Outrageous Lying NY Daily News Article on Stuy Town

NY Daily News real estate correspondent Jason Sheftell standing in front of a door that's a little more high class than the ones found in Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village.

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If you live in Stuyvesant Town or Peter Cooper Village, you may be surprised to learn that we have 1) rent-controlled tenants and 2) that these tenants--or their rent-stabilized brothers and sisters--rent some apartments starting at $300 and up. Yes, $300. If you walk around the Oval, you also may be surprised to find out that it has "perfectly manicured lawns," and you also may be surprised that landlord Tishman Speyer has "improved community partnerships" and "upgraded playgrounds" (which were upgraded, but by previous owner, Met Life).

These fantasies and outright lies were put forth in today's Daily News by Jason Sheftell, the paper's real estate correspondent, in a shocking piece of puff that, while it gives nods to some of the complex's problems, manages to appear nothing less than a PR piece written by someone working for Tishman Speyer. Who knows? Perhaps Jason Sheftell is pals with Rob Speyer, or perhaps his friend is George Hatzmann, Tishman Speyer's Managing Director of NY Development, who is pictured in the article beaming in front of the Oval fountain, perhaps Sheftell wants some future job with Tishman Speyer, or just perhaps he doesn't know how to write a factual and accurate article on a community he is not a part of.

Whatever the story, shame on him, and shame on the NY Daily News for publishing something like this.

This pseudo-idyllic picture is particularly odious:

"Amid the controversy, children's laughter was all you could hear last Sunday at Stuyvesant Town's main square, called the Oval. Residents old and young sunbathed, played catch on perfectly manicured lawns, dipped their feet in one of New York's only large-scale fountains, shopped at an outdoor produce market, kibitzed on park benches and soaked in life at the greenest 80 acres of residences in all of New York City. You couldn't find disenchantment out there if you tried."

Who calls the Oval a "main square"? How many old residents does one ever see sunbathing? (I can think of only, at most, four, amid dozens upon dozens of young people.) Oh, and playing catch in the Oval, which is clearly not a perfectly manicured lawn (perhaps Sheftell was thinking of the artificial grass in the north playground?), is against Stuy Town rules, as is soaking one's feet in the fountain.

As for not finding disenchantment in Stuy Town out there (even if you tried)--did you actually try?

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Sheftell's article also appears online at:

http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2008/09/25/2008-09-25_longtime_stuyvesant_town_peter_cooper_re.html

Contact for NY Daily News to voice your displeasure at the article and Mr. Sheftell:

Phone: (212) 210-2100
Letters to the editor: voicers@edit.nydailynews.com

The Sandman

The beautification of the 20th Street Loop continues, courtesy The Sandman:



Tenants nearby report that The Sandman comes at around 5:30 AM to loudly make his deposit. The price of beauty is never without cost.

Rough Riders

So you are a landlord and want your grounds to look nice. You spend a good amount of money for maintenance. You want your property to look its best, not only for your tenants, but for the pride you have in the ownership of something that's attractive to look at. Well, if you were such a landlord, you wouldn't let your bozo golf cart/mini-vehicle riders do this to your grounds:





Some examples, and there are more, of the rough riders in Stuyvesant Town who mar any landscaping their vehicles cut through.

Stuyvesant Town Report Exclusive! Here's Mud in Your Eye!

Mud has arrived to the Oval. No, not the mud that's on the lawn, there's plenty of that to be sure, but Mud, the hipster "anti-establishment coffee machine of NYC's East Village." Since moving to Stuy Town many years ago, I've had the sense that Stuy Town is anti-establishment and now landlord Tishman Speyer has confirmed that by bringing Mud to our complex. Can't get any cooler than that. Thanks, Rob.

You can hardly miss the orange Mud truck as it sits on the south side of the Oval, right near the kid's playground. It was there yesterday, a bit vocal with its boom-box, but the music seems to be gone today, Saturday. (Damn, some senior citizen must have complained!)

