Rocking the Oval Real Loud... or How To Spend Your Resources Wisely

If you live around the Oval--and even if you are buildings away--you will be hearing the loud noise coming from the Soul Asylum concert.

I eyed the crowds, and I'd say there were no more than 300 people present, at best.  A lot were spread out, in picnic style.  I thought the atmosphere was terrible, and left after I made my survey and took photos.

Surprise, surprise, but IDs were checked.  Not by Public Safety, but by an outside security force.  But, get this, one card holder could have 4 "guests," so all people had to do was ask someone going in with a STPCV ID to accept them as a guest.

 

Wondering How to Get In?

A lot of younger people had drinks in their hands, and I bet not apple or grape juice. No one checked. People who couldn't get in (or were trying to enjoy the Oval--good luck!) were sitting along the benches around the Oval.  The Oval Cafe was packed.

Aside from the outside security force, NYPD was also present!

A costly event.

Meanwhile basements in Peter Cooper Village lacking in washers and dryers have received used ones in stark, ripped to the bone basements that look as if they are from a HOSTEL film or some Russian contamination unit.  Careful when you go down there!

Stairs from Main leading to the basement.  Dear Lord!!!

Wall near elevator

Close-up of wall. Unbelievable!

Another wall. Or is it the firing wall where prisoners were once lined up?

Your washer and dryer, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Your folding table.  Could be easily employed as a Gulag interrogation table.

Do not even dare to enter!

And be glad you even have this, because as CWCapital/CompassRock has informed tenants that these "services" do not need to be provided.  So aren't you glad about the priorities of where money is spent here?

(PCV photos thanks to a concerned resident.) 

CWCapital Ready to "Rock" the Oval

"Rock the Oval" in preparation:

Meanwhile, watch out for falling trees.  The rains yesterday softened the ground enough to cause a large tree to fall in front of Stuy Oval 19 and 21.

Hercules Intercedes on Behalf of Stuy Town Tenants (Particularly Those Living Around the Oval)*

 

"May the gods let it rain and rain!"

* Will the Soul Asylum concert tomorrow be rained out or at least will the Oval lawn be a quagmire of mud and stagnant pools punishing those who trifle with the peace of our community?  Will Stuy Town tenants living around the Oval have a day of merciful rest inside their apartments?  Will Public Safety be freed from the weighty responsibility of checking to make sure concert attendees are only STPCV residents and their guests? Only the gods know!

Projects Living at Market Rate Pricing

Wake up, people!  We've all let "projects living at market rate pricing" become the new norm for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

This is NOT luxury or decent living--recent photos sent in by concerned residents:

 

 

(The above wooden floor has been in place for a couple of years, btw.)

Meanwhile, the "landscaping" produces much waste with plants/trees left out to die because no one is taking care of them and putting them into the ground:

NOT HAPPENING, BUT... The Concept of Raising Rents On Everyone Because of "Financial Hardship"???

Okay, calm down.  It's not happening.  In another instance of a post on the TA Facebook opening up a new concern for tenants, we find out from someone who has been having discussions with the leasing office, this:

"The woman explained that if CW would go to a judge and the judge grants them legal right to raise rent [mid-lease] I will be bound by that decision - one of the reasons is financial hardship."

The very fact that the woman at the leasing office stated "financial hardship" as a reason to raise rents mid-lease suggests that the idea is out there.  How seriously has this idea been considered?  That I don't know, and perhaps, hopefully, the woman was just speaking off the top of her head and not revealing a landlord's potential or even speculative plan.  If she was speaking off the top of her head, her boss should admonish her for even suggesting such a concept and potentially traumatizing all the tenants here.

I think if any landlord of this place tried to raise rents due to "financial hardship," there'd be such an uproar and revolt that New York City would have an earthquake or two.  No landlord should even think of stepping in this direction.

Oval Cafe -- A Private Enterprise???

Ever since the Oval Cafe sprung up, I thought that it was owned/operated by management, with only the staff being hired out to an entity like American Leisure.  Well, here's some new info that, if true, raises the concerns over the Oval Cafe considerably. On the TA Facebook page, a person posted that they were asked to leave the outside table area because their coffee was from Dunkin Donuts and not the cafe.  The cafe person who approached them (who was classified as "so rude") responded that, quoting the poster, "he paid a lot of money in rent for that space."  Huh???  Does this mean that we actually have a 100% commercial business INSIDE Stuy Town that is renting out from CWCapital???  Doesn't this change dramatically the circumstances of the existence of Oval Cafe?

Paging Dan Garodnick.....

Garodnick Fails to Answer Pivotal Questions and Gets Thanked For It

So, our councilman, Dan Garodnick, was publicly asked a couple of pointed questions on the TA Facebook page, amid a soft-ball one.  The soft ball one he answered, but as to these others: "Why did you not scream from the rooftops cautioning fellow neighbors and constituents not to sign the agreement? Did you really believe that the 'fine print' was an altruistic attempt on the part of CW to show that they were somehow forced to add a statement about raising rents but would not?"....  Well, in true politician/lawyer fashion, he requested that the rest of the conversation be held in private, between the questioner and himself.  His response elicited a sincere thank you from the questioner, "grateful" for "all your hard work."

And so it goes. 

UPDATE:  Monday, June 3.

Our councilman was asked the question below in the aforementioned TA thread, Sunday morning.  So far, no response.

Dan: Don't you think the Roberts attorneys - who were supposed to be representing tenants and their interests - should be called to account? The final "deal" the tenants' attorneys agreed to was, obviously, highly flawed and has now backfired on many in the Roberts class, while the attorneys enriched themselves. I know this may be a tad uncomfortable for you, given that you aligned yourself with the attorneys in this class action, but it is high time to discuss inconvenient truths: The Roberts attorneys blew it...!

Protests, Filming, etc, This Weekend

From the TA:

Organized action in front of the PCV/ST Leasing Office on First Avenue will continue this Saturday, June 1, at 10:00 a.m. The Tenants Association has arranged for documentary filmmaker and citizen journalist Sandi Bachom to be there on Sunday, June 2, at 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. to videograph your stories for posting in short vignettes on YouTube and for sending to CW Capital.

This is your chance to raise your voice, stand with your neighbors and educate would-be tenants and brokers about shocking mid-lease rent increases, the recent spate of unsolved burglaries, increasing incidents of bedbugs, ongoing and unresolved noise complaints, broken or totally missing laundry facilities, and surprise inspections that invade your privacy and your home.

Longtime rent-stabilized residents are working with former market rate tenants now faced with the choice between horrendous rent increases or forced departure from the community in which they have already put down roots. This newest threat to the future stability of Stuy Town-Peter Cooper affects us all.

Come to the leasing office on First Avenue at 15th Street on Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., or Sunday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Spend just 30 minutes or more educating prospective renters by distributing flyers and talking to them.

Please check the Tenants Association website for more information.