PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POST WILL RECEIVE ADDITIONS TO IT PERIODICALLY.
CHECK FREQUENTLY.
Unless these have been updated, these are the room requirements for apartments in NYC, courtesy of the REBNY!....
http://www.nycblogestate.com/2010/09/what-is-room-in-new-york-city.html
Time to start measuring if you are in a renovated, wall-partitioned ST/PCV apartment!
From the above website: "Every room must have at least one window that opens onto a street, yard, or court on the same lot."
Hmm....
And here's another diagram of a similar Stuy Town apartment. This is taken directly from PCV/ST's official website today:
And the window in the "Living/Dining Area"?
------------
Interesting discussion at:
Some points being made:
"No, you forget that a class-a dwelling ( ie. a residential apartment)
needs to have a living room, which has to feature both at least one door
and one window and be at least 150sf (unless you have another room that
size.) That said, you can use your living room as a mancave, and use a
large storage space to watch TV. It won't be a 3 bedroom apartment.
It will be a 2 bedroom apt with a small living room and a large storage
closet."
"Legal issues aside, a windowless living room is downright depressing IMO, much worse than a windowless bedroom."
"I can't cite you the exact chapter of the building code, but there was a
lot of ink spilt when the city cracked down on illegal temporary walls
in roommate situations, a couple of years ago. An apartment is required
to have a living room to be a legal class-a dwelling, and a room must
have at least 2 means of egress, including a window, to be a legal room.
You also need at least one room to be 150sf."
Just be aware that that thread is three years old, but if the rules still hold....?
-----------
More info, from the time when Stuy Town was in the news regarding the removal of illegal wall partitions.
The money quote for us now:
“Keep in mind that the elimination of a common living room to create a
three-bedroom, zero living room apartment may result in a rooming-unit
situation that is not permitted by the Housing Maintenance Code,” Mr.
Sclafani [spokesman for the Department of Buildings] said. “In addition, since each apartment is generally required
to have at least one room of at least 150 square feet, the installation
of a partition may run afoul of this requirement in certain cases.”
----------
And here's the Code:
Are the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village living rooms partitioned with walls in compliance? You be the judge!
---------
More!
ST/PCV advertises their living room converted to bedroom space as "flex".... The above diagram advertises the apartment as a "2 Bedroom Flex," which means 2 bedrooms with one bedroom converted from a living room space. In reality, you are getting 3 bedrooms.
Now check out this site:
Which states:
"You’ll need a window. By law, in order for a room to be inhabitable, it must have a window. Make sure that wherever you’re going to build a wall, a window will remain in each room."
--------
And even more, including videos of a 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom flex:
---------
UPDATES: 7/16
This screen shot is taken from a YouTube upload from the official ST/PCV presence there: "StuyTown".
You can see that the wall partition here has windows at the top. The question then becomes does the use of these kind of windows comply with this: "Every room must have at least one window that opens onto a street, yard, or court on the same lot."
The full video is here: https://youtu.be/AkfgTP014FA
Also: Can these windows be easily opened?
------------
More: The above apartment seems to be, or has been, a model apartment to show prospective tenants if we go by the YouTube video below:
You will notice the furnishings are basically the same. But you will also see this:
This is an alcove/mini-room that is separated from the "living room" by French doors, and a portion of the previous living room, now additional bedroom, by a door. The only entry/egress, if all doors are closed, is the hallway that leads to the bathroom and other bedroom (the original 1 bedroom of the apartment). And there's definitely no window in this area. Not sure under what code this mini-space, with a chair and lamp, falls under.
----------------
UPDATES: 7/17
Here's a splendid look back at the first pressurized wall controversy in ST/PCV:
Note the August 19, 2008 entry, which states:
"And to get around the windowless thing, the living rooms have ceased
being called living rooms, thankyouverymuch. You may now refer to them
as 'foyers.'"
But, as you can see in recent diagrams, "foyers" are not mentioned.
---------------
NYC code: "A 'foyer' is a space within an apartment or suite of rooms used as an entrance hall directly from a public hall."
Now, take a look at this official PCVST video again:
Is that "foyer" (which is not called a foyer in diagrams) used as a simple entrance hall?
---------------
Here's a 1 bedroom converted to 2 bedroom, with a "living/dining area" (no foyer mentioned):
250 comments:
1 – 200 of 250 Newer› Newest»Nice carpeting.
wow. dob fdny dg ta dhcr all know that is not a legal living room so the number of bedrooms / size of apartment / rent charged must be willful with a lot of filthy dirty hands to deregulate and rob the city of affordable housing and rob tenants of hard earned pay. wow.
There is definitely something fishy with Cuomo Heastie Wright and the whole settling of the Riverton lawsuit and the third annual let's give ourselves an award "demmy" even though everyine is unhappy with the job we are doing and now arrest of a protestor. Arresting anyone who opposes him now?
Power hungry corrupt Albany is out of control, gone too far, too far gone. This is unacceptable and should be tossed back Albany's way with an arrest up there!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/activist-arrested-protesting-cuomo-manhattan-awards-article-1.2292361
TOTALLY ILLEGAL!
Good catch!
Now I have seen it all.
They taught NYU students how to get away with criminal construction and steal money from tenants forever.
How to Deregulate Housing 101
Yeah exactly.
The DOB approved construction of rooms they knew are illegal.
The FDNY approved rooms that are illegal.
The inspectors approved rooms that are illegal.
The DHCR approved rents they knew are illegal.
The TA had tenants sign a unity pledge that tenants would have the TA do all their talking to all city agencies including DOB and DHCR and the TA reported none of this and the TA did not tell new tenants they are being overcharged on an illegal room count. What kind of Tenant Association does that to its tenants? Who are you people? Did the TA really never inform tenants of any of this?
DOB approved thousands of these illegal rooms!
I think the laws still apply but then again Cuomo Schumer and Maloney pass laws for REBNY lightening fast.
Then SHAME on the FDNY for approving the windowless living rooms!
"wow. dob fdny dg ta dhcr all know that is not a legal living room so the number of bedrooms / size of apartment / rent charged must be willful with a lot of filthy dirty hands to deregulate and rob the city of affordable housing and rob tenants of hard earned pay. wow."
Oh Please, Preet, hurry up and drag all of this human filth off to the slammer with their dirty money-stained hands in steel cuffs. Boss Tweed would be so proud of them all.
We've repeatedly been told that the photo is the VERSION THAT NYFD approved. If this is not the case, can someone from FDNY clarify???????
>>Then SHAME on the FDNY for approving the windowless living rooms!<<
They may be in fire code compliance, but not in compliance with NYC Code.
There is no difference between standing at the front door and robbing me at gunpoint once a month versus robbing me with a rent stub. It hurts my family the same. A lot. Every rent stub with an overcharge should be its own incident of robbery. A whole year of overcharge should be 12 separate robbery crimes.
Really? Did they do a study on the effects of fire travel in this layout, for instance afire in the kitchen now that the living room is a long tubular vacuum especially if a bedroom window is open? I would like to see that FDNY study.
I'm pretty sure that the FDNY and DOB both signed off on the revised room configurations. My impression at the time was that our landlord and NYC skirted the windowless living room issue by calling it something else. Judging by the 2 schematics that appears wrong - it clearly says 'living room' in both. For sure there's a complicated legal justification that maybe Dan Garodnick's office could explain to you.
My impression is that they may have called it something else like a "foyer." However, the diagrams that brokers get and the current diagrams at the official Stuy Town/PCV page do not state that. Also, IF a living room is a necessity for House Maintenance Code, then a landlord can't get rid of a living room by calling it a foyer and having the apartment without a legitimate living room.
If someone wants to query Garodnick's office on this issue, they are free to do so. I'm not.
Also, if just the name was changed, and there's proof, then it's obvious that it was just changed to pass a code in an underhanded way. So what always was a "living room" is now "a foyer." You may as well call it "Mickey Mouse's Play Area." I don't think the courts would look kindly on this type of misrepresentation.
I don't care if lawyers for CW CompassRock Garodnick says it is legal. It is illegal, immmoral, unethical and disgusting.
omg, the putting up of walls is disgusting.outrageous pathetic.
