the money given is only for access, not bribery is about what we're left with.
These are the cards that we've been dealt. Between now and June I've decided that it's in my particular best interest to focus my attention on the state: the governor, the Assembly and the Senate because that's where the big decision that will directly my housing situation will be decided on June 15.
Bloody Brilliant.
"Emma Thompson and Greg Wise in tax boycott over HSBC scandal
Actor says he and his wife refuse to pay ‘a penny more’ until tax evaders found among Swiss banking arm’s clients go to prison
Greg Wise, actor married to Oscar winner Emma Thompson, said he and his wife will refuse to pay tax until those involved in the HSBC scandal go to prison.
Wise spoke of his disgust with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the bank after the Guardian and other news organisations published leaked details of 100,000 accounts held by HSBC’s Swiss arm which showed how the bank had helped clients to move cash out of the country.
“I want to stop paying tax, until everyone pays tax,” Wise told the Evening Standard. “I have actively loved paying tax, because I am a profound fucking socialist and I believe we are all in it together. But I am disgusted with HMRC. I am disgusted with HSBC. And I’m not paying a penny more until those evil bastards go to prison.”
We’ll go to prison if necessary
Greg Wise on not paying tax
Wise, who is rehearsing for Kill Me Now, his first play in 17 years, said Thompson was willing to go along with his act of civil disobedience.
“Em’s on board. She agrees. We’re going to get a load of us together. A movement. They can’t send everyone to prison. But we’ll go to prison if necessary. I mean it. It’s going to be like 1848 all over again.”
HMRC has come under fire in the HSBC scandal because of a failure to carry out a criminal investigation against the bank, which has its headquarters in the UK. While the agency found more than 1,000 tax evaders among the almost 7,000 UK clients of HSBC Suisse, only one individual has been prosecuted. About £135m has been recovered in tax, a lower figure than in other European countries.
Stuart Gulliver, head of HSBC, apologised in writing and again on Monday, when he said the bank’s bosses were shamed and humbled by the scandal.
He has been summoned to appear before a Treasury select committee on Wednesday afternoon with group’s chairman after revelations that he had a bank account in Switzerland that was routed through Panama. Lin Homer, HMRC chief executive, will also be questioned.
Stuart Gulliver issues a fresh apology but defends his own tax status as bank reveals 17% slump in profits Wise, a Labour supporter, expressed disappointment at the party as the country heads for a general election in May.
“I’m in absolute despair at all of them,” he said. “I liked Tony before he made his mistakes. I cannot forgive him and the party, and the country. I was one of the 2 million out there, marching.
Made fuck-all difference. There is no such thing as democracy.”
Wise said injustice made him more angry than anything. “Whether it’s someone being hassled in the street to HSBC getting away with this. I’m the least violent man you’ve ever met, but I will plough into fights in the street to stop someone being set upon. Days afterwards I’m a mess because I hate violence.
But I cannot see injustice.”
He added: “Yes, I’ve got my basic north London leftwing woolly ideas about what’s going on. [Companies like] HSBC haven’t even been slapped on the wrist [because of this] beautiful grey area between avoidance and evasion. It’s iniquitous. We need to do something – come on!”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/25/emma-thompson-greg-wise-tax-boycott-hsbc-scandal
That explains how he got the book deal - tax favors.
"An International Business Times review of New York state documents reveals that News Corporation gave Cuomo a book contract after Cuomo’s administration backed a series of state initiatives that benefited the media giant.
One of the initiatives was a bill that created a special sales tax break for online-only publications that charge for subscriptions. News Corporation, which was one of the two companies that lobbied for the bill, was at the time investing tens of millions of dollars in such a publication. Another initiative was a special tax exemption that Cuomo’s administration created for electronic books, which are sold by, among others, HarperCollins. State records list News Corporation as lobbying Cuomo’s tax department in the months before the exemption was announced. And, while News Corporation lobbied the governor’s office in 2012, Cuomo championed an expansion of controversial film and television tax credits that have benefited News Corporation’s films, and that News Corporation had lobbied for in the past."
http://www.ibtimes.com/book-deal-andrew-cuomo-backed-bills-helped-news-corporation-1827328
It was the settlement that, IMO opinion anyway, was bad. That settlement is entirely on the judge and attorneys (and maybe to some extent the original plaintiffs), not the city council or the mayor or any politician.
Garodnick helped choose the attorney, knowing full well she played for the other team. He is culpable there too.
it is a tenant versus rebny / rebny owned pols fight.
And no politician in NYS is more of a REBNY owned politician than Dan!!!
I would rather Albany miss the budget deadline then continue to screw up the allocation of taxpayer dollars. We need Preet to do a little more cleaning up of Albany before these guys have anymore say in NYState.
REBNY is playing hardball
MetCouncil is making a solid stance
PCVST is not even in the game
PCVST is completely quiet on 421a, on the Met Council protest, on supporting Mike Mckee, completely silent. All we have heard from the TAboard is on the vaguely defined "affordable housing" plan that only provides luxury housing and 20% poor door housing -- creating a Tale of Two cities.
MetCouncil is fighting for the working class.
PCVST TA and Dan are pushing luxury condos and poor doors in PCVST.
?
Wasn't someone saying Barclay's center is a disaster waiting to happen?
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/02/24/construction-worker-at-barclays-center-crushed-to-death/
Can these guys get the J-51 tax break while running a campus dorm for thousands of students?
Republicans take a position
Democrats never do
Republicans stand firm
Democrats will always compromise their constituents onto a middle ground
Republicans will always get their way by going to the extreme when their desire was always the middle ground.
We need a Mayor who takes a position, the one he campaigns on.
http://observer.com/2015/02/bill-de-blasio-declines-to-take-position-on-controversial-tax-break/
And no politician in NYS is more of a REBNY owned politician than Dan!!!
