"Stuy Town is a campus"

Well, I guess we knew that, but here's confirmation, nevertheless.  (Hat tip to STR blog reader.)

http://nyunews.com/2014/02/20/stuytown/

Do note lack of mandated 80% carpeting, btw.

The comment section is priceless. There is, so far, one response from a NYU resident:

"I think all of the old residents on this page need to chill. I'm an NYU student and love Stuy town minus the gumpy tenants that are posting here. Jon, did you really say no drinking? What is Stuytown Amish now? Did I miss something?

"So what if I like to have some fun with friends past 8pm (aka your bedtime)? I pay full price for my apartment unlike all of you rent controlled dinosaurs. If I want to tan on the Oval, I'll tan on the Oval. And Gilbert, if you're ball 'accidentally' finds it's way to my eye, me and my bro's fists might just 'accidentally' find it's way to your face."

Though I'm sure this isn't the attitude of most students living (temporarily) here, I bet it's one that's held by many, particularly the macho bros.

The scandal is that renting to transient residents like students increases legally the rents in PCVST. The landlord(s) know this and work it to best advantage.

The Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act

There's a view that the repeal in 1999 of this Depression era act led to our country's financial crisis and, also importantly, took away criminal offenses from what entities like Tishman-Speyer tried to do with PCVST.

The repeal was supported by both Republicans and Democrats.



An opinion piece at US News & World Report explains further:

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/08/27/repeal-of-glass-steagall-caused-the-financial-crisis

Urstadt

The article is a few years old, from 2010.

The man behind the law:

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_357/urstadt.html

The money quote, to me:

"Urstadt said City Councilmembers and even an ACORN representative have privately thanked him for the Urstadt Law."

The Rent Stabilization Blues

Pretty eye-opening:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/178090/can-de-blasio-make-rent-less-damn-high#

Some choice quotes:

"More than 987,000 apartments in New York—nearly half of all rental units—are rent-stabilized, meaning annual changes in rent are set by a body called the Rent Guidelines Board, or RGB."

"An apartment renting for $700 when Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, where the lease was renewed annually, could legally go for $966 to $1,007 by the time Bloomberg headed back to the corporate world. That’s well ahead of the growth in family incomes."

"The trend continues: the RGB revealed last year that net income for landlords had increased for seven straight years, that tenant incomes had dropped, that evictions were up and that landlord operating costs were expected to rise a mere 2.6 percent this year. Yet the board, using its formula, raised rents 4 percent."

"The impact of these increases went beyond the monthly rent bill; if a rent-regulated apartment’s monthly rent exceeds $2,500 and it is vacated, it exits the rent stabilization program. Last year, 6,700 units lost their rent protection that way. Every time the RGB raises rents, it moves every apartment in the system closer to the exit door."

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Don't make de Blasio forget his promise/offering to freeze rents:

http://www.realrentreform.org/2014/02/petition-rally-for-rent-freeze-in-2014.html

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BTW, our local politicians proudly cheered the Roberts Decision in that it made all Stuy Town/Peter Cooper apartments rent stabilized.  But do you know of any rent stabilized apartments outside PCVST in New York going for 4K to 5K plus??? This was a sham victory, indeed, and merely codified the high price of apartments here for our newer tenants.

The Real Estate Board of New York Gala of 2014 - Guess Who Attended?

True, I may have it wrong. There have to be big-shot members of residential real estate who are caring stewards of what they own, who are fair in their dealings with tenants and respectful to them. My experience, however, is quite different. My residential experience is limited to Stuyesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. I have seen our stewards--Tishman-Speyer and CWCaptial--devastate this community, use any available methods to kick rent-stabilized tenants out, pump up the rent rolls with transients, use the physical park-like attributes as a toy, evacuate the Oval of its traditional charm and many of its trees and flowers, and dance with joy when a old tenant dies because that tenant's apartment becomes available for remodeling and an increase in rent by a couple of thousand dollars.  I may have it wrong, but not here in PCVST.

With that, I consider big real estate "the enemy" because that is what I have learned these past years. I don't restrict my view just to stewards of PCVST.  Perhaps that's a misguided prejudice. I'll admit that. But I have also seen our city change and neighborhoods devastated with reversals on zoning laws and the implementation of "air rights" that allow aesthetically inappropriate slivers to be built, pleasing real estate, of course, but marring New Yorkers' sense of community and taking away the simple visual and emotional pleasure of a sky.

And so I find the following photos of a gala held by the Real Estate Board of New York troubling, disturbing. In the pit of my stomach there is the start of a retching movement when I look at them. These photos, which a STR reader alerted me to in our comment section, make me kinda ill. But, perversely, they are also amusing. It's almost laughable in how these photos tell us that we're screwed.

