I'm noticing a very recent barrage of comments, seemingly from one individual, that pronounce and amplify the notion that our MR tenants basically hate the older RS tenants. These comments are coming at a time when it's unity among tenants, rather than divisiveness, that is crucial. That these negative comments come at this important time is rather suspicious to me. While I have no evidence, and suspect that I am wrong, please be aware that there are entities reading this blog who may wish to use the old-age plan of "divide and conquer." Be aware that individuals from CWCapital to our forthcoming owner Blackstone probably monitor and try to influence what social media states about their companies and plans. Again, I have no proof that this is happening in this case.
Whatever the case, any comments that try to spark a divisiveness among tenants at this point in time will have a hard time getting through. Yes, I will fight for the older RS tenants (of whom I am one), but I will also fight for our newer MR tenants who wish simply to be left in peace and raise their families here. It seems like they may be the ones who will get royally screwed in this Blackstone deal in the near future (older RS tenants in 20 years), and if such is the case, I would feel very sorry to potentially lose the families that I call my neighbors.
And even if there is some conflict among certain members of both communities (I've never had such negative experiences, btw), we are at a crucial point in the life of this community where we need to help each other and reach out a friendly hand to those whom we may have had some conflict with. Remember who the real enemy is and what the real problems are. That should be the focus. Nothing else.
48 comments:
Amen. I'm a market rater in PCV and I agree, we all need to stick together. I harbor no animus towards the RS'ers who have been here for decades. They're the ones who made this property as special as it is. There needs to be a unified front on Saturday at the meeting.
Im also MR and me and my family have nothing against the RS at all. Really they preserved the only place I would want to raise kids. I just want to make sure we all have a future here. We need to band together all 30,000 of us, and we have a HUGE voice. Lets use it.
Bottomline, the Market Rate did not care when the Rent Stabilized were treated unfairly in the MCI negotiations by the TA. If they cared about the rent stabilized last year, or cared about the entire community then I would care about helping them now. But let's face it, they did not speak up during the MCI unevenness. If they want others to care about them they might want to start caring about others, and not just when they feel slighted. I remember reading that not one neighbor out of hundreds on the First Avenue Loop construction helped the woman who went to court over the construction. You know why? Because the DOB and TA said if we want to buy our apartments we have to allow the construction. So we allowed it and we stayed quiet because we wanted to buy. We are RS. I am not proud we did not speak up when the Oval was massacred and when our neighbors were speaking out against the construction on this blog. We are fortunate that we wanted to buy and fortunate that we are RS and ashamed that we did not do more last year to protect the entire community and property because we were told to allow the dorms, the construction, the college campus security if we wanted to buy our apartment. If we were Market Rate we would not deserve the support from our neighbors because we did not give it when they needed it. Just my two cents.
That being said, for the record the Market Rate family on the second floor are the nicest people and were planting roots. The Rent Stabilized on the Middle Floors were all planning on flipping. We were planting roots with our plan to purchase but now have to rethink.
As I read all the recent posts on this blog I can't help but think to myself "where the frig would we all be as residents without STR." DG, the TA, and the corporate leeches are all against us and STR provides the ONLY resource we have as tenants to communicate and organize. I've posted directly to you in the past pretty much saying that I've just thrown in the towel as far as this place is concerned, but you refuse to give up the fight. Shame on me, good for you. I can't tell you how much I admire and respect you.
On a positive note, I am once again feeling the bile eating through the lining of my stomach as a result of this disgraceful "deal". I'll be at Baruch on Saturday. Thanks STR.
That 3 minute speech yesterday? WASTE OF TIME! Everyone was soo happy, weren't they? Try living here! :(
Regarding the "flipping" -- I'm a market rater and I was hoping to lay down roots as well. I was - and still am - for ownership with very strict rules on selling homes to avoid the flipping situation.
>>Bottomline, the Market Rate did not care when the Rent Stabilized were treated unfairly in the MCI negotiations by the TA. If they cared about the rent stabilized last year, or cared about the entire community then I would care about helping them now. But let's face it, they did not speak up during the MCI unevenness. If they want others to care about them they might want to start caring about others, and not just when they feel slighted.<<
I'm letting this comment through as an example. So what that you think MR tenants (like, eh, all of them?) didn't care at that point about the MCI negotiations? I wasn't even aware that there was a controversy here between MR and RS tenants!!! Why not blame the TA, rather than MR tenants? Seriously, this nitpicking is unproductive. The goal is for all of us--MR and RS--to unite at the crucial juncture. Nothing else. And that is it on this matter, please!
