There are a couple of issues I care about regarding heat or insufficient heat in Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village. Is my apartment "toasty warm." No, it is not. As a matter of fact, the pipes can be frequently cold, which means no one is getting heat in my line. Pipes cold. I don't need a temperature gauge to tell me that, I don't need a "tour" to tell me that.
The issue is Management tells me that they are following the city regulations regarding heat. There is a process one has to go through to make sure the heat if there from a landlord, but Blackstone and Management know that this process if cumbersome and, if it is dealt with, so what? A warning? A fine? We may never know, just as Management does want any "bad" news about this complex out there. Suicides? What's it to you? Desperation? What's it to you? Intrusive noise? What's it to you? Everything, including the breaking of city laws--uncovered mattresses on the loops, club cars going this way and that, with their riders frequently hold a cellphone, etc.? What's it you?
And nothing proves how morally bankrupt our TA is than their response to the issue of heat, though, admittedly the TA is been purposeless for a while now and is clearly "in bed" with Management.
Yes, some tenants get heat, and it appears, lots of it. But for others, their apartments, like mine, are not "toasty warm."
93 comments:
This heating plant tour is the last straw. Despicable move of the TA to cover their behinds for doing nothing. And the response on their page is nauseating. Do these people have a clue?
We are in closing in on mid-February. March 20th spring begins. Good going, TA!
There are the usual cheerleading dopes on the TA Facebook, cheering the offer of a tour of the heating system like they've been offered a tour of the Louvre. They really are pathetic. Always the same silly women. SMFH.
Rick Hayduk is the biggest BULLSHIT ARTIST since P.T. Barnum. I think he's the worst manager we have ever had.
My apartment has been generally warmer of late with more consistent heat, but with some long cold pipe lapses especially when it is over 40 degrees. When I called in the past they would tell me that no one else in the line complained or was at 72. This is ridiculous. They don’t know that. And as I once told them, many in my line are students who don’t care. Then they do usually boost the heat up. I feel it can be manipulated and is not totally a sensor problem because I didn’t have heat issues before December, 2018. As for the TA, they should be ashamed of themselves. If anyone gives them dues, he or she is crazy.
The person who knows personally and intimately how many Heat Violations have been issued to Blackstone/Stuyvesant this winter has stated, NONE, NOT ONE.
Workmen who deal with this issue every day have stated that MANY have been issued to Blackstone/Stuyvesant this winter.
Who are you going to believe?
What is the old joke? "Who are you going to believe - me, or your lying eyes?"
Oh, yeah, these people - TA, Blackstone - have clues.
Brazen, callous, and uncaring. And worse.
Also: as someone wrote in the last thread: if some of us ask too often for the heat for which we are paying, we are threatened with legal action and also banished to the wood shed to keep our mouths shut tight.
Heat? Functioning drains? Ha!
If you haven't read this, please read it now. Blackstone ("private equity" company) went into housing when the housing market tanked. They were among the first to make merry with people's homes and lives. They began with single family homes and eventually go around to invading people like us - multi-family units.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-housing-invitation/
Yes, so funny how they are raving about this “tour”. Remember that this was the initiative of the TA, not management.
I get the feeling that when the Blackstone deal was made a few years ago, the TA pledged to support management in all ways in return for promoting the takeover. It ceased to be a resource for tenants at that point. Should be disbanded. A crime that people are paying dues to this mockery of a tenant protector and supporter.
Two words: space heater.
Landlord pays for electric, why would anyone suffer rather than take a $50 DIY remedy?
3 43 yes and what ya wanna do about it. Do you overpay? probably not. 70% of us do.
Blackstone is notorious for being a bad landlord. It buys politicians in order to get away with every kind of tenant abuse imaginable.
FRAUD ALERT! FRAUD ALERT!
Management has filed for a rent increase ( MCI ) for an accessibility ramp at 445 East 14th Street.
They CLAIM the following costs:
Architect cost: 24,401.51
Accessibility ramp: 96,912.75
Total cost: 121,314.26
Cost per room $1.62 per month added to rent FOREVER
As a former contractor, I can tell you the costs are BOGUS.
Need I say it again: BOGUS.
24 thousand for architect costs to plan a schlock ramp. They must be kidding.
My architect could do the plan in maybe 3-4 hours at most.
