I noticed yesterday, and it was confirmed today, that the price for a small cup of coffee at Gracefully has now gone up to 1.75. Before a cup of coffee was 1.50 at this store. Lenz's is now 1.25, up from 1.00. I didn't price other items, but I assume that if the coffee has gone up, so has, or will, other prices. While to some .25 here or there is not much, for me and others like me, the prices can go up so that one is really left with little choice, aside from cooking at home. At novel concept that. Yet, when I was a kid, our family never "went out." All the cooking was done at home. Naturally, we saved money doing that, but also ate better.
So now I am left with a choice. I will still go to Gracefully, but I will buy less than before, and a coffee or a tea will be a rarity here. Better at home now, and cheaper.
This is where we are heading, unless we have loads of money, then it doesn't matter. But to some people it does matter. We, who have been at Stuy Town or Peter Cooper, are slowly getting priced out. I think our owners are not too unhappy.
76 comments:
Brunos just raised the price of one of it's sandwiches a $1.00 Wonder if all the rents are being jacked up on all these shops.
The only thing they I buy at Gracefully is their fruit which is good. The grocery store situation here is terrible especially since Associated will be remaining the only option on 14th St. And a poor option it is. I cannot believe that with all of that construction 14th St will still lack a decent supermarket,
I’m guessing that the increases may also have to do with possible rental increases. I give the guy from East Side Diner credit for shutting down over the past owners tax dispute with the landlord. He could have easily passed the due amount on to the customers through price increases, but he didn’t.
I expect we will continue to see price increases due to lease price increases.
For anybody on a fixed income (and many of us are) these little increases are like a nagging sore that is slowly, but surely, eroding the healthy skin around it. Unfortunately, there is no ointment or anti-biotic for the parasites who are feeding off of us. They will probably use the excuse that the minimum wage has gone up by $2 an hour. They will make that up in one day of little increases. Brew your coffee at home, STR, and put it in a thermal cup and take it out with you when you go roaming. I never eat out these days because it is too expensive and I can make better at home. I don't buy bottled water either. I use a Brita filter and put that water into a Poland Spring bottle. If I buy one bottle of PS per week and keep refilling it with Brita, I am saving a considerable amount of money and recycling.
2018 is my year of being extra economical, not only because I have limited resources, but because I am terrified of the way this country is going. I think it is open season on the elderly and poor.
This is going to happen all over bc of the rise in the minimum wage. Who did everyone think would pay for it??? Us!!! I have seen prices go up in the last month or two. Have also seen signs in stores explaining that the increase was due to the hike in the minimum wage. So, people will cut back on purchases. Stores will suffer the loss & close. Truly sad on many levels.
Gracefully has always been expensive in the extreme. But if people willingly pay to be gouged by them, so be it. Not me, thanks.
I stopped buying anything at Gracefully a couple of years ago. They're at least 20% higher than anywhere else - even the organic places like Commodities. They don't offer senior discounts and I found over the years that their coffee didn't compare to the truck coffee
across the street.
Agreed that the owning company raising store rents is also at fault. Once they have a new store by the nuts, the next lease will see an increase. As for the old stores? The owning company could care less if they have to move or close down. Better to have a new store for the "yuppies" who can pay more.
I've seen many people take out their credit cards at Gracefully. I wonder if these people pay this off every month and if they have a discount from the bank for using the CC. If the answer is no for both, then these people are being ripped off.
I predict that Lenz's will go in five years or less.
I agree STR, I don’t think Lenz’s has much longer. They do not fit the Disneyworld theme that has taken over this place, so they will go, even though the store is critical to so many here.
I expect it to get replaced by a Panera or Pret a Manger. They both fit the SPS mold.
Associated may not be great when it comes to fresh food, but they have great sales on miscellaneous household items and their frozen food is reasonably priced, although a little short on variety. They have no room to expand their frozen section, but they could do a lot better in the meat department. Some of the meat is definitely past its due date, regardless of what the stated due date is! Normal told me that the old meat is used for making ground meat. I never buy ground meat there unless it is the grass-fed kind that is not processed by Associated.
It's a very aggravating store to get around because the aisles are so narrow and there is so much clutter in them. The management could do a much better job of keeping the aisles clear - or a little less cluttered than they are. Those guys pushing the hand-trucks of stock around could slow down a bit, too.
Of course, it doesn't help that people will stand dead still in the aisles reading their phones! I usually give them a gentle nudge with my cart and then apologize sweetly.
"I've seen many people take out their credit cards at Gracefully. I wonder if these people pay this off every month and if they have a discount from the bank for using the CC. If the answer is no for both, then these people are being ripped off."
