Why Bloomberg Has to Go

This says it all, really:

The Peter Cooper Village Tour

The other day I decided to take a tour of Peter Cooper Village. Once upon a time, PCV was the jewel of the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village complex. The apartments are bigger than their ST brothers, and the landscaping was nicely maintained, though there was no impressive Oval area as there is--sorry, was--in Stuy Town. How does Peter Cooper Village look now, under Tishman Speyer's stewardship? Well, not that good. Just as in Stuyvesant Town, the plantings of last year have managed to bloom and become pleasant visuals, but much of the grass areas are poorly maintained, if at all, and the areas near the walkways are just patches of dirt now.

We start the tour....

Near PCV's sole playground, this is the way the front of 441 East 20 Street looks--looks like no one cares:



To the east of the playground, we see more of the lack of groundskeeping care, including a man-made cutway path that was never there before:



As expected, the entrance to Peter Cooper Village, off of 1st Avenue, looks lovely:



But go deeper into PCV and you find this, at 5 Peter Cooper Road:



Nearby is a part of the landscaping of the old Peter Cooper. Still going strong, thankfully:



Making a turn and heading to 531 E 20 Street, we are greeted by the slum look that Tishman Speyer has cultivated so well:



And here's Peter Cooper Village's unofficial dog run area. This may have been the place in which a security guard gave a smack down to a resident recently. Can you spot the resident's body imprint in the mud below?....



The front of 511 E 20 Street doesn't look too good. Wonder how many market-raters are paying top dollar for this gardening?....



And this says it all, I think:



Incidentally, nowhere to be found: the 100 cherry blossom trees that a champion of Tishman Speyer, who has been posting in the commentary section of the Lux Living blog, claimed were in front of a building in Peter Cooper Village. Absurd to even think this was ever possible.

Metro Sex Parties Invade Stuyvesant Town!

Now we're talking! Forget the dull alcohol-less Oval Lounge and meeting fellow dog owners in your stroll with Fido around the lawn. This is the real thing and a sure fire way to bring in the clientele Tishman Speyer has been advertising for.

In his walk into Stuy Town today, Stuy Town Reporter came across pink business cards inserted into the cars parked around the 1st Ave. Loop, right nearby the Concierge office, and strewn around the area. Here's one card Stuy Town Reporter picked up--just for journalistic purposes, of course.



In case you can't read some of the details.... "Metroparties" offers: (f/m) nude models/dancers, shows at site [Stuy Town site!?!?] or in limo, pub crawls/party bus tours, weekend long parties [much better than what Abigail Michaels can think up, for sure], novelty fun, etc. It's "the hotter way for adults to party."

Okay, you Stuy Town geezers. Viagra time!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Stuy Town Reporter took a tour of the complex this last week to check out how things are going in Stuyvesant Town. Thank goodness for nature and its resiliency. There's much welcome greenery now, and the lilacs are in bloom and smelling sweet indeed. A more careful inspection reveals, however, that Stuyvesant Town is not being cared for that much and that the best of what we see is chiefly the result of earlier efforts, with some patches of flowering plants sporadically added to make several barren patches look nice--initially.

Before we get to the landscape tour, let me mention that the problem of the nightly and early morning noise from three dumpsters on the east edge of Stuyvesant Town still exists. This abrasive and thundering noise is one violation after another. The fact that Tishman Speyer has gotten away with this for so long is a scandal. Dan Goradnick promised tenants that something would be done about this noise over a year ago (seems like two, by now), but still nothing has been done. Give Dan a call at (212) 818-0580, and ask him what's up.

Here are the three culprits:



Meanwhile, relief was supposed to have been an interior garage for the dumpsters that would lessen the noise considerably (or so the theory goes--I have my doubts). The garage certainly looks finished:



So what's the holdup?

