Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh held a press conference about the DRIE income limit increase on July 24, just moments before the City Council gave its blessing to the increase. Kavanagh is pictured with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Public Advocate Letitia James, Ellen Davidson of Legal Aid and Council Member Helel Rosenthal

A workshop on recent expansion of eligibility for the programs SCRIE and DRIE (income caps for both programs have been raised significantly in both cases to $50,000) will be held at the Stuyvesant Town Community Center on Tuesday, August 12.

State Senators Brad Hoylman and Liz Kruger, Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh and Council Members Rosie Mendez and Dan Garodnick will be co-hosting the event, which is aimed at helping senior and disabled constituents apply for SCRIE and DRIE. One-on-one sessions at which eligible candidates can get personal assistance with their applications, or get their questions answered, will be held 1:30-4:30 p.m. at the community center, located at 449 East 14th Street (on the First Avenue Loop, near 16th Street).

If you are 62 and think you may be newly eligible for SCRIE (Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption) or are 18 or older and eligible for DRIE (Disability Rent Increase Exemption), you can learn how to apply at this event.

The SCRIE and DRIE programs provide exemptions from future rent increases and some MCIs (major capital improvements). They are now within reach of many more ST/PCV residents, due to legislation authored by Kavanagh ecently enacted at city and state levels.

If you plan to attend, call the Community Center at (212) 598-5297, so staffers will know how many to expect.
For those who can’t make it, there will be two additional informational events/registration drives.

One will be at Tompkins Square Library, 331 East 10th Street between Avenues A and B, on Monday, August 11 from 1-3 p.m.
Another will be held at Stein Senior Center, 204 East 23rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, on Tuesday, August 21 from 1-3:30 p.m.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, seated with Council Member Dan Garodnick, ST-PCV Tenants Association President John Marsh and others, meet at Garodnick’s apartment in July. (Photo by Bob Bennett, mayor’s office)

By Sabina Mollot

Sunday, August 10 marked the end to a 60-day deadline that CWCapital had given to the Tenants Association, the mayor’s office and local elected officials to come up with a plan aimed at keeping ST/PCV apartments affordable (that is, the ones that are still affordable — around 6,000). However, according to a spokesperson for the mayor’s office and Council Member Dan Garodnick, all parties have agreed more time is needed.

“We’ve had productive conversations with CWCapital about protecting affordability at Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village,” said Wiley Norvell, a spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio. “And all parties have agreed it’s in the best interests of the city, the tenants and CW Capital to continue those talks in the months ahead before any action is taken.”

In July, the mayor joined local politicians and Tenants Association leaders for a coffee klatch at Garodnick’s apartment, which was aimed at discussing proposals that would interest CW. One possibility has been using tax incentives to preserve affordability. The TA discussed its condo conversion plan, and later said the mayor was open to the idea, though he ideally would prefer the apartments kept as affordable rentals.

Following the deadline, Garodnick said, “The conversation has started but certainly not ended.” The time is needed to “get into greater detail about ways to protect longterm affordability.”

This post will be updated if CWCapital responds to a request for comment.

Mikey Cole, owner of Mikey Likes it on Avenue A, with operations manager Pete Rosado, said his business will support local artists and youth programming. (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel
When Michael “Mikey” Cole opened his ice cream shop on Avenue A at the end of May, he did so with little fanfare, in the hopes that everyone’s favorite summertime treat would be enough to lure hoards of customers in.

Since then, Cole has gained a loyal customer-base, but that’s on top of all the people who already knew him. He’s lived in Stuyvesant Town for all his 35 years and Pete Rosado, the operations manager for Mikey Likes It, presented a challenge: walk more than two blocks down Avenue A without bumping into someone who would greet Mike with a big hello.
“It’s impossible,” Rosado insisted.

Before opening the shop just outside Stuy Town, Cole started in the ice cream business about two years ago after trying out an old family recipe for vanilla ice cream.
“(My aunt) was a cook and cooks always save their recipe books,” he said. “We were going through her things after she passed two years ago and one of the recipes fell on the floor. It was a page for a vanilla ice cream recipe. Me being curious, I went to Associated, bought ingredients and just made it to her specs. That’s what became my base for all of the ice cream.”

Originally, he sold the ice cream out of a cart in the neighborhood, in essence building up a customer-base before the business was even fully formed.
In its current incarnation as the shop on Avenue A, there are a handful of different flavors that will be rotating from month to month, but none of them with recognizable ice cream names.

“We’re like the Ben & Jerry’s for the urban community,” Cole said. “We wanted to create signature flavors. I make my own vanilla and even that has three different kinds of vanilla. Everything we do is a little far fetched and out there.”
Other current flavors include Cool Runnings, a coconut ice cream with coconut and dark chocolate shavings and toasted almonds, as well as Mint Condition, which is mint ice cream with chocolate fudge brownies. Even their vanilla isn’t just vanilla; it goes by “Ice Ice Baby.”
All the flavors have pop culture-inspired names, most of which are references to the 1980’s, which Rosado attributed to that being that era he and Cole grew up in. Aside from the nostalgia, Rosado added that the unique flavor names are also meant to give the shop a comfortable and carefree atmosphere.

“Sometimes when people order it, we’ll get a giggle out of them,” he said. “We’re bridging the gap between pop culture and the people who thought they might be out of touch.”

Although the shop hasn’t been open during the colder months, Cole isn’t worried about how the business will do during the winter. Before they even opened the brick-and-mortar location, Mikey Likes it was operating as an event-based business that brought ice cream to its customers, so not having as many walk-ins isn’t a concern for Cole. Especially when there are customers like Beyonce and Jay Z sending in orders.

“I created a flavor based around D’ussè, Jay Z’s cognac of choice, called it D’ussè de leche and sent it over to him,” Cole said. “He loved it. They have it in W Hotels in the city now and Beyonce orders from us. And we had plugs like that before we even had the shop open.”

He added that they’re also planning to start delivery service in the fall so residents can get their cold, tasty treats without having to go out in the cold themselves.
Giving back to the community through youth programs is also an important part of the business model, Cole said.

The reason, he admitted, is that he spent some time in prison when he was younger and recognized that he had made mistakes, but added that what he got out of it was certain life lessons. Those are lessons he wants to pass along to kids who might be going down a bad path: just be yourself.
“I thought I was going to the NBA but I’m 5’5”; it’s not happening,” he said. “We want to show kids that they don’t have to be the stereotype.”

Mikey Likes It is also trying to provide more opportunities for other people who have been formerly incarcerated that might have difficulties finding a good job.
“We want to give them an opportunity when other people may have shunned them,” Rosado said. “We want people to know that they can come here and have a past that today doesn’t define them. Let’s be real, eight out of ten of us may have smoked pot. But you can’t taste six months of prison in a vanilla ice cream cone.”

One of the celebrity face clocks on the wall at the shop, with the likeness of 80s pop singer George Michael, inspired July’s signature ice cream flavor, “freedom,” vanilla ice cream with red velvet cake chunkc and fresh blueberries. (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

Cole said the business supports youth programming and tutoring as well as supporting local artists.
Even in his miniscule shop on Avenue A, local artists are represented through some of the art that is displayed. Along the left hand wall there are hanging three clocks made by Lower East Side artist Crosby “ClockWork Cros.”
Cole is planning to continue growing the collection of clocks, adding one each month along with a description of the month’s featured ice cream flavor. The clocks are all cut out pictures of faces and so far, the shop features one of George Michael, Prince and the Notorious B.I.G., whose clock went up first in May because the rapper’s birthday happened to be around the same time that the shop opened.