I use my credit card all the time, STR. It's more convenient. I keep one specially for grocery shopping and I know exactly how much is on it and make sure it is not more than I can pay off in one payment. It's a no-fee card and as I never pay them a penny in interest, it is very useful. I feel safer with it than carrying cash, though I always keep some cash in the house in case there is a power cut. Not all of us credit card users are profligates, though I have to admit that I probably buy a bit more than I would if I were cash-and-carry.
What is interesting is that this is far from an upscale neighborhood. The rents that Blackstone charges make one think it is, but it is not. I find it odd that overpriced gourmet groceries can do well here. I guess these students use their parents ‘ credit cards. I see them using taxis too all the time.
Perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems to me that for years now, many of the young'uns pay with credit cards for everything. Because their mommies and daddies are footing all of their considerable bills.
And the kids may not even see the bills.
StuyTown StuyCity is a tourist trap hotel complex with concierge advertising and selling tickets for tourist traps promoted on StuyTown StuyCity website geared to tourists. Tourists spend more then permanent residents even for a cup of coffee. They are running a hotel.
https://www.stuytown.com/blog/stuycity/nycevents/autumn-activities-in-nyc
What normal person shops at Gracefully?
Purely out of curiosity, I once took a "survey" and watched the customers ahead of me on the checkout line at various stores to see how low they would go when pulling out the credit card to pay for something. At one point, out came the credit card on a 79 cent purchase. Sorry, said the owner of this particular store, we don't take credit cards. When my turn came to check out, I told him about my "survey." We both had a good laugh when he told me of his experience with a previous customer who--in all seriousness--attempted to charge 12 cents to their credit card. I stopped taking my survey after that.
Seen today, in a hallway, a student sitting in a chair texting. They really think that this is a dormitory. Why not, it looks and seems like one.
"Seen today, in a hallway, a student sitting in a chair texting. They really think that this is a dormitory. Why not, it looks and seems like one."
Looks like one; sounds like one; stinks like one. Only thing is, it is an unsupervised dorm. A real dorm would be much better run and the rules would be enforced. So sick of the filthy slobs. I have spread the word far and wide that this place is a must to avoid.
most of the city mocks and looks down on stuytown. our well to do friends still call us the slums and the projects.
That’s outrageous, STR!
Have you contacted our esteemed City Councilman’s office?
The Pig Stuy is becoming a tourist center. I hear so many people speaking foreign languages, especially French. I think that they are doing short term monthly rentals. It makes it look like there are lots of families, but a lot of these families are tourists here for brief stays. It is truly a tourist/dorm dump
building 6 peter cooper wy all the students living here now who is renting these as dorms as i am not 21 and i am not interested in dorm life.
Slipping and sliding.... Is it me or were the snowplows out much earlier than they are now? This is a serious question, as I could be mistaken.
"Is it me or were the snowplows out much earlier than they are now?"
Huh?
I haven’t been out today yet, but I noticed that during the last two snowfalls there was no salting and cleaning for a while. I did notice a lapse of snow removal service.
This place is for the Birds!
The TA is looking for a Director for their Board.
Here are the requirements:
1) Pay your $50 TA membership dues
2) Be corrupt
3) Impress the group of corrupt board members on the nominating committee. The more corrupt you are, the better your chances!!
I'm guessing that the new TA Board Director will be none other than our newly elected city councilman, Keith Powers. He is already on the board and a paying member, so why not make him a Director?? Seems to fall right in line with what these jackasses at the TA like - politicians and management.
It will not be until EVERY CURRENT MEMBER OF THE TA BOARD RESIGNS, that we will see change and actual fighting for the tenants once again. If you have any problems with what I just said, call Rick!
Oh yeah, stuytown has been called the ghetto & laughed at by real gramercy residents for decades!!
Good people of the sty, for god sake, don't eat any yellow snow: no matter how pretty it is. Furthermore, those chocolate dollops lying in the yellow powder? Well I think you may find the culinary experience somewhat bittersweet.
11:54 AM, what have you got against birds?
January 4, 2018 at 3:50 PM
Figure of speech. Relax my fellow tenant. Geeeeeez..... No wonder why nobody says hello to anyone when they are in the elevator together.
Daily News exposes corrupt Mayor de Blasio's horrendous PCVST giveaway to his financial benefactor Blackstone depositing graft money into his nonprofit slush fund.
