PETER COOPER VILLAGE RESIDENTS STRUGGLE WITH NO GAS, ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS AND FLOODED BASEMENTS

While most of Manhattan’s East Side neighborhoods have overcome Hurricane Sandy’s damages, some areas are still trying to catch up. Peter Cooper Village, particularly, is in an ongoing struggle to restore basic services to some of its buildings, like gas and intercoms, after the storm’s record-breaking surge flooded the complex’s basements. Management there is orchestrating a frenzy of repairs, which are moving things forward but displeasing many village residents.

“What I don’t like is all this secrecy,” said Arthur Wolf, an elderly tenant who sat on a bench in the middle of the iconic red brick private housing community. “They tell us only what they want to tell us. What’s all this stuff?” He gestured to the growling portable generators and patchwork of yellow tubing scattered between the buildings around him. Workers with wheelbarrows appeared out of a below-ground door and carted piles of debris to East 20th Street. During the storm, the basements of Peter Cooper Village’s buildings, located between East 23th and 20th Streets and First Avenue and Avenue C, took on up to 6 feet of water. A lot remains to be cleaned up.

“Nobody will tell what all this is, exactly, and how long it will go on,” added Marcia Robinson, a tenant who sat with Wolf.

Lax communication from the owner of the complex, CW Capital, has upset a number of tenants. Many rented personal storage space in the buildings’ basements, where they stored items such as clothes, decorations, memorabilia, documents and even paintings. After the flooding, residents were eager to assess the damage to their belongings underground, but at first were not allowed to enter the basements because of safety concerns. Then, according to Susan Steinberg, chair of the board of directors of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association (Stuyvesant Town, the village’s next-door sister development, was not heavily damaged in the storm because its buildings do not have underground storage), residents received a notification shortly before Thanksgiving that they had until Nov. 30 to retrieve their things. After that date, everything remaining in the storage areas would be discarded.

“CW just wants to steamroll ahead,” Steinberg said. “Some tenants needed more time. They couldn’t sort through their things in just one trip.”

When the residents arrived to rummage through the remains of their possessions, they were required to sign a waiver that relieved management and its affiliates from blame if they were injured. This document forced many residents to second-guess the need to salvage their items. What exactly was in these basements that was so dangerous?

“We were getting messages left, right and center,” said Steinberg. “There was a lot of anger, a lot of frustration.”

Following complaints, CW extended retrieval dates by five days, and agreed to transfer the flooded belongings of those who could not visit the basements to an above-ground drop-off point. According to Steinberg, those who already signed waivers were not allowed to revisit their storage areas.

Flooding also damaged basement electrical systems and gas pumps, shorting intercom circuits and leaving some tenants still without heat. Workers now must check gas valves in each of the complex’s thousands of units, and sometimes have to drill locks to enter. They reportedly have caught at least one resident in the shower while entering apartments.

City Council Member Dan Garodnick is a Peter Cooper Village resident, and he affirmed that life was still far from normal for many tenants. “We hear about people who still have their gas out, who still can’t access their basements, who have no washers and dryers, who lost their cars in garages, whose intercoms don’t work,” he said. He noted that his own intercom and washer-dryer were inoperable.
Garodnick expressed grief that some tenants’ approval of the property manager had declined after what he said was a highly cooperative recovery effort in the storm’s immediate aftermath. With the Tenants Association’s and CW’s help, Garodnick organized a large-scale volunteer emergency response that checked in with every tenant in the complex to address their needs. Steinberg called the effort “fantastic” and affirmed CW’s involvement.

“We worked hand in hand with management during the crisis. We were very happy to do so,” Garodnick said. “That level of collaboration has changed, unfortunately. There’s much less communication, much less information being shared.”

In Steinberg’s words, things returned to “business as usual.” Both she and Garodnick said they were not certain why this was, but Steinberg speculated that CW’s desire to return buildings to normal trumped their interest in responding to tenants.

CW themselves—via their office, Peter Cooper Village Residential Services and public relations firm—could not be reached for comment on their relationship with tenants, and did not respond to messages before press time. On the village’s website, www.pcvst.com, management has a “Post-Storm Updates” in which posts over the past month detail repair progress. CW Capital Managing Director Andrew MacArthur posted there shortly after the storm, “While this last week has been extraordinarily trying, it also highlighted all that is special about our community. Our younger residents kept careful watch over their elderly neighbors and our elderly residents provided us all with an example of how to overcome adversity with good humor and fortitude. Our political figures pitched in, and the various resident groups have done their part. Finally, our staff has demonstrated a commitment to this community that is extraordinary. During this last week, PCVST showed what it means to be part of a community you should all be proud to call home.”

