After Sandy

Sandy is still causing headaches. Bureaucratic ones.

Tenants In Sandy-Damaged Buildings Protest Landlord-Friendly Rent Reduction Policy

After Hurricane Sandy, rent-stabilized tenants living in damaged buildings with diminished services were told—and believed—that they would be able to get rent reductions for the entire time they were without services.

The Rent Stabilization Code stipulates that reductions are given from the time the service is lost. But, as rent-stabilized residents at Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town have discovered, they might only be eligible for reductions starting in March—a four-month discrepancy that could be worth thousands of dollars per tenant. Read More

Housing Developments

Overcharged.

Stuyvesant Town Tenants Settle Rent Degregulation Lawsuit, Winning $68.7 M.

The tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have finally settled their class action suit, winning $68.7 million in damages that will be awarded to tenants who were overcharged on their rent between January 2003 and December 2011 as a result of illegal rent deregulation.

The settlement means an end to the lengthy Roberts v. Tishman Speyer legal battle. Tishman Speyer defaulted on its loans in 2010 and the property is now owned by CW Capital Asset Management LLC. The damages, to be paid by CWCapital (on behalf of the
bondholders’ trust) and former owner MetLife Inc, will be divided among 21,250 tenants in 4,300 units. Read More

Stuy-mieing News

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In Spite of Hurricane Sandy Struggles, Stuy Town Will Still Get Its Despised Ice Rink This Winter

Hurricane Sandy turned Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village into hell in Manhattan for almost a week after the power went out. Sure, much of downtown was a disaster zone, to say nothing of the devastation in the outer boroughs, but Stuy Town had some particular, peculiar problems. Most notably, all the hallways are interior, with no windows, so it was impossible to get around. What’s worse, the locks on all the doors are electronic, so anyone could have been lurking in the darkness.

Fortunately, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have returned to a sense of normalcy now that the power is back, as the management has been detailing in a serious of lengthy email updates to residents. Unfortunately, one of the things tenants might have hoped Superstorm Sandy would have washed away is still coming: the ice rink. Read More

Stuy-mieing News

Hence why one shouldn't turn their stairway into a bathroom. (Photo: Flickr, frankfarm)

Stuy Town May Be City’s Largest Fire Trap

There’s never a shortage of stories about negligent apartment managers and landlords, and the overlords at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have proved that they are not the exception. As charming as this 25,000-resident complex in the East Village seems with its brick exteriors and tree-lined paths, everything is not peachy-keen. Read More

Hood Winking

It takes a village/Village idiot/CKCKCKCKCKC!!!MR!NJRNUIOFNOGINIO@N!PIGN

The East Village Now Stretches to 20th Street and Avenue C

Neighborhoods in New York have always been fungible. Names change or are invented out of thin air, acronyms, and nearby landmarks. Borders shift like tectonic plates—slowly, imperceptibly, then, in a city-shaking tremor, all at once. We all pretend to hate it, but we live with it, quietly profiting off it all. This is a town singularly obsessed with real estate, after all. So who can really blame Rose Associates for pushing the boundaries of the East Village? Read More