This article's brief, simple analysis depicts just the tip of a years-long corrupt political scheme predicated on the betrayal and disenfranchisement of a historic, world renowned, middle class community. The scheme was originally conceived and engineered by our lifelong neighbor and duly elected NYC Councilman Garodnick hijacking our incredibly conflicted TA Board. They were subsequently joined by our corrupt NYC Mayor de Blasio, who subsequently bitch-slapped them into accepting his similar corrupt scheme benefitting a different predator. All of them - Mayor de Blasio, Councilman Garodnick and our incredibly conflicted TA Board - were elected by us to protect us against REBNY/Wall Street predators openly threatening us for years. All of them promised to defend us against REBNY/Wall Street predators circling our homes. All of them betrayed us on behalf of REBNY/Wall Street predators bankrolling them via graft money deposited into their nonprofit slush funds. (De Blasio directly; Garodnick directly; hijacked, incredibly conflicted PCVST TA Boardmembers indirectly via Garodnick).
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/de-blasio-inflated-numbers-preserve-affordable-housing-deal-article-1.3738686
"De Blasio inflated benefits of the Stuyvesant Town complex sale to preserve affordable housing, report says
De Blasio announced in 2015 that Blackstone Group LP would buy the sprawling property for $5.3 billion and agreed to restrict rents at 5,000 of its apartments for at least 20 years. That adds up to 100,000 “apartment-years” of affordability. But according to the budget office’s report, the deal can be credited with only 36,000 years because the other 64,000 would have remained rent—stabilized even without the agreement and its massive subsidies."
As usual, the incredibly conflicted PCVST TA Board president resorts to defending Blackstone and her pathetic years-long betrayal of her PCVST neighbors/constituents by deploying the same condescending, fear-mongering rhetoric always intended to instill REBNY bogeyman terror into what she considers to be feeble minds.
"Susan Steinberg, the president of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association, sided with the city, saying without new protections tenants feared the landlord would harass residents to leave to get out of rent regulation. The budget office says it accounted for that in its analysis.
We could have expected more aggressive and unscrupulous ways to get people out of their rent-stabilized units. Our neighbors have seen that movie before, and it was a disaster for our community and for the city,” Steinberg said."
Really? Tell us exactly what our "new protections" are and where we can find them written and spelled out in print.
Incredibly conflicted PCVST Board President sleazey Susan can't tell us what our "new protections" are because there are none. They simply do not exist. As usual for 10 years sleazey Susan has been and continues lying to us - every PCVST resident - all of us.
Mother of all affordable housing deals? HA!
Tremendous middle class victory? BULLSHIT!
PCVST TA BOARD 2009-PRESENT - WORST TA BOARD IN NYC HISTORY
The article/report on DeBlasio’s fudging of number for affordable housing in PCVST makes me wonder ... how much of this did Dan and the TA know about this when selling this sale to us as being great and saving affordable housing?? I’m guessing they all knew about it. Dans gone, but Susan and TA Board needs to resign immediately.
@ January 4, 2018 at 3:18 PM
I'm guessing that the new TA Board Director will be none other than our newly elected city councilman, Keith Powers.
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I'm guessing outgoing city councilman Dan Garodnick sitting on a pot of REBNY graft money plotting his next move might transform the incredibly conflicted PCVST TA Board he hijacked and bankrolled into his own personal corrupt politician-graft paying lobbyist-corrupt politician revolving door.
Corrupt Senator Garodnick?
Corrupt? Yes. Absolutely.
After Speyer spectacularly tried and failed to rake in multiple billion dollar windfalls pushing a historic, middle class community out of our PCVST homes, Blackstone, the most notorious predatory hedge fund on earth, could never own PCVST successfully executing Speyer's business plan raking in multiple billion windfalls pushing our historic middle class community out of PCVST - IT'S THE SAME PLAN!!! EXCEPT NOW GUARANTEED TO SUCCEED IN WRITING!!! - without essential assistance from corrupt politicians betraying and lying to their PCVST constituents on behalf of REBNY/Wall Street predators bankrolling them.
Again. After Speyer, the Blackstone deal could never take place without lying, corrupt politicians betraying all of their PCVST constituents (for Garodnick/TA Board - betraying neighbors/constituents).
Senator Garodnick? Possibly. First ask Cuomo if he wants it, then ask Schumer.
It's hard to make sense as to why a stuy town employee and not an ICE/rink employee has been clearing the rink since 10am and many of the sidewalks in the complex are barely passable. The rink serves maybe 20 kids on a Friday while the sidewalks in the complex serve thousands of pedestrians and those pesky bicycles. Mismanagement of priorities startling.
what's the cutoff for RS here and income? 175k? stuy hasn't checked us ever! woot hoot
how did the nutblls manage to get us an Mci for heat now?
The newest selling point is that we have a doorman. A "virtual" doorman. Seriously.
