City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, along with other elected officials, introduced new legislation last week that would crack down on illegal hotels operating throughout the city by increasing fines.

Owners of residential buildings have been converting their properties into illegal hotels, by renting rooms and apartments to tourists at lower prices than standard hotels. However, this problem creates much larger problems for the community than a simple illegal use of a residential building.

“Time and time again, we hear from residents who have been pushed out of their homes by landlords looking to make a quick buck. Our legislation will make sure there are immediate and severe consequences for landlords who endanger the safety of residents and tourists and take away affordable housing from New Yorkers in need,” Quinn stated at the hearing.

The proposed law will include fines ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 for illegal hotel violators.

Quinn and the City Council estimated that there could be around 35,000 apartments that have been converted into illegal hotel rooms. Many of them can be found in the Lower East Side; however, earlier this year there were a few illegal hotels discovered on the Upper West Side.

For actual tenants at such buildings, tourists returning late at night have caused disturbances and illegal structural changes have compromised safety in the event of an emergency.

In 2010, New York State passed a law that increased the protection of residents by placing strict restrictions on operating illegal hotels. However, the problem still persists, and the City Council wants to make sure that there is available affordable housing for New Yorkers and safe conditions for tourists. State Sen. Liz Krueger was one of the representatives who introduced that bill and attended the hearing.

“Illegal hotel operators have removed thousands of affordable apartments from an already tight housing market, hurting tenants across the city,” Krueger said. “The City Council’s action today sends a strong message to these scofflaws: Breaking the law is not a good business model.”

Elected officials and displaced tenants were not the only people there to show their support. Representatives of the Hotel Association were voicing their opposition to the operation of illegal hotels.

Vijay Dandpani, president of Apple Core Hotels and member of the Hotel Association, explained that the operators of the illegal hotels do not conform to the safety regulations that are in place for hotels.

Before the law goes into effect, the City Council has to approve the proposed legislation.

Photo Courtesy of Raymond Normandeau/Normandeau Newswire

Raymond Normandeau, press secretary of the Queensbridge Houses Tenants Council in Queens, was tired of the conditions in the Queensbridge housing project where he has lived since 1973, and decided it was time to engage in a little community activism.

While he may no longer be a member of the Astoria ambulance corps (or small time film actor) as he was in the eighties, Normandeau, who is legally blind, always has several projects on his plate—primarily non-threatening but direct ways of getting the authorities to pay attention to tenants’ plights.

And it’s not the violence at Queensbridge with which Normandeau is most concerned, violence which rappers like Jay-Z—who grew up in Queensbridge—have memorialized in their music.

“I lived here through the crack epidemic,” said Normandeau, “when we heard gunshots once a week.” He added he’s grown accustomed to life in the Queens borough project, as, surely, “even people in Afghanistan grow accustomed.” And, Normandeau points out, security has been better since so many chain hotels have cropped up in the area, some “just a gunshot away.”

“Maybe a tourist got robbed or something,” said Normandeau, of the increased security. “I go online to see their [hotel] room prices.” Many prices are in the $129-$200 range.

No, it’s the day-to-day quality of life with which Normandeau takes issue. One major problem confronting Queensbridge tenants, according to him, is the amount of dog feces which accumulates around the housing project (inside and out). It may sound like a joke—even I had a good laugh when the ever-eloquent Normandeau described the situation—but then I saw the pictures. Frankly, they were beyond disturbing.

Unfortunately it seems the only way to get anything done, is to “raise a stink” (my words). It has to be the right kind of stink though, explains Normandeau, it must come about through the graceful “pressuring and embarrassment” of local officials. He’s already tried, with little success, to get the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)’s attention on Twitter, where he actively follows their feed and peppers them with questions about when various repairs will come through.

Photo Courtesy of Raymond Normandeau/Normandeau Newswire

That’s why Normandeau started the “Queensbridge Landscaping Magazine” (more of a magazine cover, but that’s just a technicality), and in conjunction with the endeavor, Normandeau also organized a contest.

“I asked people to send in photos,” said Normandeau. “The freshest pile, the strangest-looking pile, a pile that had been stepped in a lot.” And piles, he accrued. Thirty-nine of them to be exact, which is how many photos are featured on Normandeau’s website, devoted to the contest (click strictly at your own risk).

Normandeau then took his “Landscaping Magazine” covers, complete with graphic visuals, and began distributing them at community meetings, where local politicians and government officials would convene. This seemed to be exactly the sort of whimsical embarrassment Normandeau describes, the very kick-in-the-pants humiliated officials needed to clean up Queensbridge a bit.

It doesn’t stop at the fecal matter though. Normandeau knows better than anyone it’s not easy navigating a rundown project when you’re technically blind. Obstacles on sidewalks, lights that stay burned out for years…it’s a blind man’s Ironman. That’s why Normandeau released the “Blind Navigating” cover for his “Queensbridge Landscaping Magazine.”

“Blind Tenants Navigate Booby Traps,” the cover headline reads. He handed this one out at meetings too.

Photo Courtesy of Raymond Normandeau/Normandeau Newswire

Normandeau describes the positive aftermath: “‘Blind Navigating’ got [the] sidewalk fixed within days after I handed it out. [The] sidewalk had been like that for over one year.”

Tenants may “feel that NYCHA treats [them] as unwanted,” as Normandeau points out, but as one man, he has finally found a way to be heard through his acts of vigilanteism.

Normandeau also operates the Queensbridge website, which takes, among other things, event submissions: “Having an Event? Community meeting? Open house for Apartment sublet? Art show? Performance? Gun fight?”

The website leaves no wrong untouched, also decrying NYPD and NYCHA’s laissez-faire policies: “Smoking knapsack at a sensitive location? Take photos, run to safety. The NYPD may not be interested, but we are!”

Queensbridge Houses website (courtesy of Normandeau)