And 96 grand for the "ramp" which is crumbling and falling apart already.
No way!
The entire job should cost no more than 30 thousand tops!
I will gladly have my crew do the entire job for 25 grand and I will still make a nice profit.
This is ABSOLUTE thievery.
What say you Tenants Association, Susan Steinberg, John Marsh, and other thieves who had the nerve to pull this scam?
Disgraceful.
The newspapers should do an expose on this scam.
SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!
Readers thoughts please?
I'll check out this ramp.
>>Yes, so funny how they are raving about this “tour”. Remember that this was the initiative of the TA, not management.<<
The "tour" is plain silly. No wonder Management was quick to jump on this and claim that they are listening to tenants.
No big surprise about the ramp. The bogus TA will say to send them the rent bill and then do nothing. What else is new?
"3 43 yes and what ya wanna do about it. Do you overpay? probably not. 70% of us do."
Why do you have a problem with the comment made by 3:43? I think it was a true statement. If you overpay, that is not the fault of those who consider to be underpaying. In fact, I think the "underpaying" are probably paying what it is worth to live here. Why don't you look around and see if you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere?
I love the way posters are upset that it is “sold out”, like it is a tour of a museum or an event. They probably only allow a few at a time, that makes it look like a “tough ticket”. What a crock.
To whomever asks what any of us (me, specifically) plan to do about what Blackstone is doing to us:
What some of us might have been writing about for some time now:
1. RENT STRIKE - not just one person. MANY PEOPLE.
2. 100 PEOPLE WITH SIGNS AND BULLHORNS, CAREFULLY ORGANIZED, IN FRONT OF THE RESIDENT SERVICES ENTRANCE - with - MANY CAMERAS AND REPORTERS THERE.
3. Maybe cameras and reporters or not - 100 people there EVERY DAY for many days.
3. Hundreds of letters and phone calls, DAILY, flooding various media outlets and many city agencies.
You get the idea. There are plenty of other actions to be taken.
Please consult the news over the last few days: THE EXTREME PROTEST AGAINST AMAZON IN QUEENS IS CAUSING AMAZON TO CONSIDER NOT INVADING QUEENS, AFTER ALL.
Huge invaders CAN be successfully resisted!
Regarding the heat (or lack thereof) situation here: the City's mandated minimum of 68 degrees does not have anything to do with human comfort, but human subsistence. You won't get hypothermia if your apartment is 68 degrees, but you won't be comfortable, either. For elderly people, sick people, babies and very young children, as well as people who take certain types of medication, such as blood-thinners, 68 degrees is not just uncomfortably low, but dangerously low. The idiots who run this dump don't take that into consideration because squeezing the dollar is all that is important to them. If they can avoid getting fined by the City for providing subpar heat, then they will make sure it is at, or only slightly above, the minimum they can get away with. Ghouls with no consciences or decency.
@9:56 PM: I would gladly participate in any and every protest, but I can't say that I would organize such because I am elderly and tired and my spark is low. Years ago, I would have been trying to mobilize tenants, but now I can only be a follower, not a leader.
Young bloods: You out there?
9:56 you do not have the numbers for any of those actions to be effective.Perhaps people could call city agencies but I think that they are in cahoots with Blackstone. A rent strike by 50 to 100 people if you could even get that would not make a dent in Blackstone given the large number of buildings here. Rent strikes are only effective in individual buildings with a limited number of apartments. Reporters may or may not be interested and these actions might be barred by PS. Nice ideas but not workable here. Maybe all the complaining, calls to management and 311 had some effect because my heat has improved quite a bit. Not 💯 percent (on warmer days) but certainly better.
Apartment break in at 6PCR yesterday, according to Citizen. But hey, we have tours of the heating systems so who cares about the major crimes taking place here.
I’m surprised they are doing tours of the heating system, since last year they put up those signs saying that any questions about heat should go to ConEd.
This sensors scam is such utter bullshit. It's 35 degrees outside and we have cold pipes and radiators. Have to wear a jacket indoors. Such luxury living. It's not even basic living. I think I'm going to leave flyers around the city warning people about this place.
I don't blame the TA because I don't think management listens to them. They probably have cold apartments too. The people who should be getting involved are our useless politicians, but as they take so much money from Real Estate, I don't think they can get involved. They don't want to lose their stream of income of bribes, kickbacks and "campaign donations."