Now, Mud can be a great idea, a great coffee, and I'm sure a portion of residents who find the coffee stores on 1st Ave or 14th Steet just too exhausting to walk to, will enjoy the perk of coffee and muffins at the Oval, as seen here:



.... But are we not losing sight of the fact that the Oval is now becoming a commercial property area? The forthcoming Oval "Essentials" are commercial ventures, hidden under the term "amenities," the Green Market is clearly a commercial venture, and now we are going to have an orange coffee/muffin truck standing at the Oval throughout the day. Nothing stops Tishman Speyer from putting in such movable commercial enterprises at other points in the Oval. (Though I do wonder about zoning laws.) Hey, wouldn't it be convenient to have a toilet paper truck at the north end of the Oval?! And what about a diaper truck on the other side of the above playground? Mom could really use that!

Mud also sells other stuff than just coffee and muffins:



No, those are not some resident's clothes hanging out to dry because the laundry dryers aren't working, those are cool T-shirts you can buy that look like you've worn them for ten years. Wearing these, Stuy Town hipsters can now pretend they are real "street" when they venture into the Lower East Side and meet up with fellow Yunnies and rich-kid NYU students who are also pretending they are street.

BTW, here is Mud's website. Now, tell me, ain't that cool?

The Neglected Oval

It used to be the pride of Stuyvesant Town. The Oval. A central gathering place and focal point of a community. A fountain, a lawn, and an encircling border of trees, plants and flowers that made one feel so very separate from the madness of Manhattan. It was, indeed, an oasis. Tranquil and lovely.

This is what it was, but since Tishman Speyer took over as landlord of this complex, the Oval has been progressively neglected, so that now it is ugly beyond measure. Here is what Tishman Speyer's neglect has done to the Oval....

Flowers and plants were once abundant here:



And here:



And here, as in so many other places:



There was no bare ground here, just nice, well-maintained grass:



The lawn is now a tragedy. Even without rain, water bubbles up from somewhere below to infest the ground, which once upon a time was covered with, yes, nice healthy grass:





Overlooking the Oval is the new landscaping of dead trees and weird, excessive ugly plantings:



I have it from a good source that Tishman Speyer intends to deal with the Oval once other projects are finished. Once again, we will see workers slaving over an area of Stuyvesant Town, with the resultant mess and loss of access. Tishman Speyer has purposefully let the Oval deteriorate to open up the necessity of redoing the Oval. And yet it was so beautiful a few years ago, when MetLife's newly hired landscaper took to making the entire area aesthetically delightful. Responsible for the destruction of this artistic work, Tishman Speyer will attempt to give us a replacement. Given how horrid much of the landscaping has been under its administration, I can't say that any of us can look forward to what's ahead.

Non-Stuy Town Resident Terrorizes Community - Security Nowhere Around

We've received a couple of reports of a non-resident who walks her two large muscular dogs through Stuyvesant Town at will. "I was sitting in the Oval when I heard this savage barking coming not far away from where I was on the bench," reports one Stuy Town resident. "I turned to look and saw these two dogs, barely restrained by their owner, trying to get at a smaller Stuy Town dog. Luckily the owner, a 50-ish year-old woman in cut-off jeans, was able to draw her dogs away with some effort, but I was actually afraid for the Stuy Town dog, whose owner was also trying to hold back her dog from getting into a fight." Then, we received the above photo from another resident, who snapped it after seeing the woman make a lengthy journey through the Oval--and, yes, over the lawn--and then out of the complex via the 14th Street Loop. Our photographer wrote that other residents seemed very wary of these dogs, making sure to be out of their way as the dogs walked past them. In case you are wondering (and why should this be a surprise?), it was confirmed that there was no security within eyesight during the entire time this woman and her dogs toured Stuyvesant Town.

I'm not up on my dog breeds, but could those two be pit bulls or related to pit bulls?

Stuy Town to Tishman Speyer: We're as Mad as Hell and We are Not Going to Take This Anymore!

