Our landlord, BLACKSTONE, can't handle Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village. There is a lack of enforcement of certain "rules," and no amount of notice to this alleviates the problems. We are continually being told half-truths and fabrications. And we have no viable Tenants organization, despite our TA asking for dues all the time. So far, the politicians have proven to be basically useless. A typical New York story.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Blackstone Raising Rents?
Our lord and master, Blackstone, has been accused by the UN of contributing to the housing crisis. Now on the two Stuy Town blogs, and now on this one. Of course, our Tenants Association is silent.
This is the article published in today's Guardian (part 1 of 2 parts here):
UN accuses Blackstone Group of contributing to global housing crisis
World’s largest corporate residential landlords called out for their practices of inflating rents and ‘aggressive evictions’
Patrick Butler, Social policy editor, and Dominic Rushe in New York Tue 26 Mar 2019 04.00 EDT
The UN’s housing advisor has accused private equity firms and one of the world’s largest corporate residential landlords, Blackstone Group, of exploiting tenants, “wreaking havoc” in communities and helping to fuel a global housing crisis.
In a stinging critique of the role of private equity in the housing market UN rapporteur Leilani Farha and co-author Surya Deva, chairperson of the UN Working Group, singled out Blackstone’s business practices – which they claim include massively inflating rents and imposing an array of heavy fees and charges for ordinary repairs – as having “devastating consequences” for many tenants in countries around the world.
In a series of letters to Blackstone and government officials in Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the US, Farha and Deva accused private equity and asset management firms like Blackstone and its subsidiaries of undertaking “aggressive evictions” to protect its rental income streams, shrinking the pool of affordable housing in some areas, and effectively pushing low and middle-income tenants from their homes.
Blackstone disputed the claims. In a letter to Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s founder and CEO, obtained by the Guardian, the company said the UN report contained “numerous false claims, significant factual errors and inaccurate conclusions”. And the company was “surprised and disappointed” that the UN would “send a communication without verifying your assertions and providing appropriate context”.
Blackstone has, in recent years, acquired hundreds of thousands of homes in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America, often through subsidiaries, making it one of the largest and most powerful global players in the housing investment sector. In its reply, Blackstone claimed private equity had helped build the rental market at a time when countries around the world were facing housing shortages and abided by all relevant locals laws.
Farha said the commodification of real estate by private equity investors in recent years had made housing for many people increasingly expensive and precarious: “Landlords have become faceless corporations wreaking havoc with tenants’ right to security and contributing to the global housing crisis.” The authors also wrote formal letters to six countries, including the US, accusing them of failing to regulate corporate landlords and protect tenants’ human right to secure housing: “We remind all states that while gold is a commodity, housing is not, it’s a human right.”
The UN letter to the US government focuses on the way corporate landlords bought hundreds of thousands of ordinary family houses left empty after their owners defaulted on mortgage payments during the sub-prime crisis of 2008. The firms were encouraged by US government agencies to acquire the heavily-discounted properties in part because they would bring homes back into use as local economies began to recover from the financial crash.
This is the conclusion of today's Guardian article on Blackstone and Schwarzman:
However, the need to maximize profits to repay investors typically led to a “constant escalation” of housing costs for tenants, primarily by hiking rents – in some cases by 30-50% – and ruthlessly pursuing eviction for non-payment. One corporation issued nearly a third of its tenants with eviction notices, the letter says.
The authors allege that a Blackstone subsidiary in the US, Invitation Homes, imposes charges for minor maintenance repairs and tasks such as removing insect infestations. She alleges that it imposes late rental payments of $100, even if they are just one minute late, or due to an error in Invitation Homes’ computer system.
In its reply, Blackstone said it was a small player in the US rental market, representing 0.5% of the nearly 16m single-family homes for rent in the United States, and that its customer satisfaction and retention rates were in fact higher than average.
Letters outlining similar breaches of housing rights and failure to regulate corporate landlords were also sent to Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, Denmark and Republic of Ireland, each of which has seen large influxes of corporate rental investment in recent years.
Blackstone disputed these findings too.
Farha has made what she calls the “financialisation” of housing the priority of her tenure as housing rapporteur since 2014, highlighting how the transformation of real estate into an asset class traded on global markets has triggered housing insecurity and homelessness crises in many cities around the world.
A paper she published for the UN two years ago noted how trillions of dollars of investments in hyper expensive apartment blocks in neighbourhoods of major cities from London to Vancouver had put housing beyond the reach of all but the rich, breaking up established communities, and fuelling soaring rents and evictions. Farha’s investigation into corporate landlords’ treatment of tenants around the world is the subject of a new documentary, Push, which premiered this month. A sub-plot of the film is Farha’s repeated but ultimately doomed attempts to secure a face-to-face meeting with chief executive Schwarzman to discuss its role.
. . . The photos and side articles are worth reading.
I'm surprised the TA allowed that to be put on their website. The poster will probably be contacted by management. Management keeps a close watch on what people say on the TA Facebook. I'm sure that if they could identify the people who post here, they would go after them. That's why anonymity is so important here.
STR, do you sit with your back to the door when you dine out? ;-) Probably you shouldn't!
The role the tenant association, city, state and national politicians in the Blackstone Deal is large with some bragging about being key players in published articles boasting their part in the Blackstone deal for 4 years.
The Town & Village press announcement on the deal is disgusting. The congratulatory hug photo is nauseating.