This is our Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito with REBNY Chairman Rob Speyer:

I know if I were in Mark-Viverito's place I would not be smiling at Robbie (still the number one individual who screwed over PCVST and middle-class affordability here), unless I was telling him that the city is preparing a case against him and Tishman-Speyer in their handling of this property.

This is Steve Spinola/REBNY President with our State Senator Catherine Young and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito:

Below: Steve Spinola and Rob Speyer with our Governor, Andrew Cuomo: How does this make you feel about the governor being unequivocally on the side of tenants?

Baby face Stringer, whom I have never instinctively trusted, was there also:

Our "commie" mayor was there, too, hobnobbing with wealthy capitalists:

On the left is Gale Brewer, our Manhattan Borough President; on the right, Michael Norton of Tishman Speyer:

The chic in the middle is RuthAnne Visnauskas, Commisioner of NYC Housing Department of Housing Preservation and Development:

A familiar face to all of us:

 

 He's so photogenic, that, well... Here's another photo!

And I'm sure you also recognized Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney in the above photo. In this one, she gets a photo op with Robbie:

So, how secure do you feel about "affordable middle-class housing" in PCVST?  These guys will throw you a bone. If you're lucky.

UPDATE: Robbie Speyer has his own website. The main news is this gala and its "players":

http://robspeyer.com/

From that page: "2,300 people crowded the New York Hilton on January 16th, 2014 night for REBNY’s 118th annual banquet. Read more about the the biggest night of the year."

If you go through the link and check out the "biggest night of the year," you will read about the mocking disdain these real estate people have for Mayor de Blasio. I quote:

"2,300 people crowded the New York Hilton on Thursday night for REBNY's 118th annual banquet. We snapped 28 of its biggest stars. (Mayor de Blasio didn't event [sic] make our cut. Call it rookie hazing.)"

You see, according to the mindset, the mayor and all politicians are not the key players. They are not really A-List members, because they are in temporary positions of power and can disappear as quickly as they appear. "Who finances your re-election efforts, baby?"

The Bill to Limit Hours of Construction

While the TA proclaimed that Dan Garodnick and Rosie Mendez introduced legislation this February to limit construction hours during normal non-work hours, a similar or the same bill was up before the council last year, in November. Garodnick and Mendez were also sponsors of that legislation, as was Gale Brewer, the current Manhattan Borough President.

Here's a New York Post article from November 2, 2013:

http://nypost.com/2013/11/02/proposed-bill-would-limit-hours-for-construction/

What happened to the proposal? It died without a date for it being taken up again (Sine die). 

Now the legislation is back, and this time we should push our elected officials to make sure that it doesn't get delayed again and that it becomes law, so that residents of all places in New York won't be harassed by construction noise during normal off-work hours unless an emergency dictates otherwise.  I don't know how the legislation is written (yet), but it may be prudent to also limit current weekday hours for construction. Having construction start at 7am and finish at 6pm (the current legal time-period) is too expansive. That morning hour should be moved up to at least 8am, if not 9am. Let's make New York a bit more habitable for its residents.

This blog will be keeping an eye out for what happens to this proposal. The good news is that there are more city council sponsors of this legislation than before.

You can, and should, send your love letters of support to the sponsors by Googling their contact info. Make sure this legislation is not forgotten again. And here are the current sponsors of the legislation:

http://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=1655655&GUID=97C47DE3-CF8F-4B92-824E-4F01B524C9D9&Options=ID|Text|&Search

As for weekend Sat/Sun construction, that should be forbidden in residential areas. This community has suffered for many years with allowances for construction work on Saturday.

And this is where you report possibly illegal construction noise:

http://www1.nyc.gov/nyc-resources/service/2090/noise-from-construction

My Response To Recent TA Deletions of Posts

On Saturday afternoon, February 1st, this blog posted two photos of an artistic rendering of what the new management office will look like once completed. For a long while, tenants have been wondering what this office would look like, and now there was, for the first time, a visual representation on the internet, available for anyone to see. On the same day, a member of the TA Facebook posted a link to this blog, in the process bringing up a graphic of the new management office. So an artistic rendering of the management office was viewable on the TA Facebook page on Saturday; comments from Facebook members began to filter in. Then, suddenly, the post, and with it the photo, the link and the comments, were gone.

Wondering what was happening, I contacted the TA on Sunday and was told an answer would be forthcoming. Today, Wednesday afternoon, February 5th, I received the answer.

I can't quote this message, as the message was personal and I don't have authorization, but the response was both confusing and, frankly, nonsensical. On one hand, I was informed, the TA member's post and its follow-up commentary were removed because the TA "Communications Team" wanted everyone to focus on this:

http://www.stpcvta.org/ta/post/new-stuyvesant-town-peter-cooper-village-management-office-whats-going-on

And on the other hand, the TA moderators (the "Communications Team," as they were called in the message) are trying to group together comments on a particular topic, and that post became victim of a plan to assemble posts concerning the management office today.