Good luck challenging the overcharges. We, our neighbors and our inlaws have been trying for years. I bet they're in the round trashcan downtown.. oh, er ,yeah, it's pending.... we'll look into... um, yah. 4 YEARS LATER. 4 YEARS.
Wait, why would the FDNY approve if not safe?
DEFINITELY ILLEGAL
>>Wait, why would the FDNY approve if not safe?<<
As I wrote earlier, the set-up could pass a fire code, but not the city code. The DOB may be relying on what reports the contractor/landlord sends, not on a physical inspection. Just like when it's reported that adding another room does not change occupancy.
Some time ago, I publicly asked the TA to take a look at that "no change in occupancy" matter, and the TA ignored the request, as they have ignored it whenever it's been brought up on this blog or even on their own Facebook.
Will the TA ignore this "living room" issue?
What's the betting?
Sue their asses! Get your money back and more PCVST!
The TA is not on our side at all. It is a bogus organization that kisses the butts of politicians.
REBNY tells the politicians what to think, say and do
and the politicians tell the current PCVST TA board what to think, say, and do
ergo REBNY controls the TA board
thus the REBNY lawyer they hired.
Get rid of them all and get a new TA board.
No Window = No room
You really work so hard for us, STR. Thank you. Thank you very much.
With a TA board with members that have architect knowledge and real estate experience why didn't they stop this from happening to us?
No Window = No Room = No Rent Increase! Common lowlife thieves!
Just put up your own wall. WE did.
fdny did approve str. you can contact them and confirm.
I do not trust FDNY's word. I don't trust it when they say apartments with windowless rooms are safe. No way.
I trust the firefighters who put their lives on the line. I do not trust their leaders who rally and fund raise for anti-tenant groups as the REBNY.
When they do that they are selling out their communities and their men and women on the front lines.
When the FDNY and NYPD commissioners party and raise money for anti-tenant groups they are compromising their entire organizations, breaking the trust communities have with the officers and firefighters on the front lines.
The commissioners are causing the communities not to trust their organizations when they choose anti-tenant organizations over the communities the FDNY and NYPD serve. Absent of trust between communities and NYPD and FDNY puts all our lives at risk, the communities and the NYPD and FDNY on the front lines.
It is time for the Commissioners to stop partying with the REBNY and to start wholly serving the communities.
Thanks STR for this post and all your posts but especially for this one with all the information laid out for all the tenants. I am printing this and sliding it under my neighbors doors.
I agree that each individual rent stub with an overcharge is a separate criminal incident count.
Each time a landlord sends a rent stub with an amount they know is an overcharge is a robbery no different than if you came in our homes and took cash from our table. Landlord accountability and punishment should match their crime.
NY has very weak law enforcemers on landlord crimes and lets landlords get off with harassing us for challenging them, costing us when we challenge them, and landlords barely, rarely have to pay back what they took.
Who would arrest and prosecute this crime, the DOJ or FBI? Certainly not the NYPD.
It is f***in theft and robbery!
When landlords steal money from us it should be treated as anyone else who robs a bank or a person on the sidewalk at gunpoint.
It is the same type of criminal just using different tools.
I've seen partition walls that have a short rectangular window at the top, though I don't know if ST/PCV is using those now. But, even if so, the guidelines for what constitutes a "window" that passes the code would not be applicable from my understanding even in that case.
>>fdny did approve str. you can contact them and confirm.<<
Yes, apparently that's so, but, again, this violation (if it is a violation) could be a building code one and not a fire code one.
Off and on topic
NYC politicians and Dan made a deal with Verizon in 2008 (which included killing and tearing out our Oval) and surprise Verizon is not keeping its end of the bargain with a lot of excuses and finger pointing blame. NYC politicians are in over their heads when they negotiate with these business people.
This deal destroyed our Oval Tree Park for their concert series.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-criticizes-verizon-on-fios-delivery-1434578104
No it does not comply. Letting in light does not replace access to egress.
They gave away our Oval, killing trees older than grandparents, and Verizon is under no legal obligation to uphold its end of the deal to the NYC politicians.
Verizon has said publicly that once its current obligations are met, it has no plans to keep building out the FiOS network nationally. The company has used this line to justify its partnership with Comcast, which has been criticized as collusion. Analysts say the company is reorienting toward its more profitable wireless business, offering 4G service billed as broadband while selling off its copper wire network. Wall Street has even encouraged the company to divest itself of landlines and FiOS entirely in the light of booming quarterly returns for the wireless business.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/10/4819790/verizon-fios-contract-new-york-city-deadline-nears-cant-get-internet
And this sums up how bumbling and fumbling politicians are in business and why the people are always on the losing end when politicians get arrogant and try to negotiate with business executives. The CEO's laugh after the puffed-up politicians leave the room.
Politicians and Business People are completely different skill sets. As a former HR exec, this is why we have legal departments, accounting departments, and executive departments. Each has its own unique thought process and skill set.
"The city seems satisfied with how Verizon has held up its end of the bargain. When asked whether Verizon had met its contract obligations, the mayor’s office first asked The Verge what Verizon had said, then referred us to DOITT, which actually has the contract. DOITT referred us to the mayor’s office. When told that the mayor wasn’t commenting, DOITT suggested we speak with Verizon. When pressed, a spokesperson said, "We just don’t have anything to add here."
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/10/4819790/verizon-fios-contract-new-york-city-deadline-nears-cant-get-internet
The 2008 Verizon deal is a loser for New Yorkers!
If the windows can easily be opened would not matter to me. At almost 5'3" I am not tall enough to reach them let alone climb out in case of a fire or get my kids through that ceiling-high window.
Every room is supposed to have a window in an outer wall, so the French doors in the photo don't qualify. Again, these rooms comply with city code by legal sleight of hand. A "foyer" is not a room, and the city is willing to call these rooms foyers, enhanced foyers (entryways). However, The landlord's pitching them as living rooms. Maybe that's against the law, maybe not. I don't know. And again, that would probably require an answer from city government or our city councilman's office if someone cares enough to inquire.
You know, the DOB lists a lot of apartments where they removed the walls as if the walls were put in to illegally increase the rent, then they removed the walls but kept the new increased rent as the legal apartment rent which raises all sorts of red flags.
DHCR Darryl Towns are you reading this because we know what bad things DHCR is doing so we want a review of all the apartment rents in PCV and ST. You too DOB.
We are on Youtube?!?! CompassRock has to post Youtube videos to market us now? MetLife never had to market us.
This property management company, CompassRock increased their profits while they decreased the value and attractiveness of the property. Hire them at your risk. Did co-op city fall victim to these predators?
STR thank you. Thank you for doing all of this work, for informing all of us tenants, and for going public with all of this. We all know it is happening and we tried to report it but everyone we reported it to are also the ones doing it. Everyone in the city administration and political offices we reported this to gave us the same response - do you want to buy your apartment because if you do then this is what we must allow for now. Which turns out to be a bigger lie because now the price tag is insane and there is no way we are buying now. We spoke with former city council people and they all knew of the scam and told us of some others who moved onto other political offices now in other districts pulling the same shit on different neighborhoods all across the 5 boroughs. Helping themselves advance their careers by selling out NYC working class communities to "luxury" developers.
We are new here. We went to see the Tenant Association facebook page to get to know what they are about. We can't get past a sign in page. Do you have to be a member of the Tenant Association to see their facebook page?
I'm not a member of the TA Facebook page, but can read every post. But I am a member of Facebook.
RE:
"an answer from city government or our city councilman's office if someone cares enough to inquire."
Those are the people who are putting up the illegal walls so of course they are going to say it is legal even though it is illegal. But it is odd how they have not issued anything in writing about the legality of this so maybe they know they are caught and are burying their heads in the sand. The city council under Quinn (now with Cuomo administration) and the city administration under Bloomberg gave their blessing to the illegal wall scam to turn PCVST into luxury housing by the REBNY.
Too bad De Blasio can't just declare us as Penn South, go coop, turn back the rents to pre-illegal wall rents, and give 1 thousand rolled back apartments to returning veterans from the Middle East conflicts. That would be historic and a legacy to be proud of. I would even support naming those veteran buildings or the loops "de Blasio way"
In case I forgot to put my opinion in my comment, here is my opinion
The Rooms, the walls, the marketing, the rent charges are all ILLEGAL
We are not on Facebook and we just tried to see the TA facebook page but are blocked. I guess the TA only allows Facebook members to see their page. They really should let everyone see it and keep it open to the public if they wanted to use it to in efforts to protect tenants, but maybe they don't want the public to see the comments of unhappy tenants. They shouldn't hide that though. Why cover it up? Yeah the more we think about it the more we are bothered the TA facebook page is hidden from the public.