Mikey Likes It is making use of all the space that the business has and another contribution from a local artist is the metal grate outside the shop, which will be changing from month to month and is put up by Bronx painter Andre Trenier. The current mural features George Michael, the 80’s pop star who inspired July’s featured flavor, “Freedom,” vanilla ice cream with red velvet cake chunks and fresh blueberries.

By Sabina Mollot
Developer Gerald Guterman, who recently expressed his desire to see Stuyvesant Town tenants organize to demand a conversion and re-settle the “Roberts” and MCI settlements, while also hiring him as a consultant to help with the effort, has continued to pursue tenants as clients by drawing up a contract over the weekend.

However, he wants to see at least 5,000 tenants participate in such an effort. Otherwise, he warned, his LLC company, West Palm Beach-based Guterman Partners, won’t take the job.
“Before we can accept an ST/PCV assignment, it will be necessary for at least five thousand (5,000) separate residents families to sign a Consulting Agreement with a consulting subsidiary of Guterman Partners, LLC,” he said.
In exchange for his services as an independent contractor, he’d get $10 per participant (a total of at least $50,000).

His statement was part of a letter he wrote directed to tenants (though so far unmailed) asking them a number of questions such as whether tenants were told they’d be charged for the MCIs they received and for the “Roberts” tenants, if they received “the full dollar recovery” in damages for all the rent they overpaid. The letter also went into quality of life issues.

“ST/PCV residents, were you told (when you signed your lease) that the building you lived in was being converted to ‘high population’ student/dormitory housing?” He also blasted the recent concerts in the Oval as a scheme to attract students.
He also said, after the news that CW’s parent company Fortress was preparing a bid of $4.7 billion, that he wasn’t sure he was still interested in preparing a bid of his own, preferring instead to be a consultant in a tenant-led effort.

The contract itself, while saying Guterman would provide consulting services, makes no mention of the re-settlement of litigation, student housing or other issues he wants tenants to fight. Those issues are instead mentioned in the letter. Questions include asking if tenants were told, upon signing their leases, that the Oval would be rented out for commercial purposes or that businesses would come “alive” right on the Oval or that the quiet of tenants’ apartments would be disrupted “because the landlord is using mass-entertainment to attract students to the recently converted dormitory housing?”
He also invited tenants to contact him through the email address: stpcv@gutermanpartners.com.

A spokesperson for CWCapital declined to comment on Guterman’s letter.

As for the odds of Guterman being able to secure all the signatures he wants, it may prove a challenge. In May, 2013, attorneys representing tenants in the “Roberts” suit had a tough time just getting tenants to file their paperwork authorizing them to receive their damages checks. So much so that the Tenants Association and local elected officials stepped in to go door to door in ST/PCV in an effort to get tenants to file. This, recalled lead “Roberts” attorney Alex Schmidt, was even after all the “Roberts” tenants received documents in the mail with application forms.
Schmidt declined to comment on Guterman’s letter.

In previous statements directed at tenants, Guterman urged a “gloves off” fight in court against CWCapital in order to renegotiate “Roberts” and the MCI settlement and force a conversion and the end to student housing and apartments with pressurized walls.

When asked about this, an attorney very familiar with “Roberts,” Leonard Grunstein, said he thought that a court agreeing to re-consider the case was highly unlikely. After Stuy Town was put up for sale by Met Life, Grunstein was hired by the Tenants Association to help with a tenant-led bid. It was then that he discovered that landlords benefiting from J-51 tax abatements could not deregulate apartments, which is what ultimately led to the “Roberts” lawsuit.
“I don’t think that can change,” said Grunstein. “Anything is possible, but it doesn’t sound realistic. You would have to prove that they are overcharging new tenants.”

Another attorney, Jeffrey Turkel, who represents owners and groups representing the real estate industry, told Town & Village that generally, courts don’t like to overturn cases.
Turkel, along with a partner at his firm, Rosenberg & Estis, represented the Rent Stabilization Association, an owners’ organization, in “Roberts” when the RSA submitted an amicus brief, or document in support of Tishman Speyer.
Although he didn’t want to comment on “Roberts” specifically, Turkel said, “If someone wanted to undo or overturn a stipulation, they would have to establish fraud or mistakes or overreaching or something like that. Once a stipulation of a settlement is signed by two parties it is binding. What courts don’t like is for people to sign a stipulation and then come back and say, ‘We didn’t mean it.’ That’s basic, settled New York law. Otherwise, you’d have chaos.”

The Tenants Association, meanwhile, responded to the letter by defending its own conversion plan and partnership with Brookfield Asset Management.
“Now that our property is in play again, we expect old and new players to surface from time to time,” TA Chair Susan Steinberg said. “We are committed to delivering on our goals of long term affordability and stability for this community, and believe we have the right advisors and partners to accomplish that goal.”

By Maria Rocha-Buschel


Simona Dwass at the finish line in Coney Island (photo by Agnus McIntyre)

Four intrepid swimmers took a dip in the East River last Saturday morning to participate in the annual Rose Pitonof Swim, traveling 17 miles in the chilly water to Coney Island. Stuyvesant Town resident Simona Dwass was attempting the feat as the swim’s youngest participant in the five years since it started, and not only did she finish, she also set a course record, reaching Coney Island in four hours and 24 minutes.

The 17-year-old Hunter College High School student has been swimming in open water since she was 12 and although she also competes in swimming events in a pool, she said that she prefers the open water.

“There are no boundaries so you don’t have to flip-turn to keep going,” she said. “You can just swim forever. And there are so many courses you can do and I like just playing with the currents in the open water.”

The swim, first organized by Urban Swim founder Deanne Draeger, starts in the East River at 26th Street because that’s where its namesake started out in 1911. The swimmers all boarded their boats from the pier at East 23rd Street and headed up the river three blocks for the race’s 8 a.m. start time.

The other three swimmers this year were Kathryn Mason, who got a head start on the race because she was attempting to do butterfly (and succeeded), Kenn Lichtenwalter and Kathleen Jaeger. Mason was also the swim’s first international participant, flying over from England just for the event. Alan Morrison, who swam breaststroke in the race last year, was on Mason’s safety boat and had helped her mentally prepare for choosing a slower, more unconventional stroke.

Swimmers have a time limit of eight hours to get from East 26th Street to Steeplechase Pier in Coney Island. Participants pay $850 plus fuel fees for their safety boat and must have completed and submitted proof of a three-hours or longer qualifying swim to be eligible.

For each person swimming, they had a team of a motor boat captain, two to three kayakers and an observer, in addition to a fleet command boat and another inflatable boat that was on the water from 7 a.m. until late afternoon. There is also insurance, as well as paying fees for landing and launching.

“It sounds like a lot of money but we tend to break even,” Draeger said. “The number one cost is the safety flotilla.”

Wendy-Lynn McClean of Urban Swim noted that the boats assigned to each swimmer stay at their pace and have to watch out for other boats in the water.

“New York waters are crazy,” she said. “Our boats will literally have to put themselves in the way of the swimmers because the pleasure boats, as we call them, really can’t see them at all.”

Another factor that goes into the swimmers’ safety is just making sure that they’re capable of finishing the race.