My tour of Stuyvesant Town took me to the Management Office, where I noted that most of the monitors watched by security are of areas outside Stuyvesant Town, of the sidewalks that border the complex. Several monitors are set to the interior of buildings, but I was hard pressed to find any monitor that was focused on the grounds of Stuyvesant Town. (I maybe saw one.) This lack of monitoring the interior of Stuyvesant Town seems very peculiar to me, as it is precisely the interior of Stuy Town that is lacking in security overall. Oh, and here's my tour photo of the Security Booth in the Oval :



Empty.

Now, to be fair, the guard booth is manned at times, and periodically one does see a patrol car or, gasp, security on bicycles. More frequent sightings occur whenever Lux's blog, or this one, notes a lack of security.

Though the lilacs are in bloom, the groundskeeping is rather shabby, particularly as one heads from west to east in Stuyvesant Town. Here's is the east end, an area that once housed the planting graveyard of Stuy Town:




You can see beautiful lilac bushes to the right, but a disaster everywhere else. Below, another area in the same region. Not so hot, is it?



Here's what you see if you enter Stuyvesant Town from Ave. B:



The back of 535 East 14th Street, below, looks like a slum. Welcome to Luxury Living, Rob Speyer-style!



But, guess what? The closer you get to the rental office on 1st Ave., the better and more attentive the groundskeeping. To the left is a lovely and lengthy row of lilac bushes:



The back of one of the 300 number buildings on 1st Ave. As expected, looking good.



But incompetency always wins. The Oval, once the pride of Stuyvesant Town, awaits its Farmer's Market:

Grab Your Ankles Time: Mac-Gray Raises Prices

Well, well, well. We shouldn't be surprised. Laundry prices in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are about to go up. Yes, less than a year after many residents in Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village were introduced to the new Mac-Gray energy-efficient washers and dryers (which replaced perfectly working new washers and dryers), rates are going up. You see, suckers, the price of $1.85 per wash/.80 per dry was just an introductory offer. No one told you that? Come on, that's the way business operates. Mac-Gray now has a better, more competitive rate for you coming June 1st: $2.25 per wash/$1.10 for your dry spin.

Oh, please understand that Mac is doing this because they are forced to as a result of "recent increases in the cost of natural gas, electricity, water and disposal." What's that you say? Natural gas prices have plummeted considerably since last year? Come on, give Mac-Gray a break! They have families to feed, too, and probably had to pay a bit extra to Tishman Speyer to get this sweetheart deal of being this complex's laundry company. (Oh, and don't bother asking who pays the electric bill.)

So, the "greening" of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village continues. Energy efficient crap that 1) saves Tishman Speyer money and/or makes money for the company or associates, 2) costs more for residents, and 3) just doesn't work as well as the non-green stuff.

Coming next: Energy-efficient showerheads that will provide a mist for 30 seconds before they automatically turn off. Go green!

Priorities Set

Tishman Speyer's priorities in regard to Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village have been set for a while. Priority number one is to sell apartments, of course, which includes lying about what's to be found in this complex, both in and out of doors. Priority number two is to spruce up areas which can be used to promote, and sell, living in Stuy Town/PCV. Somewhere down the list of priorities is providing commendable service to members of the community. I mean, once you got the suckers in, who cares if you don't meet their expectations.

If you want to see relatively (for ST/PCV) lovely flowers and landscaping and nicely pruned lawns, your best bet is to head to the back of the rental office that's on First Avenue and check out what prospective market raters will see as they are shown Stuyvesant Town on their tour of the place.

This is the first thing that will meet your eyes:



Lovely, indeed! Gee, I want to live here! Sign me up right now!

For some reason, the Oval Essentials are still a top priority at Tishman Speyer. Just last week, a bunch of workers were fixing up the area in front of Oval Lounge and Oval Study, at the expense of doing any work on the awful looking Oval Lawn, which remains ugly and pathetic and a breeding ground for the mosquitoes coming soon. And today, workers were out early in the morning trying to upscale Oval Kids, with the addition of a row of bushes:



I've a feeling that the Essentials are the pet project of one of the biggies at Tishman Speyer. So money will be thrown at these even more this year. Expect a few open houses. Hey, free food and drinks, and I'm there!