I do blame the TA. If they cannot deal with management, then they have no right to collect dues and claim to be a tool for the tenants. From the getgo, after Blackstone took over, they responded to tenant complaints with “Call Rick”, The least they could do is get their lawyers involved and organize.
I've been thinking about taking some visible and legal action, but not dependent on numbers of tenants. And I don't think weekly protests in front of the leasing office will work. That has been tried before with the TA and it was a failure. Rather, periodic protests could be the way to go, and it would have to be legal, in other words the 13 precinct would have to okay it, and the protesters could not just stand there, but move. There have been protests in the neighborhood, and it is usually what I said. But now it is damn cold and windy. Perhaps in a future month? Again, just thinking now.
STR, I'll be there! Whatever the date, whatever the weather. I have printed up hundreds of flyers outlining the drawbacks to living here, especially lack of heat and too much noise, and have left them in taxis, subway trains, buses and anywhere and everywhere. I have friends (who don't even live here) distributing them too. All over the City.
Hit the bastards where it will hurt ..... the bottom line and their reputation (which not everyone realizes is as shitty as it actually is.)
No heat now at 3am and it ain't exactly comfortable. Just woke up because I'm so cold.
How sad does one's life have to be to look forward to a tour of the heat at PCVST? I feel sad for those people. Someone needs to help them find a friend.
The TA President made clear to tenants where they stand when it comes to heat in our apartments, smack dab alongside and indebted to the landlord for "Tom F. who keep us warm and our homes and buildings functional."
This was in 2016. It is 2019 and we are having the same conversations, the same TA complaints, about a TA who made it clear they are Team Landlord all the way.
This Town & Village article where the TA told all the tenants and community their alignment with the landlord on heat, quality of life, and so on has been posted on this blog before. Here is an excerpt:
"Why I’m grateful this holiday season
I thought it would be appropriate, given the time of year, to express some gratitude and optimism during these discordant
times. The Stuy Town/Peter Cooper community has been through a lot and now our country, too, is facing some tough times.
As I take inventory of areas for thanks, I choose to look locally and at our great and diverse community. We have to be ever
mindful that our ST/PCV community is actually a small and complex city, with unforeseen challenges.
I am grateful that we have finally achieved some real stability in Blackstone as our still-newish owner and for their important
choice to have key staff living among us, sharing our quality of life. I am grateful for management’s clear voice and steady hand
thus far. Grateful for their choice to keep long-serving staff like Bill M. and Fred K., who keep us safe and to Kathleen K. and
Tom F. who keep us warm and our homes and buildings functional. For Rick H. and the new members of his team who are
making real efforts to care for our community.
I am grateful for a strong and wary tenants association, which is practical and pragmatic in its efforts to protect our rights and
our quality of life. (And let’s not forget that it was the TA whose years-long work with top legal and financial advisers led to the
Blackstone takeover.) Grateful, too, for its outstanding leaders and volunteers who deserve much but get too....
Fix the overcharges fix the large increases to the MR Fuck anything else if you want us to be one.
DESERVEDLY SO
https://13wham.com/news/state/cuomo-schumer-score-lowest-ratings-ever-in-new-siena-college-poll
There's something really wrong with the TA and the person who writes their posts. They have a new post that starts: "G'Morning, peeps!" Peeps? LOL. Anyway the TA doesn't want any more of posting of that Citizen alert app. This way, you will never know what is happening that should be of concern to tenants. Management would be happy if you said only positive things. Thank you.
Another example of Management STUPIDITY and INSENSITIVITY:
Printed cards were placed on windshields of cars legally picked in handicapped spots with appropriate NYC Parking Permit for People with Disabilities.
The card states in BOLD PRINT:
Sorry, But This Vehicle IS Illegally Parked.
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.
Any car with a valid NYC Parking Permit for People with Disabilities is ABSOLUTELY entitled to park.
Another form of harassment?
You bet.
I am in a wheelchair and you CAN BET I will be personally in Rick Hyduk's face if I receive a summons.
You can take that to the bank!
The tenants who tried to fix the problems including overcharges are long gone for years now. We are on our own to fix it ourselves.
