Hooliganism or Is the Super Glue Not Working?

If you walk around the 20th Street Loop, you should spot this, both handrails damaged and obviously presenting a hazard.





Meanwhile, it appears that the Stuyvesant Town planting graveyard still lives, though it's now a small one and hidden behind a fence:

Peter Cooper Village's Planting Graveyard

Or--you can run, but you can't hide....

Alerted by a comment responding to my previous entry (thank you!), I headed over to Peter Cooper Village to check out its own "planting graveyard." It was late, so the photos are nighttime ones, but you will still be able to see that Tishman Speyer's wasteful non-use of trees and plants continues. Many of the plantings are still alive, but some are clearly already dead, while others are on their way to meet the Gardener in the Sky. In the daylight, all this must look really impressive, in a depressing sort of way.

I wonder what the excuse from management will be now? Perhaps it would be best if they just go with "no comment." After all, what needs to be said?

Liar, Liar, Tishman Speyer Pants on Fire

Or the Planting Graveyard Revisited....

I'm convinced that Stuy Town reps read this blog and Lux Living's blog, as at times I see action being taken when a problem is addressed on either blog. And certainly any mention by the neighborhood's newspaper Town & Village makes Stuy Town notice--and sometimes, though rarely, respond with actual answers from a Tishman Speyer employee.

In last week's Town & Village (dated Feb. 12, 2009), a sidebar mentioned the planting graveyard situation this blog brought up in a pervious entry.

"As of last Friday, some of the plants and trees still appeared to be alive, but others were brown and bone-dry," the article stated. "According to the rep for management the plantings were removed later that day."

Oh, really?

Well, this Stuy Town Reporter checked the area over the weekend. I found that, yes, most of the trees have been removed (curiously a few were left behind), but that many of the potted plants were still around and still in a process of dying or already ensconced in the great green heaven beyond. Here are the photos:













Now, I was tempted to take two or three living plants to adorn my Stuy Town windowsill and save those plants from death, but it would be my luck to be arrested by security somewhere along the way for taking Tishman Speyer's property. (No doubt, all "squad" cars would have decended on me in a scene out of Police Academy.) So the plants remain in the planting graveyard.

What I found most exquisite in the T & V piece is that a spokesperson was quoted on this matter, and here's what this person said:

"In keeping with our ongoing effort throughout the community to produce landscapes that are fresh and vibrant all year round, some trees are removed during the winter season and stored for future installation. The storage area had been maintained temporarily on site but has now been removed."

I have to ask: Where does Tishman Speyer get these idiot spokespeople? For one, take a walk about Stuy Town now and help me find "landscapes that are fresh and vibrant." Pure bullshit spin because there are no such landscapes at this time of the year. Even the winter cabbages are gone because they rotted and were eaten by rodents. And two, does this spokesperson really think that dead or dying trees are being removed "for future installation"? Because there was a significant amount of them in the planting graveyard, and the ones that were still alive have no doubt died by now in whatever storage area Tishman Speyer currently uses. (My bet is that all trees were disposed of somewhere--off site, of course.)

No wonder that TS generally chooses not to offer up any comment when requested! When a response is given it is usually part laughable spin, part obvious lying, and 100% avoidance of the real issue. And it just makes Stuy Town tenants detest these bozos even more.

Tishman Speyer's Planting Graveyard

Before the snows came, Stuy Town Reporter took a journey to find out what happened to the several new trees that were dumped to an area near Ave C a couple of weeks ago. What he found amazed him--not only those trees, but a graveyard of unused, unloved trees and plants that mar this back area between buildings 271 Ave C and 245 Ave C.

This green death perfectly symbolizes the wasteful spending and tragic mismanagement of Tishman Speyer. At least some of these plants could be saved if they were offered to residents. But no, they sit or lie there dying. I can't imagine how residents whose windows overlook this graveyard must feel about their luxury living in Stuyvesant Town, as they look outside. As for the trees and plants themselves, they look as if they feel acutely their abandonment, while they shiver in their death throes.

Green Dan Looking for Houses in Manhattan

I like Dan Garodnick, so this is not really a knock on Councilman Dan, but I have to say I found Dan's latest newsletter rather amusing. It's his "green" newsletter and touts the advantages of going green and explains how New Yorkers can go green. The problem is that most of us in Manhattan are limited by how far green we can go. We certainly can't install solar power on our houses--because we don't have houses. Yes, most Manhattanites live in apartment buildings, as I'm sure Dan realizes. So what's that diagram of a nice suburban house and a full page commentary on turning your house green doing in Dan's newsletter to Manhattanites? And why is Dan wasting a valuable resource on this, like paper, which mandated that some poor tree be cut down in some forest, probably in Brazil, probably by some cheap, malnourished labor force?

