CompassRock University

Yeah, you'll find our building managers are graduates of this "university."

It's a refurbished cigar factory in Tampa, Florida.

The joke is on us, I guess. Next time you contact your building manager, ask him or her about CompassRock University. Ask them if it's accredited. And in what exactly.

Embarrasing Turn-Out for "Door Knocking Kickoff Party with Dan Garodnick for Stronger Rent Regulations"

About 5 people, if that, showed up on Sunday at the Oval Cafe (!) to join Council Member Dan Garodnick and TA President John Marsh in a knocking-on-doors effort "to involve neighbors in the campaign to strengthen rent regulations." The turnout was so low that Dan had to involve his kids in the effort. (Cute photos, however.)

This effort reminded me of the TA failed presence at the 1st Ave leasing office in protest of mid-lease rent increases on the "new stabilizers" (ie, market rate ST/PCV tenants).

I have no idea what Garodnick and the TA are thinking. These mini-photo ops are worthless and embarrassing in the very low turnouts achieved. CW must be laughing their collective heads off at these limp attempts to motivate tenants.

When are the TA and Dan going to go after CW Capital in a major way and stop with these laughable, pathetic tactics?

Answer: Never, it seems.

Break Time

Chain Store City

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150418/us--nyc-saving_storefronts-ee226dc5df.html

New York is home to some of the world's most expensive retail real estate. Asking rents in the prime of Fifth Avenue have risen about 50 percent in five years to top $3,100 per square foot, or $6.2 million for a space the size of an average Starbucks, according to real estate firms CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield.

Manhattan landlords ask an average of about $94 per square foot per year, compared to $34 in San Francisco, $13 in Atlanta and $12 in Kansas City, Missouri, Cushman & Wakefield says.

National chains have expanded in New York City for six straight years, boasting 7,473 locations last year, according to the Center for an Urban Future, a public policy think tank.

More at the above link.

And this is what the REBNY thinks:

http://thevillager.com/2015/03/26/rebny-president-fires-back-says-shoppers-want-more-duane-reades/

The REBNY is rapidly destroying New York as we know it.

Question: Why does the TA have anything to do with the REBNY?

Question: Why does Dan Garodnick attend annual REBNY parties and is all smiley and friendly in that company?

Question: Why does Mayor de Blasio do likewise?

Pictured above: Steven Spinola, President of the REBNY, who is quoted a lot in the Villager.com article. Mayor de Blasio. Robbie Speyer, chairman of the REBNY and failed landlord of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village.

Do you despair over what's going on in ST/PCV?

One of the downers to a good mood, or one of just equilibrium, is to read on the TA Facebook page all the problems people are having here and knowing that nothing is being done to alleviate these problems. There are several nice things about living here, but they are always counterbalanced by the bad things. And we have been deserted by the powers that be--and that includes by the politicians.