Safety boats and kayaks at the Rose Pitonof Swim last Saturday (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

“(Deanne) doesn’t want to allow swimmers who can’t make it because it’s just not safe,” McClean said. “Swimmers train on their own but we have a rigorous qualification process. The goal is to be able to do a five to six-hour swim. We’ve not ever had to pull out any of the swimmers, but it costs a lot for us and for the swimmers to run this race.”

McClean said that Dwass has been anxious to participate in the swim since she was 15, but Draeger didn’t want her to do it until she was sure she would be able to finish it.

Draeger completed the first official Rose Pitonof swim in 2010 after she got injured while training for her second Iron Man and couldn’t complete it.

“All I could do was swim so I was looking for a marathon swim and came across the article about Rose Pitonof, which was published in New York Times in 1911,” she said. “I was nearby where she started, on East 13th Street between A and B, so it was a short walk for me. It was very inspiring, because she was a 17-year-old girl who was a swimming phenomenon when at that time, people knowing how to swim was not common.”

Although to most, a swim in the East River might not seem like a lovely day at the beach, Dwass said that the perceived quality of the water didn’t gross her out, although she jokingly added, “that was before I read the stories (in Town & Village) about the bodies that were found there.”

On a more serious note, she said that there are signs that the water quality isn’t as bad as everyone seems to think it is. “Environmental protection organizations have been doing a lot to help the water quality and a lot of the animals that used to be in the river are coming back,” she said.

Urban Swim also does its own water testing using the same system that the city uses to test the water quality on the beaches. Draeger said that the water quality in the East River has been noticeably improving over the last few years, especially since dumping has stopped, but the antiquated sewer system in the city is one of the factors that slows the progress on cleaner water.

Kathryn completed the race using the butterfly stroke (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

“When it rains, the rain water mixes with sewage and when there’s overflow, it goes into the rivers,” Draeger said. “But it’s also tidal so things wash up twice a day and since Hurricane Sandy it’s actually been a lot cleaner. That was a major tidal event which sort of scoured the area. It was kind of cleansing for the river.”

McClean said that Draeger’s interest in the swim has partially fueled the organization’s efforts to provide access to water in New York.

“In doing the swim, she became aware of the water quality,” McClean said. “The kayaking at Stuyvesant Cove, that started because Deanne was trying to get access to the water. The whole point of Urban Swim is to increase access to the water, clean the water and making people aware of water quality. That’s why our motto is ‘your city, your water.’”

Stuyvesant Town leasing office (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

On Monday, CWCapital tried to get a lawsuit that had been filed by representatives of a group of junior lenders last month tossed on the grounds that it was “a story-book portrayal of events.” In this latest court action, CWCapital and co-defendant Wachovia also accused hedge fund Centerbridge Partners, who is representing the lenders, of forming “shell entities” in order to buy into junior loans two months ago, for the sole purpose of suing the owner, the website law360.com first reported.

At that time, CWCapital had taken ownership of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village through a deed instead of holding a previously planned auction sale on some of the property’s mezzanine debt. The lenders, once unable to purchase a key piece of mezzanine debt, filed suit in which the company also accused CW of giving themselves a near $1 billion windfall while junior lenders received nothing. Centerbridge had called CWCapital’s takeover “executed on the flawed premise that the amount owed on the senior loan was greater than the value of the property.” CW represented that $4.4 billion was owed on the mortgage when the amount was really $3.45 billion, the lenders said.

But on Monday, CW and Wachovia countered that the plaintiffs were not junior lenders “at any relevant time,” Law 360 quoted the companies as saying in their brief. “Rather, plaintiffs are shell entities that acquired their junior loan positions after, and with full knowledge that, the senior lender had pursued the DIL [deed in lieu transaction], which automatically terminated the ICA (inter-creditor agreement).”

Further, CW argued, “Through this litigation, Centerbridge does not seek to recoup any alleged loss, but rather to earn more than $1 billion in profit on a highly speculative investment in litigation that it made with eyes wide open after the DIL and the termination of the ICA. New York disdains the commercialization of litigation, and its champerty statute is a full stop to what Centerbridge is trying to do here.”

When canceling the mezzanine auction that had been set for June 13, CW also entered into talks with the ST-PCV Tenants Association and the de Blasio administration on a plan that would preserve affordability at around 6,000 apartments. Although the 60-day deadline on those talks has since passed, all parties have agreed that the conversation would continue.

In a mid-July meeting between Mayor de Blasio, the Tenants Association and local elected officials, de Blasio said the TA’s idea of maintaining affordability by going condo would be considered. However, the TA also said it was told by the mayor at that time that his “main thrust is affordable rentals.”

A spokesperson for CWCapital and a spokesperson for Centerbridge did not respond to a request for comment by Town & Village’s press time.

Update: In response to the court action, the Tenants Association issued the following statement.

“We are carefully monitoring this lawsuit because its outcome may affect the stability and long-term affordability of thousands of apartments people call home. Of course the elephant in the room is the multibillion-dollar debt saddled on this great community by speculators and predatory equity. We remain determined to prevent that from happening again.”

Garodnick drafting bill to protect tenants from unauthorized entry

By Sabina Mollot

In CWCapital’s ongoing effort to renovate as many apartments as possible, tenants in neighboring units have also been made to allow work to get done in their own apartments to replace pipes in support of the work on the adjoining renovation projects. In the process, some of those neighbors have been getting inconvenienced in ways that have, in at least a couple of instances, been disturbing, according to the ST-PCV Tenants Association.

In a notice that will soon be shared with neighbors on the TA’s website, the TA noted how management hasn’t been giving tenants sufficient notice before breezing on in, in several cases. In one complaint, the TA heard how a teenage girl, alone at home, got scared when maintenance workers unexpectedly banged on and then opened her apartment door.

In another case, a tenant, who gave no authorization for her apartment to be entered, recently returned from a vacation to find her cabinets emptied. The cabinets’ contents were left strewn on the counters, with no explanation. Meanwhile, the work takes one to two days to complete, leaving the kitchen unusable.

“Despite the gross inconvenience, management has not offered to compensate affected tenants for the loss of use of the kitchen and the disruption to the tenants’ right to quiet enjoyment of their homes,” the TA said.

In a case of short notice, the TA said, a tenant was given notice on a Thursday that workers would be entering the apartment on the following Monday. “That’s just four calendar days; the city requires seven calendar days,” the TA said. Additionally, the TA said, management is only supposed to be entering apartments for non-emergency work if tenants’ have given their explicit permission, “and these renovations are not emergencies.”

In response to the TA’s concerns, Council Member Dan Garodnick is drafting legislation that would protect tenants from unauthorized entry or entry with very short notice.

The legislation would include provisions that in notices requesting apartment access, management would have to provide, along with a callback phone number, an email address or another electronic option for tenants to use if requesting a schedule change. Additionally, notices would have to be dated and sent to the tenants’ email address if the owner has one on file. Lastly, consent would not be assumed if the tenant doesn’t respond. However, if after 14 days there is no response, then an owner could enter the apartment.

“There has long been a feeling that people are finding themselves with unwanted visitors,” Garodnick told T&V, “just because they did not see a note or did not have time to respond. This has picked up recently where there are non-emergency improvements being made to neighboring apartments. In that context, we need to protect the sanctity of individual units.”