These links are great STR. They are a deceitful management company.
De Blasio seems to be standing up for NYC while Albany is screwing us. He is doing a pretty good job too considering Albany is vindictive and harsh. I have to give him props for that. Now if he could only clean up this luxury mess in Stuy Town. No way No how are those rooms compliant.
I keep asking myself 'how Garodnick could do all of this to his own community'. Reminds me of this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/nyregion/in-corruption-scandals-recurring-ties-to-a-developer-forest-city-ratner.html?_r=0
>>We are not on Facebook and we just tried to see the TA facebook page but are blocked. I guess the TA only allows Facebook members to see their page.<<
If you are not on Facebook, that may be the problem. As far as I know, the TA Facebook page is available for viewing to anyone who is a Facebook member, not specifically of the TA Facebook.
BTW, I am getting the periodic comment that I can't pass through because it is too "passionate" in certain references, if you know what I mean.
With all that is going on in NYC and PCVST with greedy landlords, PCVST is better served if the TA allowed their facebook page to be open viewing for all those who want or need to see what the TA says.
But suffice it to say you are not missing anything if you can't see it. STR's blog has more information and useful facts.
B4 I POST THIS ON ALL SMEDIA. STUY AND PCV HAS TO DO SOEMTHING ABOUT THE NON RESIDENTS USING OUR LAUNDRY ROOMS. CAN'T EVER GET A WASHER AS THE FOREIGN NANNIES, SPEAKING ZERO ENGLISH, are COMING IN AND USING THE WASHERS . IT'S A BUSINESS. WHAT THE FUCK.
Weren't there laws passed to prevent dangerous tenement conditions? Doesn't CW/CR and our sleazy councilman know about these laws?
Doesn't matter about dan and or cw in this case. FDNY approved this long ago. Don't you people remember????? Talked and talked and talked about this. CHECK FDNY
Okay, this is the THIRD time I'm going to write this. The FDNY could have approved the design for a fire code, but the apartment still could be violating building codes. Even with the approval of the FDNY, don't you think that should be checked?
What happened to the blog "Stuy Town Files?" I don't think I ever saw it before.
Not sure. Probably currently inactive.
Blogger Stuy Town Reporter said...
Okay, this is the THIRD time I'm going to write this. The FDNY could have approved the design for a fire code, but the apartment still could be violating building codes. Even with the approval of the FDNY, don't you think that should be checked?
July 17, 2015 at 1:43 PM
YES THAT SHOULD BE CHECKED AND DOUBLE CHECKED AND RETRO-CHECKED FOR ALL APARTMENTS WHERE THEY REMOVED THE WALLS
AND THE FDNY MIGHT NEED TO BE CHALLENGED/INVESTIGATED ON THEIR APPROVAL
The people who were supposed to protect the community and property ahem dg but looked the other way when the insane F bomb was filled in on the paperwork are corrupt as H.
F bomb = Foyer stink
In this day and age of so many laws and regulations to protect the safety and wellbeing of people, how do these landlords and politicians get away with so much that is illegal and dangerous? It just boggles the mind.
you can keep typing it, but if the FDNY approved the walls they are approved by the DOB. YES, INVESTIGATE IT PLEASE.
The FDNY got it wrong. Flat out wrong.
Stop treating the FDNY like they get everything right, like they are the all-knowing authority.
They made an error. Maybe on purpose.
Whatever. I"m not defending Fdny. I don't give a crap either way tbh, I'm just telling you that IF THE FDNY deems it safe and allegedly gave the flooplan restrictions to our landlord, then it will remain as so. Truth hurts for you i guess.
11 39. You are living in one of the most corrupt and democrat ruled states in the USA. Thats how. READ, GOOGLE. INQUIRE, VOTE.
>>you can keep typing it, but if the FDNY approved the walls they are approved by the DOB.<<
Okay, I'll play along. Let's say you are 100% correct. Is this a dead end that no one should go past, no one should investigate? What I've shown in this thread are numerous inconsistencies in "the rules" and what the reality is. As an example, let's just say that previous living room space, now cut, is called a "foyer" for legal reasons. Why, then, are not the floor plans following this legality? Is that a problem? Or.... does an apartment have to have a living room to be meet a certain classification? And just how do you know that all the apartments now being configured are strictly following the code allow by the FDNY years ago?
What I find amazing in an attitude like yours is the absolute unwillingness to investigate anything further. If it's there, then it must be legal. Move along, nothing to see here.
We've already witnessed in the Roberts case that when tenants push beyond "if it's there, it must be legal" something can be discovered and changed (despite tenants getting screwed by lawyers afterward).
When someone says "if it's there, it must be legal," my suspicions are aroused.
"approved by the DOB" is cause for alarm.
Now "approved by the FDNY" puts no one's mind at ease too.
Okay, I'll play along. Let's say you are 100% correct. Is this a dead end that no one should go past, no one should investigate?
I've made this same criticism before. Why are you always demanding that somebody else investigate something? Why don't you try to answer the questions that you've raised in this thread?
They ripped up the oval killed all those trees for fios, a technology which will be outdated in a few years replaced by Google wireless and all other wireless -- so corporate Verizon can squeeze a last few million out of selling a soon outdated technology product to city officials.
They ripped apart families out of PCVST apartments so they can install and sometimes remove illegal walls so hedge funds can turn a working class community into a luxury college dorm.
One bad decision after another.
Keep people in their homes.
Keep trees in the ground.
Keep working class communities working and housed.
>>Why are you always demanding that somebody else investigate something? Why don't you try to answer the questions that you've raised in this thread?<<
It should be obvious: Time and resources, both of which I don't have that much of. I would assume that the TA does have more than I do, but they completely ignore these type of issues. Don't they have a lawyer or lawyers they can turn to? I don't. And the TA would certainly have more pull in getting these questions answered than a single individual.
>>Truth hurts for you i guess.<<
Another: "If it's there, it must be legal."
The number of apartments with walls is in the thousands. That is at least tens of thousands of additional rooms in each building, in the complex all which should have been counted and calculated in the MCI room count on all mci charges between 2007 to now. The increase in the number of rooms should have had more impact on the mci divisions of charges for each household.
1. The point is in the questions raised and they are 100% the questions that need to be raised. It is not the duty of the person raising the questions to provide the answers. I guess with that response there are no more arguments left, the rooms are illegal and unsafe. Period.
2. "Truth hurts for you i guess." uggh. Letting complacency prevail by closing our eyes to corruption is not what we teach our kids and is not the world we want for our kids tomorrow.
STR, the TA could and should investigate. A TA worthy of being called a TA would investigate. Unfortunately, what we have that calls itself a TA is as corrupt as the landlord and politicians who have turned this place into what it now unfortunately is. I am not referring to the rank and file volunteers of the TA; I have the utmost admiration and gratitude for their efforts. I am referring to the "officialdom" of the TA, ergo, Steinberg, Marsh, et al. They are so far up Garodnick's behind they should all be proctologists and we know that Garodnick is the not the savior knight in shining armor that he would like us to think he is. Garodnick is not on our side. He is a Real Estate man with ties (and funding) from Big RE and Big Law. Maybe he entered politics for the right reasons, but that is not how he has continued. His ties to Big Law who make major bucks representing Big RE are undeniable and verifiable. It is very sad that he has such influence over what used to be a real TA. I've lived here long enough to remember when the TA was pro-tenant, proactive and, in fact, rather fierce in defense of the tenants and the quality of life here. They would drive the landlord up a tree and the landlord wasn't even all that bad then!
Bottom line: we have no representation either at the TA level or at City Hall. DeBlasio washed his hands of us for whatever reasons. Probably because he is much the same as Garodnick. Won't bite the hand that feeds him, no matter how dirty that hand is. I really don't hold out much hope of things getting better here unless, God forbid, something terrible happens that exposes the fraud, corruption and illegality of the business practice of CW/CR. I hope we don't have a fire or explosion because of all the dangerously configured, overcrowded apartments. I sincerely hope that someone with the power to do so (such as the AG or some investigative reporter or a whistle-blower) comes forward and exposes what is going on and gets the situations remedied before there is a catastrophe. We cannot depend the TA or Garodnick to do this. Quite the contrary.