It's comments like that, by February 25, 2015 at 5:21 PM, that reinforces my opinion that a lot of the commenters on this site are either clueless or cranks with an axe to grind.
Common Cause/NY took a look at REBNY’s political contributions from 2011 through 2013 and found that over 73 percent went to state candidates outside of NYC. The State Senate was their top target and of that money, 75 percent went to Senate Republicans.
REBNY contributed $1.99 million to Governor Cuomo from 2011 through 2013.
NYPIRG says that in 2014, REBNY was the third-largest outside PAC spender in NY. REBNY President Steven Spinola said they spent thart money on candidates for State Senate Senate who'd "work in Albany to create jobs and increase economic opportunities for all New Yorkers.” Ha ha.
9:37 Sure! Plenty of tax breaks for those who are at the Mayor's house (along with the other honest politicians of NYC) for drinks this weekend.
It works!
File Noise Complaints with 311 and give the noisy neighbor's name and apartment number. The report gets sent to the 13th precinct. Do Not Try To Work It Out With Your Neighbor Yourself. Neighbors know the are loud and will almost always retaliate, stomping on your ceiling, getting louder and doing so more often. They know they are being rude. Report it to 311 with their name.
"Same here. We have had to BEG for heat almost every day this winter and we usually don't get it until late afternoon or early evening. They are the greediest, most venal bastards and only marginally above the status of slumlord."
Not that I would ever defend this landlord but I am not sure greed is the issue. I am pretty sure it is incompetence. I say this because my apartment is soooo hot I haven't been able to shut my windows or I would roast to death. The heat is so strong in my apartment it is stifling.
We never used to have so much trouble with the heat when MetLife ran this place and they were not the most generous of landlords. This despicable, monumentally venal and incompetent outfit is freezing us to death! Is this the way they churn the apartments? I have a friend who is a broker (she doesn't have anything to do with this dump because she's legit) and she is sending out warnings to all her colleagues about this shithole. Nobody in their right mind would move in here if they knew what it is really like.
STR - More and more I am enjoying your gift with words and witty headlines.
Republicans are a lot like fascists. They usually have a simple agenda which their adherents support lockstep. The platform is pretty simple-no taxes, no regulations, no worker protections, and, ultimately, benignant plutocratic rule. The democrats dont have it so easy, they have to listen to varying viewpoints and seek to address a multiplicity of issues from an endlessly nuanced constituentcy. Sometimes you do have to envy the simple world of our right wing bretheren, they have it all figured out-let the hedge fund managers rule, kick out the immigrants, repeal roe v wade, stockpile munitions, and everything will be allright.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/02/25/protesters-storm-sen-skelos-li-office-over-property-tax-program-for-wealthy/
Protesters Storm Sen. Skelos’ LI Office Over Property Tax Program For Wealthy
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – Protesters stormed Sen. Dean Skelos’ Nassau County office Wednesday to demand he stop his support for tax breaks for luxury condo apartments in New York City.
Chanting “Help homeowners, not millionaires,” more than a dozen protesters tried to get their voices heard at Skelos’ office, 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera reported.
“We need the billionaires to stop getting the tax breaks,” said Diane Gowens, of New York Communities for Change.
Protesters want Skelos to stop letting multi-million-dollar condos, like those at the One57 building in Manhattan, get out of paying most real estate taxes while Long Islanders pay double or triple the amount, River reported.
“We are now — in Long Island — considered the most expensive place to live in the country,” homeowner Dennis Jones said. “And yet we have billionaires and millionaires paying less taxes than we do. It’s appalling.”
Jones said said his property taxes are $16,000 a year while condo skyscrapers in Manhattan pay a fraction of that.
Skelos was not in the office at the time, so the protesters promised “We’ll be back.”
To February 25, 2015 at 7:36 PM.
I'm a Tenants Association building representative. We have bi-monthly meetings with the Tenants Association leadership. The one in early February had Mike McKee. He spoke to us for about an hour about what we'll have to do to renew and fix rent regulations in June and about 421a. A woman from TenantsPac spoke after Mike McKee. STPCV Tenants Association will be coordinating with Mike McKee and other Tenants Groups. I just got an email blast from the Tenants Association about a rally this Monday at 9am on the steps of City Hall and a city council hearing after. The email said there will be more events and information related to rent regulation renewal coming.
er, how about someone takes a stand on the renovated apartment and upgrade rip off thanks to Dhcr.
How bout someone exposes the corruptness of that? No way should 1/2 these apartments be going from $1200 a month to 3500.
duh.
5;57 - link us to the condos that pay a fraction of that? I'm looking at buying condo here and the property tax on just 850 sf is 12k.
please link.
MET LIFE MET LIFE MET FUCKING LIFE.
DON'T SPEAK ANOTHER WORD ABOUT MET LIFE. THEY ARE THE ENTITY THAT SOLD US OUT FOR 5+ BILLION.
THREW US UNDER THE BRIDGE. DON'T EVEN POST THE NAME.
It's not even 9 pm; it's 26 degrees outside and the filth that "runs" this place has turned the heat off. May they rot in hell.
TOTALLY CO0MPLETELY FU*KIN AGREE
Anonymous said...
er, how about someone takes a stand on the renovated apartment and upgrade rip off thanks to Dhcr.
How bout someone exposes the corruptness of that? No way should 1/2 these apartments be going from $1200 a month to 3500.
duh.
February 27, 2015 at 3:20 PM
February 25, 2015 at 8:20 AM Yeah Vallone and that 1994 City Council (NOT members from Manhattan, though) led the way, but the real damage was done at the state level in 1997. Because of Urstadt, the CC can't end vacancy decontrol until the state does and this CC would do that in a heartbeat if it could.