A spokesperson for CWCapital declined to comment on apartment access or the planned legislation. However, the owner and the TA have clashed on this issue in the past, like last year when management was conducting a round of apartment inspections on safety issues and lease policy compliance. At that time, the TA advised residents to consent to the inspection but be present for it to a recent spate of apartment burglaries that may have been committed by a contractor doing work for CW.

Stuy Town groping suspect in surveillance photo

Police are still looking for a man who groped two women in separate incidents, and have released additional photos of the suspect.

The bearded man in the photos had grabbed two women’s butts as they were walking in the hallways of their buildings, one in Stuyvesant Oval, the other on East 14th Street.

Stuy Town groping suspect in surveillance photo

The first incident was on May 18 at around 3 in the morning, when the unknown man grabbed a 24-year-old in her building on East 14th Street, then took off. Police think the same man struck again on June 15, this time at around 2 a.m., touching a 22-year-old woman’s buttocks at Stuyvesant Oval, before running away. The exact addresses were not specified.

The suspect has been described as being 25-35, 5 ft. 10 ins. tall and weighing 175-200 lbs. His race isn’t known. He was last seen wearing a black sports jacket black dress pants, a light colored dress shirt, with black dress shoes.

Stuyvesant Town leasing office (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

In Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village, when residents get mail that looks like it came from the legal department of the owner, their response isn’t generally one of enthusisasm. So last week, when residents received notices that they’d been sent certified letters from CWCapital, some were worried about what this meant.

Francine Silberstein, who was among those worried, recalled the mood at the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office when everyone standing on line was from Stuyvesant Town.

“One old lady was saying, ‘They’re going to try to get us out,’” recalled Silberstein of her visit to the post office last Monday. Silberstein, too, was a little worried. “Our lease was just renewed. Are they taking it back?”

But in actuality, the reason for the mailings was far less terrifying. The letters were, in fact, just notices that ST/PCV tenants would need to mail their rent checks to a new ownership entity. For Stuyvesant Town, it would be ST-DIL LLC instead of the old company name, ST PC Owner LP, and for Peter Cooper tenants, checks would need to be made out to PCVS-DIL LLC rather than PCV ST Owner LP.

But after learning this, the tenants on line had another gripe. Specifically… they’d just waited on line at the post office for over 30 minutes to be told that? Silberstein noted how the change in ownership names was mentioned in a prior mailing. “So they already told us.”

Meanwhile, some tenants, herself included, didn’t even learn about this during the post office visit because, after reaching the teller window, they learned the letters weren’t even there. So the next day, said Silberstein, her husband went to the post office, but he too left empty-handed. “He said they couldn’t find anything.” He made a third visit later in the day, but the letter still wasn’t there. Finally, he returned to the post office a few days later and got the notice, after a relatively brief 15-minute wait. “It was a waste of money and it was a waste of a lot of people’s time,” said Silberstein.

Oddly, other tenants, like Tenants Association Chair Susan Steinberg, got the certified letter in their mailboxes. Steinberg however was left wondering about the cost of mailings being sent to all ST/PCV’s apartments. “At about $3.35 a letter, that’s nearly $38,000!” said Steinberg.

A spokesperson for CW, Brian Moriarty, would only comment to say that the certified mail “is a USPS issue.”

Seniors in attendance at the event held on Tuesday by the Office of Emergency Management and CERT volunteers
(Photos by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

With the worst of hurricane season yet to come, since activity in the Atlantic picks up the most from August through October, the Office of Emergency Management offered a presentation for the East Midtown Plaza senior committee last Tuesday evening.

John Greenwood, a Human Services Planning Specialist for the OEM, and members of Community Board 6’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) explained the importance of emergency preparedness for seniors, including evacuation protocol in the event of a disaster and the new hurricane zones, at the monthly meeting. Greenwood noted that the hurricane guide changed after Hurricane Sandy and that instead of three lettered zones, there are now six numbered zones.

Committee co-chair Jeanne Poindexter added that the buildings East Midtown Plaza are in three different evacuation zones and that any of the buildings located on First Avenue are highly susceptible to flooding.

Jeanne Poindexter, East Midtown Plaza senior committee co-chair

The new hurricane maps, which were made available at the meeting, are also available online or zones can be found out by calling 311 and Greenwood said that although they’re not the most pleasant place, it’s important for residents to know where the evacuation centers are as well, which are also noted on the maps.

“They’re just a giant room with cots and the food isn’t the greatest, but it’s good to know where they are in case you have to go,” he said.

He added that pets are allowed in all of the evacuation centers and Baruch College is the closest handicap accessible facility that functions as an evacuation center. There are 10 facilities throughout the city that are handicap accessible and meet all the ADA requirements but Greenwood said they haven’t been noted on the map yet. Greenwood noted that one of the reasons for the changes in zones is money.

“The mayor is the only one who can make the call for evacuations but it’s a multimillion dollar decision,” he said. “With the changes in the zones, there are now less people per zone so it won’t encompass as many residents if evacuations have to take place.”

Jeanne Poindexter, East Midtown Plaza senior committee co-chair

Greenwood also told the seniors at the meeting that it’s important to have an emergency plan and to fill out the “Ready New York” packets that detail important information for residents to have at hand in case of an emergency, like contact phone numbers and any medical conditions. “That’s beneficial for you because if you show up at an evacuation center with this guide, they’ll have all the information already and can give you the best care if you need help,” he said.

Virginia Rosario, a member of the CB6 CERT and a resident of Stuyvesant Town, explained what her responsibilities are as a member of the team and how she is prepared to help other residents if disaster strikes. “We’ve been trained by the OEM and we’re only deployed when the office gives permission,” Rosario said. “We weren’t deployed during Hurricane Sandy because most of CB6 was down but some volunteers can help with things like bringing water to residents.”

By Sabina Mollot

The Division of Housing and Community Renewal has rejected arguments made by the ST-PCV Tenants Associations against two MCIs for projects done years ago and now, retroactive portions of the MCIs are subject to collection. One was for new elevators in 2006, and the other was for work on building roofs in 2005.

The MCIs (major capital improvements) were for Stuy Town only and not all buildings got them. However, both were challenged through a petition for administrative review (PAR), which Susan Steinberg, chair of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association, said was shot down this week.

Steinberg said she got the notice from the state housing agency on Tuesday, which was dated August 29, denying tenants’ arguments that the old elevators hadn’t outlived their useful lives and other challenges that were related to the projects. “They kept repeating this phrase: ‘They do not see our claims as basis for revoking the administrator’s order,’” Steinberg said. The TA has 60 days from the date of the notice to challenge the order through an article 78. “We’re conferring with our attorney,” Steinberg said.

The elevator MCI costs tenants in 70 buildings between $9-13 per room in their apartments. The roof project took place at 31 buildings with MCIs of $7-8.50 per apartment. MCIs, which are paid in perpetuity, also come with a retroactive portion dated to the time of the work. Tenants who had filed PARs were exempt from having to pay the retroactive portion while the MCI was pending appeal.

Reps for the DHCR once told the Tenants Association leaders that one fifth of the MCI applications it sees come from ST/PCV. “I think Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper takes up one third of their filing cabinets,” said Steinberg. The TA has in the past blasted the DHCR for acting as a “rubber stamp” for the owner. The August 29 notice comes months after a settlement between CWCapital and the Tenants Association to eliminate or reduce five other MCIs that were approved last fall.