The 2015 comments, especially 11:34am and 8:58pm are very well said as are all the comments. The tenant comments held up well 4 years later despite the propaganda by corrupt forces.
All these deal makers pictured here should hang their heads in shame while thanking their lucky stars they are not yet called out for human rights violations of basic human needs, being housing.
"Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a Tuesday press conference. Pictured with him are State Senator Brad Hoylman, Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, Blackstone’s global head of real estate Jonathan Gray (partially hidden), Council Member Dan Garodnick, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, ST-PCV Tenants Association President Susan Steinberg and other residents. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)"
"Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Member Dan Garodnick hug at the press conference. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)"
"Jonathan Gray (photo by Sabina Mollot)"
"Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen (Photo by Sabina Mollot)"
"October 21, 2015 Stuy Town sold for $5.3B to Blackstone"
It's truly very complicated in this full of activity life to listen news on Television, thus I simply use internet for that purpose, and take the most up-to-date information.
Why would UN put out negative press on black stone? There are many UN employees that live in Stuy towm apartments- even if they might actually not use it as primary residence- rules bend for these tenants. Would think UN would be grateful.
Definitely believe that that you said. Your favorite reason appeared to be at the net the easiest thing to have in mind of. I say to you, I definitely get irked at the same time as other folks think about concerns that they just don't understand about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without having side effect , other people could take a signal. Will likely be again to get more. Thank you
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/nyregion/todt-hill-staten-island.html March 26, 2019 at 7:07 PM
Funny coincidence, that Todt Hill community, that address is only a short ten minute drive from where the former StuyTown Assemblyman Kavanagh's Staten Island house is (the former Assemblyman in the Town & Village Blackstone Deal photos).
UN rights experts decry Big Finance moves in housing market
By Associated Press March 26 at 7:24 PM GENEVA — Two independent U.N. human rights experts are denouncing moves by big investment and private equity firms to buy up affordable and low-income homes to the detriment of tenants, singling out one by name: Blackstone Group. A statement from the United Nations human rights office in Geneva on Tuesday said Leilani Farha and Surya Deva had written to Blackstone to air concerns that “its actions are inconsistent with international human rights law with respect to the right to housing.”
CBS NEWS https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blackstone-group-is-making-u-s-housing-crisis-worse-the-un-says/
NBC NEWS UN accuses Blackstone Group of 'wreaking havoc,' helping to fuel a global housing crisis, The Guardian reports https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/26/un-accuses-blackstone-group-of-helping-to-fuel-a-global-housing-crisis.html
THE GUARDIAN https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/26/blackstone-group-accused-global-housing-crisis-un
"Our lord and master, Blackstone, has been accused by the UN of contributing to the housing crisis. Now on the two Stuy Town blogs, and now on this one. Of course, our Tenants Association is silent.
Life in Stuy Town I write this on May 3, 2018: Since this year, there have been three suicides in ST/PCV. Aside from silence by almost everyone, there occurred a suicide where sulfuric acid was used and the city had to be called in, including the Fire Dept. As of now, there has been a general state of silence about this suicide, even though other resident lives were at danger. Yes, our councilperson is silent. The TA is silent. Obviously, Management is silent, too."
Blackstone richly deserves any & all the negative press that appears--from whatever source. As that Guardian article indicates, they are an INTERNATIONAL cancer.
There was a fire in a NYCHA apartment building overnight, caused by a space heater because people are not getting heat in that building. How long till that happens here? We have NO heat today and had none last night. Having to use space heaters is a part of life in this dump.
No comments on this on the TA Facebook! Lots of negative "reactions," but nobody dares open their mouth! Dissenters have been dealt with and sent to "Siberia."
"Why would UN put out negative press on black stone? There are many UN employees that live in Stuy towm apartments- even if they might actually not use it as primary residence- rules bend for these tenants. Would think UN would be grateful."
The UN is a big organization with many, many departments and issues under its umbrella. Any UN employees living here may have nothing to do with the department that is looking into this issue. They may not have even heard of it.
It's been a very cold windy day and it is now a cold windy evening. Not one puff of heat all day long from these filthy, avaricious, incompetent grifters. May they rot in hell. Had to put a space heater on this afternoon because it was so cold. There was a terrible fire in an apartment building in the Bronx late night caused by a space heater. Really, it was caused by the vile NYCHA who owns it, but it might just as well have been Blackstone who owned it.
I think they are trying to slum us out of homes so they can take the land and build luxury high-rises for the millionaires and billionaires.
If you have not read the piece detailing the condemnation of Blackstone and Schwarzman by the United Nations, please read it. It is at the top of this thread.
For some real encouragement, please take a good long look at the brand new documentary mentioned in it: PUSH - WHY CAN'T WE AFFORD TO LIVE IN OUR CITIES?
It is at pushthefilm.com.
This is a partial quotation from the site: ". . .the very idea of what the experts call the “financialisation” of the housing market. There’s a huge difference between housing as a commodity and gold as a commodity”. And later:
"Residents should be able to afford to live in their own cities. It is time to recognise that housing is a human right, not a commodity. Let’s push back."
The misery of homelessness, and of tremendous numbers of people being pushed out of their homes is worldwide. The private equity firm which "owns" Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village is singled out as among the worst of the worst. They, and others like them, are causing untold injury to people all over this planet.
PUSH is a call to recognize, understand and push back against these bringers of misery.