It should be obvious: Time and resources, both of which I don't have that much of. I would assume that the TA does have more than I do, but they completely ignore these type of issues. Don't they have a lawyer or lawyers they can turn to? I don't. And the TA would certainly have more pull in getting these questions answered than a single individual.
This puts you in the position of calling the tune. You call it and expect the TA, in this case, to dance. Then you get pissed off and call them out on it if for whatever reason they don't.
Raising questions is good. In this case there's an answer that Dan Garodnick sure as shit ought ought to be able to explain to you. Please, call anonymously if you have to, say you'll call back if they need time to answer. If you don't, we'll get left with conspiracy theories and speculation.
It is not an attitude of it 's there and must be legal. We've - many many of us - have given up. why ca't you see that. we know it's illegal. we have no one.
NO TA
NO honest DHCR
No honest DOB
No honest NYPD
really? do I need to continue the probability of rights for tenants in NYC now 2015?
AAAAANND AAAAGAIN
Filings show Kiryas Joel money flowed to Cuomo after veto
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/07/8572342/filings-show-kiryas-joel-money-flowed-cuomo-after-veto
It is important to raise the questions and raise the awareness. I support STR on this one. This is a lot of useful information that collectively is very telling.
How did all the city and FDNY officials and politicians think the community here is too stupid not to call them out on this? Yes a lot of people everywhere including one commenter here are complacent, busy, tolerant, and trusting our officials to do their job. But this community is not stupid.
The officials and politicians are not doing their jobs. They are doing work for the REBNY, tearing apart this community.
It is a disgrace. All the political lawmakers should be ashamed of what they are doing to their constituents and communities.
Thank you STR for raising the questions the politicians and officials need to publicly answer on record.
>>This puts you in the position of calling the tune. You call it and expect the TA, in this case, to dance. Then you get pissed off and call them out on it if for whatever reason they don't.<<
I'm not a conductor or band leader. I'm just a guy with a ST/PCV blog and limited time and resources. If the TA takes offense at my request to investigate certain issues (and the requests of others) to the point of turning its back on those issues, then what a pathetic TA. When the TA does something effectively pro-tenant here, I go along. The TA should "man-up" and stop ignoring or whining.
>>Raising questions is good. In this case there's an answer that Dan Garodnick sure as shit ought ought to be able to explain to you. Please, call anonymously if you have to, say you'll call back if they need time to answer. If you don't, we'll get left with conspiracy theories and speculation.<<
1) I don't trust anything Garodnick or his office would state. 2) My phone number can be easily seen on the receiving end, and I'm sure Garodnick's office has all their phones set up that way. But, primarily, it's reason number one. Sorry, but I have little respect for Our Man Dan. He may be a nice guy and a great family man and push for nice things like a lunch area in Manhattan with a mini-waterfall, but that's about it.
This is where the TA comes in. The TA should be independent of any politician, and pursue any issue where the landlord may be overstepping his/her bounds.
Very recently ex-TA president John Marsh, who I'm sure still has pull in the TA, praised on the TA Facebook both CW and Garodnick, the latter for "It's Smart to Be Dense." Bewildering and dismaying.
John Marsh gets his opinions from Dan Garodnick. Ever ask Marsh what he thinks of something? He says let me see what Dan says and I'll get back to you. During his entire "Presidency" of the TA board John Marsh was never on the side of tenants, except for a few PR stunts for show. The midlease increase protest was unnecessary since the deal addressing it was already made behind closed doors. There. I said it. That is why we did not go to the protest. It was for show.
For show or not, that protest was a complete failure. Then, as well as now, you can't get much reaction from our tenants, and more and more of them are just transient students. Why would they care?
This is where Tishman-Speyer and CW won. They were able to effectively erode the true tenant base for years. That's why the only smart course is to take the landlord to court. The TA as a sizable body which can make an impact in other ways, like protests, is no more. Finito Benito.
The TA knows the protests don't / won't work and that is all they keep forcing on tenants, more protests. No real action. The TA has dirty hands too.
I am most disappointed in Al Doyle who went along with John Marsh and Dan Garodnick. I never thought Al would do that. I thought he would have been the loudest one in the corner of tenants. The whistle blower I guess you call it.
I'm just a guy with a ST/PCV blog and limited time and resources. If the TA takes offense at my request to investigate certain issues (and the requests of others) to the point of turning its back on those issues, then what a pathetic TA.
You say you've got limited resources. I'm not with the TA. I'm not even a member. But it's probably a safe bet to suggest they may have the same problem you do. Nevertheless, you just made it clear in your comment that they'll get hammered on your blog if they don't jump when you say jump, limited resources or not.
Why exactly do you expect the TA to jump on this particular issue? if I'm not mistaken, it was the TA that brought up the problem with the pressure walls years ago. I don't remember how they brought it up (lawsuit?), but the issue was also resolved years ago. Not to my satisfaction or yours or maybe the TA's, but to FDNY's and the DOB's. Like I said, Garodnick or the TA should be able to explain the resolution to you, but your other comment indicates that you made the decision way back when to run your blog with one hand tied behind your back so you can't do that.
Again, the TA has the information. If they choose to not pursue it because I'm supposedly too insistent that they do something, then that is, again, pathetic. The TA should be pursuing all avenues in matters of the landlord possibly screwing around with the apartments here and the rents that evolve out of that. More concerned than if a blogger is pressuring them to do so, and then responding with stubbornness because of such pressure! That's very childish. And surely the TA has more resources, and access to resources, than I do! The TA can even ask Dan, with whom they have a close relationship. (Though, hopefully, not just ask him and then drop the issue.)
Come on, get real.
How deep and wide is the corruption on the real estate deal in Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village that no one has investigated the bad deal you got?!
I take issue with 10:36. I'll agree that protesting for just one weekend didn't do much. That's why a few of us non TA people, with the TA's help, tried to keep it going for the summer. We weren't trying to undo the deal, we were trying to hurt their bottom line by alerting potential tenants to the kind of shitty scams our landlord was running. We knew we were getting getting results. One broker actually blew up in my face and called me an asshole. But it was too discouraging seeing how few of our neighbors showed up to help. The "thank yous" from people passing by just made it worse, at least for me. We couldn't keep it going. My attitude towards this community changed dramatically that summer. I have few illusions about the general population of PCV & ST. I do however have respect for the work the TA puts in and for the hours the proprietor of this blog puts in. I do not always agree with either the TA or STR, but at least they're trying.
"It is important to raise the questions and raise the awareness. I support STR on this one. This is a lot of useful information that collectively is very telling. "
I agree with you 100%. STR and some of the posters on this board have raised very important and disturbing questions. It is NOT their job to remedy the problems. If you call 911 because you see a crime being committed, or a building on fire, or an accident in the street, are you the one who should then apprehend the perp, douse the fire and render medical treatment to the injured? Not unless you are Superman and STR doesn't claim to be Superman. He is more a voice crying in the wilderness that is being ignored by those who don't want to hear.
This is where the TA comes in. The TA should be independent of any politician, and pursue any issue where the landlord may be overstepping his/her bounds.>>>>>>>>>
DAMN RIGHT!
GOOD RIDDANCE TO JOHN MARSH. I WISH SUSAN STEINBERG WOULD RESIGN TOO. Remember when the Bunker was being built, Steinberg practically attacked somebody who vocally objected to it.
Posting these questions can only help tenants. It does not hurt tenants. If it does nothing, so what. I think it helps tenants. Thank you STR for the research and post.
And your inference is that Al made a mistake how? By supporting a bold plan to secure stpcv's future. The alternative, clicking your heels and wishing yourself back to 1947, is a loser.
The progressive move would be to innovate a way to turn PCVST into a Penn South coop of successful working class community.
The oppressive move is your "bold plan" to turn PCVST into luxury short term and long term accommodations.
Your plan was not bold. It was the easy way that is happening everywhere in the country. There is nothing special or unique about your plan.