"The newest selling point is that we have a doorman. A "virtual" doorman. Seriously."
Oh! Please! STR, check your mailbox please.
STR, where did you see that we had doormen? That is a joke. I am sure that Garodnick, Kavannagh and Hoyle knew about this deal. I knew from the start that nothing would change and that in order to survive Blackstone would have to keep this a dorm/hotel/city subsidized dump.
Ask Rick.
He's the brains of this operation.
So wrong about the rink. But good luck with that.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/bricks-tricks-stuyvesant-town-article-1.3740627
Our virtual doorman:
https://www.stuytown.com/common/uploads/www_pcvstliving_com/pdf/141-ops_menu.pdf
Our doorman is also advertised outside on websites, used by Stuy Town, to herald apartments here.
http://virtualservice.net/virtual-doorman/
A website that is easy for Management to find! I should be working for Blackstone!
StreetEasy is one of the major sites that Stuy Town uses. As you see, one of Stuy Town's pluses is a "virtual doorman."
https://streeteasy.com/complex/stuyvesant-town
"Figure of speech. Relax my fellow tenant. Geeeeeez..... No wonder why nobody says hello to anyone when they are in the elevator together."
I was JOKING!
Sitting this morning inside GRACEFULLY (yes, I know), I saw many young people (read students) heading over to the leasing office with those Stuy Town maps under their arms. Many.
I see many of those students at the leasing office all of the time. It is interesting the way they cover the windows of that office so that it is hard to see in. As if we did not know who they were renting to. It appears that in the tenure of Blackstone the student population has vastly increased. My building looks to be over 50 percent dorm.
@ January 5, 2018 at 4:10 PM
what's the cutoff for RS here and income? 175k? stuy hasn't checked us ever! woot hoot
Don't laugh too loud. The Roberts settlement has caused the provisions of the NYS Luxury Decontrol provisions to be suspended until 2020. At that point, they are scheduled to be reinstated. When your apartment reaches the $2500 a month rental level, the landlord will send you a form that must be filled out. They cross check that information with New York State. If the income of all the leaseholders exceeds $200,000 in the previous 2 calendar years, then the apartment is deregulated.
So if the apartment is taxed on $200,000 or more in income in 2019 and 2020.... boom.
BTW, if you don't answer the form, you're automatically deregulated, even if you haven't met the criteria, say earning 200K in the first year, but not the 2nd. Pay careful attention if one of those forms shows up in your mailbox !
The fact sheet below gives the mechanics, however the income numbers have been adjusted upwards to $200K since it was written.
http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/orafac36.htm
Students . . . and other assorted selfish, immature, self-involved blights on humanity. . .
My floor is filling up with clueless, self-absorbed and downright defiant jackasses of varying demographics.
There are NYU undergraduate students (Blackstone swears they don't house undergrads here) who routinely lock themselves out and then sit in the hall with their friends yapping for prolonged periods of time. They also make "movies for classes" out in the hallways.
There are young people who move in piecemeal (sublets? worse?) and jabber on their phones at the back of the apartments totally oblivious to the world. So that deliverymen come ringing my doorbell to ask if I'll accept packages for the idiots who in fact do not hear their doorbells.
There are young "professionals" who clutter the hallways with their deliveries, hang illegal and dangerous decorations on their door in defiance of Security prohibitions and mounting numbers of lease violations. They install padlocks on their doors to allow strangers to routinely enter their apartment.
ALL OF THESE SPLENDID EXAMPLES OF HUMANITY IGNORE PLEAS TO STOP CLUTTERING THE HALLWAYS FOR DAYS AT A TIME (INCLUDING PERISHABLES AND BOXES BIG ENOUGH TO HOUSE MAJOR APPLIANCES).
There are days when I become lightheaded trying to cope with the disturbances.
Walking out of the doorway into the complex immediately becomes an experience of "how many morons doing how many dangerous/stupid/illegal/inconsiderate, etc. things will I come across within 10 minutes?"
And I KNOW that much, much worse is happening and being perpetrated. Hell, the buildings are crumbling and pipes, walls and elevators are failing. Not to mention the fires, felonies and attempted crimes which are hushed up.
Nice place. It was once upon a time . . .
Was just reading the TA Facebook page. Somebody pays $7k per month to live in this fucking shit hole! Unfuckingbelievable! Peter Stuyvesant (part of criminal and corrupt TA) is not fazed by this one bit! I would want something a lot better than this slum/project if I were paying $7k per month! And this person is in an "affordable" apartment. P.T. Barnum was absolutely right.