I was going to write about something else today, but as I was going through the latest postings on the PCVST Tenants Association message board, I began to see a pattern emerge, a pattern of unified simmering rage against our landlord, Tishman Speyer, and the way things are being run (badly) in this complex. In one thread, fed-up market raters had enough of the administration not responding to their calls and e-mails about the pressurized wall debacle and were threatening a lawsuit. In another thread, an exasperated poster wondered why nothing was being done about a dumpster nearby his building, a dumpster the contents of which are removed at odd times in the night, including 3AM--this after Tishman Speyer promised to remove the dumpster in February 2008! In yet another thread, the renting of apartments to corporations was raised with outrage. Apparently this "hotel/motel" rental is generating the presence of company transients who are here one week/month and gone the next. Still another thread had an increasingly heated debate on the outcome of Tishman Speyer's overall plans for this community. Are we seeing the guaranteed end of affordable housing here and the lifestyle many of us knew or is there still hope in a fight against the overwhelming powers that be?

I have lived in Stuyvesant Town for a fairly long time. Not all my life, but for a good chunk of it. I and my neighbors who have lived here more than few years have never seen this place look so bad. We have never experienced this place so noisy, so filthy, so lawless. We have never seen a landlord either so ignorant of what is going on here (and how is this possible?) or so arrogantly disdainful of the complaints and numerous sufferings of his tenants.

Many of us have had enough. We are as mad as hell and we are not going to take this anymore.

Neglected Security

It's 10 pm. Do you know where your security is? It's 10 am. Do you know where your security is? Pick any time of day, and you can ask the same question and probably get the same answer: I don't know.

Over the past several months, there's been a noticeable decline in the visible presence of security, of "boots on the ground," particularly in the Oval where such a presence is desperately needed. Thankfully, there's been no major crime committed on the grounds (as yet).

There have been numerous reports of bicycle thefts, however, and such Stuy Town rules as no bicycle riding in the complex and no dog walking through the Oval lawn are being flagrantly ignored. Though on a very minor scale when compared with armed robbery or rape, these breeches have bred a sense of lawlessness in Stuy Town. When added to the miserable condition of the Oval lawn and its immediate surrounding landscaping, residents are talking and complaining about a breakdown in the management and maintenance of Stuyvesant Town.

In ye olden days (not that far distant actually), there was a brick security booth, of good size, at the southern tip of the fountain area. One would always find a security person inside, and he was able to monitor much of the Oval grounds from that vantage point. Then when the fountain was redone, a smaller booth, made of wood, appeared to the east of the fountain. Then, that disappeared, and a security office was crafted out of the building that will now be housing Oval Study. The new placement caused a reduction in the ability of a security officer to monitor most of the Oval because of distance and tree and plant growth that blocked the view. With the construction of Oval Study, a new wooden security booth appeared (see photo above) not far away, but still woefully positioned in terms of viewable access to the entire area of the Oval or even the smaller fountain area. Now, anyone can do anything they want around the fountain and not be seen by security, even if the booth is manned, which frequently it is not. (And to think that the rent deposit box is there, too! Hey, want some checks?)

What's going on? Posts on the PCVST tenants message board have addressed the issue, with a couple of facts emerging: Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town used to have about 80 security officers, but now that number is down to 50--a 40% reduction, as noted by board member nospinzone. This number, as an indication of what is out there at any one time, is cut down dramatically when shifts are taken into account. Apparently, also, a cadre of security officers left for other jobs, and Tishman Speyer has not been keen on hiring new security officers, putting many of its security hopes into electronic surveillance, which cannot help anyone at the moment a crime is being committed, of course.

From my experience, there's been a slight increase in the presence of security personnel of late.* I suspect it's directly related to the complaints emerging from the tenants message board over the lack of boots on the ground. But this is not enough. There has to be at least one security officer present in the Oval area, always. Just the way it used to be. And he has to be making the rounds of the Oval, rather than sitting in that dreary wooden box that is supposed to house him during his shift and from where he can see almost nothing.

[*8-29-08: Since this post, I've unfortunately seen a return to the sorry state of a security presence in Stuy Town. For three days in a row, whenever I walk through the Oval, I do not see any security. Pitiful.]