As a stock holder in MetLife I would have been appalled had they not accepted a deal that netted them twice what the project was worth. Only a fool would blame MetLife for that.
Since the TA took down the main references to the Brookfield deal from its site, I've been waiting for some new focused agenda to emerge. I saw the email about the rally.
"Kickoff event: Monday, March 2, at 9 a.m.
Rally on the steps of City Hall.
Attend hearing afterward, City Council chambers, 2nd floor."
This struck me as approapriate but rather lazy. If the TA were really focused, there would have been a Townhall meeting held open to all to discuss issues, positions, agenda and solicit feedback. If the TA wants
to win back dues paying members, it has to take steps like this.
Consider how many meetings the TA held, how many communications sent and how much effort was put into a website for the conversion deal. That's the kind of energy and focus we need to see for handling MCIs, heat, laundry issues and changing RS rules so that landlords don't benefit so much from rapid turnover (the kind generated by student rentals).
But this TA Board does not seem sufficiently motivated to deal with the familiar meat & potato issues. Only motivated by headline issues like the conversion (or now defunct non-conversion).
In addition to being more motivated by limelight issues, I'm afraid that STR is right. For the current TA Board the Brookfield deal is still in the wings and so long as that's the case, they will be compromised and aren't going to be forceful with CW/CR about much.
Yeah, stockholders have our Homes and Best interests in mind. Typical mentality. Go away.
February 27, 2015 at 9:36 AM It is either about time, too little too late, or just for show. I am guessing this blog lit a fire under them.
Either way thank you STR for bringing awareness to what is going on and motivating us all to speak out, stand up, shout, fight back.
10:11 Agree. You perfectly, clearly said our expectations of the TA. If I again join a TA it will be one as you describe and not rejoin a TA that acted as this one has these recent years.
10:11 AM Both Brian Kavanagh and Brad Hoylman discussed at length getting rent regulations renewed this June at the townhall TA meeting at the school on 20th St back in December.
10:09, I understand as a stockholder you want to maximize profits but perhaps one should be equally or more appalled by the illegal manner in which MetLife's profit was maximized: illegally de-regulating rent stabilized units while accepting J-51, public money, tax breaks.
"But this TA Board does not seem sufficiently motivated to deal with the familiar meat & potato issues. Only motivated by headline issues like the conversion (or now defunct non-conversion)."
"For the current TA Board the Brookfield deal is still in the wings and so long as that's the case, they will be compromised and aren't going to be forceful with CW/CR about much."
Don't really think that anything in your post could have been said more accurately or succinctly.
9:47...Sorry I don't recall any TA announcement about a town hall to discuss developing a strategy for changing RS. I vaguely recall a meeting for an update from DG about conversion. I don't recall this as a town hall but rather a regular TA meeting. There's a difference. I expect more of an open forum in a town hall with non-members openly invited.
Also if back in December...that could be as much as 3 months ago. How is something that is 3 months old rallying people to do something now?
In addition, the format of the TA meetings has generally been, they talk, we listen...all one way communication very controlled. In actuality, the most effective way for our representatives to react is we talk, and they listen.
I don't mind seeing defenses of the TA. I think that can be the beginning of something. But I think what I've said is true. Still I'm interested in anything more you have to say.
To Anonymous March 1, 2015 at 7:08 AM.
Excuse me but Mike McKee, TenantsPac, myself and the other Tenants Association building representatives I know are not doing anything "for show." A number of people in the Tenants Association leadership work directly with Mike McKee. That was just plain nasty.
You work for Met Life and / or own the stock. Nice that you consider the tenants best interest. not.
dcf said....
Did MetLife do that? No Tishman Speyer did that. Only the knucklehead that thinks Met should be blamed for accepting a great deal is saying that. If you were selling your house and someone comes along and offers you twice what its worth wouldn't you take the deal? I'm not saying I like what TS did but I never brought TS into the conversation. It was about MetLife. Period.
"Yeah, stockholders have our Homes and Best interests in mind. Typical mentality. Go away."
I hope you're letting someone else manage your retirement funds!
Is there a way of finding out how a councilperson votes on issues? I have searched through the City Council website and it is very incomprehensible to me. Maybe somebody else could navigate it, but not this gal! I would like to see how Garodnick votes.
There's a way to navigate it (I think I did it once!), but it's not a smooth process for sure, unless someone knows differently. Every councilperson should have a list of his/her votes on their individual websites. Does Garodnick have that?
>>Excuse me but Mike McKee, TenantsPac, myself and the other Tenants Association building representatives I know are not doing anything "for show." A number of people in the Tenants Association leadership work directly with Mike McKee. That was just plain nasty.<<
I respect McKee, but that's about it. Will not go to another TA rally because, sorry, I don't respect the TA administration.
Well thanks to nyc and stuytown eating up all the income, how could one have any retirement fund?
happy for you that you do not. Go back to Met life tow ork. you're no doubt a pathetic Employee of Met life!
0:09, I understand as a stockholder you want to maximize profits but perhaps one should be equally or more appalled by the illegal manner in which MetLife's profit was maximized: illegally de-regulating rent stabilized units while accepting J-51, public money, tax breaks.
THIS THIS THIS. & yet, no one talks about this. No one talks about all the apartments here still held by Met Life employees (illegally) as half are not even living in NY.
"For the current TA Board the Brookfield deal is still in the wings and so long as that's the case, they will be compromised"
The word is "conflicted"
The TA entered into a partnership agreement with Brookfield, a $25 million investor supporting and cheerleading Speyer's 4-year, take no prisoners war against ST-PCV's historic, middle class community. Our family was dragged into court eight times based on false non-primary residency accusations. Thousands of longstanding RS and incoming MR residents were forced out of their homes. The ST-PCV physical complex was destroyed. Brookfield is directly responsible for all that Hell, including the aftermath filled with uncertainty and a permanently reduced quality of life.
