The Insult of Oval Essentials

They are now called "Oval Essentials." Part of the Oval amenities due for completion sometime in September, these spaces comprise the Oval Lounge, Oval Kids, Oval Film and Oval Study. They are strategically placed at four corners of the Oval, the central hub and lifeblood of Stuyvesant Town. Unless you live on the borders of Stuy Town and never go into the interior, you will be unable to miss these new spaces as you walk by. And, don't forget, they are now "essential," so if they are not a part of your life, you are less of a person that you thought you were. What's the matter? Can't afford the small initiation fee and monthly charge?

Tishman Speyer, in creating these "Essentials" and mandating a charge for them, furthers the division of the Stuy Town community into those who have and those who haven't. We are already seeing how different classes of people were created and/or nurtured by TS decision making and "improvements." We now have the following cliques of people, not all actuallized since TS came into the picture, of course, and some interchangeable: 1) rent stabilized tenants, 2) market rate tenants, 3) NYU tenants, 4) tenants without dogs, 5) tenants with dogs. At various times, members of each group bitch about the other group, creating bad feelings and rifts in what used to be a unified community. Now we are going to have two more cliques (although one of these should be rightfully called "the peasants"): those who have the "Essentials" and those who don't.

It is easy to foresee the looks of loathing that will be directed at those enjoying the "Essentials," as those without the essentials will be going to or returning from work. Or the dejected looks of our community's retirees on fixed incomes who will not be able to partake of those essentials, though they've been around long enough to remember when all of Stuyvesant Town's true essentials were available for free to everyone here.

It is also easy to foresee the kids who will be nagging their parents without essentials to join the "Essentials" because of Oval Kids. Perhaps some of their friends will have essentials, but they won't. See Jack cry. See Jane weep. See Jack cry some more. See Jane weep some more. See Jack and Jane's parents join Oval Essentials!

I truly feel sorry for those parents who, on a tight budget, may not be able to afford these essentials, which will leave their kids feeling as if they are in the poor house rather than in Stuyvesant Town, the "ultimate living experience in Manhattan."

When Will Stuy Town Have Peace & Quiet Again?

New residents of Stuyvesant Town may be surprised to learn that there was a time when even on the weekdays you could wake up to the sound of birds chirping outside your window instead of jackhammers hammering and drills drilling. There was no 7AM wake-up call from Tishman Speyer, and life here was tranquil, an oasis in Manhattan that was true luxury living.

It would stand to reason that eventually all the construction we are seeing, and living through, will come to an end--but is that so? And if there is an end to it all, when will it occur?

Right now, the 20th Street Loop is being repaved, both the roadway and the sidewalks. Work is still not finished, though it looks as if just one week more may be needed to complete the project, if that. The noise, filth and disruption that tenants in that area have had to endure for many weeks will now be the experience of another loop in the Stuy Town complex. So the suffering continues. At least there's a limited amount of loops to play with.

The four Oval amenities that are being crafted out of four corner buildings in the Oval are still not finished. Sometime in the middle of September they should be done, which will be a great relief to the tenants that live around those spots. Still, trouble may be brewing when these Oval amenities (called now "Oval Essentials") open up and produce, perhaps, nighttime crowds that will give little peace to the tenants nearby.

The dumpsters. There are two large dumpsters near the borders of Stuyvesant Town that are emptied in the middle of the night (like past 1AM) and make life a living hell for the tenants in those areas. No relief is in sight, despite the promises of Tishman Speyer to move the dumpsters to a garage facility where, hopefully, the noise will be considerably less intrusive to tenants.

Somehow, however, one has hope. But one should not hope too much. It is very possible, if not probable, that Tishman Speyer has another construction/disruption project in the works, if not several of them. (And if a few can double up as MCI increases--why the hell not, according to TS.) As has been mentioned on the Stuy Town Tenants Association message board, a good possibility exists that meters for gas and electricity will be installed in each apartment for the obvious purpose of relieving Tishman Speyer of paying the gas and electric bills of their tenants. (Free gas and electric has been an honored tradition in Stuy Town and Peter Cooper since the complexes were built, but Tishman Speyer has been eradicating tradition with a vengeance.) Rumors abound that a gate will be built around Stuyvesant Town--another project with a 7AM wake-up call. Perhaps new sidewalk lamps and illumination will have to be installed, because, after all, the overkill of newly planted trees and plants has created too many shadows and dark nooks and crannies where none existed before. And the central Oval area has been ignored for the entire summer and is crying out for rehabilitation, which, beware, may include a white picket fence around it.

So, you see, there can always be something that still needs to be done, some new project thought of by a man sitting in a nice suit in a nice high-rise office that justifies his nice salary.

The irony is that all of this may be a moot point down the line. If, as some predict, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper are eventually going to be demolished to make way for 60-70 floor towers, all our sufferings and all the work and all the man power will have been in vain. But don't bet for one moment that whatever MCI increases paid for such work will be retracted.

The Ultimate Living Experience

Above: Stuy Town in better days. A security booth to the right of the fountain, typically manned 24 hours a day, is now gone, leaving the security presence in that area at an all time low. The Oval lawn was well maintained, but now is filled with pockmarks, exposed dirt, puddles and mud. Dogs, previously forbidden in Stuy Town, are now investigating and relieving themselves on the Oval lawn where lie itchy sunbathers, though dog walking on the lawn is against ST regulations. Aggressive noise from the continual construction work being done throughout Stuy Town and around the formally tranquil Oval intrudes from 7AM on.

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This is what the splash page of the official Stuyvesant Town website states about the complex:

"There is so much to love in Stuyvesant Town. With spacious and contemporary apartments, an unrivaled host of amenities, access to over 500 social events, and all within downtown's most desired location, Stuyvesant Town represents the ultimate living experience in Manhattan."

The truth is a bit different. The apartments may be spacious if you go by certain box-like Manhattan standards, but some of them became less so with the addition of pressurized walls (meant to fit in an extra bedroom) and then the removal of said walls because of building code violations, to be replaced by a newer plan that provides even less space for the living room, out of which the new bedroom was carved. As for contemporary, well, only your designer would know, but the buildings themselves are clearly project-like, inside and out, and poorly cleaned and maintained by understaffed workers. "Unrivaled host of amenities"--they haven't arrived yet, and from the looks of it, they will be a joke. (More on these amenities in a future blog entry.) "500 social events"? I have no idea where the landlord Tishman Speyer got this figure or what it constitutes. Perhaps TS just opened up Time Out Magazine and started counting any events listed there. After all, you do have access to anything in Manhattan, just as a transient does who lives in the Men's Shelter on 1st Avenue and 29 St.

So we have the lies and we have the truth. And the truth is pretty ugly, as this blog will reveal.