Reps for CWCapital and Homes and Community Renewal, the umbrella agency that includes DHCR, didn’t respond to a request for comment by Town & Village’s deadline.

Correction: The print version of this article incorrectly states that cost of the roof MCI as being per room, rather than per apartment.

Along with broken machines, inspections by tenants volunteers in various laundry rooms found a lack of signage, a lack of carts and a lack of timely responses to maintenance requests. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

For years, one of residents’ top quality of life complaint in Stuyvesant Town had to do with the complex’s laundry facilities — specifically that the machines installed during the Tishman Speyer era are prone to breakdowns. And, based on the finding of recent, tenant volunteer-led inspections of numerous laundry rooms, it appears that not much has changed.

In addition to washers and dryers that are frequently out of order, residents also said management isn’t always quick to make repairs of the machines that the company that services the machines, Mac-Gray, isn’t either. Other complaints include a lack of signage when machines are broken, dirty and sometimes stinky laundry rooms and missing carts, due to tenants sometimes taking them, which is against the rules, and not returning them.

The results were released by the ST-PCV Tenants Association after 48 volunteers surveyed 42 buildings in August, for a total of 95 individual reports. Based on their experiences, on the dates surveyed, a total of 147 washers and 102 dryers were not functioning, some for several days at a clip.

“The condition of the laundry rooms is generally deplorable,” the TA found. “Filthy floors, lint filters that have not been cleaned out, standing water in the washers, laundry detergent spilled all over the machines or floor, and no signs posted on machines that are nonfunctioning. Calling Mac-Gray — which many volunteers did as part of this survey in addition to tenants’ calls — to report machines that were down was a frustrating and typically useless exercise, mostly yielding little result. If the volunteer called and complained to STPCV maintenance, they were told to call Mac-Gray; Mac-Gray said to call maintenance.”

Broken machines was still the number one complaint.

“It’s the primary thing — the machines aren’t working,” said Susan Steinberg, chair of the ST-PCV Tenants Association. “My laundry’s been going out for the past two years, because I won’t deal with it, but I’ve been hearing from tenants.” On the lack of signage, “They used to put up signs when they were out of order,” she said.

Other complaints, at few individual buildings, were of extreme instances of filth or malfunctioning machines.

A few of those cited by volunteers were:

At 15 Stuyvesant Oval: Floor drain spits up dirty sewer-smelling water. Room smells bad. Money card machine is frequently out of order. The room has not been cleaned in more than a month.

At 321 Avenue C: Sometimes all washers and dryers are out of service, despite calls from tenants. At 4 Stuyvesant Oval: There are always at least two washers and dryers out of order. The laundry room is dirty, leaky, smelly and occasionally infested with roaches and flies.

At 455 East 14th Street: The electricity plugs for four washers were out and could not be used for 3-4 weeks. They were replaced with newer machines that are not commercial grade appropriate for the tenants’ needs. All machines in the laundry room are now the newer machines. They were installed approximately 2-3 months ago and are already having problems and need repairs. Students are using laundry carts to move from one apartment to another.

5 Stuyvesant Oval: Volunteer said that after calling Mac-Gray every week for three weeks, the response is always that they are sending someone tomorrow. ST/PCV maintenance said they would call Mac-Gray. Followup emails and tweets from the tenant got no response.

In addition, “When people move out, we have four carts or less.” Though not mentioned in the report, another tenant concern, said Steinberg, is confusion over whose responsibility it is to clean laundry rooms, in part due to, she admitted, tenants who are slobs. “We’ve been hearing that the porters now how have to clean out the filters,” she said. “It used to be individual tenants. This doesn’t go on anymore.”

Steinberg said the TA has a meeting with reps from CWCapital in a couple of weeks, and naturally, the state of the laundry rooms will be on the agenda.

In the meantime, she noted that tenants also have to do their part to keep the laundry rooms tidy. “Tenants also have a responsibility to do what they can,” said Steinberg. “Don’t leave laundry overnight. Take it out in a timely fashion and try and keep the laundry room clean. The fact that they’re filthy is because of the tenants. Take a little responsibility.” She added, “The carts are a bummer. They are totally misused by people who don’t care to pack up their cars. There’s a lot that needs to be corrected by management or whomever.”

In some positive results, the new machines installed at Peter Cooper buildings where basements were damaged by Hurricane Sandy haven’t gotten too many complaints. “They tend to be more reliable than the old ones,” said Steinberg of the Wascomat models, which are also maintained by Mac-Gray.

CWCapital and Mac-Gray didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Zephyr Teachout
(Photo courtesy of campaign)

By Sabina Mollot

Despite allegations that the Cuomo administration compromised the governor’s own corruption watchdog panel and despite the fact that Cuomo’s opponent in the primary has been interviewing non-stop — thanks to an unusually interested press in a longshot candidate — that opponent has still retained her title of just that, a longshot.

Still, there’s no doubt at this point that Zephyr Teachout is gaining momentum. Cuomo recently attempted, unsuccessfully, to have her tossed off the ballot over allegations she didn’t live in New York for the past five years. Meanwhile, the move to keep her from running may have backfired. Along with pointing out that Teachout, a Fordham law professor, was an underdog candidate, it also alerted New Yorkers to a fact many weren’t aware of previously, which was that there was even a primary election at all.

During a recent interview over the phone, Teachout shared her thoughts with Town & Village on why voters are starting to pay attention to this race. She also spoke about her ideas on what can be done to keep New York affordable for tenants (including small businesses) and why developers like Extell are part of the problem. (The interview has been edited for length.)

Why do you think people are finally noticing your campaign? Do you think it’s just the Moreland Commission?

There’s a latent, deep frustration about our economy, about how New York State has the most segregated schools; it’s the most unequal state. It’s a closed all-boys club in Albany. It’s supposed to be an egalitarian state. I’m anti-corruption. Extell gives $100,000 in campaign donations — and this is Extell of the poor door fame — and Extell is getting subsidies that other New York businesses aren’t. What I think people are starting to see is that Extell is not just a developer. They’re spending so much money on developing political power and connections. One thing about me. You’ll always know where I stand. Andrew Cuomo is hiding from the issues. He’s hiding from a debate right now. He’s scared of bringing more attention to the campaign. I won’t tell you that the reason people are (paying attention) is any one thing, but Moreland is pretty shocking. I think he’s governing like an ad man. He’s putting on a lot of ads, but he doesn’t engage reporters. We like to say that Andrew Cuomo is my biggest campaign donor. That (Cuomo has taken me to court) has perked up a lot of reporters’ ears.

As a political outsider, how do you feel about political alliances, like the recent announcement that the Independent Democratic Conference was breaking away from the Republicans, and the expectation of a Democrat-led Senate as a result?

Not to toot my own horn, but Andrew Cuomo only started fighting for a Democratic Senate when I entered the race. I entered the race at the end of May and within three days Cuomo was making all kinds of concessions that he hadn’t agreed to in years. He could have made a Democratic Senate years ago if he vetoed the redrawn districts, which had been a campaign promise. There’s no excuse for not having a Democratic Senate in New York. The reason we don’t is Andrew Cuomo. If it was in Democrat control we’d be a lot better off in terms of affordable housing.

As a political outsider, how would you handle the actual politics of governing? Dealing with the various alliances in order to get things accomplished?