I was reading the comments on the TA Facebook about the key cards not working tonight because of some technical glitch. One lady said that she and her disabled child were coming home from dinner. Not a very attention grabbing comment, except that she mentioned that they had to dine out because the noise from the apartment above them causes her son to have seizures. I remember reading a comment by this lady before about how her disabled son was detrimentally affected by the non-stop jarring noise from upstairs, but Management said it was "acceptable level' noise. What kind of fucking monsters make up this so-called "Management" and what kind of anti-social low-life scum are they renting to that they make so much noise as to harm a disabled child and force the family to eat outside of their apartment? This dump has to be one of the most mismanaged and deleterious residential complexes in NY (outside of NYCHA, but we know that is a deliberate slum and kept that way because the City manages and prospers off of it).
They've started the apartment "inspections" again. Seems they are giving less than 10 days notice and showing up to apartments where no one is home MINUS a PS officer with them. Lock up your valuables folks. We are back in the old days of not being able to leave anything valuable and portable in a NYC apartment. STPCV used to be the rare exception to the rule then, because the employees could be trusted. Now, I don't think I'd trust any of them.
They may be raising the rents on the apartments keeping them out of reach to the middle class deliberately.
Recall that in September 2015, during the same time the inhumane real estate deal was announced in the press by New York politicians, the Tenant association, and Blackstone, a start up was founded (in September 2015) that keeps apartment rents high while filling them with low level renters who cannot afford the rents by using what is at best dubious money funneling from billionaires into StuyTown or worse, money laundering through StuyTown leases.
Here is a link to how it works and the press announcement reporting that Blackstone is subsidizing StuyTown leases by using this semi-insurance scheme or scam to fill high rent apartments with low level people who are transient and not permanent residents that otherwise do not qualify for lease because they do not meet the financial requirements while middle class hard working people who do meet the financial requirements are blocked out of housing.
These renters have nothing to lose because this scam lets the tenant get away with not paying a security deposit, like the rest of us have to. So they can destroy the apartment, wreak havoc on the neighbors, do whatever they want. It is a recipe causing disaster in StuyTown.
This is back in the news today because of another recent suicide that has ties to StuyTown albeit happening in Connecticut. How many suicides are tied to StuyTown now?
I really think a tenant advocate should be available to go for these inspections if the tenant feels uncomfortable. We have elderly that are home alone. You would think the TA would think of something like organizing or asking for volunteers to be available when the inspectors come. Interested the people that are getting inspections. I seems to be some of the people who have opposing views to the TA/landlord.
11:59 AM. That is very interesting. I'm pretty sure the TA and DeB knew all about this scam and it certainly seems to explain why we have such lowlife morons moving in and out.
I didn't see anything about a suicide connected to Stuyvesant Town, The Suicide Capital of New York. I'd like to bet that there are more suicide's here than are reported.
The TA must be totally aware of "Management's" partnership with Jetty. What a bunch of hideously deceptive, lying scumbags. I wonder what their piece of the pie amounts to? No wonder they refuse to open their books. Such crooks and liars.
11:59 AM (No Deposit/Quasi-insurance scam at Stuyvesant Town):
That is quite a revelation. . . especially given what appears to be a new multi-pronged harassment campaign to oust renters, especially rent stabilized renters. This, of course, was accelerated once the weather became cold and heat was denied or dangerously lowered and intermittent. All of this ties in beautifully with the various types of threats aimed at those of us who complain, ask for heat, plead with "management" to stop other "residents" from destroying our lives with their noise.
(The description of the woman driven out of her home with her disabled child who is suffering seizures due to the activities of their neighbors is gut wrenching and ought be some sort of call to action.)
And . . . the new and multiple versions of hell and crowding and transients and carnival that is being amped up for the warmer weather: VERY SOON.
You mentioned a recent Stuyvesant Town related suicide. Could you please expand?
REMEMBER: WE ARE NOT ALONE. THE DRIVE TO INJURE PEOPLE AND DRIVE THEM INTO HOMELESSNESS IS WORLDWIDE. AND THE UNITED NATIONS IS RESPONDING.
Consider, please, joining the response to reclaim our homes, our peace, our health.
Why do we have to be at the mercy of these scum-sucking bastards? This Oligarchy is no better than the feudal system of the Old World or the reign of the Russian Czar and his defective children. Maybe we need another revolution to purge these parasites from our country. They have removed all the boundaries that made it possible for an ordinary person to rise higher by dint of hard work and honesty. I really think we need a purge of who is an American and who is a parasite with multiple agendas and loyalties.
My main page post on this should be up during this weekend. Meanwhile, I contacted the Community Board and so far there is no schedule or attempt for this process.
I remember when the TA strongly protested the installation of soft drink machines in the Oval; then the installation of the stupid ice rink and, later, the installation of flex walls in apartments. The protests didn't have an affect on on Management, but at least the TA showed some leadership. Of course, when it came to building the bunker and destroying trees, burying squirrels alive and causing noise and filth to residents in the vicinity, the TA was totally on board with Management. Steinberg was out there strutting like a bantam hen.
Bill De Blasio takes his orders from this billionaire bully. This shows how the De Blasio relationship works. It is of importance to StuyTown because this bully financially backs at least two tech companies wreaking havoc in StuyTown, AIRBNB and Jetty among others. This bully is a StuyTown problem and the Mayor will do whatever this bully orders him to do in his quest of the 2020 race to the White House. This is why AIRBNB operates in StuyTown or at least a very big reason why.