Brookfield's $25 million loan to Speyer remains actionable. Their direct investment supporting Speyer's predatory business plan that destroyed ST-PCV should automatically disqualify them from participating in any future endeavor with ST-PCV residents to preserve what's left.
TA partner Brookfield is a major 421a beneficiary spending millions every year lobbying and bribing politicians to kill RS. Now Brookfield fades into the background and the TA wears a tenant superhero costume, calling on ST-PCV residents to rally around it as it leads our battle to strengthen RS and curtail 421a abuses by REBNY predators like TA partner Brookfield.
The TA cannot have its cake and eat it too. They cannot, at least not with a straight face, play on two opposing teams at the same time. The TA cannot betray their ST-PCV neighbors and constituents one day, then betray their predatory REBNY member and business partner Brookfield the next day. ST-PCV tenants are fighting for their homes, lives and futures. The stakes are too damn high for the TA to continue treating us like fools for another three years.
The TA-Brookfield partnership is conflicted and indefensible.
Until the partnership is dissolved and their predatory, unaffordable Brookfield condo scam is abandoned, this illegitimate TA does not merit any support whatsoever from ST-PCV tenants. We need honest representation and don't have it.
To Stuy Town Reporter on March 2, 2015 at 3:28 PM.
Fine, but the rally that took place today at City Hall that was referenced in my earlier comment was sponsored by Mike McKee's Real Rent Reform Campaign, not the Stuy Town Peter Cooper Tenants Association. Most, if not all, of the rallies being held between now and June 15 will be sponsored by the Real Rent Reform Campaign and promoted here in Stuy Town and Peter Cooper by the Tenants Association, just as other tenant associations across the city will do for people in their buildings and communities. Hopefully that will not prevent you from promoting them on your blog or attending in person.
>>Brookfield's $25 million loan to Speyer remains actionable.<<
I wasn't aware of this. Is there any online documentation?
>>Fine, but the rally that took place today at City Hall that was referenced in my earlier comment was sponsored by Mike McKee's Real Rent Reform Campaign, not the Stuy Town Peter Cooper Tenants Association. Most, if not all, of the rallies being held between now and June 15 will be sponsored by the Real Rent Reform Campaign and promoted here in Stuy Town and Peter Cooper by the Tenants Association, just as other tenant associations across the city will do for people in their buildings and communities. Hopefully that will not prevent you from promoting them on your blog or attending in person.<<
My disdain for the TA administration is at an all time fever pitch, so I don't know if I'll be attending any rallies where the TA will be around. I should also note that if tenant protections evaporate, there would be so much noise from the residents of this city who are under those protections that Occupy Wall Street will seem like a child's birthday party.
"My disdain for the TA administration is at an all time fever pitch"
Did something new recently happen to escalate to a fever pitch that the community doesn't yet know about? We have been at fever pitch since 2007, what brought you here?
I think it's appropriate to give an organization like the TA a chance to show of what value it is to residents, and another chance, and then another after that. But I'm at the point right now where all the chance cards have gone, been used up.
Us too.
Stuy Town Reporter on March 2, 2015 at 11:48 PM.
Refusing to attend rallies and other actions that the Real Rent Reform Campaign and other tenants groups are planning because our tenants association is promoting them is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
If you are content to see rent regulations merely extended, so are landlords. The combination of vacancy decontrol, the 20% vacancy bonus, individual apartment renovation increases and MCIs is lethal. And it will noiselessly kill rent regulation sooner than you think.
>>Refusing to attend rallies and other actions that the Real Rent Reform Campaign and other tenants groups are planning because our tenants association is promoting them is cutting off your nose to spite your face.<<
I don't think so, but even if that were true, that's the way I feel now. The TA has been a failure in regard to ST/PCV, affordability, etc. Ditto Dan the Man with whom the TA is joined at the hip. At this point, I don't trust any politician or any group, and, more importantly, based on the past results and the connections even the TA and Dan have with the REBNY, I don't care. Buses heading to Albany with a few tenants, or a small group of tenants at City Hall, is not going to do anything except give photo ops to the politicians. Perhaps to get real change, there has to be a real crisis that will wake up the rent-stabilized tenants of the city, something that will compel everyone to say, "Enough is enough!"
We have a real problem here with the TA and I don't see any solution or alternative emerging. I'd like to do something to help. I just don't know what.
"I should also note that if tenant protections evaporate, there would be so much noise from the residents of this city who are under those protections that Occupy Wall Street will seem like a child's birthday party."
Outside of Manhattan, the vast majority of NYC tenants under NYS RS law are people of color (working class) who generally don’t vote in any election except (maybe) the Presidential ones. Both of these factors contribute to REBNY not being afraid of them.
Inside this community, the vast majority of RS long term tenants here are the seniors who are docile, terrified of management, ill-informed and vote against their own interests and the Baby Boomers, ditto. When I say vote against their own interests, I mean as in Giuliani, Pataki, Bloomberg, etc. Not that the Democrats are much better, they are corporate shills as well. But the Republican are cooperate shills to the 10th power who believe in ZERO residential housing regulations.
Per my reasons stated above, your point being that there could be a OWS type revolution if NYS RS is allowed to die I think is rather small. "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper."
Anyway, as has been pointed out, keeping the NYS RS law as the status quo is a death sentence for affordable housing here as well. It will just take a little longer. Back to my depression meds. And my white noise machine and earplugs. And my rage because, after all, I'm still just a rat in a cage.
Stuy Town Reporter on March 3, 2015 at 11:04 AM.
The real crisis is already here.
I'm sticking with McKee. Nihilism is not a solution. Further discussion is pointless.
Well said.
Sorry to hear of your court harassment.