I have been here for awhile. TA was never particularly effective but , in the past, they at least tried. These days they make no pretense of trying. The best way to describe these ridiculous tours of the heating system is that it is a Potemkin Village, designed to deceive. Very easy to fix problem of insufficient heat- keep the "On /Off" button much more in the "on" position. So simple, yet so hard for management to do
So, who is more disappointing, stupid, and ultimately harmful to other people and other kinds of life:
A. The "owner" and many of those who work for him/them?
B. Soooo many of the residents, students, tourists and Big Brother only knows who inhabit, walk through, case our homes ("case" as in examine with burglary or worse in mind)?
ANSWER: All of the above!
We are all in big trouble here in the big cities.
We need to be diligent about registering every single complaint every single time something arises.
I bought my own indoor thermometer. Every time we notice it below the legal temperature, I file a complaint with 311.
Every time we get brown water, I file a 311 complaint. I also had the brown water tested. It does lead to fungal issues as well as other water Bourne illness. I sent this report to every government agency that I could.
Every time the carriage room is impassable due to debris, I lodge a complaint. Every time there are packages blocking the egress, I file a complaint.
Every time I see an electric bicycle being ridden on the grounds and especially when around children and seniors, I call it in to the NYPD. PS is not effective. Look at the spate of crimes committed in the community.
Anything and everything needs to be reported as tedious as it sounds. Continue to write/call/interact with elected officials. I know I am treated as a crank, but it helps me cope. If everyone did this, it might get some notice. I’ve called in John Lelher on WNYC. I’ve written 7 on your side. Eventually something will stick. At least we are disrupting the lives of the people who are so carelessly disrupting ours.
THE STR details the crimes going on here in STPCV. The TA is non existent so don’t waste your time.
THANKS TO STR FOR GIVING US THIS PAGE TO VENT AND JOURNAL THE ATROCITIES OF CRACKSTONE.
“Good morning Peeps” is a sign just how out of touch and not engaged the TA is. We are pleading for help and representation instead we get unprofessional childish lingo. Awful
That peeps greeting was nauseating . I think various people write their posts. Anything they say is a waste.
Pathetic.
Those “peeps” are pitiful if they look forward to that tour which is PR stunt.
For the TA, I think it would be better to start: "Listen up, dudes!"
4:15AM, Tuesday, 2/12/2019
Heating pipes are ICE COLD!
62 degrees on Stuy Town thermometer in my bedroom.
Hey, at $3,600 per month, who am I to expect HEAT?
One more year on my lease and I'M OUTTA HERE!
What a dump.
NYCHAS gets better heat.
Truly a disgrace.
Ghoulish landlord.
The management is money grubbing hungry. Charging tenants 3 months to break a lease unless you have a cheap flat? Legal?I think not. Stay far away anyway thinking of renting here.
We had no heat all morning until I called and said I was filing a complaint with the City. Suddenly the heat comes on.
Does anybody know if there is a website where we can see how many complaints have been filed against SPS for withholding heat this winter? This must have been planned ahead or they wouldn't have started issuing those chintzy little thermometers. This is harassment, pure and simple, and I think it's time the City started to really crack down on them. The TA is totally useless. Worse than useless, in cahoots, I think.
It is a complex-wide situation. Almost EVERYBODY who lives here is suffering from lack of heat this winter. Last winter it was the same thing. This is deliberate, calculated harassment. They must be following he Kushner guidelines for running people out of their homes.
I agree that they can turn on the heat when they want to. My experience has been that when I called, they turned up the heat. My heat had been good until today. No heat all night or morning. Just went on, but my thermometer retained the heat at 71. Today has been the worst day in a while. Maybe the peeps who go on the tour can tell them to turn it up.
Still not a word in T&V about the complex-wide heating problems. Sabina should be ashamed of herself. Who needs newspapers that are controlled by the likes of Blackstone?
Has anyone used the Stuyvesant Town gym or the personal trainers at the gym or their online BA Fitness trainers? Are they legit?
By the way the temperature at the gym during the winter was 72 degrees
https://www.yelp.com/biz/oval-fitness-new-york
PCV
Hey, just call Rick. Congratulations. Worst snow removal dating back to bankrupt Speyer.
Blackstone Sucks!
Management Marsh just asked for more slots on that travesty of a tour of the heating plant. Are these peeps for real?