Just came home and approaching my building was hit by stench of pot. Got into the lobby and elevator and was practically choked by the stench. Unfortunately, lame-brained, cowardly Hayduk will not go after pot smokers, but will persecute little old ladies who feed the squirrels. What a loser.
Anonymous said... dont mind inspections dont mind decent students dont mind stuy cafe do mind the high price rent and shitty manager March 29, 2019 at 8:38 PM
Do you care that your neighbors in "below market" rent stabilized apartments are paying a higher amount for MCI charges then you in a "market rate" apartment for the same MCI (major capital improvement) to the property when all apartments are supposed to be charged equally and the higher amount of MCI charge on the "below market" tenants is to make up for the fact that you are already paying a "high price" as it that is the fault or responsibility of the "below market" apartment neighbors?
The "high rent" apartments are being subsidized by other tenants, your neighbors. That is the rent break the tenant association and their lawyers got for you during the tenant association conversion push to evict renters for the mandatory 85% owners in a condo conversion.
The "high rent" is caused by the tenant association and their lawyers needing 85% of the population in condos and only 15% in rentals for a conversion. To do that they unfairly apply the MCI charges making the renters pay more then their fair share with the "high rent" apartments paying less then their fair share.
The MCI charges should be equally applied before anything else. That deal brokered by the tenant association is unfair and biased and it must be in violation of the duties of a tenant association.
Kick out the tenant association with their lawyers and equalize the MCI charges. Then maybe your neighbors will care about your high rent they are already subsidizing. Their subsidy MCI payment will not decrease when your rent does.
Did you or any market rate "high rent" apartment care about the unfair MCI charge distribution by the tenant association and their lawyer or did you just enjoy the unfair break you got and are now asking your neighbors to care about your high rent because the tenant association condo conversion failed in tenant ownership when instead keeping lease ownership in the hands of billionaires and corporations owning multiple leases?
The "high rent" apartments act like they care only about themselves during the years of pushing out renters for owners.
Why should anyone care about those who only care about themselves? If those in high rent apartments want your neighbors to care about you then at the very least make up for the past uncaring about "below market" renters by correcting the unequal distribution of MCI charges. Sue and fire the law firm and tenant association that brokered the deal.
Steinberg is a vile, self-serving cheap "pol" who struts around like she means something. She does NOTHING for the tenants. Hey, Susan, how about opening up the books?
The deprive us of heat all winter and then come up with a rule against feeding squirrels. I will continue to feed the squirrels and "management" can kiss my ass.
I think the TA should be investigated. Mueller may not found much on Trump, but I bet he would find a lot on the TA if he investigated them! They, and DeBlasio and our so-called elected representatives, have to be the shittiest, murkiest bunch of crooks in NYC!
The TA is not getting involved (they say they are staying neutral) in the discussion on the booze license at the Five Turd Cafe because Management has asked (or told) them not to.
They did fuck-all to assist us with the terrible time we have had the past two winters (this one being the worst) with having little-to-no heat and they really don't care about tenants at all on any issues. They should just fold and go away. Same goes for that phony so-called journalist, Sabina Molot. She writes only what Management approves. There is no journalistic open-mindedness or integrity involved when it comes to T&V, though in reality there never has been. T&V has always been an arm of Management. The Hagerdorns have long been known as the pot-scrapings of journalism.
58 comments:
Vichy TA Board will not get involved in events taking place inside PCVST without Blackstone approval and consent.
This is the article published in today's Guardian (part 1 of 2 parts here):
UN accuses Blackstone Group of contributing to global housing crisis
World’s largest corporate residential landlords called out for their practices of inflating rents and ‘aggressive evictions’
Patrick Butler, Social policy editor, and Dominic Rushe in New York
Tue 26 Mar 2019 04.00 EDT
The UN’s housing advisor has accused private equity firms and one of the world’s largest corporate residential landlords, Blackstone Group, of exploiting tenants, “wreaking havoc” in communities and helping to fuel a global housing crisis.
In a stinging critique of the role of private equity in the housing market UN rapporteur Leilani Farha and co-author Surya Deva, chairperson of the UN Working Group, singled out Blackstone’s business practices – which they claim include massively inflating rents and imposing an array of heavy fees and charges for ordinary repairs – as having “devastating consequences” for many tenants in countries around the world.
In a series of letters to Blackstone and government officials in Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the US, Farha and Deva accused private equity and asset management firms like Blackstone and its subsidiaries of undertaking “aggressive evictions” to protect its rental income streams, shrinking the pool of affordable housing in some areas, and effectively pushing low and middle-income tenants from their homes.
Blackstone disputed the claims. In a letter to Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s founder and CEO, obtained by the Guardian, the company said the UN report contained “numerous false claims, significant factual errors and inaccurate conclusions”. And the company was “surprised and disappointed” that the UN would “send a communication without verifying your assertions and providing appropriate context”.
Blackstone has, in recent years, acquired hundreds of thousands of homes in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America, often through subsidiaries, making it one of the largest and most powerful global players in the housing investment sector.
In its reply, Blackstone claimed private equity had helped build the rental market at a time when countries around the world were facing housing shortages and abided by all relevant locals laws.