I think the job is leadership. You’re not going to win every fight. My vision of leadership is hiring great people and respecting people who work for the state.

In Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village, everyone’s rent-stabilized, so there’s concern over the fact that the Rent Stabilization Law is coming up for renewal in 2015. What would you do to strengthen it?

I’m very familiar with Stuyvesant Town. I used to live near there on East 7th Street and I would go up there to go swimming at Asser Levy. (On Rent Stabilization Law), there is precisely a role for the city to play. We need to repeal the Urstadt Law. At a minimum the city should be free to directly do things. It’s a crisis of people living in expensive housing. It’s a crisis for our economy.

In ST/PCV, some people pay affordable rents, while others pay double for the same apartments. A big concern is all the legal ways owners can raise rents from major capital improvements (MCIs), to individual apartment improvements (IAIs) to vacancy bonuses.

Rent stabilization is still one of the best sources of housing for low income people in the city. We have to make sure affordable means affordable, not unaffordable.

Zephyr Teachout with running mate Tim Wu, candidate for lieutenant governor (Photo courtesy of campaign)

It seems that more and more small businesses are being priced out of their locations and being replaced with chain stores. What do you think of the idea of rent regulation for commercial tenants?

We have two different visions. One is commercial rent control for small businesses. The other is making sure big box stores aren’t getting an unfair advantage. We have to make sure our lending system is accessible to entrepreneurs who need it. You have to have a blend of strategies. We also have to make sure for retail diversity that there’s a range of minority owned businesses.

What made you write a book about corruption?

I began writing it years ago. I began writing in 2008 because the New York Supreme Court’s vision of corruption was narrow and cramped. They said it was only about illegal bribery, so it wasn’t about Extell. If you’re giving $100,000 in donations and getting tens of millions in subsidies, it is a violation of democratic principles. I think the core of it is if you want to be a public servant, you have to serve the public and not just serve yourself.

When you meet with voters, what are their top concerns?

Housing is one of the top concerns. People just don’t have the money to meet the basics. Another concern is people feel there aren’t enough (services) for people with psychiatric disabilities, but the more mainstream (concern) is housing. Upstate it’s property taxes and schools are central. With schools, it’s high stakes testing and over-crowding.

What would you do to alleviate classroom crowding?

There needs to be smaller classes, no more than 20 in a class. I used to be a special ed teacher’s aide, and you can’t give each child the attention they need when there are 33 kids in a classroom. There needs to be art and music for every child. They’re not extras. They’re essentials. We should be the best public school system in the country.

What’s your opinion of charter schools?

Charters have a role, but a very small role. Eva Moskowitz’s assault on education is not what charters are supposed to do. I am opposed to colocations and I don’t think charter schools should get money that was intended for our public schools.

What would you do to create jobs?

I’m a traditional Democrat. One (idea) is investing in the infrastructure, in the MTA, in transit. Upstate it’s in renewable energy. All of these create jobs in the short term and enable jobs in the long term, and affordable higher education.

If elected, what is your first priority?

My first priority is taking on the old boys’ network that allows corruption to continue. The school system is unequal and there’s immigration. Andrew Cuomo has a running mate who’s anti-immigrant. Every child at the border should see New York as a sanctuary.

By Sabina Mollot

It’s the gothic opera that has something for everyone. Romance. An evil doctor. Science experiments involving poison.

Cast photo of “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” featuring Douglas McDonnell, Samantha Britt and William Broderick (Photo by Peter Welch)

And it’s an original show slated for a September run at Theater for the New City, with libretto written by Stuyvesant Town resident Linsey Abrams. The opera, “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” is based on a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Abrams said she chose that story because, despite its being based in medieval Italy, she found that it still resonates in in today’s American society.

“Rappaccini’s Daughter” revolves around Beatrice, a girl whose life is spent in a garden that is full of poisonous flowers. Her father, Rappaccini, is a doctor who cares more about his science experiments than his patients. He teaches at a medical college and ends up luring a young man there named Giovani into taking a room that overlooks the garden. After Giovani does this, he falls in love with Beatrice, with neither the young man or woman realizing they’re both the subjects of a science experiment.

“It has a lot to do with our current day,” said Abrams. “That science is being used for improper purposes, weapons, genetically modifying our food, pesticides and all of those things that people are making money off of, but they’re bad for humanity.”

But at the same time, love still manages to find its way. “It’s behind the scenes manipulation, but the two young people are falling in love,” said Abrams. “She’s been alone in a garden her whole life and he’s been a student his whole life. I just fell in love with it. As did our composer.”

The composer of the music for “Rappaccini’s Daughter” is Michael Cohen, who has partnered with Abrams on other musical projects in the past and who also created the music for “Yours, Anne,” which was based on the life of Anne Frank. That show has been performed in venues around the world, and was recently translated into Dutch to be performed in Amsterdam. A concert hall version of some of the music also been performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and one of the songs was also played at the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Musically, “Rappaccini’s Daughter” is what Abrams describes as a hybrid opera/musical, with music that is meant to be dramatic, yet accessible. The five-person cast is made up of singers as well as actors, since the audience’s understanding of the story was made priority. This was especially necessary, explained Abrams, since the ending has been changed from how Hawthorne wrote it.

“We’re in an era that’s considerably different from 1844, which is when it was written,” she said. “We had to change the ending because it was appropriate to the characters as we learned who they were.”

Cohen, meanwhile called the show a dream to compose, with a story that allowed for some “exoticism and chromaticism. It’s the sort of thing a composer would have a field day with.”

Linsey Abrams wrote the libretto to “Rappaccini’s Daughter” while longtime musical partner Michael Cohen wrote the music. (Photo by Eugenia Volkes)

Cohen and Abrams have been working together for around 25 years, after being introduced by a mutual friend. The friend, a director, who died from AIDS, had once held a party, being sure to let people know that only the 10 most intelligent people he knew would be invited. “So of course everyone wanted to go,” said Abrams. Once there, her host, Paul Corrigan, introduced her to Cohen, telling her, “‘You two would make brilliant collaborations.’ And he was right.” Cohen read two of Abrams’ three published novels, she listened to some of his music and the rest was history. They then went on to work on several musicals, including some commissioned works for children.

For a while though, writing had to be put on hold for Abrams, who, along with teaching fiction writing at City College, was also the director of the school’s MSA program for 12 years. She recently stepped down from that role to focus more on her writing, though she’s still teaching.

Cohen, too, has been focused more on his creative work, now that he’s retired from a career as a producer with an advertising company. His job had involved working all aspects of musical production from jingle writing to hiring musicians to supporting audio. These days, he’s been composing a lot of chamber music, which he hopes will eventually be performed in concert halls.

Cohen, a Brooklyn native, lives in East Midtown. Abrams is a former East Village resident, having lived in the neighborhood on East 13th Street for 10 years before moving to Stuyvesant Town 20 years ago. Her last book, Our History in New York (Great Marsh Press, 1998), was about about a group of gay and lesbian artists living in the Village. Her other two novels are Charting by the Stars (Crown Publishers, 1980) and Double Vision (Atheneum, 1984). She was the founding editor of Global City Review, a literary magazine, from 1993-2013.

