Get Your Tomatoes Ready for Scott Stringer

Start preparing your tomatoes when Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer shows up at another Tenants Meeting. Make those tomatoes as full and red and pudgy with juice as Stringer. Stringer's support of the building of a mosque right near Ground Zero is typical multicultural, pie-in-the sky flabbiness. (Scott would like pies, of course.) Community Board 1, with high-fives from Stringer and Mayor-for-Life Mike Bloomberg, have voted 29-1 to support the proposed mosque that is an obvious slap in the face to those who have lost loved ones in the 9/11 tragedy, and another humiliation of this country in the age of Obama.

May Stringer and Mayor Bloomberg's names be etched forever in the Wall of Shame, and may their descendants be placed under Sharia law and be beaten with sticks severely about the buttocks whenever they complain.

The Man Who is Helping a Tenant Buy of ST/PCV?

If you been listening to the Tenant Association and politico ST/PCV talk a few weeks ago, you may have been made aware that someone is helping the tenants, behind the scenes, in their attempt to acquire Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

Could this be the man?.....



Read on, from NY Observer, Eliot Brown reporting:

It was something to be avoided. As America’s biggest foreclosure waiting to happen, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village was viewed by the financial world as a $6.3 billion bet gone bad.

David Tepper saw an opportunity.

Founder of the high-risk–high-yield hedge fund Appaloosa Management, Mr. Tepper is the king of sniffing out the undervalued among the distressed, often realizing fantastic returns. After betting big on banks at their nadir in early 2009, he topped AR: Absolute Return + Alpha magazine’s list of the year’s top hedge fund earners, raking in an estimated $4 billion for himself.

Now, after buying more than $800 million worth of bonds that control Stuyvesant Town within the past year and a half—many of them risky—he is muddying up the giant foreclosure on the property, showing that he has no interest in watching from the sidelines. In late February, he filed legal action to steer the property in a new direction, in a bid to protect—or maximize—his investment, an action being fought by the special servicer organizing the foreclosure....

Mr. Tepper’s aim, of course, is transparent: He simply wants the value of Stuyvesant Town to return to at least $3 billion, the initial value of the mortgage. That way, he can realize a maximum return on his investments.

The best solution, he said, is for the tenants to buy it themselves—a plan they are pursuing—as they have the ability to pay more given that the apartments could quickly be converted to condos or co-ops.

Mr. Tepper’s advice to the tenants: Act fast, as the markets are improving.

“Nothing would make me happier than to see 11,000 new homeowners, if the first mortgage is paid,” he said. “The way things are going and the way things are improving, I hope they act fast for their sake.”

Full article here.

Skateboarding Ban

No, skateboarding is not banned yet in Stuy Town. But it should be.

Two reasons:

1) The cracking, slamming noise is probably the most obnoxious noise in Stuy Town and sure to disturb everyone's peace.

2) Skateboarding ruins steps and the sidewalks, or anything else a skateboarder may wish to play on.

Now, some would add a third reason: The safety of the skateboarders themselves. I've no such concerns, however. If you want to fracture one of your bones, go right ahead, just don't wake me up while you are doing it.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Kudos to the Security Guard on Saturday around 5:15 pm who actually made bicyclists get off their bikes as they tried to pass him by. He was stationed, for a bit of time, in front of the northern Oval playground (#10). Of course, once these cyclists were out of his view, they got back on their bikes. But an attempt was made. And the no bicycle riding sign is back up at the Oval guard booth.

Today, Sunday, was a disaster. Those green rails were back and no security was around to make riders get off their bikes.

On top of that... is Playground 10 for the use of sunbathers and picnics???

Pretty arrogant to set yourself up there when it's supposed to be for the use of those who want to participate in recreational play, including, many times, children. Fuckin' NYU hogs.

And what's up with the sunbathers on those mini-golf mounds? Right in front of the guard booth--and today with a dog plopped on the grass there, too!

Oh, and if you think I'm a dog hater, you are wrong. This is my favorite dog in the world, and I want to invite him to Stuy Town....

Happy Easter!

It was a happy time, it was a mythical time--when Stuyvesant Town at Easter was filled with flowers and lovely landscaping. Yes, such a time did actually exist before Tishman Speyer came to own this complex. And now we have the above, a photo taken today of the Oval "garden" on Easter Day.

Pathetic Security Gives Up on Stuy Town

Faced with a lack of motivation and will power from higher powers (including our rotund Security Chief) to make sure that the rules of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are being followed, our complex's security force has just about given up. They've taken down the sign at the window of the Oval guard booth which said that bicycle riding is prohibited and have put in place those ugly green barriers at four Oval points to slow down, but not stop, cyclists. These barriers are a godawful visual blight and are a pain in the ass to both pedestrians and joggers, who must twist their bodies to maneuver through the maze. WHAT A FUCKING STUPID IDEA. Whoever thought of these barriers should be FIRED.

Furthermore, security is now allowing impromptu dog runs right in the Oval area, with gatherings of dogs off leashes and the continual use of the garden and grass areas by dogs.

Security may as well start wearing badges that state "I Surrender." What a sorry state we are in now.

Why the Chief of Security Should Be Fired

It's evident that things have not been working well, via Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village's crack security force, for quite a while. Though a portion of the blame can be laid at the feet of Tishman Speyer and their awful reign of this place (may their name forever symbolize avaricious greed and massive incompetence), it's time to get a tough attitude toward our security force--and the guy in charge of it, a hefty gentleman who ensconces himself in the Management Office for what seems all of his work day.