Farha said the commodification of real estate by private equity investors in recent years had made housing for many people increasingly expensive and precarious: “Landlords have become faceless corporations wreaking havoc with tenants’ right to security and contributing to the global housing crisis.”
The authors also wrote formal letters to six countries, including the US, accusing them of failing to regulate corporate landlords and protect tenants’ human right to secure housing: “We remind all states that while gold is a commodity, housing is not, it’s a human right.”
The UN letter to the US government focuses on the way corporate landlords bought hundreds of thousands of ordinary family houses left empty after their owners defaulted on mortgage payments during the sub-prime crisis of 2008.
The firms were encouraged by US government agencies to acquire the heavily-discounted properties in part because they would bring homes back into use as local economies began to recover from the financial crash.
This is the conclusion of today's Guardian article on Blackstone and Schwarzman:
However, the need to maximize profits to repay investors typically led to a “constant escalation” of housing costs for tenants, primarily by hiking rents – in some cases by 30-50% – and ruthlessly pursuing eviction for non-payment. One corporation issued nearly a third of its tenants with eviction notices, the letter says.
The authors allege that a Blackstone subsidiary in the US, Invitation Homes, imposes charges for minor maintenance repairs and tasks such as removing insect infestations. She alleges that it imposes late rental payments of $100, even if they are just one minute late, or due to an error in Invitation Homes’ computer system.
In its reply, Blackstone said it was a small player in the US rental market, representing 0.5% of the nearly 16m single-family homes for rent in the United States, and that its customer satisfaction and retention rates were in fact higher than average.
Letters outlining similar breaches of housing rights and failure to regulate corporate landlords were also sent to Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, Denmark and Republic of Ireland, each of which has seen large influxes of corporate rental investment in recent years.
Blackstone disputed these findings too.
Farha has made what she calls the “financialisation” of housing the priority of her tenure as housing rapporteur since 2014, highlighting how the transformation of real estate into an asset class traded on global markets has triggered housing insecurity and homelessness crises in many cities around the world.
A paper she published for the UN two years ago noted how trillions of dollars of investments in hyper expensive apartment blocks in neighbourhoods of major cities from London to Vancouver had put housing beyond the reach of all but the rich, breaking up established communities, and fuelling soaring rents and evictions.
Farha’s investigation into corporate landlords’ treatment of tenants around the world is the subject of a new documentary, Push, which premiered this month.
A sub-plot of the film is Farha’s repeated but ultimately doomed attempts to secure a face-to-face meeting with chief executive Schwarzman to discuss its role.
. . . The photos and side articles are worth reading.
Schwartzman called Obama a Nazi because the President wanted to make billionaires pay more tax.
I think it's safe to say that Schwartzman is much closer to being a Nazi that Obama ever could be!
I'm surprised the TA allowed that to be put on their website. The poster will probably be contacted by management. Management keeps a close watch on what people say on the TA Facebook. I'm sure that if they could identify the people who post here, they would go after them. That's why anonymity is so important here.
STR, do you sit with your back to the door when you dine out? ;-) Probably you shouldn't!
Hats off to Mr. Adam Rose for posting on the TA FB page STR’s response to the beer/wine debauchery issue.
Thank you showing the lousy TA how a community leader like yourself and STR responds.
$50 bucks for silence...crickets
>>STR, do you sit with your back to the door when you dine out? ;-) Probably you shouldn't!<<
The lesson in Little Italy is to make sure you sit facing the door and have a quick exit, if need be, in the back.
That’s what I thought. You should face the door at all times!
The role the tenant association, city, state and national politicians in the Blackstone Deal is large with some bragging about being key players in published articles boasting their part in the Blackstone deal for 4 years.
The Town & Village press announcement on the deal is disgusting. The congratulatory hug photo is nauseating.
The 2015 comments, especially 11:34am and 8:58pm are very well said as are all the comments. The tenant comments held up well 4 years later despite the propaganda by corrupt forces.
All these deal makers pictured here should hang their heads in shame while thanking their lucky stars they are not yet called out for human rights violations of basic human needs, being housing.
"Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a Tuesday press conference. Pictured with him are State Senator Brad Hoylman, Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, Blackstone’s global head of real estate Jonathan Gray (partially hidden), Council Member Dan Garodnick, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, ST-PCV Tenants Association President Susan Steinberg and other residents. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)"
"Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Member Dan Garodnick hug at the press conference. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)"
"Jonathan Gray (photo by Sabina Mollot)"
"Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen (Photo by Sabina Mollot)"
"October 21, 2015
Stuy Town sold for $5.3B to Blackstone"
https://town-village.com/2015/10/21/stuy-town-sold-for-5-3b-to-blackstone/
It's truly very complicated in this full of activity life to
listen news on Television, thus I simply use internet for that purpose, and take the most up-to-date information.
Let me know when you're dining out and I got your back STR!
"The lesson in Little Italy is to make sure you sit facing the door and have a quick exit, if need be, in the back."
Hey nothing going on in Little Italy these days, a shell of its former self.
Today the action is in Staten Island-Todt Hill. Capiche?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/nyregion/todt-hill-staten-island.html
Why would UN put out negative press on black stone? There are many UN employees that live in Stuy towm apartments- even if they might actually not use it as primary residence- rules bend for these tenants. Would think UN would be grateful.
>>Hey nothing going on in Little Italy these days, a shell of its former self.<<
What is Little Italy now? 1...2 blocks... And none of the waiters speak Italian. Not like the "old days"....