8:01 PM, when they leave shit in the halls, kick it into the elevator, take down to T orM and dump it outside in the snow. Or just kick it into the elevator and let it go wherever. Refuse to take in their packages. You are under no obligation to to these flakes.
10:49 PM
They aren't paying $7000. It's what management thinks it could get as the legal rent if it wasn't under rent protections.
Read the whole thread before you come here and start spreading BS.
No doubt you will find many of our cheerleaders, and select members of Management, using that outdoor gym, in case you missed them.
STR, I missed seeing those persons you refer to at the outdoor gym. It would probably be utilized by hockey players if it were still available to them.
Cold weather never bothered those guys.
>>They aren't paying $7000. It's what management thinks it could get as the legal rent if it wasn't under rent protections.<<
Sorry, but that is the number I saw, too. On the website promoted by Stuy Town. The number was even higher.
https://streeteasy.com/building/528-east-20-street-new_york/0tc
Almost 7,500 a month.
https://streeteasy.com/building/647-east-14-street-new_york/0mg
About to reach 7,000.
https://streeteasy.com/building/510-east-20-street-new_york/0mb
8,608 per month.
Etc....
And don't forget your virtual doorman!
430 east 20th is my dorm
They won they won let it be you are all holding on to something that was and not is. Go and be free and happy. I leave here april - mught sublet and why not you're all doing it.
Questions; Do we have to tip our virtual doormen? Is Rick virtual too?
I am waiting for Susan Steinberg and the entire Tenants Association Board to be led off in handcuffs for fraud and misappropriation of funds. Reagan said, "Tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachov". The residents of Stuyvesant town say, "Open up the books, Miss Steinberg. Where did the Roberts Settlement money go? 70 grand disappeared? Poof! I don't think so."
Should make an interesting front page photo in the NY POST! "The perp walk!"
Just wait.
It will happen!
We want out of our lease cause the rent is too i=high and our new neighbor with same flat is cheaper! what the fuck is that shit?
January 8 @ 6:41 PM: That is De Blasio SHIT!!!!
@6:41 PM: it's Sty Shit!!
When will the VA stop the noise we are subjected to every morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Is Rick virtual too?"
He might as well be. He is the most useless person on the property. Tenants are subjected to no heat, no carpets and no recourse. Rick does jack shit.
Re: 1:10 am on 1/8: Yes we tipped the Oval Concierge staff. The workers provide a valued service year-round at a low monthly fee.
Rick and his team use intimidation tactics, see Facebook comment from tenant stating that management said something to her about her critical posts. This is pure intimidation, and everyone needs to be prepared for this going forward. Rick and his team are bullies, and we have no TA to fight them.
@ Same Troll Merits Same Response
When will the VA stop the noise we are subjected to every morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 9, 2018 at 5:56 AM
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"Seems like the VA beep, beep daily , early morning noise has stopped . Might have heard a very, very muted beep, beep yesterday. Amazing how it was fixed ( after a few years of noise pollution) after the politicians finally intervened"
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I reside directly across 23rd Street from the VA Hospital. Construction of an 8-foot high wall around the perimeter ended months ago. Federal disaster funding was used to construct the wall protecting the hospital against future flooding from increasing severe storms.
Don't know who this regular troll is or represents, but giving politicians false credit for nothing and outgoing sleaze Garodnick never missing an opportunity to bash the VA Hospital coveted by his NYU master points toward him. Maybe NYU will be a lobbying client?
The real question is why federal disaster funding wasn't used to construct a similar wall around PCVST sustaining similar storm damage. Instead, using future storm vulnerability as a pretext, CWC improperly diverted the federal disaster funding and insurance proceeds to construct a new, very expensive, mostly underground office building for itself on 1st Avenue and convert the former Avenue C management offices into a daycare center and additional apartments.
Garodnick and his hijacked puppet TA Board, anticipating the incredibly conflicted TA Board's business partner Brookfield would own the new office building and income producing apartments/daycare center, did nothing and said nothing to challenge CWC improperly diverting federal disaster funding and insurance proceeds that should have been used to protect PCVST residents against future storm damage.
December 12, 2017 at 9:03 PM
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AGAIN
Entire PCVST complex is an ongoing 24/7/365 indoor/outdoor noise complaint and this Garodnick troll repeatedly complains about fake noise that is not taking place across 23rd Street. Construction ended months ago @ VA Hospital.
10:25
I too live across from the VA, and all my windows face directly towards the VA from a middle level floor. When the construction was going on, it did suck, but I agree that it’s been months since things were bad. Dan Garodnick didn’t respond to a single call or email i made to his office during the crap that was going on. He was a joke.
months of the VA- um it was years. I too live across from it.
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