Bottom line, whether you hate the TA and the local politicians or not, it is in everyone’s interest to show up and grill Blackstone at the 10/24 1 PM meeting at Baruch's College's Mason Hall (17 Lex Ave at 23rd Street. I think the questions need to be broad and not specific to one's own particular housing situation since that usually leads to people walking out of this type of meeting in mass. The STR blog’s 10/20 thread, “Amazingly Quick: Blackstone's Local ST/PCV Website Already On Line!" is a good place to start to formulate our questions.
On a sad note, at the TA FB page, some people seem to be upset that the Blackstone meeting has a date/time conflict with the CR Halloween party at the Oval. Yes this Carnival Cruise/strip mall crap “amenity” takes priority over what could be one of the most vital meetings that will affect our housing situation here for the near and far future. I’m speechless.
Thank you STR.
I am an RS tenant that was fortunate enough to take over an immediate family members apartment via Right of Succession. I have a few friends that are MR apartments, which has led to friendships with a ton of other MR's. They all know of my situation, and never once has there been any animosity.
I think the real problem lies in the fact that the RS tenants are getting a bit older, and the MR tenants are younger and just starting their families. We need to band together with our long-time MR's, because if they move out it will just equal transient tenants that don't really care.
I, too, am a grownup in a MR family household. We are trying our very best to plant our roots in PCV and not get chucked out with a 15 percent rent increase next year. We are so thankful for the community our RS neighbors have built over the past 50+ years, and we want to continue the tradition of PCVST being a family-friendly, warm place to live. Please don't hate us, as we do not hate you. We also have budgetary concerns and families to look after.
MR here - um, we have kids, yes would not flip, but would like stability. Normal human need. I find it odd that the divide comments are let through. It's a troll STR.
>>I find it odd that the divide comments are let through.<<
As I posted, I am not letting them through now, and only let through one semi-divide to comment on the issue. And, if it makes you feel better, I think these divide views are very limited.
>>Please don't hate us, as we do not hate you.<<
As the saying goes, "haters will hate," but I can assure you that the vast majority of RS tenants appreciate you and your family (which can remind them of their own past) or give everything little thought and just go about their lives.
"I am an RS tenant"
Me again. I know, I keep harping on this but again, EVERY apartment in PCVST is currently under NYS RS law. Again, in 6/2020, when the J-51 tax abatements expire, all Roberts and post Roberts apartments here lose their NYS RS protections when this happens. In this local NYC/Blackstone agreement, besides a 5 year period in 2020 window rent cap effective 6/2020, I see no guarantee of NYS RS protections for Roberts’s tenants when these abatements expire, as well as there would not be since this is a NYS issue, not NYC. This is why the knowing current NYS regulations as to how they relate to the current conditions at PCVST are so important. Example, just saying "I am an RS tenant" to differentiate yourself from a so called “market rate” tenant is like saying I own a condo while in reality, you are shareholder in a co-op. Real estate regulation facts matter here, especially in this very complicated NYC/Blackstone real estate transaction that has many moving parts.
OK, from what I have read I have not seen hatred. I see frustration and frankly common emotions when the tables are turned and the once favored side now needs favors. It just goes to show that old saying, be nice to people on the way up because you will meet them on the way down
If there are feelings of hatred, keep that between the involved parties and knock each other out....
...and let's as a group file a lawsuit on the college campus security mci, the renovation charges, the diminished QOL, the "first rent" scam, and more and let's get our ridiculously high rents down to where they legally should be.
>>I keep harping on this but again, EVERY apartment in PCVST is currently under NYS RS law.<<
Yes, but the landlord is still able to raise the rent from "preferential" to "base" rent for those in "MR" apartments. With the continual turnover of apartments that have or are housing students, raising a base rent by 20% (vacancy allowance) is easy. The RS status of these apartments is really a joke under these circumstances.
If I have this wrong, please correct me!
Yes STReporter; that is the joke. The people think they're getting a flat for $3300... but the second number on their new original lease states 5400. Blackstone can legally raise that rent from 3300 to 5400 in 12 months. We post, we warn, we post on Yelp, no one listens. New tenants get screwed, shafted and Ll tricks them.
11:42 the Roberts settlement needs to be challenged. That was abysmal. One woman in T&V was saying she got $100.
Tenants got screwed on that settlement. RE Mary Ann Tighe REBNY who hired lawyers to oppose us on Roberts, interfered in the settlement, stole the ruling, and there are some very dirty hands on that settlement and some very wealthy lawyers and a lot of ripped off tenants who should have had their rents rolled back to the rightful rent and reimbursed in full with interest.
RE had to keep the rent roll up and climbing and Roberts tenants in PCVST got screwed.