Definitely believe that that you said. Your favorite reason appeared to be
at the net the easiest thing to have in mind of. I say
to you, I definitely get irked at the same time as other folks think about concerns
that they just don't understand about. You managed
to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without having side effect , other
people could take a signal. Will likely be again to get more.
Thank you
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/nyregion/todt-hill-staten-island.html
March 26, 2019 at 7:07 PM
Funny coincidence, that Todt Hill community, that address is only a short ten minute drive from where the former StuyTown Assemblyman Kavanagh's Staten Island house is (the former Assemblyman in the Town & Village Blackstone Deal photos).
A Danger to Society by definition.
THE WASHINGTON POST
UN rights experts decry Big Finance moves in housing market
By Associated Press
March 26 at 7:24 PM
GENEVA — Two independent U.N. human rights experts are denouncing moves by big investment and private equity firms to buy up affordable and low-income homes to the detriment of tenants, singling out one by name: Blackstone Group.
A statement from the United Nations human rights office in Geneva on Tuesday said Leilani Farha and Surya Deva had written to Blackstone to air concerns that “its actions are inconsistent with international human rights law with respect to the right to housing.”
CBS NEWS
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blackstone-group-is-making-u-s-housing-crisis-worse-the-un-says/
NBC NEWS
UN accuses Blackstone Group of 'wreaking havoc,' helping to fuel a global housing crisis, The Guardian reports
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/26/un-accuses-blackstone-group-of-helping-to-fuel-a-global-housing-crisis.html
THE GUARDIAN
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/26/blackstone-group-accused-global-housing-crisis-un
STUYTOWN REPORT
http://stuytownreport.blogspot.com/2019/03/blackstone-raising-rents.html
"Our lord and master, Blackstone, has been accused by the UN of contributing to the housing crisis. Now on the two Stuy Town blogs, and now on this one. Of course, our Tenants Association is silent.
Life in Stuy Town
I write this on May 3, 2018: Since this year, there have been three suicides in ST/PCV. Aside from silence by almost everyone, there occurred a suicide where sulfuric acid was used and the city had to be called in, including the Fire Dept. As of now, there has been a general state of silence about this suicide, even though other resident lives were at danger. Yes, our councilperson is silent. The TA is silent. Obviously, Management is silent, too."
Blackstone richly deserves any & all the negative press that appears--from whatever source. As that Guardian article indicates, they are an INTERNATIONAL cancer.
Slumlord, scumlord BASTARD!
There was a fire in a NYCHA apartment building overnight, caused by a space heater because people are not getting heat in that building. How long till that happens here? We have NO heat today and had none last night. Having to use space heaters is a part of life in this dump.
No comments on this on the TA Facebook! Lots of negative "reactions," but nobody dares open their mouth! Dissenters have been dealt with and sent to "Siberia."
"Why would UN put out negative press on black stone? There are many UN employees that live in Stuy towm apartments- even if they might actually not use it as primary residence- rules bend for these tenants. Would think UN would be grateful."
The UN is a big organization with many, many departments and issues under its umbrella. Any UN employees living here may have nothing to do with the department that is looking into this issue. They may not have even heard of it.
It's been a very cold windy day and it is now a cold windy evening. Not one puff of heat all day long from these filthy, avaricious, incompetent grifters. May they rot in hell. Had to put a space heater on this afternoon because it was so cold. There was a terrible fire in an apartment building in the Bronx late night caused by a space heater. Really, it was caused by the vile NYCHA who owns it, but it might just as well have been Blackstone who owned it.
I think they are trying to slum us out of homes so they can take the land and build luxury high-rises for the millionaires and billionaires.
If you have not read the piece detailing the condemnation of Blackstone and Schwarzman by the United Nations, please read it. It is at the top of this thread.
For some real encouragement, please take a good long look at the brand new documentary mentioned in it: PUSH - WHY CAN'T WE AFFORD TO LIVE IN OUR CITIES?
It is at pushthefilm.com.
This is a partial quotation from the site: ". . .the very idea of what the experts call the “financialisation” of the housing market. There’s a huge difference between housing as a commodity and gold as a commodity”. And later:
"Residents should be able to afford to live in their own cities. It is time to recognise that housing is a human right, not a commodity. Let’s push back."
The misery of homelessness, and of tremendous numbers of people being pushed out of their homes is worldwide. The private equity firm which "owns" Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village is singled out as among the worst of the worst. They, and others like them, are causing untold injury to people all over this planet.
PUSH is a call to recognize, understand and push back against these bringers of misery.
Please look for it, and support it.
9:38 a.m. correctly characterized blackstone as an INTERNATIONAL cancer.
Do people diagnosed with cancer customarily consent to live with it?
Or do they eradicate it?
I was reading the comments on the TA Facebook about the key cards not working tonight because of some technical glitch. One lady said that she and her disabled child were coming home from dinner. Not a very attention grabbing comment, except that she mentioned that they had to dine out because the noise from the apartment above them causes her son to have seizures. I remember reading a comment by this lady before about how her disabled son was detrimentally affected by the non-stop jarring noise from upstairs, but Management said it was "acceptable level' noise.
What kind of fucking monsters make up this so-called "Management" and what kind of anti-social low-life scum are they renting to that they make so much noise as to harm a disabled child and force the family to eat outside of their apartment?