Now in case you don't get out of Stuy Town/PCV much these days, you should know that other parts of the city, the city that's going through economic bad times, are actually looking quite nice in certain neighborhoods. I've already shown how the gardening at Tomkins Square Park has put the gardening in Stuy Town to shame. Yesterday, on a walking tour of the West Village, I came across this:



Now, ask yourselves, as you walk about Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, why can't we have something like this here?

Stuy Town Security Can't Handle ... Security

Stuyvesant Town residents have been seeing more and more the presence of cops on horses in the complex, with the expected huge deposits from these horses leaving a trail that Stuy Town workers then clean up. What is the reason for this police presence? As reported in this week's Town & Village by Andrew Park, "the mounted units were called in to patrol an area including Stuyvesant Town due to an increase in violence along the 14th Street corridor." But, as we see, these mounted units do not just patrol 14th Street. They have been seen as far up as 20th Street. And within the heart of the complex.

This raises one immediate and overwhelming question: Why is Stuyvesant Town Security, the Security that is publicized in Tishman Speyer promos as 24-hour protection for residents, not taking care of the security in the complex instead of the NYPD?

The answers are pretty obvious--even if depressing and revelatory as to landlord Tishman Speyer's "concern" for its tenants. The security staff of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village has been cut back from previous highs, and the remaining troops have now been placed chiefly inside the cozy security office at Ave C., near the FDR drive, to watch a score of monitors that do not reveal much of what is going on in the complex. If the monitors do reveal something, whatever criminal activity is occurring is certain to be over by the time the ST/PCV squad cars are sent out to investigate. In other words, THERE ARE NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND to monitor 24/7 what's happening in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

With the economy heading south as it is, crime will get worse in the surrounding areas of ST/PCV, and inside this complex itself. As reported by Town & Village, there was a recent mugging on or near Stuy Town property at 14th St and Ave. B, and an open-air heroin drug transaction within Stuy Town. Several weeks ago a female ST resident was mugged at night near 20th St. and Ave. C.--nearby the Security office!!! I guess those monitors aren't working that well or Security is falling asleep on the job (or taking their squad cars to pick up some take-out food).

The last time our Security was present in full force and "boots on the ground" was for a real-estate broker party held last year at Oval Lounge. Security was all over the place and was actually stopping bicycles from riding around, insisting the riders walk their bikes according to the rules. The object was to show these brokers that Stuy Town has all this security protection, so that the impressed brokers would relate this back to their clients. It was a calculated, cynical exhibition staged by Tishman Speyer, a company that has always been far more concerned with selling apartments than being decent stewards of ST/PCV. Even with the maximum presence of Security, a fight ensued among the brokers!

It is obvious that the landlord, Tishman Speyer, is neglecting the safety of this complex for budgetary reasons--and has been doing so for a while now. TS is relying on security cameras to somehow "patrol" the complex. This is not acceptable. Frequently I can walk from one end of the complex to the other without ever seeing a Security car or a patrolman. Criminals can also notice this--and can make good use of it, too.

And now, isn't it embarrassing for the Security here, and Tishman Speyer, their overlords, that the NYPD have to be called in like this? And that NYPD horses take dumps all over Stuy Town? Is the message here that the men have to be called in because the boys can't do the job?

The Dead Forests of Stuyvesant Town

Folks who live in the Stuyvesant Town Oval addresses at the north-eastern part of the Oval have the pleasure of several dead forests surrounding them. Few things say how much Rob Speyer has devastated Stuyvesant Town than the dead trees that have been around for months and which show no signs of life.

Picture above is one of the dead trees. Below is one area, as you head up the hill from the 20 Street Loop.



Here you work your way down, near the loop off of 1st Avenue:



And below is Stuy Town 15 Oval. This looked nice in late summer of last year, when newly put in, but as you can see the once vibrantly green plantings are expiring. All these photos were taken this morning, April 20th.