I am at $3790 and have heat but gross water gross neighbors i am outa here. Airbnb? perhaps.
Are you shocked by the asshats that live above you? How does one draaaaagggg furniture across the floor constantly, without rugs, with no regard for those living underneath?
Somebody/people on the City's payroll are getting some big bucks for looking the other way as Blackstone decreases our heat and hot water and tries to scare us with demands that they enter our apartments or write cease and desist letters to people they feel complain too stridently. Remember, Blackstone is a dirty - very
dirty - company. It is not a landlord, as such, but a private equity company whose only mission in life is to fill its coffers. It will go to any, as in ANY, length to do this and human life is of zero importance to the principals, just so long as those coffers are being filled. It is a company that is evil by almost Biblical proportions! Those who work for Blackstone have sold their souls, so don't trust them and don't deal with them unless you absolutely strictly have to. I'm not speaking of the minions, they have no choice because they just want a pay check for doing a normal job, but the principals employed by Blackstone, who have made a career working for this very, very evil company. This company preys on the poor and people who have had bad luck and tragedy in their lives. We are seeing glimpses of their evil in what they are doing to this property and how they are making our lives a misery and damage our health. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Do your online research and you will horrified by what you find.
Not surprising this is happening in our former Stuytown city councilman's district. Garodnick's districts and REBNY are sure to be in the news more and more as the real estate corruption gets exposed.
..the U.S. government has tied seven Manhattan condo buildings to a currency exchange scam run by the country’s so-called “boligarchs.”
https://therealdeal.com/2019/02/12/manhattan-luxury-condos-tied-to-alleged-venezuelan-money-laundering-scheme/
Open the books already.
I suspect that Management told Sabina not to publish any letters or comments from tenants who are complaining about not having enough heat. If it were the tenants at Waterside, they would printed, no problem.
T&V a disgusting rag
Some years back, I worked for a city agency which harassed and tormented many of its employees. Fabricating stories which saw people arrested, "perp-walked" and jailed was not uncommon. At one point, the tactic of arresting and incarcerating an employee on Friday was favored. Said employee would be in jail until Monday. Judge would be angry Monday because they understood the arrest was ENGINEERED TO SCARE AND POSSIBLY HURT THE ARRESTED EMPLOYEE and send the message to ALL EMPLOYEES: THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU OPPOSE US. Judge sent home the terrorized employee to recover from the trauma.
Some of us are being threatened and some of us are being told, "you're crazy; YOU HAVE HEAT. AND DON'T YOU DARE KEEP ASKING FOR HEAT. And then threaten us. The implication is eviction. We are ordered to stop all contact with departments such as maintenance and Security.
It seems to me that this is their new massive bid to take people's homes away from us, pure and simple. We've seen waves like this under other "land owners." The legal department, however, remains stable through more than one "land owner."
Security may be experiencing more downsizing and/or neutralization. Only a prediction, but time will tell.
The ice rink is continuing to expand its intrusive, health-destroying, illegal activities. I do not know how people living near it can bear that noise.
The "events" on and around the Oval last summer (spring and fall and into the winter) were more numerous and more intrusive, health-destroying and illegal than in all of the previous years. This was planned. Remember the suits' declaration, "This (the Oval) is a great resource."
Now? After expanding ice rink interference with some residents' lives; after expanding "events" interference with some residents' lives came this: so many residents deprived of heat for months.
It will only get worse. I shudder to think what will be perpetrated upon us come the spring time. And lord help you if you complain and demand peace, quiet, fulfillment of their obligation to ensure a habitable home.
Our well loved and helpful, effective new councilman, Keith Powers, was on TV tonight speaking about the city council's desire to regulate certain facets of the rotten apple's real-thievery-estate actions, including those of brokers. It is all for the benefit of the people. Sure.
Also, have you seen the stern warnings and threats blazing on the bulletin boards in our buildings? "Hotel" Airbnb is strictly outlawed; it creates unsafe conditions for the community. The community is known as safe. Those who are "rent gouging" by "illegally" renting space in their homes are violating their leases and will be punished and some have already had their leases terminated.
Never mind that YOU KNOW WHO is doing this themselves AND encouraging others to do it.
Whaddya think?