Anonymous said...
"For the current TA Board the Brookfield deal is still in the wings and so long as that's the case, they will be compromised"
The word is "conflicted"
The TA entered into a partnership agreement with Brookfield, a $25 million investor supporting and cheerleading Speyer's 4-year, take no prisoners war against ST-PCV's historic, middle class community. Our family was dragged into court eight times based on false non-primary residency accusations. Thousands of longstanding RS and incoming MR residents were forced out of their homes. The ST-PCV physical complex was destroyed. Brookfield is directly responsible for all that Hell, including the aftermath filled with uncertainty and a permanently reduced quality of life.
Brookfield's $25 million loan to Speyer remains actionable. Their direct investment supporting Speyer's predatory business plan that destroyed ST-PCV should automatically disqualify them from participating in any future endeavor with ST-PCV residents to preserve what's left.
TA partner Brookfield is a major 421a beneficiary spending millions every year lobbying and bribing politicians to kill RS. Now Brookfield fades into the background and the TA wears a tenant superhero costume, calling on ST-PCV residents to rally around it as it leads our battle to strengthen RS and curtail 421a abuses by REBNY predators like TA partner Brookfield.
The TA cannot have its cake and eat it too. They cannot, at least not with a straight face, play on two opposing teams at the same time. The TA cannot betray their ST-PCV neighbors and constituents one day, then betray their predatory REBNY member and business partner Brookfield the next day. ST-PCV tenants are fighting for their homes, lives and futures. The stakes are too damn high for the TA to continue treating us like fools for another three years.
The TA-Brookfield partnership is conflicted and indefensible.
Until the partnership is dissolved and their predatory, unaffordable Brookfield condo scam is abandoned, this illegitimate TA does not merit any support whatsoever from ST-PCV tenants. We need honest representation and don't have it.
March 2, 2015 at 6:37 PM
YUP
If you are content to see rent regulations merely extended, so are landlords. The combination of vacancy decontrol, the 20% vacancy bonus, individual apartment renovation increases and MCIs is lethal. And it will noiselessly kill rent regulation sooner than you think.
March 3, 2015 at 9:10 AM
And YUP
I don't think so, but even if that were true, that's the way I feel now. The TA has been a failure in regard to ST/PCV, affordability, etc. Ditto Dan the Man with whom the TA is joined at the hip. At this point, I don't trust any politician or any group, and, more importantly, based on the past results and the connections even the TA and Dan have with the REBNY, I don't care. Buses heading to Albany with a few tenants, or a small group of tenants at City Hall, is not going to do anything except give photo ops to the politicians. Perhaps to get real change, there has to be a real crisis that will wake up the rent-stabilized tenants of the city, something that will compel everyone to say, "Enough is enough!"
TOTALLY AGREE!!!!!!!!!!
"Inside this community, the vast majority of RS long term tenants here are the seniors who are docile, terrified of management, ill-informed and vote against their own interests and the Baby Boomers, ditto. When I say vote against their own interests, I mean as in Giuliani, Pataki, Bloomberg, etc. Not that the Democrats are much better, they are corporate shills as well. But the Republican are cooperate shills to the 10th power who believe in ZERO residential housing regulations."
I'm a boomer and a longtime resident here and I never did and never would vote for Giuliani, Pataki and Bloomberg.
O.T. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE POST SIGNS IN TEH BUILDINGS REMINDING TENANTS TO REMOVE SHOES----HEELS.
W.T.F. YOU'RE NOT PUTTING DOWN CARPETS OR TELLING ANYONE TO DO SO, THE LEAST MANAGEMENT CAN DO IS REMIND AL OF US TO REMOVE HEELS.
FUCKING MORONS.
>>The real crisis is already here.<<
The real crisis occurred years ago, it seems. So now we are seeing the outcome.
WE ARE SCREWED!!!
The rent is too damn high — and that’s just the half of it.
City residents are now shelling out nearly 60 percent of their income to live here, according to a new study by the website StreetEasy.
The median monthly city rent is set to hit $2,700 — or more than 58 percent of residents’ median income.
And surprisingly, Manhattanites aren’t the worst off.
Residents of Brooklyn must grapple with the highest median rent cost — 60 percent. They’re followed by those in The Bronx at 52 percent, Manhattan at 48.8 percent, Queens at 41.4 percent and Staten Island at 30.1 percent.
“Without a meaningful boost to incomes, New Yorkers will continue to put more and more of the monthly paycheck to rents,” warned Alan Lightfeldt, StreetEasy’s data scientist.
“Rent and income have been going in opposite directions, creating an increasingly unaffordable rental market.”
The dismal 60 percent figure is double federal guidelines, which suggest that a third of a household’s income be spent on rent.
The city’s housing crisis is so extreme that in December, 70,000 people applied for 38 affordable-housing units in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said Jack Nyman, executive director of the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute.
He warned that the city is in danger of becoming a “gated community” because of high prices.
WE ARE SCREWED!!!!
We need heat! They give us no heat all day long and they ignore our pleas! These people are monsters! I hope the heat breaks down int The Bunker and cannot be fixed till August!
Well then March 4, 2015 at 12:34 PM I think we should loudly tell all the politicians who have held political office for the past 13 years to FUCK OFF because we know they created this problem for us constituents and then played musical chairs trading political offices furthering their careers by filling their coffers with REBNY money and partying with REBNY to flaunt their SCREWING US.
Vote for no incumbents for any office anywhere - anyone who held office these past 13 years should not get our future votes for anything.
Heat... hmmmm I was talking to my dear df from Stuytown who claims she is sweating. She has to call to complain. Now I know why some have no heat. + the shit landlord.
post this on yelp people, post on FB. Why are you nagging here?
1:57pm: I will take your advice!
