Report: May 1, 2017

Just a moment ago, I heard the loud sound of a lawnmower cutting the grass in front of one of the buildings. Which brings me to talk about noise, firstly:

As you know, this property is all about noise. Thankfully, I live in a relatively quiet apartment with only the occasional click-click of high heels above me. And, yes, I've gone upstairs. For me, it could be far worse, as my former, former tenants (all guys this time) would come in at all hours of the night and made sure that their neighbors heard it. They even laughed about the noise they were making. They didn't care.

So noise, of the apartment kind, is variable. You can luck out or go through hell. And all AirBnb should have adequate carpeting per one's lease. As far as Public Safety goes, reports are that their response is variable, too. You may get a PS officer coming over, but by the time he comes over the noise could be gone. The rule is that a neighbor's noise has to be distracting inside your apartment, so expect a visit from PS.

I did call PS recently for another complaint and they did come over and listen to a visiting dog left alone in an apartment and barking away perpetually.

But there is another noise: the noise of apartments getting "refurbishes," which includes the new placement of an air conditioning unit. This necessitates a good amount of drilling. Look around, there are few apartments that have this new unit below the window. This refurbishing will never stop. The noise created is just tough luck for the other tenants. Blackstone, the owners of this place, has to keep on going and drilling.

This leads me to Blackstone. I don't consider Blackstone my enemy. They have a job to do and so they are doing it. And I have contact information for Blackstone on my front page, and I will have more. That said, I've found Blackstone not as responsive as I would like. I'm being nice when I write that.

On March 27th, I emailed Nadeem Meghji of Blackstone (meghji@blackstone.com), providing links to a few pages on the TA and my blog that I had hoped would be convincing.  Mr. Meghji was very nice and friendly to us at the tenant meeting when Blackstone got this place. I got zero response, however, so I emailed April 5th the big boss and CEO at Schwarzman@blackstone.com. Almost immediately, I got a response from Paula Chirhart at Paula.Chirhart@Blackstone.com, who told me that she works with the public affairs team and closely with the Stuy Town team. She promised to discuss my concerns with the internal team. I have not heard again from Ms. Chirhart, but I assumed something was said to the internal team.

Regarding lanyards, which per rule of over a year ago will have non-lanyard people walked of the property (don’t laugh; that is what is said), I have phoned Rick Hayduk once, no response, and I phoned twice last week Jonathan Foux, the director of marketing at Stuy Town. No response, either. I did the latter after I saw big photos outside the leasing office proclaiming Stuy Town with these photos that go against or ignore the carpeting rule. The receptionist inside the leasing office was nice, but instantly cold when she found out what my issue was. I could have died right then and there, and she would have done nothing.

Incidentally, before this, I spent a very frustrating time on the phone talking to two PS officers, who insisted that the lanyard rule was being enforced and that I didn't know what went on with the monitors who followed the non-lanyard people. To say that blood was shooting from eyes after this conversation is not far from the truth.

So far I have been at three of the 13 precinct meetings for neighbors in the area. The chief of PS has been at all three, and Rick at one. I presented photos which showed the ice cream truck on the corner of 1st and 14 Street, this after calling 311 got me no place fast. Sometimes the truck is there, sometimes it is not. I don't know how the truck can be blocking the corner view and have its engine running and stinking up the place, but this has happened and I'm not satisfied with the 311 response.

I continually see bicycle riding around the Oval and non-lanyard dogs being walked, even by dog-owners who live in this property. I will always admit when I see differently. I have seen PS around the Oval, but not all the time and sometimes it takes a long, long while for one to show up, if ever when you are there. I have seen PS stop a bicyclist, usually a delivery person but this very infrequently. Typically to do that there are two PS officers. My assumption is that they do not "harass" residents, but just the Mexican or Asian delivery people. Again, very infrequently. And I have seen PS officers give parking tickets every week or so around the loops.

This is just a report. I’ve not given up (fat chance of that happening) and will pursue this, and other concerns, in the months to come. I've said this before and it is important: Believe what you see and not what they (Management or PS) tell you, as they are good at avoidance and telling half-truths. You know the truth. I'm not saying that they are lying, but they have a job to do. Your job is different.