This dump has to be one of the most mismanaged and deleterious residential complexes in NY (outside of NYCHA, but we know that is a deliberate slum and kept that way because the City manages and prospers off of it).
They've started the apartment "inspections" again. Seems they are giving less than 10 days notice and showing up to apartments where no one is home MINUS a PS officer with them. Lock up your valuables folks. We are back in the old days of not being able to leave anything valuable and portable in a NYC apartment. STPCV used to be the rare exception to the rule then, because the employees could be trusted. Now, I don't think I'd trust any of them.
Stytown tenants association and little dan sure did a great job with this Blackstone deal didn't they?
March 27, 2019 at 10:18 PM Lock up your valuable and check for anything they may have broken or deliberately left behind.
They may be raising the rents on the apartments keeping them out of reach to the middle class deliberately.
Recall that in September 2015, during the same time the inhumane real estate deal was announced in the press by New York politicians, the Tenant association, and Blackstone, a start up was founded (in September 2015) that keeps apartment rents high while filling them with low level renters who cannot afford the rents by using what is at best dubious money funneling from billionaires into StuyTown or worse, money laundering through StuyTown leases.
Here is a link to how it works and the press announcement reporting that Blackstone is subsidizing StuyTown leases by using this semi-insurance scheme or scam to fill high rent apartments with low level people who are transient and not permanent residents that otherwise do not qualify for lease because they do not meet the financial requirements while middle class hard working people who do meet the financial requirements are blocked out of housing.
These renters have nothing to lose because this scam lets the tenant get away with not paying a security deposit, like the rest of us have to. So they can destroy the apartment, wreak havoc on the neighbors, do whatever they want. It is a recipe causing disaster in StuyTown.
This is back in the news today because of another recent suicide that has ties to StuyTown albeit happening in Connecticut. How many suicides are tied to StuyTown now?
https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/multifamily/blackstone-owned-stuytowns-new-relationship-with-jetty-reflects-the-future-of-property-management-83592
I like it that our TA Facebook has a top thread on buying gin. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up!
I really think a tenant advocate should be available to go for these inspections if the tenant feels uncomfortable. We have elderly that are home alone. You would think the TA would think of something like organizing or asking for volunteers to be available when the inspectors come.
Interested the people that are getting inspections. I seems to be some of the people who have opposing views to the TA/landlord.
Nope.... gin and tonic anyone?
11:59 AM. That is very interesting. I'm pretty sure the TA and DeB knew all about this scam and it certainly seems to explain why we have such lowlife morons moving in and out.
I didn't see anything about a suicide connected to Stuyvesant Town, The Suicide Capital of New York. I'd like to bet that there are more suicide's here than are reported.
STR, please give some publicity to the vile and sneaky underhand attempt to give a beer and wine license to the 5 Turd eColi "Café."
The Tenants Association refuses to fight this.
They say they are neutral and take no position.
What a joke! The tenants of 5 Stuy Oval and 1 Stuy Oval will suffer but the TA doesn't care.
What a corrupt bunch!
The TA must be totally aware of "Management's" partnership with Jetty. What a bunch of hideously deceptive, lying scumbags. I wonder what their piece of the pie amounts to? No wonder they refuse to open their books. Such crooks and liars.
11:59 AM (No Deposit/Quasi-insurance scam at Stuyvesant Town):
That is quite a revelation. . . especially given what appears to be a new multi-pronged harassment campaign to oust renters, especially rent stabilized renters. This, of course, was accelerated once the weather became cold and heat was denied or dangerously lowered and intermittent. All of this ties in beautifully with the various types of threats aimed at those of us who complain, ask for heat, plead with "management" to stop other "residents" from destroying our lives with their noise.
(The description of the woman driven out of her home with her disabled child who is suffering seizures due to the activities of their neighbors is gut wrenching and ought be some sort of call to action.)
And . . . the new and multiple versions of hell and crowding and transients and carnival that is being amped up for the warmer weather: VERY SOON.
You mentioned a recent Stuyvesant Town related suicide. Could you please expand?
REMEMBER: WE ARE NOT ALONE. THE DRIVE TO INJURE PEOPLE AND DRIVE THEM INTO HOMELESSNESS IS WORLDWIDE. AND THE UNITED NATIONS IS RESPONDING.
Consider, please, joining the response to reclaim our homes, our peace, our health.
"I like it that our TA Facebook has a top thread on buying gin. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up!"
Hey, if you don't like Gin, get a grip, get a life and move to___________. :)
Why do we have to be at the mercy of these scum-sucking bastards? This Oligarchy is no better than the feudal system of the Old World or the reign of the Russian Czar and his defective children. Maybe we need another revolution to purge these parasites from our country. They have removed all the boundaries that made it possible for an ordinary person to rise higher by dint of hard work and honesty. I really think we need a purge of who is an American and who is a parasite with multiple agendas and loyalties.
>>STR, please give some publicity to the vile and sneaky underhand attempt to give a beer and wine license to the 5 Turd eColi "Café."<<
My main page post on this should be up during this weekend. Meanwhile, I contacted the Community Board and so far there is no schedule or attempt for this process.
You may have heard about this:
https://nypost.com/2019/03/28/state-lawmakers-reach-deal-to-ban-plastic-bags-charge-5-cents-for-paper/?fbclid=IwAR3yZ8DcLGC5RGOWpDwNJ1KccbAJmgMeQBzT7_BQGh28cUp_EPFhAGFFobI
I know what to do with my garbage now.
