Signs and Ads Atop NYC's Skyscrapers?

This is just the beginning....

http://www.rew-online.com/2012/10/09/hm-leases-4536-sf-of-times-square-signage-and-a-store/

Theoretically (and realistically if rent control & stabilization disappears) all real estate in the city is up for sale to the highest bidders, so why not?  Do I hear the sound of the mental wheels turning at CWCapital, thinking about digital billboards around the Oval and the perimeter of ST/PCV?  (Yes, I know I shouldn't give them ideas, but I do want to head them off at the pass.)

Bullshit on the TA Facebook Page

I can't post on the TA Facebook page, having been removed by the admin for not posting under my real name (yeah, that would be great, wouldn't it!?), but I have to call out a poster and his clique who misrepresent the old folks vs. the young folks issue in Stuy Town/PCV.  I won't name the gentleman, who I'm pretty sure tries to get similar absurdist comments through here, but this is some of what he wrote:

I think a good exercise would be for me to post something about "old people" or "elderly residents" or "long time tenants" every single time one of them yells at me from their wheel chair for no reason, or yells racial slurs at the young Indian men using the playground, or asks a young Asian woman on her way home from work if she speaks English, or barks orders at me in the laundry room to get this or that for her.

I've been living in Stuy Town for over 25 years, and I've yet to come across anything similar to the above, with one exception.  There is one old timer here who is in a wheelchair and is assisted by a caretaker, and who is obviously handicapped and not just physically.  When he's at the Oval area (rarely), he can be heard barking out this and that, kinda letting his mind roam free, with his voice amplifying what's in his mind.

This exception is not spread out enough to be even remotely considered a generality.  Now, taking a look at the students that are packed into this complex, we have to admit that, while many are good neighbors, there are a number (and not just the solitary exception) who make noise at inopportune times of the night, do not have rug coverings on their floors, and whose sense of entitlement grates and devalues any sense of community this complex may have had.

But even this is not the crucial issue.  Sorry, but the crucial issue is that the presence of transient students has a negative effect on Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper, period.  For one, it allows and validates the high rental prices that CWCaptial charges.  If it weren't for the hordes of students waiting to get into this complex (you can see them everyday at the leasing office), the landlord would have to drop rental prices, which would then be more affordable to a more permanent leaser.  For another, the packing in of an excess number of transitory tenants into apartments (many of which have been "upgraded" to extra rooms than original built for) means that resources are being maxed out in the building and in the complex itself.  Stuy Town is beginning to look overused like other parts of the city.  The sense of an oasis in the middle of Manhattan is being lost.  Part of this downgrade can be explained by the "Oval is a funhouse" tactics of the landlord, of course, but I've never seen the Oval area so much used and abused as it is now.  A respite from the mad rush of Manhattan?  Yes, still there, but not the way it was.  And it's going to get worse, I fear.

Transient students also have no need of belonging to the ST/PCV community.  There's no reason for them to belong to the TA, for instance.  They are a gift horse to the landlord in more ways than one.  The more of them, the less possible a TA and tenant force that can make an impact in numbers.

So while I welcome young students here, who do bring a sense of aliveness and vibrancy into this place, I also recognize that in the bigger picture they make affordable housing far less likely and the tranquility and sense of community of this place seriously problematic.

Stuy Town's Luxury Movie Viewing Experience

I find this equally comical and pathetic. Watching a movie you have already seen, in poor quality, while you sit in a kid's playground with the screen on wheels on the other side of the fence.  I guess some people are not self-aware enough to know when they are being humiliated.  A small crowd, of course, but lots of noise to disturb the residents who live in the vicinity. Seriously, CWCapital/CompassRock, why do you bother?

Photos posted on the TA Facebook by AJ Miller.

Seems like this is pretty important....

https://escapestuytown.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/serious-fire-safety-hazard-peter-cooper-village/

Hello, CWCapital/CompassRock!