Look at how many people lost their homes with your failure of a bold plan unless success to you is evict the working class and bring in new stabilizers of higher income.
Al disappointed us too. We thought more of him. Not anymore.
Bold? No. Your plan is all too common and flat out wrong from San Fran to Missouri to New York and everywhere in between.
You did it without transparency and with a lot of deceit.
Your plan hurt thousands of long-rooted people that were once here. Your plan is the loser making a lot of good people lose homes.
Results and current conditions say it all.
Quality of Life negative rating.
Quality of new neighbors negative rating.
Quality of Open Space gone replaced with commercial buildings.
Your plan cost PCVST all that was good and special about it turning it into Anywhere, USA.
Your plan may be in play but it is the loser plan. All the good lost. Nothing special left.
"Bold" is if you fought for the working class housing and open space.
"Weak" is if you gave it all away to hedge funds and the REBNY
Secure our future? You wiped us out, kicked us out, tore out trees. You made our future insecure but you made a lot of $$$$$ for CW.
Please. We do not need politicians who help hedge funds destroy our communities and then play hero at 1947 style ribbon cutting ceremonies after pretending to help rebuild the community for our wealthier replacements. A trick as old as time itself.
It is bold and gutsy to keep the community in tact in the first place and for the first time in history.
Your plan is old, not bold.
The generations of old families that raised families here are much better people. These new entitled greedy families who refuse to get rugs and let their kids stomp and scream, let their kids run all over our halls, spill cereal and leave it in the hall and think they are entitled to take our apartments. A bunch of selfish bad parents. Get rugs if you have kids!
Al chose hedge funds and billionaires over his community. Look who is getting richer and who is paying the price.
It is important to raise the questions and raise the awareness.
I agree. That was not my point. My point was that it's also important to provide the answers when they are readily available. STR refuses to provide the easily gotten answer to the question raised by this post because he fears being identified by Dan Garodnick or the TA. I don't buy it. He can easily preserve his anonymity by calling on a prepaid cell phone.
Again, the TA has the information. If they choose to not pursue it because I'm supposedly too insistent that they do something, then that is, again, pathetic. The TA should be pursuing all avenues in matters of the landlord possibly screwing around with the apartments here and the rents that evolve out of that. And surely the TA has more resources, and access to resources, than I do! The TA can even ask Dan, with whom they have a close relationship.
The TA did pursue it. Years ago. And FDNY and DOB came up with a resolution that was probably a lot more OK with the landlord than the TA. Years ago. You don't understand the legal basis for the resolution? Then ask somebody to explain.
And neither of us has any idea if they're ignoring you or not, and if they are, why that is.
>>STR refuses to provide the easily gotten answer to the question<<
Why don't you provide "the easily gotten answer"???
I've come to the realization that most people from Flyoverlandia and the suburbs think of New York City as a place where you can come and take a shit and leave it to somebody else to pick up. I am so tired of hearing the phrase "This is New York!" usually in the context of a shrug and a "what else would you except" conversation. If New Yorkers go to a town or city outside of New York and do something gross or stupid, there is much indignation and "Well, what would you expect? They're from New York." These fucking rubes think they be as antisocial, loud and dirty as they like in New York because that is what is the norm here. Am I the only one who finds their attitude totally insulting?
BTW, I'd bet money (that I don't have) that the TA and Dan's response to the room requirement issues would be: "The FDNY signed off on the arrangement." (ie, "Nothing to see here, move along.")
>>And neither of us has any idea if they're ignoring you or not, and if they are, why that is.<<
Several months ago, I made a public inquiry to the TA about the DOB documentation that ST's contractor puts in to add an extra room, but with "no change" in occupancy. Also, a member of the TA's Facebook repeated, on that Facebook, the inquiry. The TA chose to ignore both.
What is their reasoning? I can guess, but it's piss poor of a TA to just ignore tenants' concerns in this and other matters for whatever reason.
There is a yelp review where a tenant says his walls in his apartment are in a different place than the model apartment he was shown and it changed the size of the rooms. Is the fdny inspecting every apartment with walls or just the model apartment and then dropping the ball to throw the game.
FDNY - inspect EVERY apartment that has wall partitions!!!!!!!!!! NOW
The rooms are illegal. 10:53 the deal you say the TA DOB and FDNY compromised on does not make the project legal. The entire dormification wall partition scam is illegal in a thousand ways.
And I doubt STR is afraid of Garodnick
"The FDNY signed off on the arrangement."
And? What would you have the TA or whoever do? Personally, I'd rather have them considering the art of the possible, rather than the art of what should be. Especially with the piles of issues that CWCapital/CompassRock is creating around here.
Why don't you provide "the easily gotten answer"???
You missed the point and now you want me to jump when you say so. I give up. You win. Have a nice day.
I can see why tenants would want the information in this post. I can see some tenants even being indifferent or complacent or lazy. I can't see why the commenter complaining about the post would want to stop STR from posting it unless that tenant is a TA board member, or is not a tenant but is management, CW CR or staff in one of the local NYC pols offices. I can see why keeping it up and getting louder can only help
>>Why don't you provide "the easily gotten answer"???
You missed the point and now you want me to jump when you say so. I give up. You win. Have a nice day.<<
So I guess you won't try to get the "easy" answer. BTW, haven't you been guilty of the "jump sin" yourself with your persistent comments that I go beyond posting about the room requirements to contact Dan?
:And I doubt STR is afraid of Garodnick"
I doubt STR is afraid of anybody. Remember, he is an army veteran and has probably stared down real men under really dangerous circumstances. A bunch of wussy pols and corporate flacks would hardly faze him!
The strain on the infrastructure caused by all these extra occupants must be enormous. At times like this, when we are having a heatwave, it must be even worse. I'm surprised there aren't power outages on the property because there must be a very big demand on the electric, water, etc. The Sanitation Dept. must have so much garbage to remove from this place it makes the mind boggle!
Do tenants still rent out rooms in their apartments and put stoves in closets? I seem to remember seeing a photograph of such a set up. Maybe it was on the Lux Living blog. I don't think it was a joke photograph, I think it was from some ad that Lux had come across.
How do all these excess tenants deal with the fact that there is only one bathroom in all of the ST apartments? Do they have buckets? Unbelievable how far we have fallen!
I called Marsh's exit months ago. Doubt me now?
>>Do tenants still rent out rooms in their apartments and put stoves in closets? I seem to remember seeing a photograph of such a set up. Maybe it was on the Lux Living blog. I don't think it was a joke photograph, I think it was from some ad that Lux had come across.
How do all these excess tenants deal with the fact that there is only one bathroom in all of the ST apartments? Do they have buckets? Unbelievable how far we have fallen!<<
I remember that. I'm sure that set-up was tenant initiated.
>>The strain on the infrastructure caused by all these extra occupants must be enormous.<<
Wasn't there a new number of an extra 5,000 tenants since Met Life days? And, yes, the strain on everything here has increased considerably.
>>I doubt STR is afraid of anybody. Remember, he is an army veteran and has probably stared down real men under really dangerous circumstances. A bunch of wussy pols and corporate flacks would hardly faze him!<<
No, I'm not afraid of them, merely wary of them. And though I am a veteran (from what's known as the "Vietnam era") I was never in any battle situation, nor in that region of conflict. Those who were in battle are the real heroes; the rest of us were, at most, playing war games.
"Do tenants still rent out rooms in their apartments and put stoves in closets? I"
Around two years ago, there was a screen shot taken from the PCVST Mom's FB page, posted at the TA FB page, that had a crib in a closet thread and the poster was asking how to ventilate it. It started at explosion at the TA FB page that still has an impact today. I remember that “lawyer” (everyone here knows who I am referring to) who chimed in on that Mom’s FB page (also posted as a screenshot at the TA FB page) who said she would assist to have the posters who exposed this illegal act “evicted”.
"Wasn't there a new number of an extra 5,000 tenants since Met Life days?"
CompassRock, in a major faux pas, let this out I think around one and a half years ago, that PCVST had 30,000 residents (from the standard 25,000 number that's been around for some time). I bet it’s currently around 35,000.
He was kind of clueless in his so called “contract" he wanted tenants to sign but Guterman was spot on regarding the impact on the PCVST infrastructure of the rampant dormfication of our once diverse community.