John Marsh, president of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association, acknowledged issues in communication between CW and tenants, but asserted that overall the property manager was doing a good job with repairs, given the scope of the damages. “They’re dealing with it very aggressively, and we know it’s tough,” he said.

Marsh toured some of the basements shortly after the hurricane, and was one of the first to see the extent of what was lost. “It was pretty devastating,” he explained. “Piles of rubble, water lines above your head, glass smashed—it looked like a fire without the fire.”

Garodnick recently reached out to city agencies for assistance in making sure that there are no lingering safety issues in the buildings’ basements. By his request, workers from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development have begun daily inspections of the complex’s damaged properties.

“We will make it through this,” he said.

More Rent Reg

Rent regulation is crucial in this city (“Rent Spike Denied,” April 26), and was instituted to prevent profiteering by landlords in a market short on available apartments. That it protects the majority whose median income is $37,000/year is important—but it would be better if more tenants, not fewer, had those protections.

James Harmon knew three apartments in the building he inherited were subject to rent regulation even then. He nonetheless bought out his brother’s share. Rent regulation—like the fire, health and zoning regulations from which he benefits—were part of the scene from the get-go.

—Sue Susman

Use Your Horse Sense

My country horses (“Horses Can’t Cope,” April 26) have never been in an air-conditioned or heated building; they don’t have sprinklers in the field, nor do they have fan-waving slave boys to feed them bonbons while they lounge in their hay beds and fret over the next week’s weather forecast. They are coping just fine living pretty much as horses have for a long, long time—only without the fear of being dinner to a saber-toothed tiger.

Horses grow a thicker coat in winter and shed it in spring; come summer, they sweat. They accept weather without questions or self-pity. So stop projecting. When horses are not visible near Central Park, it does not mean that they are now riding around in air-conditioned taxicabs.

—Sarah Bellepeppa

Don’t Cut Tobacco Program

The proposed $5 million cut to the New York Tobacco Control Program by Gov. Cuomo and the state Senate yields troubling news for those who have hoped to prevent tobacco addiction in our nation. Smoking tobacco continues to kill 1,200 people—daily. For every smoker killed by his or her addiction, the tobacco industry is creating two new smokers under the age of 26, a trend that should alarm everyone.

Big Tobacco knows how to peddle its products to unsuspecting youth. More than a million dollars an hour is spent to market tobacco products in this country. Nearly 1.5 million kids will try their first cigarette this year, with 75 percent of these children continuing to smoke into adulthood even if they intend to quit within the next few years.

Unfortunately, despite public support for funding to the New York Tobacco Control Program, our legislators in Albany have routinely reduced funding. In the past four years, New York has cut funding for tobacco prevention programs by 52 percent, from $85.5 million to $41.4 million, and now Gov. Cuomo and the state Senate want to cut more. New York currently spends less than 2 cents of every dollar in tobacco tax and settlement revenue to fight tobacco use.

I encourage all New Yorkers to visit www.yourethecure.org to learn more about ways to stop the continued cuts to the NY Tobacco Control Program.

—Dr. Susanna Horvath

Chair, American Heart Association’s New York City Advocacy Committee

By Sean Creamer and Anam Baig

James Harmon’s brownstone (center) at 32 W. 76th St.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court weighed a decision that could have meant the destruction of rent regulation in New York. The court decided on Monday morning, after several delays and requests for more information, not to hear a case brought by Upper West Side resident James Harmon against the state’s rent regulation laws. While supporters of Harmon’s fight grumble and regroup and advocates of rent regulation breathe a collective sigh of relief, many people have said that they were surprised that the challenge went this far in the first place, and that the fight to keep rent regulations in place is not likely to end any time soon.

City and state agencies charged with defending rent regulation reiterated the long-standing viability of the law, even as it is has faced legal challenges in the past.

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court will allow the existing court rulings dismissing this case to stand. Rent regulation in New York City has a long history, and the court properly left it to elected state and city officials to decide its future,” said Alan Krams, senior counsel of the Appeals Division, in a statement issued by the New York City Law Department.

While rent control is designed to enable people who cannot afford market-rate rents to stay at a comfortable level in the city, one disgruntled property owner decided that his tenants were taking advantage of this system. Harmon sued to overturn the regulations that he said amounted to the taking of his property, since he was not able to rent the units out at market rates.

The court declined to hear the case because of the fact that Harmon and his wife Jeanne were aware that the building was rent controlled when they inherited the property.