I have no idea which individuals comprise the "TA Communications Team" (the TA seems to be adopting CWCapital's secrecy levels) but the hall monitor quality of deleting posts/merging posts/etc has been particularly acute these recent days, as if some member of the "Communications Team" has been left alone to his or her own devices, and, crazed, has run rampant with newly found power. I think it's a terrible and insulting way to run a Facebook page, overly authoritarian and contrary to the easy-going and friendly exchange of commentary on topics of interest and value to tenants. I can understand bouncing out comments that have nothing to do with the subject at hand or which are insulting or noxious, but the post that was deleted just contained vital new information that was surely of interest to residents and members of the TA.

Worse, a replacement "authorized" post turns up a today, four days later, offering up, almost as a scoop, a similar photo to the one that was deleted on Saturday, and manufacturing an impression that the TA and Dan Garodnick are at the forefront of those concerned about the new management office and determined to find out just what the hell is happening. What took them so long? And why are they giving the impression that they've been awake the entire time, rather than asleep, disinterested or just plain unsure of what action to take?

At this point, considering the evidence before me, I can only come to the conclusion that the elimination of the link to the Stuy Town Report page was a purposeful negation directed provocatively at this blog by a member of the "TA Communications Team" left in charge over the weekend, and that the leader of this team has tried to cover this up upon his return by reposting in one thread the comments deleted, but not, of course, the original post that provided a link to the blog.

I have generally supported the TA and have countered on occasion its critics in the comment section or by not passing through the most outrageous comments directed at the TA that I have come across.  (And there have been a bunch.)  My position regarding the TA has been changing recently, however, and the current rationale for the deletion of posts there confirms that my still evolving views are the correct course. Yes, the TA can be useful, but it is to be considered only an auxiliary in the fight for affordable housing and an imperfect, even flawed fighter at that. I still support it to a limited, expiring extent, but not anymore with dues, however. Sorry. I'm not going to pay for the privilege of getting disappointed. As of today, I am not a member of the TA.

We, the tenants, have the right and responsibility to go after tenant matters that concern us without the reliance on the TA or our elected officials. My one regret is that I cannot attend to this 100% or even 50% or 25% due to time constraints. What I will try to do in the coming weeks is offer up proactive guides, so that we, as individuals, can seek our own recourse, our own sense of fairness and justice.

Councilman Dan Garodnick Finally Moves

Should you need evidence that this blog and its commentary are read by people "in a position of authority," you now have the latest from our councilman Dan Garodnick, who finally addresses the concerns that tenants have had about the construction of the new management office.  Do note that these concerns were either not allowed or mitigated on the TA Facebook page, and where a recent post was removed that offered a link to photos of an artistic rendering of the completed project.

Unfortunately, those reviewing this blog have missed the fact that the blog has already posted a diagram and a visual representation of the forthcoming management office. Or perhaps they have seen them, but just don't want it known that they have seen them here.

Here is Dan's message to tenants:

Dear Friend,

After Hurricane Sandy flooded the Peter Cooper/ Stuyvesant Town management offices at 317 Avenue C, CompassRock decided to move them to a more central location on the property. In case it escaped your notice, construction of the new space has begun in the area behind 272-278 First Avenue, and abutting Playground 8. This is the space that Oval Concierge previously occupied. While a more convenient management office situated outside of a flood zone could be welcome, too little information has been provided to residents about the plans.

Last October, the Tenants Association held a preliminary meeting with management and affected residents to discuss what was being planned. Many important questions were asked, and there are still outstanding questions despite the fact that work started at the site this week.

Residents deserve a clear picture of what the site will look like when complete, and its effects on the open space. Those in the affected buildings should be afforded real accommodations during the construction work, including a rent abatement. They further need to understand how management will address noise and environmental concerns. With that in mind, I sent a letter to management last week, co-signed by Senator Brad Hoylman and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, asking them to address the many outstanding issues and to host a meeting directly with residents to address their concerns. You can read the letter here.

I also have asked the Department of Buildings to perform a prompt audit of the site and the plans to ensure compliance with all applicable rules.

Residents deserve clarity on this project, and management needs to do much more to accommodate the people who live in surrounding buildings.

Sincerely,

Dan

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And here is a PDF of the letter Dan, State Senator Brad Hoylman and State Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh have sent to CWCapital.

If we go by past experience, CWCapital may throw a bone or two in response, but otherwise it's going to be business as usual. Do note that this blog has been continually proposing a rent abatement to tenants that live in any area affected by the noise and disruption of construction. This should be demanded of the special servicer by local politicians and the Tenants Association, and persistently, even naggingly, brought up. This blog has also promoted transparency in the construction that CWCapital is engaging in and will be engaging in. CWCapital's insistence on a secretive "need to know" position is insulting to the residents that live in PCVST and who are, and will be, affected most by any construction.