"I remember that. I'm sure that set-up was tenant initiated."
I don't doubt that it was tenant-initiated, but I wonder if it still goes on. This is no longer a property peopled by normal, middle-class adult leaseholders who just want to live here and enjoy living here and cause no trouble. We have a huge population of very young and, in some cases, very weird people. I don't sleep easy at night because I wonder if some lame-brained student or hipster is going to do something catastrophic (we already had a fire in the building caused by students). I don't want my family and myself to perish because of the stupidity of some coked up or drunken kid at large here and unsupervised thanks to a greedy and amoral landlord.
"I'd rather have them considering the art of the possible"
That is the difference between you and the REBNY. The REBNY demands politicians do as it should be and you then figure out what is possible within the REBNY created environment and laws.
That is ass backwards, politicians should serve the People first then the REBNY figures out how to operate their business within that environment.
Politicians work for the People just not in the states with the highest corruption ours, NY ranking in the top three, thanks to Governor Glenwood REBNY and his chosen council speaker REBNY Garodnick.
De Blasio tells Vatican he will cut emission by 40% in next decades BUT
Garodnick and TA Board Member "bold" plan increases emissions, electric consumption, carbon footprint
Bold PCVST plan is cut emissions, kill no trees and plant more trees, lower the carbon footprint, for sustainable community of stabilized middle class residents keeping homes.
Bold is the Pope
Bold is the De Blasio promise to the Vatican
Am Team De Blasio on this one
This is your future. Your NYC city council made a crap deal for you too.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2015/jul/21/neo-bankside-how-richard-rogers-new-non-dom-accom-cut-out-the-poor
Questions are raised about the project’s inclusion on the Stirling prize shortlist after details emerge that developers failed to live up to its original affordable housing claims – setting a dangerous precedent for developments everywhere
...original planning application, made in 2006, used its viability assessment to prove that borough’s 40% affordable housing target not achievable – that only 27.5% affordable housing provided instead. It argued basis the flats would sell for an average of £754/sq ft. In reality, the scheme has sold for an average of £1,326/sq ft, with the penthouses now on the market for £22m. Yet the quantity of affordable housing remains the same.
Second, while Southwark’s planning policy requires affordable homes built on-site, so it’s not ghost-town of oligarchs’ butlers developers insisted it must be built on 6 cheaper sites in other parts of borough instead. 4 of these sites were in fact council-owned land, sold to developer for purpose. One was a council-run children’s home, while another was a day nursery, but neither of these amenities have been reprovided in the deal.
So what did the public actually get for its 27.5% slice of Neo Bankside’s £400m pie? Section 106 agreement (the clause that accounts for affordable housing), developer entered into binding legal contract with Southwark to build 130 affordable homes of which 94 must be social-rented. Almost 10 years later, with towers now occupied, project showered with awards and borough merrily signed off agreement as fully discharged, it appears they have fallen a third short on their promises. The schedule of completed homes development provided just 94 affordable units of which only 62 are social rented. The borough has missed out on 38 affordable homes.
“It seems there is no mechanism for monitoring compliance,” says Glasspool. “No one is going back to check that developers are actually fulfilling their obligations, nor that the social housing is actually being rented at social rates. This kind of shortfall could be happening right across London.”
Come on Dan, tell your constituents the details of the deal you made for Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town!
DeBlasio is full of shit. He goes to the Vatican to tell the Pope about his sustainable housing and income inequality ideas. What a joke! This is the fool who wants to build higher and denser with a few bones thrown to the poor and nothing for the middle class when it comes to affordability. He will make the City darker, more polluted, more crowded and more depressing. Thank God he arrived late (as usual) and didn't have time to say much. What a complete asshole. Can't wait for his one term to be over. I want to see him and Garodnick ride off into the sunset and NEVER be seen nor heard of again!
Before anybody reminds me, I know we could get worse, but we could also get better.
A few good leaders are suing to close the llc loophole. Good.
Then why Mr Kavanagh did you make a deal to give our community away to the biggest exploiter of llc influence peddling and bribery? The most corrupt of the corrupt, REBNY has more llc per person than any other organization. Was it the $? What?!
That woman who campaigns here Rozic something said anyone who wants to buy their apartment has to allow the college dorms and construction of all the open space.
Guterman plan was the only one on the side of tenants. Maybe his team didn't approach the residents in the best way but it was always the best plan for tenants.
Thank you for that London article. We are no longer living in homes. We are living in "assets"
Here is how the PCVST asset is performing and a little on the 2 lawsuits
Greedy Mezzanine suing greedy CWCR
Greedy CWCR suing Lexington Insurance Provider
https://research-and-analytics.csfb.com/ura/htmlcontent/984131241/984131241.html
"That woman who campaigns here Rozic something said anyone who wants to buy their apartment has to allow the college dorms and construction of all the open space."
Nilly Rozic? She's nothing to us. Or at least, she shouldn't be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nily_Rozic
7:02 pm: Thanks for posting that link. Greedy bastards.
Lexington Insurance Provider needs to compare the payout already made to Dan Garodnick's NYU plan so they do not pay for false claims about construction due to hurricane Sandy when it was planned long before the storm.
They ALL said the construction of the security office in the Oval and the Bunker was due to Hurricane Sandy but now we all know the truth is they planned it years earlier. Lexington Insurance Provider may want to subpoena Dan Garodnick and NYU.
At this point it is obvious, clear and evident our city council representative is in office to serve his law firm and not New Yorkers.
STR gives tenants more information and all the right information. "Tenant Association" has been keeping tenants in the dark.
My fellow Oval residents, take a cue from the woman who sued due to the noise pollution coming into her home and got a rent abatement.
“The warranty of habitability concerns functions which a residence is expected to provide," the Judge said.
Noise pollution from Oval concerts blasting into our homes lawsuit next?
Is PCVST landlord / management bringing back old tricks? Water shut offs and problems with water in Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village?
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/predatory-equity-wall-street-screwed-over-renters-new-york-city
>>Guterman plan was the only one on the side of tenants. Maybe his team didn't approach the residents in the best way but it was always the best plan for tenants.<<
You're apparently the one and only person in the entire complex who signed up for it.
"At this point it is obvious, clear and evident our city council representative is in office to serve his law firm and not New Yorkers."
That is absolutely true. I have suspected this for a long time.
Pipe burst this morning and flood several kitchens on the line. Same pipe burst and was "repaired" just a few months ago. Do they use real plumbers here? I'm sure the market rate tenants (don't bother me with that shit about we're all rs) who are paying $4k+ per month are just thrilled to wake up to indoor paddling pools in their kitchens.
Cuomo Garodnick have no clue when it comes to the infrastructure of an island. They are stressing the entire NYC same as they are stressing PCVST infrastructure.
http://nypost.com/2015/07/22/cuomo-drops-bombshell-on-de-blasio-over-uber/
Whatever anyone's opinion of De Blasio, he did right by not backing Garodnick for speaker. Garodnick as speaker aka Governor Glenwood's mouthpiece controlling the city council would be a disaster.
Our rooms are a different dimension from the diagram. Who can we go to and get it checked for compliance?
Uber wins fight against big business because they ran an aggressive fight and pulled no punches. PCVST loses community because TA board pushed an oppressive rebny agenda and threw no punches on behalf of tenants. We could have won or at least put up a fight but the TA board caved to rebny.
http://www.businessinsider.com/de-blasio-drops-proposed-uber-vehicle-cap-bill-2015-7
I wish Ydanis Rodriguez were our councilperson. He does so much good and is so smart. A good politician with good intentions that are in the interest of New Yorkers.
Proud to stand by you in all you do and stand for Ydanis. Whatever you run for you have our vote. Right call on Uber. Right call on Inwood.
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/03/24/councilman-proposes-rezoning-housing-at-inwood-rail-yard/
I don't fear ISIS or Iran attacking this country. In fact, I don't fear any outside attacker destroying our lives. I fear the greedy, predatory filth on Wall Street and the REBNY and our corrupt, despicable politicians. The worst enemies are the ones who operate from within and who we think are our fellow Americans. These are the people who really are to be feared because their god is even more brutal than the fanatics' god. Their god is MONEY and their greed and corruption is destroying this country and the lives of Americans more surely and profoundly and at a level much worse than ever any bunch of foreign terrorists could achieve in their wildest, wettest dreams.