And, I heard that we are not ALLOWED to wash our own windows and there are those charging all kinds of money to do so. And, I heard more about serious mold in apartments. This was a newsy kind of day here in our safe, beautiful, caring, quiet, peaceful community . . .
Regarding yesterday's snow and sleet and ice removal (Tuesday, the 12th):
I agree with 4:21 P.M. This was another example, for my money, of the escalating harassment of tenants. No salt was spread before the storm, as has always been done before yesterday. They usually do a wonderful job. Yet, for yesterday's snow and ice: NOTHING prior to the storm. I've never seen this before.
What I did see was a repeat performance of last year: some cowboy on a snowplow in the Oval driving at a very dangerous speed - reckless. It seems to me this is yet another way people can be badly injured, or literally run over. All to the good for Blackstone. They are both thinking of new ways to harm us, and recycling tried and true methods.
Later in the day yesterday, after the snow had been plowed and it was sleeting steadily, no salt was laid down to prevent slips and falls. The sidewalks outside of the development were not nearly as slippery and dangerous as the walkways in Stuyvesant Town.
They are doing a commendable job of hurting us. Good going, Blackstone!
Every evening we are without heat. It will come on around 2 or 3 am but we've gone hours freezing. Could it be our landlord cannot afford to heat this place?
We've had no heat since last night. It's 42 degrees outside. No point in calling RS because we will get the thermometer/engineer needs to come into apartment script. I just bought two space heaters and that is how we will be getting our heat from now on, I guess. How do these bastards get away with this? They must be paying off somebody to be able to do this. SLUMLORDS.
3:22 p.m. The trainer I use at the 14th Street gym is named Dan. He's a fantastic trainer.
I do not agree with the posters who are complaining about the snow/ice cleanup. I did see salt being spread and shoveling. One ridiculous poster even complained about the salt harming her dog. Boo hoo. I find the streets across ST much sloppier during storms. I do condemn management for the heat problems but I do not condemn them for snow removal.
Blackstone is living up to its worldwide reputation of being an evil and abusive landlord. I wish we had a TA that would stand up to them, but the TA is useless.
The residents who are taking this ridiculous heat tour are enabling the TA and management. Are they kidding! The TA administrators are trying to ingratiate tenants with their peeps greetings and valentine messages. They are sickening. Guess what. I still will not pay dues to these bloodsucker phonies.
The TA is definitely in cahoots with management. They are even worse than management. They do nothing about the heat but offer stupid tours. At least after calling management a few times I got long term relief at least for now.
money pinchers!!!!!! they are too poor and cheap to provide heat. The managing company is broke.
I didn't want to take photos, but on my way to Gracefully, a lot of dog shit. Seems that's the favorite place for dogs (outside dogs?) to take a dump and just leave the deposit there. This morning there was a Stuy Town worker trying to clean it up. Also, on my way back, I saw nice unpicked dog shit near the Oval. Good going. Stuy Town wanted dogs (for money) and now they have them. A lot. PS is basically useless, despite all the rules.
There is not a single Airbnb StuyTown complaint listed with the city with a lease broken by the landlord. Not even the 100 cases by the private investigator, city police, state and feds is listed in the city records. This bulletin board posting sounds like a fishy cover up story.
Aha! You think, 1:28 P.M.???
The bulletin board posting is not only bs, it is threatening, it is written in the manner a bully would express himself.
It also occurred to me that it might be another way to hunt down people who feel they are being economically squeezed such that they are doing the rent-a-room thing. And . . . drum roll please: EVICT THEM!
It has been recently suggested that they're looking to evict large numbers of us again. Maybe so.
This is unbelievable. Airbnb is rampant in ST. I believe that’s management is aware of it.
What's this bulletin board? I haven't seen it.
No heat now until 2 am most days,nights. I get home from work around 8 pm and it's freezing. Pipes are cold and only at about 1 or 2 am does heat arrive. This is some fucked up shit.
the blackstone with stuy and Pcv are in the red. They can't get out of the red.
We are being made to suffer for the greed and stupidity of Rob Speyer and his partners. They are the reason the property is in the red. Speyer and BlackRock overpaid for the property because they thought they could turf out all the rent stabilized people. Damn them to Hell.