By the by, a lot of the dorm rents are inflated to cover up a fraudulent increase in a First Rent scam after a long time tenant moved out or passed away.
STR - the preferential rent loophole is an important point that doesn't appear to have been addressed by black stone or the TA. Will Blackstone consider the "Preferential Rent" as the base rent going forward and will this be the rent that lease renewals will be calculated for RGB increases? Or will they jack rents up to the often astronomical "Legal Rent" maximum.
"The RS status of these apartments is really a joke under these circumstances."
STR,
Under NYS RS law, the landlord is required to offer the tenant a 1 year/2 year lease option. Not under NYS RS law, the landlord can say GTFO, I don't care what you offer me. If you don't think this is major right, what can I say? There are other important NYS RS protections as well such as eviction protections, rights of succession, the right to sublet, etc. Does CR make you run through hoops (got to lawyer up) to assert these rights? You bet they do. Think of having no rights at all or very limted ones. Not a good thing, no matter what dollar amount rent you pay. There are other important NYS RS protections as well, just Google them.
I reiterate the main gist of my post. Current residential real estate rent regulation facts and the correct interpretation of them and how they impact us matter here for one to make a judgment on this deal and what to do going forward.
Me again. These are the new NYS RS vacancy percentage rates. I know, a f***ing joke. CUOMO! But again, no NYS RS law, no limits at all:
“Please note that, as a result of the changes in the State Rent Stabilization Laws effective June 15, 2015 through June 15, 2019, if a tenant was paying a preferential rent, the vacancy allowance is modified as follows: 5% if the last vacancy lease commenced less than two years ago, 10% if the last vacancy lease commenced less than three years ago, 15% if the last vacancy lease commenced less than four years ago, and a vacancy allowance of 18% for one-year leases and a vacancy allowance of 20% for two-year leases, if the last vacancy lease commenced four or more years ago. The vacancy allowances are applied to legal regulated rent, not the preferential rent.”
We can go on Saturday as the victim at their mercy or as the strong tenant community that is not taking anymore of this crap and is going to reverse the scams by Compass Rock to get our rents back to where they legally should be.
When rooms are being divided-changed from 1 and 2 bedrooms to 3 and 4 bedrooms, doesn't the MCI room count change for all the MCI calculations we are currently paying? AND what about the addition of all these new terrace apartments being built?
Our buildings are physically being altered and the ones with more rooms should be paying more. Someone, please clarify.
I really do think De Blasio saved as much of this place as he possibly could and certainly did more for this community then anyone else.
He inherited this from Bloomberg and Cuomo and had a steep uphill battle but he did a good thing overall.
It is up to us to figure out how to fix the market rate rents that are overcharged and it starts with us the market rate tenants getting the rent history going back to 1985. Look at how many tenant turnovers, how many years the apartment was vacant if ever and all the increases against the annual rent guideline board increases for each year.
Right to all and HENCE ... the overcharges, the phony inflated prices due to the renovated kitchen and bathroom. Dhcr ? no one cares. Hundreds have put in overcharge complaints as fraud and no none , not one of us has a reply. Ours has been YEARS. YES YEARS.
Maybe at the Saturday meeting we ask Blackstone for a recount of the rooms in each building and we ask the DOB and DHCR to keep count of the rooms on their websites. The DOB has thousands of wall partitioned apartments, probably around 5000. If each one increased by at least two rooms per apartment, that is at least 10,000 additional rooms and that should have made a significant decrease in each of our MCI charge.
DOB and DHCR should have a room count from the last time they calculated the MCI charges last year so that should be easy enough for them to provide.
We should straighten this out now before anymore time passes and anymore MCI charges come up.
The meeting on Saturday is being organized by the TA. Therefore, the fix is in. They will not allow questions that are against their or Garodnick's wishes. The best way to show strength and determination is to publicly boycott the meeting, while simultaneously protesting against Garodnick, one term Boston Bill and the TA.
>>The best way to show strength and determination is to publicly boycott the meeting,<<
DISAGREE 1000%!!! Boycott the meeting and you will never get your voice heard! And you don't have to speak! Boo, catcall, whatever if the BS starts flowing. The powers that be would LOVE for us who have legitimate concerns to boycott the meeting. No way!
Current MR tenants - the 5000 that is said to be put aside for middle to low income is open to all - no preference for current tenants.
Regarding the meeting -- we must demand that the questions come from audience members lined up at a mircophone. If they ask people to write their questions down, then they're just picking and choosing obviously.
Last time I was at one of those Baruch meetings, they did precisely that: ask people to write their questions down. Mine was never answered, of course.