Harmon, an Upper West Side resident, inherited the five-story brownstone building on West 76th Street. At that time, he became the landlord of several tenants who were living in rent-controlled apartments. According to previous statements made by Harmon, he felt that these tenants were affluent citizens and did not belong in rent-controlled apartments.

“It’s pivotal that the Supreme Court even thought about taking it, said Sue Susman, the president of the Central Park Gardens Tenants’ Association. “For decades, the U.S. Supreme Court was in support of the regulation.”

Harmon had several avenues he could have taken to alleviate the situation, but he chose to go to court, Susman said. He could have filed a hardship increase application, where he could have showed the State Housing Agency his account books and had his tenants pay a higher percentage of regulated rent.

Harmon, an attorney, argued that under his Fifth Amendment rights, the fact that rent control even exists is an unconstitutional seizure of his personal property by the government. The court ruled that there was no “taking of property” and dismissed the case, but Harmon appealed, touting his 14th Amendment right to due process which he claims was denied him. The case was denied in both the Federal District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

He pleaded to the courts that rent stabilization laws were denying him the ability to earn as much as he could from his apartments. He has to offer the rent-stabilized apartments at 59 percent below the regular market price to his tenants, is not able to choose his tenants and has no say over who inherits the apartments when their tenants die. Even when a beneficiary of the deceased takes over the property, they too are graced with below-market-rate rents.

Harmon’s lawsuit was against several parties who are in charge of rent control policies, including Jonathan Kimmel, the chair of the Rent Guidelines Board, and Darryl Towns, the commissioner of the New York State Homes and Community Renewal.

After the denial of both federal courts, the Harmons petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, which would allow the Harmons to appeal to the Supreme Court for a final decision in their case. The state and city each filed a brief defending the Rent Stabilization Law as constitutional, urging the Supreme Court not to grant the petition. With the decision on Monday, the case has finally reached its last stop.

“The Harmon family is disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision,” Harmon said in an email. “We still believe that the Constitution does not allow the government to force us to take strangers into our home at our expense for life. Even our grandchildren have been barred from living with us. That is not our America.”

While Harmon was looking to free himself of his rent-stabilized tenants, his efforts snowballed into a movement with the aim of dismantling rent control policies in New York City. Real estate interest groups stood together to oppose a sanction that they believe impedes their rights, but most local politicians support rent regulation and fight to renew it every time it is set to expire.

“I am gratified that the United States Supreme Court has denied review of the Harmon case, which could have spelled the end of rent regulation in New York City,” Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal said in a statement. “This is a victory for millions of rent-regulated tenants throughout New York City who would not be able to afford to live in this city were it not for rent regulation.”

A recently passed law by the New York State Legislature requires landlords to notify prospective tenants if there was a bed bug infestation in their building within the past year. The law is part of an effort to help eradicate the blood-sucking insects and an acknowledgement of their growing presence in the city.

But would landlords be unfairly stigmatized for having bed bugs that came from an old tenant?

Linda Rosenthal, an assembly member from the Upper West Side that wrote the law, feels that the bill is a simple disclosure law that will help those about to sign a new lease make an informed decision.

“They deserve to know the history of infestation in that apartment and in that building so they can make a choice whether they want to move in or undertake an extermination process before the move-in,” Rosenthal said of her bill.

The law requires landlords to give these tenants the bed bug notice. As of now, there’s no fine for violating the law, but Rosenthal wants to see the compliance rate before seeking penalties.

Rosenthal believes landlords will be more vigilant in fighting bed bugs if they know prospective tenants will find out.

“I also want it to be an incentive for them to ensure that apartments and buildings are properly treated for bed bugs,” she said.

This is the latest bed-bug regulation to become law. The City Council created a task force and allocated $500,000 to create a web portal with information on preventing and getting rid of bed bugs.

The Rent Stabilization Association, a group representing property owners, believes the new law unfairly targets landlords for a problem often caused by tenants.

“Why was there no requirement enacted into law that a tenant has a legal obligation to inform an owner about the presence of bed bugs?” said Mitchell Posilkin, general counsel to the Rent Stabilization Association. “All of a sudden, a landlord gets associated with having a bed bug problem that’s already been cured.”

When the Department of Homeless Services wanted to open a shelter in a West 107th Street building last February, the city was unaware of the landlord’s identity. The building’s owner was G M Canmar Residence Corporation. But the West Side Spirit used Department of Finance records to identify the owner as Mark Hersh, a notorious landlord who intimidated his tenants into moving.

Now, Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents the area with the aforementioned homeless shelter, recently authored a bill that requires corporate owners of residential buildings to provide names and addresses of its principle partners. The legislation, which passed unanimously in the Council, also bans the use of P.O. boxes or mail-handling facilities as mailing addresses.