Not so sure that they are in the red. These apartments are filled. They are great deals with NYU and other schools to create dorms. 4 bros will pay the 4500 for a two year lease and they keep rotating in and out. They will deny it but they also have a deal with deBlasio for city subsidy. I think the city is paying most of my neighbors 3500 or so rent. I also see short term tourists who are probably willing to pay. I think more and more apartments will be subsidized by the city and house multiple roomies and students.
I live in Stuyvesant Town. A Peter Cooper longtime resident recently explained to me that the two bedroom PC apartments are being eliminated. ALL of them, I think. The "renovations" consist of kitchen (as a room) ELIMINATED (destroyed), a tiny "kitchenette" being installed, and a THIRD BEDROOM created out of thin air.
This way, they can advertise/rent three bedroom apartments where there were only two. They can also endanger who knows how many people (a) during "renovations" (DESTRUCTION) not only by (1) noise, (2) vibration, (3) pollutant-laden dust and (4)running pipes/water in walls or ceilings where none existed previously, but (b) shove in too many people for the apartment, plumbing, elevators, other infrastructure, etc.; (c) endanger hundreds of people by eliminating closed-in kitchens. And much, much more. As has already been done in many apartments.
I just didn't know until very recently that this as POLICY and STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE.
On a different but related note: when I described to a perfect stranger who lives on the Upper East Side that they've severely crippled our Security force, she immediately responded with the observation that this will encourage crime so that the "owners" can declare this to be an unsafe neighborhood better off demolished.
>>I live in Stuyvesant Town. A Peter Cooper longtime resident recently explained to me that the two bedroom PC apartments are being eliminated. ALL of them, I think. The "renovations" consist of kitchen (as a room) ELIMINATED (destroyed), a tiny "kitchenette" being installed, and a THIRD BEDROOM created out of thin air.<<
Hmm.... If it is the new policy now, it sounds like another nail in Stuy Town.
Blackstone is noted for having zero morals and principles when it comes to the housing it owns. When there is a catastrophic incident caused by their insatiable avarice possibly they will be held accountable. I don't know how anybody with even the slightest shred of decency can work for such a company in an executive position. Of course, they wouldn't be able to get away with murder if we had a mayor who cared about people more than trying to promote himself and his career. Same goes for all our local politicians.
It sounds like more dorms
Regarding the conversion of kitchens into bedrooms in PCV apartments mentioned above, when my elderly neighbor passed away last year, this is exactly what happened to her ONE bedroom apartment. A kitchen was installed in the living room, and made a second bedroom where the kitchen used to be. The apartment also comes with washer/dryer.
Those “genius” sensors that ST management and residents services are a myth. I have had almost zero heat in my apartment for five weeks, with the indoor temperature often at 66 F in the daytime, 6 degrees below the fake 72 F promised by Blackstone, and 2 degrees below the legal minimum in NYC. What is so bizarre is that during the first two weeks of February, my apt was so overheated that temperatures reached 81-82 F! Why does Resident Services almost always demand to send someone to the complainants’ apartments, when there obviously is nithing wrong with our radiators, valves or pipes? They work perfectly well when management DECIDES to arbitrarily and capriciously send up heat for only 30 to 45 minutes every 36 to 48 hours! In 2018, when the heat was mire normal, we’d get a blast in the early morning, around 5-6 a.m., when people are getting out of bed. It could get chilly during the day, especially for the homebound elderly, infirm, and those with young children. But the heat at least returned by about 4 pm., to greet folks coming home from work, and stay on until about 9-10 p.m., after which NYC nighttime heating rules apply. Now, there is no rhyme or reason regarding when or why the heat might reappear. Last night, the pipes clanged at 3 a.m., as the ice-cold pipes expanded with heat that lasted 45 minutes. Why then? Perhaps because the outside temperature had just fallen to 39 F from 40 F?
I urge all those without heat to call 311 and complain, complain, complain! Give 311 your address (you can remain anonymous, unlike what RS here demands), cite Stuy Town as the owner, and provide the phone number that is so utterly useless for us residents: 212-420-5000. Maybe if enough of us call the city, NYC will call ST and pressure them to turn the heat back on. In 2015, when CW Capital was freezing us out, I called 311, and HPD sent an inspector, whose own thermometer read 66 F in my bedroom, well below the legally required heat in daytime. A citation/violation was issued, and it was very far from the only one. Now I’ve been on the horn again to 311, and look forward to seeing ST becoming a repeat offender. We peons have to use space heaters, while I bet Rick Hayduk’s PCV building is “toasty warm”! Newsflash: These heat problems are building-wide in 99% of the time. They are not a result of issues in individual apartments. Another newsflash: If you turn off the heat, the temperature in the apartments will eventually be as cold as outdoors; see Newton’s Laws of Thermodynamics, especially the Second Law. How stupid does management think we are?