Agree each and every apartment is different wall measurements needing individual inspections for compliance and safety. Hear that FDNY
"At this point it is obvious, clear and evident our city council representative is in office to serve his law firm and not New Yorkers."
Look into who put money into Dirty Dan's campaign coffers. You will see Blackstone there. Blackstone is one of the worst, if not THE worst, predatory hedge funds that has brought the American middle class home buyer and renter to its knees. Blackstone is the Kiss of Death to the "American Dream." Greedy, avaricious, amoral and unethical are just the nicer ways to describe it. For a politician to take donations from Blackstone is like the NAACP taking donations from the KKK. Just google and dig a bit into Blackstone. Even more evil than Goldman Sachs, and that takes some doing!
off topic here, but somewhere here it was mentioned our Porters are going to be reassigned/reshuffled by management and responsible for more bldgs to maintain. Thus leading us downhill further. This was confirmed by an upset porter. Unlike some we have had a great porter who was very diligent in care of our building and hate to see him go.
Regarding Guterman plan remarks, this person did not have a very sterling rep if you research background. Would have been very leery of offer coming from his outfit.
>>Uber wins fight against big business because they ran an aggressive fight and pulled no punches.<<
Are you kidding? Uber won because it's a $40 billion dollar international business behemoth.
Uber won because it launched a PR campaign to protect its business. PCVST community would have won if we launched a PR campaign to protect our community. Instead the TA hired an RE PR firm used by REBNY lovers Garodnick and Sheldon Silver who used their PR against the community and for REBNY. Even the TA facebook page is private. That should be public and loud with all the same facts and info as STR.
"NYC Mayor De Blasio Realizes His Plan To Kneecap Uber Was A Disaster, Backs Down
from the so-much-for-that dept
Earlier this week, we noted that NY City mayor Bill de Blasio appeared to pick a fight with Uber that he couldn't possibly win. The plan was to create a taxi medallion-like system for car hailing apps like Uber and Lyft, but which would cap the number of such cars that could be on the road. The PR campaign against this effort was tremendous (obviously, some of it pushed by Uber and Lyft -- but much of it by the happy users and drivers on those platforms). De Blasio and his staff apparently believed that there really wasn't popular support for these platforms, which was just wrong. As the negative publicity continued to mount, including having various celebrities weigh in on how stupid the plan was, it appears that de Blasio has backed down and agreed to drop the plan, at least for the time being. "
Pipes must have burst in the bathroom line too. No water in shower yesterday.
"I run the government," Cuomo said.
"I am the executive and therefore I use executive power. And that’s why the executive is given the power," Cuomo said during an appearance on upstate public radio’s “The Capitol Pressroom.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/cuomo-executive-power-run-government-article-1.2301086
But when it comes to tenants rights Cuomo feigns he is not in power but at the hands of the legislature and de Blasio does not understand Albany is about compromise. de Blasio understands and so do all tenants, Albany is about compromise only when it comes to tenants rights.
"Even the TA facebook page is private"
This is bullshit. The TA FB page is a public FB page, anyone who has FB account can view it, one has to be approved to comment or post there. As long as you are a real person, approval is basically guaranteed. Stick with the facts (and there are many) when criticizing the TA.
The Tenant Association launched a PR campaign against tenants all right. It was an all out PR campaign for the REBNY Brookfield (and Speyer partner in crime).
It is a shame what they did to that beautiful property.
@July 22, 2015 at 10:29 AM
">>Guterman plan was the only one on the side of tenants. Maybe his team didn't approach the residents in the best way but it was always the best plan for tenants.<<
You're apparently the one and only person in the entire complex who signed up for it."
Any mention of the word "Guterman" on STR brings out a Garodnick-TA-Brookfield troll attack. Clearly, they still fear his affordable coop proposal.
They're not afraid of Guterman. Their afraid of any commonsense proposal offering a genuine tenant led purchase delivering genuine tenant led ownership sponsoring a middle class affordable, tenant-friendly coop conversion instead of their phony "tenant led purchase" delivering 100% ownership/control to major REBNY predator and $25 Million Speyer investor Brookfield, a partner/sponsor we don't need proposing a predatory, middle class unaffordable, tenant-unfriendly condo conversion that will reap multi-billion dollar windfalls for Brookfield in exchange for a few worthless promises to do nothing costing Brookfield nothing. For example, Brookfield promises PCV and ST will not be separated. PCVST will still be PCVST. Garodnick and the TA call that worthless Brookfield promise to do nothing costing Brookfield nothing a "shared value" that merits them diverting the Fannie/Freddie billions Senator Schumer set aside exclusively for PCVST tenants (Mayor de Blasio too, and his silence is deafening.) into Brookfield's deep, empty pockets. In their unquestionable wisdom, Garodnick and the TA know the first thing a genuine tenant led ownership will do is call PCVST something else.
Instead of following up with a more detailed, straightforward presentation of his solid, feasible, affordable coop proposal, Guterman shot himself in the foot offering himself up as the effective tenant association nobody asked him to be. That foolish subterfuge, combined with his inappropriate, clumsy misuse of STR made him an easy target for malicious attack trolls. Still, they couldn't legitimately criticize his affordable coop plan, only misrepresent it.
"Guterman!" Now watch the Garodnick-TA-Brookfield public relations trolls come flying out.
It took a lot of pols turning blind eyes to 5000 apartments evicted and chopped. I have to agree with the above commentator going to an anti tenant rally fundraiser is the same as an anti anything, anti semitic, kkk, any organization that is so cruelly anti others is outrageous to support.
What happened to the Brookfield TA website?
TLC and UBER are both billion dollar organizations, are equally shady, and could both use better regulating. Same rules for both. Why doesn't TLC launch an app? We could use an app before we need those crappy televisions in the back seat. TLC missed the amenities boat on tech upgrading by installing televisions instead of developing an app because they wanted the ad dollars from the televisions - an amenity no passenger wants.
That is the best most thorough reporting on these wall partitions scams, thanks STR!
I give Guterman credit for trying. I don't think many people understand the whole situation re: Guterman, the TA, Brookfield. For sure, if the Guterman plan could win, it would have been the best for tenants. But his bid was likely to be about 3.4B and that wasn't going to win. Brookfield would definitely pony up more and have a better chance of winning but the net result for tenants would not be nearly as good. There's no way the TA had the background to put the Brookfield deal together. This part had to be Garodnick and the TA followed his lead. He was close to the "TA bid" that lost to Tishman-Speyer so he angled the TA toward a higher bid this time with Brookfield and brought in his cronies at Paul-Weiss and Moelis to help and to benefit. The net result has been to diminish the standing of the TA with a good part of the community while also coming up within another losing bid. CW doesn't care about Guterman or Brookfield. Right in plain sight, it's going to favor Fortress. For those who were critical of Guterman, hold tight. You're going to love Fortress at least as much as you love CR now.
July 23, 2015 at 1:59 PM you made their point. The TA facebook page is not public. One has to have a facebook account to view the TA facebook page. There are many people of all races, ages, and incomes who do not have facebook pages. I don't care if the TA makes it public because I don't care to see the TA facebook page. I do care that they are not opening the TA facebook page to the public. At the very least it could be a way to get the message out in the public if the TA wanted to get the real message in the public. TA facebook limiting viewing of their facebook page to those with facebook accounts stops tenant comments from getting out into the public. Why would a TA want to silence their tenants or limit the view of it at all? To hide from the public what is going on here? The TA facebook page is better if it were in public view but the TA takes orders from Dan who takes orders from Cuomo so they use a cuomo-esque control to cover what tenants and the public know about their dealing.
Letting Dan Garodnick control the TA gives Cuomo complete control over Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town and the REBNY has complete control over Cuomo.
The real Mr Machiavellian Cuomo is coming out.
My daily commute through the grounds used to be peace and tranquility before the hustle and bustle of NYC streets. Now the grounds are brightly lit up gimmicks. They chopped up the apartments and they chopped down the trees. Bold plan? I think not.
Schumer is pushing hard for JetBlue just like Hoylman pushed hard for Verizon.
Pols, stop pushing big business on People already and start pushing the needs and interest of the People first! That includes you TA board pushing your PR firm clients circus acts on tenants! We are not yours to exploit. You are supposed to serve us. Get on this chopped up apartment mess already.