Listing corporations as a building’s owner is common among landlords. Often, a building’s owner is listed as an address with LLC tacked on. This poses a problem to tenants in multiple-dwelling buildings who may have a problem that needs to be addressed.

“Today, the New York City Council is sending a message that landlords should not be allowed to hide behind shell companies as tenants scramble to resolve housing issues,” Mark-Viverito said. “Thanks to this legislation, tenants will have access to the names and contact information of the principal partners of these corporate entities that are increasingly the owners of our city’s residential buildings.”

The bill is on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s desk, awaiting his signature or veto.

In 2002, a representative from the Goddard Riverside SRO Law Project told Community Board 7 that Hersh forced out undocumented workers staying at his Colonial House Hotel, at 611 W. 112th St. He allegedly told them that inspectors from the city’s Housing and Preservation Department were actually federal Immigration and Naturalization Services agents, according to board minutes.

But as the city struggles to help the ever-increasing homeless population, the Department of Homeless Services is looking to give Hersh a lucrative deal to use his West Side Inn Hostel, at 237 W. 107th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, as emergency homeless housing.

Photo by Andrew Schwartz

The hostel is an SRO, or “single room occupancy” housing—a low-cost, dorm-like accommodation—though its website describes it as a “hip and trendy” place to stay while visiting New York. The department did not answer questions about how much Hersh would receive for use of his facilities, but housing advocates say that landlords can get several thousand dollars a month from the city, per room, for housing homeless populations. That amount is far more than the typical SRO rate of several hundred dollars a month, and rates starting at $17 a night, as advertised on the hostel’s reservations website, which works out to roughly $500 a month.

For housing advocates, this is a new wrinkle in the fight for affordable housing. Where they once complained that SROs, meant to house low-income permanent residents, were being illegally converted to more lucrative hotels, they are now seeing these SROs being used for the homeless. The shift is most likely due to a combination of factors, including a city crackdown on illegal hotels, decreased demand for hotel space and an increase in the homeless population.

“The city is lining the pockets of these landlords who harass tenants and go through whatever means to get permanent tenants out of the building in order to put in placements from [Department of Homeless Services],” said Marti Weithman, project director for Goddard Riverside SRO Law Project. “It’s happening all over the West Side.”

According to people involved with the situation, the West Side Inn Hostel is already housing approximately 40 homeless women along with some long-term tenants, though the department did respond to an inquiry to confirm that homeless women are currently residing there. Services for the clients are being provided by Help USA, a nonprofit founded in 1986 by now-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and chaired by his sister, Maria Cuomo Cole.

The nonprofit identified Hersh’s property as a potential space for Department of Homeless Services’ clients, as part of an open-ended request for proposal process. The department then filed an “Emergency Declaration” request at an unknown date with the city comptroller’s office to allow the contract with the West Side Inn Hostel to move forward more quickly. Eventually, Help USA plans to administer services to a total of 135 women at the hostel.

Alexandra Sirota, director of external communications at Help USA, said the group had no comment about Hersh’s reputation as a landlord. But the department is currently investigating community allegations of landlord harassment. Kristy Buller, deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeless Services, said in a statement, “We value the input of the community, and we strive to be a good neighbor as we assist New Yorkers who are unfortunately experiencing homelessness.”

Help USA was to present its plan to Board 7’s health and human services committee Feb. 23. However, the group canceled, as did representatives from the Department of Homeless Services, only hours before the start of the meeting.

Some officials, including Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Robert Hess, met with local civic groups Feb. 17 to discuss the temporary homeless housing, according to Rev. John Duffell, pastor at the neighboring Church of the Ascension, at 221 W. 107th St. The reverend said he convened the meeting because he was worried that the community was unaware of the emergency housing and long term plans for the homeless women. Duffell, along with other opponents, stressed that their views are not a “not in my backyard” response; Help USA and the city should have consulted with the neighborhood before creating emergency housing, they argue.

“It’s assuming people would say ‘no’ to any kind of homeless shelter. I don’t think that’s the case,” Duffell said. “The city is steamrolling, rather than going places and working it out.”

An added concern is the fact that the West Side Inn Hostel has open violations from the Department of Buildings and the Housing and Preservation Department, the most recent of which, dated January 2009, stems from an elevator problem. In 2006, the Environmental Control Board hit Hersh with a $2,500 fine for operating an illegal hotel in an SRO building, a violation that is still active. The Buildings Department looked into 14 complaints between 1991 and 2009, including questions about parties on the roof, dilapidated rooms and elevators that remained broken.