“Rappaccini’s Daughter” will be shown as part of a double bill. The other opera to run with it, by the recently deceased playwright Seymour Barab, is called “Out the Window.” The entire run, from September 12-28, is dedicated to the memory of Barab, who died at the age of 93 last month. Director is Lissa Moira and the music director is Jonathan Fox Powers Performances will be at the Theater for the New City, located at 155 First Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets, Thursdays to Sundays at 8 p.m. each night. Matinees will be on Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets ($18) are available by calling the box office at (212) 254-1109 or by visiting http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

A building under construction outside the Avenue C Loop (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

CWCapital is adding new apartments to Stuyvesant Town. The units — which will be a mix of studio and two and three-bedrooms — are being constructed on the site of a former management office on Avenue C.

In all, 11 new apartments will be built, a few with terraces overlooking Avenue C, according to sources. Terraces and studios are both something new for Stuy Town. A spokesperson for CWCapital declined to comment on the apartments or the rents for the units.

The office space on Avenue C was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy. Before that, the space had been apartments, according to Council Member Dan Garodnick.

Garodnick — who has been a key player in the development’s future — said he is monitoring the apartment development “to make sure the rents for the units are in compliance with the law.”

CWCapital, the financial services giant that holds the keys to Stuy Town, last month agreed to extend a deadline on talks to keep the apartment complex affordable.

While no set plan has come out of that yet, Garodnick told T&V that information is still being exchanged and he’s been in “close contact with the de Blasio administration and CWCapital. The tenants are part of this process.”

A view of the future management office on September 2 (Photo by Michael Alcamo)

By Sabina Mollot

Residents on Stuyvesant Town’s First Avenue Loop, who’ve been dealing with construction noise for months, are now asking if the new management office will ever be finished. Along with the noise, other gripes from residents have included dust and debris blowing into their windows, the walkway between several buaildings being off limits and the continued closure of the nearly Playground 8, which is also getting a facelift. Residents at 272 and 274 First Avenue also recently saw flooding in their storage rooms.

However, “The biggest concern at this point is the timetable,” said Council Member Dan Garodnick, who, in response to the complaints, wrote a letter to CWCapital Managing Director Andrew MacArthur to ask about the holdup. “It looks like there are a bunch of loose ends,” he said.

In the letter, Garodnick mentioned how he’d previously been told by CW that the construction on the office would be complete in August and that the playground would be done in May.

In mid-August, however, a newsletter from CompassRock emailed to tenants said there would be delays, with work on the office building expected to continue through the month of September. An explanation wasn’t given on the delay, but CompassRock said the final phase of construction had begun. The work included infrastructure being put into place and the space being wired. This week, a resident in a surrounding building said skylights were recently installed. In August, CompassRock said the next phase would be work on the green roof. As for the playground delay, management said the reason for that was “abandoned underground infrastructure encountered during excavation.”

But the end of the month deadline now seems unlikely since a photo, snapped by a resident in a building overlooking the construction shows that the project doesn’t look too close to being done.

Garodnick referred to the photo in his letter and also suggested that CW compensate tenants in the affected buildings with a one-month rent abatement for the inconvenience.Garodnick had brought up the possibility of a rent abatement to CW earlier in the year, though apparently, the owner didn’t agree. In the letter, Garodnick said he thought CW should “revisit the issue” due to the extended construction.

“Alternatively, (tenants) may be entitled to a rent reduction claim before the state housing agency,” he said. The letter was dated September 3 and Garodnick said so far there’s been no response. A spokesperson for CW also didn’t respond to T&V’s request for comment.

Still, the resident who’d taken the photo from his apartment on September 2, Michael Alcamo, said he appreciated Garodnick’s quick response to the issue. “All of us who face this construction site have experienced dust, dirt, exceptionally high cleaning costs and noxious construction smells,” he said. “We have not had access to our courtyard for nearly nine months.”

Additionally, said Alcamo, who heads an organization devoted to local tree planting, the work has led to the removal of healthy trees.

“CompassRock destroyed ten mature and healthy pin oak trees, in order to make room for its construction equipment.”

Another neighbor, who’s been having trouble walking, said a big inconvenience for a while had been how the gates put up on different sides of the Loop was confusing to the car service drivers she relies on, with them not knowing they were allowed in.

“I also had the use of benches taken from me for the summer outside Playground 8,” said the resident, who didn’t want her name used. “We were told construction would be completed months ago. The next set of benches are too far for me to walk to. It was a beautiful summer and I missed being out because I don’t feel ill enough to be in nor want to be in a wheelchair yet can’t walk far with or without the help of a person to hold on to.”

Another resident in an impacted building said that she’s been dealing with the noise by keeping the windows closed and the air conditioner on. She’s had to change the unit’s filter pretty frequently though due to all the dirt flying in despite being on a higher floor. The noise from the work was audible as she spoke on the phone.

But, she said, “It’s nowhere near as bad as it was over the summer. I’d say they’re in the last stages, but who knows what that means. They have a tendency to take a Pollyanna approach. You’ve still got a lot of uncovered dirt and a lot of banging and hammers going on.”

A building under construction outside the Avenue C Loop (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

For those wondering what the new apartments being built in Stuyvesant Town in the old management office building will cost, the answer is that tenants shouldn’t expect a break.

However, the units will still technically be rent stabilized, at least until the year 2020, according to Alex Schmidt, lead tenants’ attorney in the “Roberts v. Tishman Speyer” lawsuit.

“Like all the 11,200-plus units in the complex, they must remain stabilized at least until the J-51 benefits expire in June 2020,” Schmidt said.

“But,” he added, “New units, typically, have their ‘stabilized rents’ set at market initially, which can then be increased only at the RGB level thereafter. There may be some nuances to this rule depending on how long the space was utilized as a management/leasing office.”

As Town & Village reported this week, Stuyvesant Town will be getting 11 new units, including a few new studio apartments. Some of those apartments will also have terraces, which, like studios, are a first for Stuyvesant Town.

Interestingly, apartments that were originally on the property had to be taken down in order to create the former management office, Council Member Dan Garodnick said.

Along with the apartments, the building will also soon be home to the Manhattan Kids Club, which is currently located on East 14th Street.

Assemblyman Keith Wright with tenants at Riverton (Photo courtesy of Assemblyman Wright)

By Sabina Mollot

It turns out tenants in Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village aren’t the only ones attempting to fight MCIs.

At Riverton, an apartment complex in Harlem, the Tenants Association has sued CWCapital, which took over the property after it went into foreclosure, over what tenants claims are inflated major capital improvement (MCI) charges.

The MCIs were for work on roofs and elevators at the property as well as the redesigning of a park when Riverton was owned by Stellar Management. The MCIs vary in cost per apartment, and according to Riverton Tenants Association President Randreta Ward-Evans, it’s mostly seniors who seem to be overpaying.

“I have a senior who’s 97 years old who’s paying $200 more than she should be paying.” she said.

She added that tenants learned from attorneys, during a legal clinic held in March by Assemblyman Keith Wright, that many of them were overpaying.

“We knew we had a problem. We just didn’t know how massive it was,” she said.

In the lawsuit, which aims to collect $10 million for tenants, the Riverton Tenants Association argues that MCIs that have been charged are “inflated, overstated, excessive and fabricated.” It accuses CW of refusing to roll back the rent, despite requests by the RTA and continuing “to collect unlawful rent increases including, but not limited to, increases based upon purported Major Capital Improvements (“MCI”) since in or about 2010 or such other earlier date.”

