475 Kent Avenue: How It All Began
It all started with a standpipe. When the Fire Department passed by for a routine inspection of the sidewalk in front of 475 Kent Avenue last week, they discovered a rusted, non-working pipe. This led them to follow the pipe down to its source in the basement, where they were greeted with a sea of…
It all started with a standpipe. When the Fire Department passed by for a routine inspection of the sidewalk in front of 475 Kent Avenue last week, they discovered a rusted, non-working pipe. This led them to follow the pipe down to its source in the basement, where they were greeted with a sea of grain boxes piled high to the ceiling. According to one building resident, this was done to gain economies of scale in the kosher certification process: The larger the stockpiles of grain, the less often a rabbi would have to shlep over to bless it. The result: A barely navigable maze of boxes, a fire hazard only compounded by the lack of proper electricity and water sources.
Big Showing From Pols at 475 Kent Vigil [Brownstoner]
Closing Bell: Moving Out at 475 Kent Avenue [Brownstoner]
‘Commune of Creative Types’ in the Burg is Emptied Out [Brownstoner]
475 Kent Message Board [475kent.com] GMAP
Photo by Drew Catlin
Serenity now!
1:10pm.
God’s Chosen People huh? God damn, you take racial superioriity one step higher than the Nazis. How about I call you a inbred, bald spot cover wearer? Yeah, I like that better.
God’s Chosen People, yeah right! Suck my pole, God told you to do it asswipe!
Sigh.
Gross wants everyone to know that he makes money off of his BFA and his MFA and can afford to pay his rent like good little tool.
Everyone else in the art community wants you all to know that we hate smarmy, bitter, failures (at making his own art) like Gross and are thrilled that he’s not one of us. In fact we all laugh at him when we are enjoying ourselves in our studios.
10:50, we liked to be called God’s Chosen People or Master, whichever you prefer
We bought a house from Hasid flippers and there were tons of things in their “renovation” that were not up to code, or were simply done badly or wrong. They seemingly don’t give a crap about the law or what is standard and just the honorable or ethical thing to do. I would never ever lump the Hasid community in with all Jews though, that’s ridiculous. The Hasid are such a specific and odd sub-group that every single Jewish person I know despises.
It doesn’t matter who the landlord is – the law should make an example of him because he broke the law and put peoples lives at risk. Its not a ? of why the city shut down the building, its why did it take so long.
The tennants are (were! lol) as greedy as the landlord. I hope they all paid their rent right before they were kicked out.
Good luck!
Hope all those digital photographers documented the event with plenty of photos. Please link to your Flicker feed!
When I first heard about this story I felt really sorry for the people that lived here. Being run out of their home in the middle of a cold and dark night in the winter. I couldn’t understand the urgency to kick people out on the streets and thought perhaps the city could have waited at least a week or few days for the residents to make arrangements to find other places to live.
But, with the eventual news about the clear cause for all this was starting to make sense. I agree the landlord and the owner of the matzo factory put everybody in this building and the school next to it in clear and present danger.
The law should make an example out of them. They could have killed hundreds with their greed and selfish attitudes towards the welfare of the public. I really hope they don’t get off with the slap on the wrist for what they did to the people that live here.
The firefighters and city acted rightly on this. It was the correct call to make. Unpopular, the right call.