“It’s been a detriment to the neighborhood,” Ruffell said of the hostel.

“It’s not kept in good condition.”

Hersh could not be reached for a comment. A woman who answered the phone at the hostel claimed to not know anything about the homeless population and declined to answer questions or give her full name before hanging up.

The city’s Finance Department lists G. M. Canmar Residence Corporation as the building’s owner. A phone line at the corporation’s mailing address was not operational. Adam Leitman Bailey, named as Hersh’s attorney in a 2006 Village Voice article, did not return calls and messages at his law office. In the phonebook, Hersh’s number was listed at the Hotel Saint James, another SRO. The man who answered the phone there said that Hersh could only be reached at that number Feb. 24 and declined to provide additional information.

However, in an interview with the Village Voice and in a transcript of a Housing and Preservation Department hearing, Hersch denied allegations of tenant intimidation.

Far from a West Side issue, the conversion of affordable housing into emergency homeless lodging seems to be happening across the city. In the Bronx, civic leaders are protesting the use of a building at 1564 Saint Peters Ave. that was originally planned for middle-income housing and is now being used as temporary homeless housing. In Harlem, a block association is mobilizing against a plan to house 76 homeless men at Spot Hostel’s Fifth Avenue Spot, at 35 W. 126th St.

But the transitions may be self-defeating. Weithman, of Goddard Riverside SRO Law Project, said that tenants forced out of SRO units are low-income New Yorkers who may find themselves in the homeless system after all.

“They can very well end up in another SRO because they’ve been placed there,” Weithman said. “The rent that was $400 a month turns into the landlord getting four or five times that.”

Scaffolding hugs the façade, permits from the Department of Buildings plaster the glass front door and windows are covered in plastic.

But there are actually six tenants living at 315 W. 103rd St. Their home has become a permanent construction site because the landlord apparently falsified a building permit.

Two years ago, Jacob Avid of Dan-Bran Realty LLC bought the building and applied for permits to build a two-story rooftop and rear-yard addition. The permits stated that the eight-unit building was vacant, but it was actually occupied.

Mark Danna, a 30-year resident of 315 W. 103rd St., has lived in a stalled construction site for nearly five months. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Unlike work on an empty building, construction on an occupied structure comes with a bevy of regulations. In fact, Avid’s permit application, approved by the city on Jan. 5, 2009, acknowledges that the building’s structural stability will be affected by the proposed work.

One resident took a buyout from Avid, but others—a mix of rent-stabilized and controlled tenants—rebuffed offers. Mark Danna, a crossword puzzle writer who works from home, rejected a “low-ball” offer as nowhere near the six-figures he wanted.

Danna is one of two tenants left in the building whose apartment faces the rear yard. The addition looks like a steel patio with a roof, and it is only accessible through his living room window. Danna believes the idea was to create a bigger apartment that would likely be unaffordable for a renter like him. Now, this addition envelops his windows that used to look out onto the yard.

“You’re not living in your castle, you’re in the dungeon,” said Danna, a 30-year resident. “My light and air was taken away from me.”

The Department of Buildings revoked the permits July 8, when an audit stemming from numerous tenant complaints determined that the building was not vacant. Previous complaints had been dismissed by inspectors who felt there were no violations, according to the department’s Buildings Information System.

A receptionist at Avid’s office at Kore Properties Group said that Avid did not want to comment. Avid, through Kore Properties Group, is known to rent out units in his buildings to tourists. His apartments are listed on numerous hotel websites, as reported in West Side Spirit.

Since the city pulled Avid’s permits, the construction has stalled. This is a relief for tenants, but the damage has been done. Hot water is spotty in Danna’s apartment and there are signs of water leakage in other units. Tenants can call 311 to lodge a complaint and get the Department of Buildings to investigate, but redress appears to be up to Avid.

Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, whose office pressed the city to pull the permits, said that more and more landlords are lying on applications. O’Donnell wants a policy change that will create penalties for such actions.

“If they file a fraudulent application, there has to be some cost to the building owner,” O’Donnell said. “Filing a false instrument is a crime, okay? The truth is this isn’t a little bit fraud. This is a huge fraud.”

As for Danna, he’d like the landlord to take down the additions that have disrupted tenants’ homes. But the only way Avid can get his permits back and continue construction—or take down what has been built—is if he reapplies for them and acknowledges that there are tenants living in the building. He would then have to submit a tenant protection plan, which was waived the first time. How long this will all take is difficult to estimate. Anything from mistakes on the application to the volume of applications the department receives can delay permits.

“Why should he be rewarded,” Danna said, “when he did it illegally and upset our lives?”