Open Letter To Dan and Susan from a Very Dissappointed Tenant

The TA Facebook contains a powerful open letter to our councilman Dan Garodnick and TA president Susan Steinberg from a tenant, Michael Feld. While I think tenant ownership of the property had serious concerns for the tenants who were not going to purchase their apartments, I think the letter speaks authoritatively and knowledgeably about matters we should all be aware of, and showcases that not all tenants are glowing about the deal made with Blackstone, which is the spin now from Blackstone and Garodnick. On behalf of this tenant, I thank you, Mr. Feld, for speaking out.

And folks, don't forget that we will all have an opportunity (hopefully!) of speaking out at the forthcoming meeting with Blackstone and tenants this Saturday at Baruch College at 1pm. I will have more information about this in a forthcoming blog post.

Here is the letter I am sending to Dan Garodnick and Susan Steinberg:

An Open Letter to Dan Garodnick and Susan Steinberg

Dear Ms. Steinberg and Mr. Garodnick:

It was with extreme disappointment that I read the other day that Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were being sold yet again to another corporate developer/landlord. There were echoes of Fall 2006 in recent weeks, as we watched flocks of “suits” walking around the complex sizing the place up.

Compounding this and making this beyond even any comprehension is that you both had the unmitigated nerve to get up with Mayor De Blasio and other officials in a hastily convened “press conference” to declare “victory” for tenants with this sale because you somehow got commitment from the corporate bloodsuckers at Blackstone not to destroy the complex any more than it already has been… for another twenty years. My mouth was literally hanging open watching you smiling and saying how great this is for tenants and our community. While you were smiling, I was getting sick to my stomach watching and listening to you. Mr. Garodnick, you said this deal has the support of the tenants. Perhaps my memory is failing me, but I don’t remember being asked for my opinion about any such deal and neither do any of my neighbors and friends who live here.

Let’s be perfectly clear: This is not by any means great for tenants or our community. It does not accomplish what you both were entrusted to and said you were going to accomplish. Stable? Affordable? This speech was an unbelievable whitewash job. We didn’t “preserve 5,000 apartments” from vacancy decontrol. We have LOST more than 6,000 in a complex of more than 11,000. To me, and others that I have spoken with, this is nothing short of unmitigated disaster. What you’re calling “victory” and “success” is like telling the parents of a child on life support that you’re going to be able to keep them alive for another twenty years, still on life support, with no quality of life and no guarantee of what’s going to happen in the future. Awesome, go ahead and pat yourselves on the back a little bit more.

The only way you could even possibly declare success or victory in this case is if the complex is bought and owned by the tenants, period. Anything short of that is a bitter pill that we are forced to swallow. I went to meeting after meeting where the TA claimed to have financiers and lawyers “lining up” to both finance this deal and handle the legal aspects of a sale to the tenants. “White shoe” law firms and financiers. Yes, those were the exact words used. What happened to them? Did they just evaporate? Didn’t we tenants have some right to know that the effort to convert to coops or condos was suspended? Are you really saying we couldn't come up with a competing bid? Are you saying the buying power of 30,000 people is not enough to make this happen? Yes, the complex is overvalued with this purchase, for now. In 20 years, it no longer will be, and tenants would have some serious equity.

In 2006, you had crews of people running around getting residents to sign petitions saying they would be in favor of a purchase of the complex by tenants so we could have all our ducks in a row. Chuck Schumer and others were “putting pressure” on CW Capital, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “do the right thing” and let a community of 30,000 people determine their own destiny and have a say over the shape of their own apartments. There were a myriad of protests and rallies and meetings. Over and over, for the last nine years there has been one version or another of this, and to what end? So another corporate real estate monolith can come in here and preserve the status quo and you are somehow declaring success? How does this address the current issues we have here? How is this a “win” for anyone but these corporate bloodsuckers?

The apartment next to mine has had at least six tenants in the last four years. NYU students still come and go in droves every semester, treat apartments and common areas like trash bins and clutter up sidewalks with refuse. I used to know my neighbors, but not anymore. Half of them are gone with apartments churning multiple times per year. How is this deal going to fix that problem?

CW Capital (i.e., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) has continued their process of “tarting up” vacated apartments up and whoring them out to the highest bidders, all at the expense of the quality of life of the residents while renovations are conducted. These are residents who have been here, many for decades, who only get to watch as their community deteriorates into a transient mess. How does this deal fix that problem? The answer is, it does not. Oh, but we have Oval Study, nice landscaping and a farmers market. Hurray!

Again, the only version of a sale that could be called “success” or a “victory for tenants” is one that means that we can have the option to buy our own apartments and that we own our own complex, not these corporate idiots coming in here padding their own wallets and those of their investors.You all have failed us. You failed in what you were entrusted to do and what you said you were going to do. No one wants these people coming in here. No one but you, and unfortunately, you were unwilling or unable to do what was necessary to prevent it and provide the tenants of this complex with a satisfactory outcome. And you know what? Perhaps you couldn’t get the financing to happen for whatever reason (which I find hard to believe). But don’t get up there with huge smiles on your faces and tell us this is a “win” for us. It’s not. It's nothing but a band-aid on a gaping wound. This is an abject, unmitigated travesty.

Sincerely,

Michael Feld