Ugly and Pathetic, Part 2

It really isn't working.  The "gardening" or "landscaping" at the Oval crescents looks sterile and institutional--and, because of the excess of mulch spread all over the ground, the crescents smell bad, too. People who used to sit nearby are having a hard time breathing.  A good number of plants have been harmed in transit or are dying.  No doubt we will see a continual turnover of plants in both crescents, as the maimed ones die away.  Even the rope fence didn't survive a day without coming to harm, whether malicious or not. (Since then, it has been fixed.)  Ugly and pathetic is right.  Thanks for ruining the Oval for us, CWCapital/CompassRock. You guys are a treasure.

*    *    *

Hey, you complainers about the noise coming from Oval concerts and activities!  Can't you read?  Would we lie to you about the perks of Stuy Town?

Ugly and Pathetic

UPDATE ALERT:  More trees are being cut down in the Oval Lawn today....

 

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The garden crescent on the east side of the Oval is being filled with new plantings in a horrid design and look that defines the words "ugly" and "pathetic."  And for this we permanently lost trees and the lush natural arbor that was there before and the sense of living in an oasis in the middle of Manhattan???  Everyone I talk to about unnecessary transformation of the Oval greenery is upset and mortified.  This is a major, irretrievable mistake by CWCapital and its CompassRock subsidiary.  Triple shame on them.

Meanwhile, the Powers That Be put on another hugely successful Lady Maya event: televised baseball on Saturday afternoon.  Hundreds, no make that thousands, filled the Oval Lawn.

Okay, I think it's time to start calling Stuyvesant Town "Stuy Slum."  What do you think?....

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Oval Tree and Plant Replacements Have Arrived!

UPDATE

They aced it.  Perfection.  Very Zen.  Perhaps a front row to be added, but not much else, I'd think.  Now, isn't this much better than the messy lush garden that was here before?

2nd UPDATE

Important to read:

http://town-village.com/2013/07/12/shade-trees-chopped-down-in-oval-management-says-some-trees-were-overgrown/

I knew it.  Replacing the former gardens in the "crescents" around the Oval will be low plants with a bunch of space in-between.  The photo above is probably what both crescents will look like, aside from the addition of flowering perennials and, I assume, cabbages for the winter.  You can kiss the lush gardens that surrounded the Oval--and that were a delight to many, giving people the feel of being in the country--goodbye. Probably forever.  Management also states that the trees cut down in the crescents were "overgrown."  What the hell does that mean?  None of the trees were problematic and they offered welcome shade to those sitting on benches nearby. Damn these people. They have destroyed one of the the few things that made this place unique, just so they can promote how the Oval has been upscaled in a sale.

3rd UPDATE

Stuy Town and PCV residents who wish to take in a lush garden, now that their own lush gardens have been destroyed, can head over to Tomkins Square Park, which now puts the Oval to shame.  (Photos taken a couple of months ago.)

Question: How is it that a financially strapped Parks Department can maintain Tomkins Square Park grounds-keeping with the above results when the geniuses behind the grounds-keeping here seem to be always struggling and killing off plants and trees, and planting and replanting?

What's in it for CWCapital?

Don't forget, CWCapital actually wanted STPCV.  They bid on it.

We now know that CWCapital is getting paid over 600K per month to manage this place, but this near three-year-old article offers more light:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-01/stuyvesant-town-title-may-be-taken-over-by-cwcapital-at-foreclosure-sale.html

Transfer Taxes

CW would need to pay city and state transfer taxes of 3.025 percent of the bid price if it takes the title, according to Joshua Stein, principal of Joshua Stein PLLC, a New York-based independent commercial real estate law practice that isn’t involved in the case.

CW would also need to pay a second transfer tax when it eventually sells the property, Stein said. 

“Their position could be that we just want to acquire this damn thing,” Stein said of CWCapital. “Lets just buy it in, we’ll pay the transfer tax, and we’ll hope that the incremental value of holding and waiting will exceed the incremental cost of paying a second transfer tax.”

CW could avoid the double transfer taxes by negotiating a deal with a buyer ahead of the auction, and then selling the $3.67 billion mortgage to that acquirer moments before the foreclosure sale, Stein said. That buyer would still need to pay one transfer tax.