DeBlasio did what he did to push his agenda for low-income housing. He does not care about the middle class. Look at his record. The PE firms are able to get these deals done because of our tax payer dollars given to them by DeBlasio and the federal government. It is a broken system and we are all idiots if we are going to continue to line the pockets of the PE behemoths with are hard earned money.
I have also been at TA meetings where the questions were not screened and long term tenants at the microphone went into a long, rambling, talking points/questions that had nothing to do with the topic so I think it could be a no win situation. Susan Steinberg is not a good moderator for this Q&A process, that I can tell you.
And I must comment on the “boycott” poster. STR's response to you was spot on. Your hate for Garodnick and the TA is now pathological. Whether you hate them or not, whether Garodnick gives a rah rah political speech at the beginning of the meeting (if he’s smart, he won’t”) to even suggest a boycott is so counterproductive as to be on a Birther, Truther, Teabagger level. I would suggest that the meeting be serious, business only type, no self-congratulatory BS by the TA or politicians. We will see.
Anonymous said...
Right to all and HENCE ... the overcharges, the phony inflated prices due to the renovated kitchen and bathroom. Dhcr ? no one cares. Hundreds have put in overcharge complaints as fraud and no none , not one of us has a reply. Ours has been YEARS. YES YEARS.
October 22, 2015 at 2:17 PM
Lets publicly list all of the case numbers of the unanswered DHCR overcharge complaints on a website and the date filed.
and let's as a group file a lawsuit on the college campus security mci, the renovation charges, the diminished QOL, the "first rent" scam, [the whole unfair and unbalanced roberts settlement] and more and let's get our ridiculously high rents down to where they legally should be.
October 22, 2015 at 11:54 AM
well said and historically enacted it may have taken twenty years but the ansonia rolled back in the ninties to seventies rents for all the illegal chopping and harassment
class action lawsuit them all!! we are 30,000 strong time is on our side especially since this real estate bubble is set to blow in 2016 can you say deja vu...
oh and a new REAL TA !!
and i personally plan on BOOiNG DAN as soon as he hits the microphone!!!!
We have all these rights to arm ourselves with weapons and protect ourselves in our homes from blue collar criminal intruders, home invasion, robbers.
We have no rights, weapons to protect our actual home from white collar predators. White collar criminals have all the rights and laws to assist in their crimes stealing our homes.
Shows how crooked the system is.
It also show that if the politicians wanted to, they could help regular people who are underwater with their mortgages just like they just protected NY RE who went under water with their over-mortgaging. Instead they let them get kicked out of house and home.
The entire NY political system stepped in to help the billionaires with their over mortgaged gamble. Letting us get kicked and kicked out.
http://www.barrons.com/articles/SB122066888768606315
filed a DHCR CASE long ago. WHERE DO WE POST? shame on city.
The PE firms are able to get these deals done because of our tax payer dollars given to them by DeBlasio and the federal government.
The PE firms had more than enough cash to buy PCVST and continue the tactics that TS/CW persued. No shortage of foreign and Wall street cash shopping for RE deals. The tax breaks, and the Fannie/Freddie stipulations, were the carrot and stick that kept them from doing just that.
Not related to here (except that I used to see quite a few locals shopping at the old Cherry St Pathmark) did anyone notice that Extell will be marketing the $1-3 million dollar condos in their new 71 story tower EXCLUSIVELY to Asian investors?
We have ALL had it, but there is nothing we can do about it. If EVERYONE withheld their rent for a few months, only THEN will we get a response. But we know that will never happen.
We have ALL had it, but there is nothing we can do about it. If EVERYONE withheld their rent for a few months, only THEN will we get a response. But we know that will never happen.
Well...class action lawsuit escrow rent payments i think they will catch on real quick
The gov and AG are blocking TPU and DHCR investigations in PCVST
Also filed an overcharge with department of housing and C. No replies - status ? pending.
8:43
Agree with you about BOO'ing Dan tomorrow. I am hoping that the Boo Birds are out in full force - We need to be louder then Philadelphia sports fans are when Santa makes an appearance!
"It seems like they may be the ones who will get royally screwed in this Blackstone deal in the near future (older RS tenants in 20 years).."
What everyone needs to remember is the importance of not just the continued renewal of rent-stabilization, but the reversal of the weakening amendments passed over the last several sunsets of these laws. If vacancy decontrol/destabilization is repealed, that is a much better result for long-term tenants. Thus you have to get involved in the electoral process and support and participate in groups like Tenants Political Action Committee (tenantspac.org). Nothing will happen to the RS tenants in occupancy if these laws are strengthened.
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