Some “Lux Living” at ST! More like, “Welcome to Stuy Town; don’t forget your space heaters, electric blankets, and down clothing!
Every time climate change “gifts” us with an unseasonably warm day, like the 75 F on Friday, March 15, 2019, and the less unnatural 59 F on Sunday,March 24, 2019, ST takes advantage of the phenomena to declare summer, and just turn the heat off, even when, days later, the outdoor temperature, like today, is a high of 48 F, and the indoor temp in my bedroom has fallen to 66 F, two degress below the legal minimum for residential rentals during daytime. ST also conveniently, for its coffers, equates 48 F outdoors to the legally mandated 55 F outdoors. (Hey, what’s six measily degrees? Doesn’t *everybody* lie nowadays in America?) So, once again, I have to call 311 and file a formal complaint, just as I did under CW Capital’s cruel rule, and wait for the HPD inspector (whose thermometer’s readings always matched those of mine) to issue a violation/citation. But whereas CW couldn’t care less how its reputation suffered, ST’s current owner, Blackstone, has a Big Lie to maintain, which it is more concerned about than actually maintaining the 72 F it lies about over and over again. Well, the difference between 72 F and 66 F is also six degrees, but hey, what’s six measily degrees among liars? And what’s the difference between not just legal but even cozy warm, and just plain *illegal*? And yes, ST, “if you’re listening,” I indeed *am* keeping a written record!
Well, here we are on Nov 18, 2019, and the outdoor temperature today has been between 40 and 42. I can see that this heating season is already replicating the outrages of the last one, in which we get almost no heat if the outdoor temp doesn’t fall below 40 F even in daytime hours (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.), when the law requires that we get heat when it is below 55 F outdoors. All day, it has been only 65 F in my apartment, three degrees below the legally mandated minimum, and five degrees below Stuy Town’s alleged “set point,” the goal it claims it aims to provide. Only on Nov. 16, when outdoor temps were well in the low 30’s, was there a modicum of heat, enough to bring the indoor temp to 70 F. I guess the only time we can hope to bask in such “luxury” is when Stuy Town is afraid the pipes might freeze, and so begrudgingly protects its investment!
Wonder whether Management’s recent removal of name directories in the lobbies, and nameplates on the doors is the better for ST to disguise the dormification of what was once a family-oriented community?
Guess ST must have come up with a new policy: No heat on Leap Year. My reliable, accurate, store-bought room thermometer reads 66 F at 8 p.m., which is illegal, two degrees below the mandated 68F before 10 p.m. Of course, management’s rigged, fake thermometer says 70, so there’s no point in calling to complain, since the “engineers” will predictably whip out their own, equally-rigged, equally-fake, management-issued thermometers. Is it naive of me to believe Lt. Col. Vindman, who declared, “Here, in America, truth matters, right matters”?
PS to my comment above re no heat on Leap Year: Forgot to mention it ain’t exactly mild outdoors, only 28F, so there’s no global warming excuse today for the absence of heat, only 66 F in my apt during daytime hours. Maybe, if ST starts to worry about their property’s pipes freezing, they’ll send up some heat.
So the outdoor temperature today was a very brief *high* of 55 F, which ST interprets as if it had been 55 all day, and thus has given no heat at all, all day long. My reliable, accurate, storebought room thermometer reads 66-67 F all day today, which is illegal. Of course, ST’s fake free thermometer is stuck on 70, while some 30,000 tenants are trapped indoors under coronavirus lockdown. So is giving no heat among management’s much bragged about measures it is taking to “help keep our community healthy”?
Trapped indoors for weeks, height of covid-19 pandemic, have been coughing since early March. MD says if I have it, I could shed virus for 21 days after symptoms stop, so trapped in cold apt for at least another three weeks. Outdoor temp 48 at 5 p.m., indoor temp 66. Shivering under electric blanket.
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