>>Any mention of the word "Guterman" on STR brings out a Garodnick-TA-Brookfield troll attack. Clearly, they still fear his affordable coop proposal...<<
Sorry but only one or maybe it was two families signed onto his plan so please don't start trotting out the "Garodnick-TA-Brookfield troll" bullshit.
The TA rejected Guterman outright and sided with Brookfield. This was way before Guterman's letters and plan were uploaded on this blog. Incidentally, this blog is not the TA. It doesn't have the TA's membership, money, pull with politicians.
People didn't sign on to his plan not because it wasn't a good plan but because people are hesitant to sign onto anything after the HUGE betrayal by signing on with the Tenant Association Brookfield Predatory deal. That Credit Suisse rent roll report is atrocious. The Tenant Association bold plan that increased the rent roll ruined us all.
To continue... Had the TA accepted even Guterman's recent proposal to tenants (the one that did appear on this blog), that proposal would have found traction for sure.
Guterman's plan, a Penn South co op plan is the best plan for tenants and the only real tenant led plan and bid.
Brookfield Tishman Speyer and Fortress are equal predators with all the same crooks and cronies.
Completely agree STR 11:13
And what is currently the top thread at the TA Facebook: the restaurant Petite Abeille!!! A topic introduced by ex-president John Marsh. No mention at all of wall partitions, legal room requirements, etc. So the TA is not interested.
STR at 11:13 now that would have been the BOLD move to make on behalf of tenants! Hear that TA Board!
>>Uber won because it launched a PR campaign to protect its business. PCVST community would have won if we launched a PR campaign to protect our community.<<
Uber is worth $50 Billion and could afford to barrage NYers with multiple robocalls daily, put up endless attack ads online and on television during prime time tv on just about every network opposing a mayor that the governor tries to undermine at every opportunity, this opportunity included. The Tenants Association has maybe $ Thousands in the bank to launch an attack against an opponent with some $56 billion of assets under management that has to answer to shareholders, not voters. That's not a good comparison.
City Hall and City council got bullied
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/07/8572755/uber-rewrites-book-beating-de-blasio
The ads and mailers to the city council were offensive. A real low grade harassment campaign by a billion dollar corporation.
Here are the reasons Uber needs to be regulated. Shame on the people named in this article who bullied their way to advance a billion dollar corporation to profit a few while destroying the democratic process that is in place to protect ALL people.
"Sometimes, according to them, the Uber cap was about tamping down on traffic congestion. But it was also about “protecting consumers from overcharges,” “making sure we have more accessible vehicles for New Yorkers with disabilities,” protecting passengers from dangerous drivers, putting subway-supporting surcharges on Uber rides, standing up to big, regulation-resistant corporations, protecting the environment, and rescuing drivers from Uber’s exploitative ways."
Never taking Uber again.
The TA is interest in putting up the wall partitions, not in tearing them down.
Petite Abeille got a lot of press in Town & Village too as they change from family restaurant to college happy hour drink fests and pool hall. Wasn't Marsh involved in their graphic logo contest?
The TA compromised itself by putting the landlords interest before the tenants including the amenities, Marsh favorite gym, and Petite Abeille happy hour. Anyone who had a doubt before, it will all become clear. Marsh was always team Garodnick/REBNY not team Tenant.
BTW, Garodnick is pro-Uber in the city.
http://dbvnews.com/news-cuomo-drops-bombshell-on-de-blasio-over-uber-35297.dbv
>>About the same time that Cuomo was speaking on radio, Councilman Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan) announced that he was coming off the fence and was going to oppose the Council bill restricting Uber.
“We also may, ironically, add to Manhattan’s congestion problems in the process. By capping supply while demand continues to grow, there will be even more pressure on FHVs (for-hire vehicles) to rush to the areas where demand is the highest — our central business district — which I happen to represent,” Garodnick said.<<
421 a numbers do not add up
what a surprise
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/07/15/one57s_tax_breaks_led_to_a_paltry_number_of_affordable_units.php
The comparison of Uber and the plight of PCVST tenants is a good comparison and the TA was not limited to just its meager money left over after blowing it on REBNY lawyers and pr firms, it had the entire NYC fighting predatory landlords and dormification from NYU to Columbia. Even the AG got involved when it was happening in his Upper West Side with a landlord trying to evict RS tenants to bring in luxury dorms for Columbia students. The AG helped tenants in his Upper West Side on the same issue we face here on a much bigger scale that the AG ignored completely. The city politicians should have protected us like they protect other tenants, not exploited us and fed us to REBNY and Hedge Funds.
Wednesday Cuomo says he is going directly to Viverito to help Uber.
Thursday Viverito slams De Blasio on Uber.
Friday Cuomo praises Viverito on NY1 as "intelligent and deliberative and responsible."
Et tu Viverito?
CURSED
http://commercialobserver.com/2015/07/ceiling-collapses-at-grand-central-area-office-building/
SL Green building with TD Bank in lobby has construction injuries as floor collapses at building that is right next door to site of upcoming Green Monster Building on Vanderbilt.
Hey DOB -- Keep the construction workers safe with a paid for best-care-money-can-buy speedy recovery and raise the developers site standards to higher levels of safety. A construction accident in April and now this one is too many. Raise the standards of safety on existing buildings and on new construction sites and keep our workers and resdients safer.
WOW did not expect Viverito to turn after Cuomo's buddies destroyed our beloved vacation spot, Puerto Rico in a hostile takeover
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/groups-picket-gov-cuomo-fundraiser-pr-money-woes-article-1.2287397
Up to half of Puerto Rico’s $73 billion in bonds is held by hedge funds, Fortune magazine has estimated.
Hedge funds have “bought up huge chucks of Puerto Rican debt at discount prices, pushed the island to borrow more, and are driving toward devastating austerity measures,” the report claims.
Some of the biggest Puerto Rico players are Andrew Feldstein of BlueMountain Capital, Mark Gallogly of Centerbridge Partners, Paul Tudor Jones, a key investor in Stone Line Capital, and John Paulson, the principal investor in the island’s biggest bank and in luxury hotels there. All are also big contributors to Cuomo and backers of New York’s growing charter school enterprises, the report notes.
"In other countries, these New York hedge funds are derided as “vulture funds.”
“They have been taking advantage of distressed economies in other parts of the world, in Argentina, in Greece, and now they are pushing the people in Puerto Rico to the brink,” said Javier Valdes co-director of Make the Road NY."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/groups-picket-gov-cuomo-fundraiser-pr-money-woes-article-1.2287397
What hedge funds did to PCVST they are doing around the world because the US government is supporting them with favorable laws and loopholes.
NYC gives landlords money for each air conditioner they put in an apartment. Apartments do not need an air conditioner in each and every room to keep the whole apartment cool.
With De Blasio's new carbon goals the city could adjust that rule landlords are abusing. Perhaps a ratio number of a certain number of air conditioners per square foot room or square feet in apartment.
No wonder we are having electrical problems on the 14th street loop. Our wiring was not built for an air conditioner in every room or lazy greedy entitled people keeping air conditioners on 24 / 7 as one Yelp reviewer said he loves Stuy Town - it is great because he can leave his air conditioners on all the time because he does not pay for electricity. Stupid and lazy and greedy are good reasons for city hall to stop giving landlords money to install air conditioners in each and every room.
Prepare for more blackouts if they keep writing bad rules to give money to landlords for things a landlord should do if they want to attract tenants anyway. Why is our city giving away money to landlords like this. Give the money to the tenant to install their own air conditioner. Stop giving money to landlords for things landlords should do anyway. Every window in PCVST has an air conditioner blasting.
Wait till they get their filthy greedy hands on Cuba.
>>The TA rejected Guterman outright and sided with Brookfield.<<
The readers of your blog and everybody else except for one household out of 25,000 "rejected Guterman outright." Blaming the TA for that suggests that the TA has more influence with tenants than you'd care to admit or that we can't think for ourselves.
People on the FB page talk about a lot of mundane stuff IMO. The Petite Abielle post is the top post because people keep commenting on it over there. Not sure why that's a problem. And i really don't get the connection with this restaurant and a conspiracy involving Garodnick and REBNY. Weird.
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