I have no intention of voting for any of the incumbents. I'll write in my own name, if necessary!
I find it troubling some of the pols know very well this community is unhappy with them and have been hearing from us for over a year, and have not addressed it, dispelled it, admitted or denied it, or even at all cared what this community thinks and feels. Whether or not they think our concerns are valid, they are real concerns and they should respond. Their silence this past year is very loud.
Thank you PCVST community for speaking out against your PCVST Tenant Association promotion of animal cruelty. The elephants will soon be free of this torturous circus.
Ringling Bros. eliminating elephant acts
By TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press
Updated 9:11 am, Thursday, March 5, 2015
http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/APNewsBreak-Ringling-Bros-eliminating-elephant-6116485.php
Most REBNY money went to upstate Republicans in the State Senate, March 4, 2015 at 1:57 PM. Unfortunately NYC renters can't vote them out of office.
Here's the NYC Campaign Finance Board list (2013) of City Council people who got donations from Jobs for New York, Inc., REBNY's PAC:
http://www.nyccfb.info/VSApps/IndependentSpenderSummary.aspx?spender_id=Z18&as_election_cycle=2013&cand_name=Jobs%20for%20New%20York,%20Inc
I don't see our Councilman's name on the list.
Dan's name doesn't have to be there. He's been getting donations from Big Real Estate whenever he runs for office.
Here you go:
http://www.nyccfb.info/searchabledb/SimpleSearchResult.aspx?election_cycle=2013&cand_id=721&cand_name=Garodnick%2c+Daniel+R
You may also want to go through this:
http://stuytownreport.blogspot.com/search?q=garodnick+donations
You ALSO may want to do a Google photo search for Dan at REBNY's annual galas.
dan's relationship with REBNY goes above and beyond donations
City Council race winners slam REBNY-backed PAC
“Save your money,” Lerner said, as if giving advice to the people behind the PAC, which include some of the industry’s biggest players such as Brookfield Office Properties, the Durst Organization and Jack Resnick & Sons.
“Leave the elections to the voters of New York City.”
- See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2013/09/16/city-council-race-winners-slam-rebny-backed-pac/#sthash.SOKw1nSp.dpuf
yes Brookfield is the biggest player behind the REBNY pac
http://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/the-influence-traders/
Capalino
STR
I didn't know I was talking to you. I thought I was replying to the poster who was talking about REBNY money. REBNY funnels all its PAC contributions through Jobs for New York, Inc. You provided links from a bunch of small individual contributions which is the traditional way pols running for office anywhere in the USA do it.
You can comb through each name on the pages and pages of small donors you linked to if you want, you're the "reporter." Get back to me if you find something.
STR, surely if we DON'T vote for a candidate, it doesn't matter how many REBNY shekels he/she has pocketed?
11:43 are you serious? Do you know who Brookfield is? They are the PAC
This community was thrown away so PCVST could be given to the REBNY PAC biggest backer.
"Thank you PCVST community for speaking out against your PCVST Tenant Association promotion of animal cruelty. The elephants will soon be free of this torturous circus."
This is good news, but it's not enough. ALL animals should be removed from circuses. None of them is meant to "performing" for stupid idiots who pay to see such a spectacle. Their "training" consists of brutality and terror.
11:43 this community is not stupid. Stop talking to us like we are. We see through the REBNY Brookfield scam. We know who Mary Ann Tighe is and what she did to Robert's Ruling. We know Brookfield is a major force in REBNY. We know we were handed to the enemy and that is why there are no more middle class here. Shame, they were some of the nicest people.
When you think about it, why would any business continually contribute to any politician unless expecting and getting ongoing favorable treatment.
Read about DeBlasio's alliance with our favorite Piece of Shit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/nyregion/mayor-bill-de-blasio-and-developer-rob-speyer-are-close-but-not-on-affordable-housing.html
>>I didn't know I was talking to you. I thought I was replying to the poster who was talking about REBNY money. REBNY funnels all its PAC contributions through Jobs for New York, Inc. You provided links from a bunch of small individual contributions which is the traditional way pols running for office anywhere in the USA do it.
You can comb through each name on the pages and pages of small donors you linked to if you want, you're the "reporter." Get back to me if you find something.<<
What point are you trying to make? That Garodnick is free of Big Real Estate contributions? He's the "Million Dollar Man" in contributions and a significant chunk come from real estate, not Gino the Pizza Man. I provided you the links to prove my case. I don't have to do more reporting on this. Thank you.
>>Read about DeBlasio's alliance with our favorite Piece of Shit:<<
Main paged. Thanks!
March 5, 2015 at 7:21 PM
REBNY traditionally focused its money on candidates for state office, not in NYC. The city has pretty strict campaign finance laws that made it hard for REBNY to gain much influence on local races. And maybe more importantly, issues like rent regulations and 421a tax breaks that affect NYC are decided at the state level. The Supreme Court's ruling on Citizen's United in 2010 changed all that.
In 2013 REBNY took advantage of Citizens United for the first time and formed a PAC called Jobs for New York, Inc that flooded millions of dollars into almost half of the council races, the ones that they thought they could win, with the obvious intention of influencing council members (they did not contribute to Dan G's campaign). The City Council can close the so-called LLC Loophole that allowed all that post-Citizens United REBNY PAC money into City Council races. See here for more info: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130717/BLOGS04/130719910/real-estate-exploits-loophole-in-election-effort
Put pressure on Dan Garodnick and the mayor. Call their offices to demand that the city close the LLC Loophole and take REBNY PAC money out of our local races. We can make that happen.
REBNY's Jobs for New York also spent millions on upstate Republicans running for State Senate. It'll be harder to close the LLC Loophole at the state level since we can't put pressure on those upstate Republicans in the State Senate. Cuomo actually introduced a bill to close it, but it conveniently died on the vine. We should still try. Call, or even better, write Cuomo. And Brad Hoylman and Brian Kavanagh. Tell them to close the loophole that allows PACs like REBNY to flood state races with influence money.