Who likes gin? That’s some “A” game trolling my man
In regards to that lady who is driven out of her home, she is louder than her neighbors. She,sadly, has some health issues and is struggling.
I remember when the TA strongly protested the installation of soft drink machines in the Oval; then the installation of the stupid ice rink and, later, the installation of flex walls in apartments. The protests didn't have an affect on on Management, but at least the TA showed some leadership. Of course, when it came to building the bunker and destroying trees, burying squirrels alive and causing noise and filth to residents in the vicinity, the TA was totally on board with Management. Steinberg was out there strutting like a bantam hen.
Bill De Blasio takes his orders from this billionaire bully. This shows how the De Blasio relationship works. It is of importance to StuyTown because this bully financially backs at least two tech companies wreaking havoc in StuyTown, AIRBNB and Jetty among others. This bully is a StuyTown problem and the Mayor will do whatever this bully orders him to do in his quest of the 2020 race to the White House. This is why AIRBNB operates in StuyTown or at least a very big reason why.
https://missionlocal.org/2018/03/ron-conway-brokered-intro-between-london-breed-and-bill-de-blasio-3-days-after-ed-lees-death/
Of course de Blasio knows about Jetty. de Blasio is close friends with the financial backer of Jetty in the article, "SV Angel", Ron Conway.
dont mind inspections dont mind decent students dont mind stuy cafe do mind the high price rent and shitty manager
why do all the apartments here wreak of cigarette smoke?
The TA has done nothing under this management. Especially bad was the non action on the heat issues.
Do mind student dorm dominance here.
Just came home and approaching my building was hit by stench of pot. Got into the lobby and elevator and was practically choked by the stench. Unfortunately, lame-brained, cowardly Hayduk will not go after pot smokers, but will persecute little old ladies who feed the squirrels. What a loser.
Anonymous said...
dont mind inspections dont mind decent students dont mind stuy cafe do mind the high price rent and shitty manager
March 29, 2019 at 8:38 PM
Do you care that your neighbors in "below market" rent stabilized apartments are paying a higher amount for MCI charges then you in a "market rate" apartment for the same MCI (major capital improvement) to the property when all apartments are supposed to be charged equally and the higher amount of MCI charge on the "below market" tenants is to make up for the fact that you are already paying a "high price" as it that is the fault or responsibility of the "below market" apartment neighbors?
The "high rent" apartments are being subsidized by other tenants, your neighbors. That is the rent break the tenant association and their lawyers got for you during the tenant association conversion push to evict renters for the mandatory 85% owners in a condo conversion.
The "high rent" is caused by the tenant association and their lawyers needing 85% of the population in condos and only 15% in rentals for a conversion. To do that they unfairly apply the MCI charges making the renters pay more then their fair share with the "high rent" apartments paying less then their fair share.
The MCI charges should be equally applied before anything else. That deal brokered by the tenant association is unfair and biased and it must be in violation of the duties of a tenant association.
Kick out the tenant association with their lawyers and equalize the MCI charges. Then maybe your neighbors will care about your high rent they are already subsidizing. Their subsidy MCI payment will not decrease when your rent does.
Did you or any market rate "high rent" apartment care about the unfair MCI charge distribution by the tenant association and their lawyer or did you just enjoy the unfair break you got and are now asking your neighbors to care about your high rent because the tenant association condo conversion failed in tenant ownership when instead keeping lease ownership in the hands of billionaires and corporations owning multiple leases?
The "high rent" apartments act like they care only about themselves during the years of pushing out renters for owners.
Why should anyone care about those who only care about themselves? If those in high rent apartments want your neighbors to care about you then at the very least make up for the past uncaring about "below market" renters by correcting the unequal distribution of MCI charges. Sue and fire the law firm and tenant association that brokered the deal.
Steinberg is a vile, self-serving cheap "pol" who struts around like she means something.
She does NOTHING for the tenants.
Hey, Susan, how about opening up the books?
The deprive us of heat all winter and then come up with a rule against feeding squirrels. I will continue to feed the squirrels and "management" can kiss my ass.
"The TA has done nothing under this management. Especially bad was the non action on the heat issues."
Agreed, TA should be ashamed and embarrassed. Do tenants still pay dues to these clowns?
I think the TA should be investigated. Mueller may not found much on Trump, but I bet he would find a lot on the TA if he investigated them! They, and DeBlasio and our so-called elected representatives, have to be the shittiest, murkiest bunch of crooks in NYC!
The TA is not getting involved (they say they are staying neutral) in the discussion on the booze license at the Five Turd Cafe because Management has asked (or told) them not to.
They did fuck-all to assist us with the terrible time we have had the past two winters (this one being the worst) with having little-to-no heat and they really don't care about tenants at all on any issues. They should just fold and go away. Same goes for that phony so-called journalist, Sabina Molot. She writes only what Management approves. There is no journalistic open-mindedness or integrity involved when it comes to T&V, though in reality there never has been. T&V has always been an arm of Management. The Hagerdorns have long been known as the pot-scrapings of journalism.
What about the overcharges?
I agree. I don’t know why anyone pays the TA dues anymore, dues for doing what? And that T&V is a boring, Management rag.
getting out of this POS soon hearing idiots cry all night while clicking heels until 4 am.
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