Going green is the latest fad. Going green may or may not work to protect the environment, but surely there are a lot of upstart businesses looking to make gold when the government pushes green and offers monetary advantages to do so. These business may go bust in ten years, but what the hell. Just like the boom of the dot com companies in the 1990s, these green companies see good and fast money to be made, so they are jumping on board. The quicker they can get on, the more gold they receive.

For landlords, like Tishman Speyer, going green may just be another way to lower costs for themselves and screw tenants in the process through MCIs and a reduction of efficient services. Going green will probably wind up costing the consumer more and the results won't be as good as getting by the old-fashioned way. Those CFL bulbs, for instance, do not shine as bright as regular bulbs--and they are a terrible environmental pollutant because of the mercury they contain. But they save energy and now are the offical light source of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper kitchens and bathrooms. (Hmm, I wonder if Tishman Speyer is using them in their new leasing office or in the Oval Essentials???)

Dan's green newsletter is toned in nice green colors. (Is using color environmentally safe? Surely it must be more expensive than printing something in black and white. Oh, I forgot, we the taxpayer is paying for this newsletter.)

You undoubtedly have gotten Dan's newsletter in your mailbox today or will be getting it next week. There are five nice photos of Dan, outside and inside the newsletter. Thankfully he's a fairly handsome guy, so no problems there. And, yes, there's that diagram of that suburban house, a house that I've yet to see in Manhattan.

The environmentally conscious Dan recommends that you recycle his newspaper. (The paper doesn't seem to be printed on recycled paper itself.) I think by recycling, he means we should throw it into the appropriate recycle bins in our buildings, rather than pass it around. I'm sorry, Dan, but I personally can't be bothered. Down the chute it goes, in the hopes that Tishman Speyer will be slapped with a fine for non-compliance of recycling laws. You see, we have some problems here in Stuy Town/Peter Cooper, and payback is always a pleasurable bitch.

It's Kirsten Gillibrand!

Why, of course! How could we not know it would be her! Silly New Yorkers.

Another Slap in the Face to New Yorkers

NY Post's Fredric U. Dicker reports that Caroline Kennedy will be the next Senator from New York, appointed by Governor Paterson to take over Hillary Rodham Clinton's place when Clinton assumes the Secretary of State job. Writes Dicker:

"The contenders based their conclusion on the view that Paterson, after nearly two months of indecision, would 'greatly embarrass' and 'entirely humiliate' Kennedy, anger her prominent political family and even offend President-elect Barack Obama by picking someone other than President John F. Kennedy's daughter."

Another theory has it that Paterson will secure the payback of political and financial support from the Kennedys once he is up for election.

Dicker's prediction may prove to be foolhardy (it smacks of an over-reliance on limited sources), but if it comes true, the appointment of Caroline Kennedy will once again show how sleazy politics is being played at the expense of New Yorkers. I think Paterson is better than this, and so am holding out the hope that someone far more experienced and worthy for the position will be appointed. If not, it will be time to add Paterson to the list of politicos that will have to go come election time. We really have to clean house everywhere.

Saturday Stuyvesant Town Tour

Wake up, residents! Time for MulchFest!

Residents of the Oval were treated to a late morning wake-up call when the Mulch Machine began making a racket and turning discarded Christmas trees into mulch. A fun time was had by all. Well, not all, just a guy and his son, who understandably didn't hang around for too long. Very disappointing that no representative of Tishman Speyer turned up to celebrate, given the promotion of this "event." And no red Verizon table nearby to try to sell, for the hundredth time, Fios to residents. But I guess Verizon knew that MulchFest would be a dud.



Stuy Town's ornamental cabbages are now starting to rot so bad they are giving off a foul smell--of rotting cabbages or, if you prefer, old gangrenous socks that your grandma wore when she had an infection on her toes. Hold your nose while you pass by the ones in front of your building:



Of course, in many places there are few rotting cabbages left because mice and rats have already gnawed many down to stumps:



The discarded new trees made famous a day ago on the Lux Living blog are still around, as of Saturday morning:



I think that Tishman Speyer will want to remove these to an undisclosed location where they can die in peace. But as of now the death watch continues! Meanwhile, the above location has to be an awful eyesore for residents living in this part of the luxury complex known as Stuyvesant Town. Can you imagine paying market rate prices for this view:



And this says it all, I think. A Stuy Town sign/map looking as if it were in one of the most run-down, gang-infested projects in the Bronx:



Thank you Jerry and Rob Speyer for a job well done!