It's disturbing to see that Brookfield was such a huge contributor to the REBNY PAC in 2013. I'm gonna assume that it caught TA leaders by surprise and that they're disturbed by it too. I'm also assuming that there's a lot of discussion going on about it within the TA. I'd like to hear about it and intend to bring it up at the next TA townhall meeting.
At this point though, it doesn't look like CWCap has any interest in selling to Brookfield or the TA or anybody but its parent company.
He's the "Million Dollar Man" in contributions and a significant chunk come from real estate, not Gino the Pizza Man. I provided you the links to prove my case. I don't have to do more reporting on this. Thank you.
Bullshit. You make accusations, you back them up.
>>You make accusations, you back them up.<<
Yes, backed up and linked.
OK, I'm real-time looking now. They're almost all small donations in the $100 - $1000 range.
Starting on p1 your conspiracy involves a TA boardmember, the retired, teachers, lawyers from his old firm, a taxi magnate, an an investment management company, NY Eye and Ear Infirmary, a head and neck surgeon gave $4900!! (p3), college professors, FDNY attorneys, restauranteurs, a commodity trader, a self-employed tour director, a Y&R talent officer, 2 guys from a Cali tutoring company ($125/ea), a homemaker gave $300, then $500 more, an artist rep gives multiple small amounts, U.C.L.A.Chancellor ($200)...oh oh! OK here you go! Someone from Access Industries gave $2000 (Access’s industrial focus is in three areas: natural resources and chemicals, media and telecommunications, and real estate. It is the owner of the Warner Music Group. REAL ESTATE!!! I'm up to page 7 now. Unemployed, a couple venture capital guys giving %400/ea, more guys from the old law firm and a contractor, a Harvard Law School Lecturer and a Weight Watchers attorney, on page 8 someone from Zeckendorf gave $250, a bunch of NYU professors and here you go: a Developer, daniel Brodsky and his family individually give a total of $3700, some more retired, some lawers, two in the banking industry, a bunch of very small ones on p9 and a nice one from Bulgari the jewelry woman, $1000 from a real estate company, the Jewish Museum, p 10 has a retired woman giving multiple times, Cablevision, a realtor, some antitrust lawyers, teachers, airline exec, The Legal Aid Society, an executive recruiter...OK that's enough for me.
I only finished through the "C"s. You can comb through the rest if you want and good luck trying to prove your insinuations. What I found was a fairly large cross section of NYers giving mostly in the $100-$1000 range. Which is what pols have to do to get elected.
You're not good at research, are you? I'm the person who discovered, using that linked site, that Dan the Man was excepting more money from Big Real Estate Vornado than was allowed via "individual contributions." (Vornado is the company that wants to build a high rise where the Hotel Pennsylvania now stands, a high rise that would block the view from the west of the Empire State Building.) Of course, Dan went along in the City Council with this zoning change.
Look, I suspect you are a Garodnick shill, working for him or for the TA, who just doesn't want Dan the Million Dollar Man to be attached to real estate money, but he's in deep. Anyone who doesn't think that probably thinks that today was beach weather in the city.
Seriously, don't piss me off trying to camouflage the obvious because I'll post more about Dan the Man, and I don't think you'd be happy with that.
Wrong. I'm just somebody who doesn't think too much about how you operate.
Why hold back?
>>Wrong. I'm just somebody who doesn't think too much about how you operate.<<
Well, there's a million other places you can go to on the internet. Why do you hang around here?
Because you run a blog about the place I live.
Just a note to all-completed and mailed in paperwork for our apartment to the division of housing for suspected overcharges. Months have gone by, no news from them. I call and they say they are not processed yet. I email and no replies. Does anyone possibly have another way to find out why there is no investigations being handled for this type. Why have a DHCR, tell me.
Wrong. I'm just somebody who doesn't think too much about how you operate.
Nonsense. You post the same crap on every forum you can defending your boss. He's indefensible. He is the problem not the solution. Hopefully, for the sake of this community and city more than the 30% who wised up in his last re-election bid will wise up if he chooses to run for something else.
If Dan is innocent let him post not just his tax return but a copy of each 1099 he received. Let us see who is paying him!!
March 7, 2015 at 4:18 PM
Contact your state representatives. That's what they're for. Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh and State Senator Brad Hoylman. They should be able to help.
March 8, 2015 at 12:20 PM Ha ha, that's a good one. Actually I work in advertising.
Disgraced Sheldon Silver's publicly availability donor list probably looks very much like Dan Garodnick's.
That doesn't mean they aren't corrupt politicians owned and controlled by Wall Street and REBNY.
Corruption takes place in the shadows.
Tenants have commented with many good reasons not to trust REBNY and our councilperson's relationship with them and the REBNY lawyer he and the TA Board worked with the execute their plan to increase the rent roll, develop the open space, cut up, divide, allocate the 11,000 apartments.
Have we seen any dispelling or any addressing of any of the destructive acts against us, the HUGE rent roll increase, the HUGE decrease in open space?
What have we heard and seen from him?
Retaliation?
Revenge?
Are neighbors harassing, stalking, attacking neighbors?
We know they divided the community with their attempt at new stabilizers as if inflated "market-rate" equals "stability".
There is a call for a rent roll back.
That is what we should have gotten with Roberts.
A rent rollback is what we should get with an eliminated college campus bogus MCI.
A rent rollback is what we should get eliminating the overcharges from the renovation work. Where is the call for that audit?
A rent rollback is what we should get, a rent roll back, from the many ways they overcharge us.