ST/PCV's security force doesn't have much to do, which makes their lack of will to fulfill their functions that much more annoying. They certainly are fruitless at catching anyone who actually commits a crime, as the near 100% reliance on the MCI-gift monitor center off the FDR Drive is self-defeating. As has been pointed out numerous times, you need "boots on the ground," a visible presence, to dampen the very idea of committing a crime here in this complex and, possibly, catch perpetrators in the act. But, excepting occasional vehicle tours, the occasional security presence at the Oval Booth, and the manning of PCV's 1st Avenue guard booth, you will not see a security presence much around this area.

Aside from the crime issue, there are certain rules and regs of living here, and security has proven itself to look the other way at offenses or simply not care about them. I refer to the rules and regs concerning bicycle riding and dog management. Bicycle riding is PROHIBITED in this complex, yet security does just about NOTHING to stop bicycle riders. Once in a blue moon, particularly when a Stuy Town blog notes the problem, there is a very temporary push to stop a delivery cyclist or a 6-year-old on a bike, but otherwise these two-wheelers whiz by, even in front of security, and nothing happens. WHY?

As for the dog rules, security does NOTHING nowadays, allowing dogs to piss and crap everywhere, go on the grass and gardens, go off leash or run out those stretchable leashes that extend a mile long. Furthermore, security does not say a word to thug outsiders who walk their prohibited dogs (like pit-bulls and German shepherds) through the complex.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?

So the security here is run abysmally. That's evident. And now it's time someone paid with their job for this incompetence and lack of carrying out basic job duties. And that someone has to be our Security Chief.

What's the Game Plan?

Above: Supported by Dan Garodnick, the Second Avenue subway line was a dumb, excessively costly idea from the start, and now its slow construction is killing businesses and neighborhoods in its wake. Some businesses will never return, either because they have been strangled into failure by the construction or removed by the MTA through eminent domain. Dan is at it again, supporting, with the Tenants Association, a tenant buy-out of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. But is this really in your best interest?

The effort by the Tenants Association and Councilman Dan Garodnick to have Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants buy the complex and turn it into a co-op or condos is curious. If the object always has been to retain this complex as "affordable housing," how does the co-op/condo scenario fit into that plan?

One assumes, at its basic tenet, that if ST/PCV will be a co-op/condo, tenants will have the option of buying their apartments for probably a solid six-figure number, and thereafter pay monthly maintenance fees that could equal what they are paying in rent now. Who can afford this? Certainly not many seniors here, nor many other residents who are struggling as it is with financial issues, particularly in this woeful economy. And any word of "mortgage" in this current economy should make anyone pass out with anxiety. Those who opt to buy in will be burdened by rent-stabilized (and protected--we hope) tenants who will opt not to buy. Unless certain tenants are viewing a co-op situation as a potential to sell their apartments for a lucrative amount and make out like property bandits (in this economy this is a laugh), having tenants assume ownership of ST/PCV doesn't make much sense.

The bottom line is that if tenants had bought ST/PCV when the property was put on sale by MetLife, something the Tenants Association and Garodnick pushed for, tenants would have overpaid just like Tishman Speyer overpaid, and we would have been screwed (and rightfully ridiculed).

Furthermore, having Stuy Town/PCV a co-op or condo situation almost guarantees that, eventually, affordable housing will go out the window here and, ironically, with the very assistance of a group that has fought for affordable housing.

2/25/10 UPDATE:

The newest issue of Town & Village unwittingly exposes different statistical data for tenants buying Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village. An article by Michael Alcamo presents the case for condo conversion of apartments that would be "affordable, both in the initial acquisition, and also on a continuing monthly basis." Mr. Alcamo, a Stuy Town resident and president of the mergers and acquisition firm, MC Alcamo & Company, states that a one-bedroom could cost "about $105,000," with the purchaser needing a down payment of "about $20.000." Regarding maintenance fees, the net monthly costs would be "about $1,076," which could be a monthly savings if the rent had been higher.

In a letter to the editor, John Monel presents figures that are different. He claims that tenants want a two-bedroom apartment for $300,000, implying that tenants would consider this a fantastic deal, but that these apartments, in this neighborhood, should go for 1.5 to 2 million! While Mr. Monel's background, if any, in real estate is unknown, his letter underlines the lack of clarity behind this whole idea of tenants buying this complex. Mr. Alcamo's figures seem instinctively too low for me, but, hey, he may be right.

Even if he is correct, however, a condo conversion plan would mean that while tenants would own their apartments, they would still be under the rules of the condo board, meaning that they could not do what they wanted (as in subdividing their apartment into smaller rental units) unless approved by the board.

So far, I have not heard debate on one important financial obligation that tenants would have to meet if they owned their own apartments or if they were owners in a cooperative housing corporation. Property taxes! These can be pretty hefty here in Manhattan. What would they be? And what's the protection against them rising dramatically in the coming years?

Another imminent problem is the renewal of this complex, not just the upkeep. Even Mr. Alcamo admits that the "lawn is a mess" and that "lighting needs repair." There are many more problems that will demand to be addressed as Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village deteriorate through simple age--and many more costs involved in staving off this deterioration and in upgrading the buildings and the property into the 21st century.

As all this energy and brouhaha is occurring over tenants buying Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village, I'm left wondering if we are taking our focus away from making damn sure that tenant protection laws are renewed and strengthened in our State Senate. That's the key to affordable housing.