The suit argues CW isn’t entitled to the MCIs because the company waited too long to collect them. “Pursuant to DHCR policy and precedent the Defendants waived all MCI rent increases if they did not collect same within 120 days of the applicable MCI order or in the next renewal lease after the MCI order. Defendants did neither.”

CWCapital subsidiary CompassRock Senior Vice President David Sorise and Karl Griggs, Riverton’s property manager, are also named in the suit.

While not mentioned in the lawsuit, Ward-Evans said numerous tenants have also complained of paying rent only to have their checks not be deposited. Then, “after three months they get eviction notices.” Though she isn’t sure how many tenants this has happened to, “It’s a huge group. I only know about the people who come to me, but I’m sure there are a lot of people that don’t come to me,” said Ward-Evans.

About 30 percent of the tenants are market rate while the rest are rent stabilized. A stabilized one-bedroom unit will typically rent for $800-$1,000 a month, while the market rate, renovated one-bedrooms are around $1,800. Many of the stabilized renters are seniors, who in some cases were there since Riverton opened as an alternative property to non-white would-be tenants of Stuyvesant Town, which was originally segregated.

Meanwhile, Ward-Evans said tenants at Riverton have enjoyed an “excellent” working relationship with CWCapital for the past four years. Tenant leaders meet with reps for the owner regularly on tenant concerns. “They respond immediately and I really appreciate it,” she added. However, she said tenants felt a lawsuit was the only option to fight the MCIs since an attempt to do so through the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), went nowhere.

“I think more tenants will probably take the same route of suing the owner instead of going to the DHCR because it seems that it’s always in the realtor’s favor,” said Ward-Evans. “I think this is going to be the first of many. It doesn’t have to be just Harlem. Going to the DHCR? Done it. Did it. The law has to be dealt with and changed.”

Meanwhile, Wright, who also lives in Riverton, summed up the situation as “a shame, really. “What you have here is yet another chapter in the story of our city’s affordable housing crisis. Honest, hard-working individuals who are robbed of the opportunity to remain in the place they have called home, some such as myself, have been here for decades. These overcharges are egregious and unacceptable but we are committed to seeing this fight through until the end.”

According to a report in the New York Times, Andrew MacArthur, a managing director at CWCapital, seemed surprised by the litigation.

In an official statement to T&V from spokesperson Brian Moriarty, CWCapital indicated the same thing. “We received this lawsuit without prior notice or discussion and are now in the process of trying to understand the specific complaint,” CW said.

“It appears this relates to actions ‘in or about 2010 or such other earlier date’ during which time the property was either owned by a prior owner or managed by a prior management company. Since CWCapital took control of the property we have enjoyed a positive and productive relationship with the TA and have worked hard to re-build the trust between the property owner and our residents that was lost with the previous owners. We have invested heavily in Riverton’s physical condition and have re-vamped maintenance and janitorial procedures to better serve our residents. We will investigate the claims immediately and fully.”

Council Member Dan Garodnick said that he was also looking at the suit to see if there were any parallels between the Riverton and Stuyvesant Town MCIs. The Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association told T&V earlier this month that it was conferring with counsel over the rejection by the DHCR of arguments made by the TA against two MCIs. One was for roof work, the other for elevators.

Deputy Inspector David Ehrenberg gives the latest local crime stats at Tuesday’s 13th Precinct Community Council meeting. (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

In the first 13th precinct community council meeting after the summer break, the precinct’s commanding officer, Deputy Inspector David Ehrenberg reported that after a mostly uneventful season, crime is up 5.2 percent this month. However, he added that crime is down for the year overall.

Grand larcenies, traditionally a problem for this area, were up this month but are also down 7 percent for the year and decreased during the summer, Ehrenberg said.

Identity theft is the most common type of grand larceny and the deputy inspector noted that the precinct is still having problems with thieves stealing debit card information with card scanners taped over ATMs.

When a resident at the meeting inquired about the bank’s awareness of the problem in their own ATMs, Ehrenberg added that they weren’t necessarily at fault for missing it.

“The skimmers are only on the ATM for a very short period of time, for about an hour,” he said. “They’re usually put on later in the evening after the bank was closed already so they wouldn’t always notice.”

Ehrenberg emphasized that residents should call 911 when they encounter one of these skimmers, which are easily recognizable because they are flimsy and attached with double-sided tape.

Felony assaults have also been a problem this summer but Ehrenberg noted that in most cases, the fights involved people that knew each other. The increases are also due to assaults of EMTs at Bellevue and the shelters in the area. Grand larceny auto is also up, with nine cars being stolen within the precinct this month, compared to six that had been stolen by the same point last year. Ehrenberg noted that there seems to be a trend there and that it’s mostly rental cars that are getting swiped.

“There’s a way they can overcome the security system that Zipcar uses,” he said. “There’s another way they can use the device to get in and steal the cars. It’s a popular system and it’s going to take them a while to change it, so we’re seeing an increase in that in the command.”

He added that residents don’t have to worry so much about a car they have rented being stolen because most of these incidents have occurred in the locations where the cars are picked up.

As in the past, grand larceny of unattended property continues to be a problem for the precinct.

“There are still a lot of laptops being left in restaurants and coffee shops. You’re not going to leave $2,000 in cash just sitting there, so don’t leave your laptop,” Ehrenberg warned.

Residents at the meeting were curious about the impact of the mayor’s Vision Zero plan, which was introduced over the summer. Captain Steven Hellman noted that since Mayor de Blasio has been in office, the precinct has seen decreases in collisions this summer. There is currently an arterial slow zone on Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue will be a slow zone this December.

As in most community council meetings in the past, residents also expressed their frustrations about cyclists who don’t follow the rules of the road, often riding on sidewalks and without lights at night.

One Stuyvesant Town resident said that he’s been seeing delivery people riding their bikes recklessly near his building at 21 Stuyvesant Oval.

“You’re going to find a body in 20 different pieces due to these bicyclists,” the resident said. “They’re like kamikazes coming around the curve behind 21 Oval. Someone is going to get killed on the bottom of the hill. Pedestrians are getting less safe.“

Police Officer John Sedita said that the NYPD has a good relationship with Stuyvesant Town’s Public Safety officers and would talk to them about the issue. Another resident, though, had a suggestion for those two-wheeled officers as well.

“Remind Stuy Town security that they need lights on their bikes, too,” the resident, who didn’t want to be identified, said at the meeting.

By Sabina Mollot

An application has been filed for a new major capital improvement (MCI), this time for work on building facades.

Susan Steinberg, chair of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association, said on Wednesday she just learned about the pending MCI, with residents at two buildings getting notices. At 541 East 20th Street, the work had been completed in in August, 2012. The other building is 17 Stuyvesant Oval.

As with any MCI, recipients of the notices have 30 days to challenge the MCIs or request an extension, the latter of which Steinberg said the TA would like to do. The work on the facades was extensive as opposed to the brick pointing that takes place around the complex from time to time. While Steinberg acknowledged some buildings’ facades were in serious need of repair, she said the TA still wants to review the details of the project, as it does with any MCI.

At 541, the work, which management estimated cost over $100,000 would cost tenants $3 per room per month.

“Which,” said Steinberg, “doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s on top of other MCIs.”

At this time, the association’s attorney is still reviewing two MCIs that the TA had unsuccessfully attempted to fight through the Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The DHCR had shot down arguments the TA had made against roof and elevator MCIs for some buildings in Stuyvesant Town.