Photo by Peggy Taylor.
November 30, 2015 Weather: Mostly Cloudy, with a high of 45 degrees.
Notices:
Garry Kasparov. a free VICE screening and more events on our calendar.
A charity event put on by a local church: “Purchase your Christmas tree and cookies this year from Advent Lutheran Church, Saturday Dec. 5th from 8am -1pm while supplies last! Proceeds support Trinity Place Shelter for homeless LGBTQ youth. The sale is located at 2504 Broadway and W. 93rd St.”
Paul writes in to warn people about dangers from construction near Amsterdam and 92nd street: “A good friend is visiting from San Francisco. On Tuesday, she was walking back from Party City, and she tripped on a sidewalk crack and broke BOTH ankles. It was dark and the crack was sizable. Just a note to everyone please be safe walking at night. I want to thank the Good Samaritans (I think they also live on the street) who helped, one rushed from where she fell to my apartment to get us, and another (a physician) got her a blanket.
News:
A landlord at 400 Central Park West, part of Park West Village, is accusing a woman there of illegally combining two apartments, one that she owns and one that’s rent-stabilized.
Lauren Bacall’s apartment in the Dakota sold for $21 million. “The three-bedroom three-and-a-half-bath co-op unit, No. 43, at 1 West 72nd Street, on Central Park West, had been on the market since November 2014, three months after Ms. Bacall’s death at the age of 89. It was initially listed for $26 million, then reduced last spring to $23.5 million; monthly maintenance is around $13,595.”
Residents at the Douglass Houses say NYCHA has done a terrible job repairing their apartment. “The Ibrahim family apartment at 868 Amsterdam Avenue, part of Douglass Houses, run by the New York City Housing Authority, is being overrun by cockroaches…’Every time the upstairs neighbor flushes the toilet, water with fecal matter comes down,’ Ibrahim said. He added that there is also an awful smell and the cockroaches are attracted to all the water. Residents of 868 Amsterdam Ave. and the other buildings in Douglass houses say the Ibrahim family problems are not unique but others are just afraid to speak out.” A rally is planned for Dec. 9.
The City Council wants taxpayers to pay for security guards at private schools.
How the West Side Campaign Against Hunger runs a successful pantry where people can choose from a wide variety of food. “Being able to select the food they want is more dignified than being given a bag of pre-selected food, says Robinson. ‘It’s food and service with dignity. We don’t tell them what’s best for them and their families.'”
A large UWS rental building on 70th street was bought by real estate company Stonehenge.
I read the article about the apartment in 400 Central Park West. I find it obscene that someone can be charged less than $1,200 a month for a two bedroom apartment in one of the city’s premier locations.
The woman who rents this rent stabilized apartment is clearly not poor as she has plenty of money to also buy another apartment in this building and to pay to merge the two.
NYC real estate laws are convoluted and unfair. It’s no wonder there’s a housing crisis in the city.
This is NYC liberalism at its best!
If this story is true, then she’s a very silly person to risk the good deal that she has. As the linked article states, she’s subject to eviction from the stabilized unit, and can be slammed with the condo’s repair/restoration costs. In no instance that I am aware is a resident entitled to materially alter a unit without the LL’s or Condo board’s permission, and of course permission would be needed to get the building permits. Undoubtedly a fly by night contractor is doing the work, thus exposing the building to liability in the event one of the worker’s gets hurt on the job.
Premier Location? I think not..
She bought it in 1989 which was a lot less to buy back then
Impressed that you found your one instance to explain the NYC housing crisis and critique NYC liberalism.
Don’t let the other million real examples spoil your objective judgement.
Perhaps you’re not aware–rent stabilization is not income-based. You can be a gazillionaire and still be legally entitled to keep your rent-stabilized apartment, so long as it’s legally a rent-stabilized apartment.
Why don’t you tell us how you really feel…
I wonder if there are a million examples where the current plan of subsidized housing really makes sense. I wonder how many folks, excluding the elderly, that have subsidized UWS housing in the form of rent stabilized, halfway house, homeless shelter or public housing are accomplishing an intent to protect the ability for varying classes to reside in their communities without being priced out. Does anyone have any data that indicates that millions of teachers, police officers, clerks, bakers or other lower middle class folks that serve the UWS community are actually getting a fair advantage to live in the community they work in? It is hard not to question that the current system could be more of a broken charity that propagates outright abuse and lack of incentive for folks to earn more, rather than an effective way to address income disparity among the middle classes. Do we have any data that even discusses if the uws has a disproportionate quantity of subsidized housing per capita?
Attenzione, Las Liberales!!
INSTEAD of flame-wars like the above arguing about who’s a REAL LIBRUL, who’s NOT, yadda yadda canchyajustfwowup…INSTEAD OF ALL THAT:
Why not turn your collective attention to doing something about the travesty that is NYCHA (New York Housing Authority) and problems noted above like:
“Every time the upstairs neighbor flushes the toilet, water with fecal matter comes down,’ ….cockroaches are attracted to all the water.”
For a very long time now it has become blatantly apparent that NYCHA is both INEPT and UNCARING about the people who live in its projects…and our supposed-progressive Mayor BdB TURNS A BLIND EYE TO THE PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC HOUSING. He’s all about achieving his’affordable housing goals WHILE HE DOES NOTHING TO MAKE NYCHA ACCOUNTABLE TO ITS RESIDENTS.
Maybe it’s time EVERYONE DEMANDED that this city, the first to ever have public housing, STOP IGNORING OR EXCUSING NYCHA.
Get the Mayor or the City Council or whoever to fire the NYCHA administrators and bring in a team that can get results, even if that means mass firings and/or demotions.
If everyone focuses on getting NYCHA to properly maintain its buildings it might just happen!
And, for once, Libruls will actually have achieved something, rather than just adding more Carbon Dioxide to the atmosphere.
You are aware that these problems are largely because the Federal government has dropped its subsidies to the NYCHA?
One of the good decisions of the fed gov’t. Public housing by and large has been a disastrous experiment – costly, ill-maintained, tainted by corruption, housing multi-generations instead of providing temporary relief. For once the government said “no more of this.” It would be far better to just issue vouchers to the poor – though a lot less government bureaucrats would have jobs I suppose.
Unclaimed funds?
http://observer.com/2015/03/nycha-not-claiming-75-million-in-federal-funds/
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/03/27/housing-authority-admits-to-leaving-75m-in-federal-funds-unclaimed/
How much better were conditions in NYCHA housing before the federal subsidies were dropped?
NYCHA should not be used as a permanent warehouse for the poor and elderly. Changing the way public housing is being run will require the equivalent of a root canal. Instead of running it as a public non-profit, NYCHA has to be made financially sustainable. The methods that have led to the neglect will require painful changes. This is unacceptable to residents and elected officials who maintain the stalemate we see today.
It’s called demolitions by neglect. Obviously there isn’t political support for outright demolition so this is the next-best alternative.
What’s the status of the 50 story building proposed for the site of the old west side synagogue.