And to the neighbors attacking, stalking, harassing RS neighbors, you should have criminal charges brought against you in every way possible for each and every bad act you committed against a neighbor in your scheme to buy your apartments. The harm you did or helped others do to them should come back to you tenfold.
This community went from one of generations with deep roots with 50 years of working middle class and corporate MetLife having kind relations to one with shallow greedy poor taste mickey mouse petty spiteful thieving landlord wannabes.
While some of my neighbors are decent kind people. Others have emerged as described above, having the ugliest of character.
We should demand rent rollbacks in every form. We are owed much more and must demand it. Screw the rent roll and the $4.7billion windfall for Brookfield and Fortress.
Neighbors harassing neighbors is hideous. Report it to authorities higher than campus security.
6:43 pm, you are right on every count. However, this is the first that I have heard of neighbors harassing neighbors. I know CR likes to harass us all with illegal inspections, no heat when it is bitterly cold and all the ways they find to dip their dirty hands in our pockets, whether it be bogus MCI charges or their venal nickle and diming of us. I haven't heard of neighbors harassing RS tenants though. Can you elaborate on that point, please?
Yes, what is this thing about neighbors attacking neighbors? That sounds hideous! What happened? Is it the noisy people being deliberately noisy?
Assume nonspecific comments seemingly coming from long term RS complaining of coordinated harassment by RS paying MR are posted by lobbying trolls attempting to incite generation warfare pitting tenants against tenants.
In different ways, we are all victims of CWCapital-Fortress and/or Garodnick-TA-Brookfield-Moelis-Paul Weiss. They are the predators and we are the prey they are killing. Don't be deceived into helping their lobbying trolls make the killing easy for them.
11:28 and 6:43 I agree with you both. However I do not think it is a good idea to give details on neighbor harassment on the internet on a site that is read by a lot of neighbors because it could fuel the harassment and it could impede the investigation into the harassment. It is probably best to just report it to authorities, security and outside places to report it too. Report it everywhere and let them investigate. Just my two cents.
It is good to know and let the community know that harassment is occurring but I would leave out posting further details on the internet. Best thing to do is let the community know to be careful of possible harassment, and to get the details on record with authorities to investigate. Try not to put details on the internet because it could escalate the harassment.
What post are you referring to? I see no tenant harassment by tenants here.
How does 311 work with Noise complaints? You call or go on line? They show up and or ? How is it resolved? Thank you. Having a serious issue with upstairs neighbor in Pcv. They won't get carpets. Donalda (lmao) claims they have carpets. Living under the elephants, I can swear by the words they HAVE NO CARPETS.
Mainly the posts are complaints now about stuff that nothing will be done about - no offense to Str. Ie. Laundry - location. Seriously? Tehre are like 7 within one to two blocks. Get some real issues that need fixing people.
Will you like schlep my like laundry to the like laundries that are like off property?
Another of his ilk
The ex-staffer added: “It’s pretty ridiculous that elected officials can use government money to promote themselves.”
http://nypost.com/2015/03/15/scott-stringer-takes-to-nyc-parades-for-self-promotion/
And this clown is the comptroller criticizing how everyone else is spending government money. This guy had the nerve last year to misuse NYPD to the point they quit his detail. I know we need to start thinking about a new Mayor but puhlease say this won't be the only other option.
Stephen Green S L Green a big coffer filler get a big REWARD that will go above current zoning rules. Zoning rules are changed for developers but are used against residents who were trying to protect quality of life in our lost Oval.
S L Green will also lower himself to the current person holding office whoever that may be, and pretend to be your friend and a sponsor for your cocktail parties.
http://allevents.in/new%20york/cocktail-reception-in-support-of-daniel-r-garodnick/319794018042429#
Cocktail Reception in Support of Daniel R. Garodnick
Time Tue Jan 10 2012 at 06:00 pm to Tue Jan 10 2012 at 08:00 pm Venue The Caulfield, 119 East 27th Street, New York, United States
THE REWARD
Mayor de Blasio’s top planners on Monday green-lighted plans for One Vanderbilt, a giant office tower to rise next to Grand Central Terminal. It’ll be the first fully new skyscraper to rise in the area in decades.
The City Planning Commission voted 12-0 to approve SL Green’s $1 billion 67-story tower between Madison and Vanderbilt avenues and between East 42d and East 43d streets. The slightly revised project reflects changes suggested by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.
The proposal is part of a Vanderbilt Avenue rezoning initiative to allow larger buildings in obsolescent East Midtown. It still must be approved by the City Council, which will likely vote in May.
Council member Dan Garodnick — whose blessing is crucial because the project lies with his district — is expected to scrutinize whether the 530,000-plus square feet of additional floor space SL Green wants above current zoning rules are justified by $210 million of public infrastructure improvements the developer has pledged.
They include new indoor and outdoor public space next to the terminal and improved transit access to the terminal and its subway lines.
But the vote by the CPC, headed by Carl Weisbrod, is a giant leap forward. One Vanderbilt now has the de Blasio team’s full backing as well as of business and labor organizations and transit-advocacy groups.
http://nypost.com/2015/03/31/bank-of-china-ready-to-lease-out-60-percent-of-7-bryant-park/
BTW the top article furthers China acquisition (along with Russia) of NYC. For how much longer can we call NYC and American city when the properties are owned by Russia, China, Brazil and the Middle East?
After Cuomo Silver Skelos city Hall City Council pass laws for REBNY, this is why Dan tells constituents "well it is legal" instead of at the same time writing laws for constituents, to protect constituents and our quality of life.
Preet Bharara: "Rulemakers often don't rush to change the rules they made to maximize profit and incumbency"
Nothing like being on the Second Avenue bus having your teeth and bones rattle as it
bounces over the potholes. Put some money into the decaying infrastructure and fuck the greedy freeloading developers.
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