Closing Bell: Moving Out at 475 Kent Avenue
When we stopped by 475 Kent Avenue, the site of this week’s matzoh-driven mass evacuation, these two fellows were in the process of moving their couch out the front door. According to one of them, the official word is that (former) residents will have daytime access through Sunday and then only on an ad hoc…
When we stopped by 475 Kent Avenue, the site of this week’s matzoh-driven mass evacuation, these two fellows were in the process of moving their couch out the front door. According to one of them, the official word is that (former) residents will have daytime access through Sunday and then only on an ad hoc basis. He also noted that the circus of Fire, Buildings and Red Cross personnel has calmed down and there are just a couple of officials now on-site. Meanwhile, political pressure builds for a tenant-friendly resolution and conspiracy theories (is a rival developer pulling strings so he can take over the entire block?) swirl. Hopefully there will be more information on Monday.
‘Commune of Creative Types’ in the Burg is Emptied Out [Brownstoner]
475 Kent Message Board [475kent.com] GMAP
I’m glad the hippie tenants got kicked out and good for the landlord if he was the power behind it.
These assh’oles tried to get the building rent controlled and undermine the owners business. I’m glad to see he’s protecting his property rights and the right to negotiate contracts for lease without the government sticking its nose where its not needed.
Sorry loser hippies, back to mommy and daddys basement you go!
I know quite a few people who live there, and the only people who are getting a break on rent have lived there for a very very long time and negotiated long leases (to my knowledge).
Even if it is rent stabilized–that’s hardly some kind of artist’s welfare, lots of people have rent-stabilized places. There is no handout here–why the aggression about a potential handout? Nobody is saying that the people in 475 Kent deserve anything “special.” The argument has nothing to do with handouts. It has to do with the fact that small business owners who sign leases and pay rent and are doing *their part* right shouldn’t be literally kicked to the curb in the middle of a very cold night and face permanent eviction.
No artist should face that, no dry cleaner should face that. No tenant should face that, period.
In a strictly residential building, there are laws against this kind of mass-eviction, and for good reason. The Loft Board is merely extending that basic humane idea that people who pay rent should have a place to live to artists living and working in the same place.
Why would such an idea even provoke hostility?
I know someone who lived there and there and I was under the impression it was all rent stabilized. I don’t really see why if it wasn’t built to be residential. Moreover, lets not weep for these people on the basis of their being artists. They are mostly small business owners. As the such they should be given opportunities to develop the kind of viable businesses that create a strong economy. No business owner should get a break because their business is somehow “creative”. Nobody gives the drycleaner down the block a break on their rent. Do you honestly think they deserve to pay less because YOU think they make the neighborhood seem cool? If their work is that good they can make a decent living off it. If not, they need to go do something else for their rent money.
The landlord broke the law, not the tenants!
They are paying market rent (mostly) for live-work spaces in a residentially zoned building. They, as tenants, have no control over whether or not they have a C of O or an illegal bakery running in the basement, or even a working standpipe or working sprinklers!
What Karma? These people paid rent to someone who did not hold up their end of the deal, and they are the ones suffering and losing money for it–not the landlord.
This turns into an excuse for artists to hate other artists. Great.
What was that about Karma?
sorry, meant to say “everyone” instead of even, but you get the idea…
#4:40 I have been on the biz side of the creative world for years. Of course we have to support art and artists, etc… But the point you are missing, that many DO NOT break the law. I worked with and/or known so many people who struggled financially, but managed to rent commercial space for their art and also rent residential space to live in. This includes me too as a small biz owner. Not even has no respect for the law, it is not a given.
It pisses me off that anyone could be sympathetic to these lawbreakers. F them. they broke the law, and now they have gotta pay.
karma’s a bitch!
Such anger…..serenity now!
This is a totally newsworthy event, and should be covered as news breaks.
This blog is, essentially, about the gentrification of Brooklyn: its real estate values; who’s living here; how the amenities (food and drink roundup) change. 475 Kent is a story about gentrification. The people who have the most invested in this live-work space made Williamsburg the yuppie-infested strollertrap that it is today–they moved in when Kent and Division was a desolate wasteland.
People with serious influence in the cultural community of Brooklyn, like Eve Sussman and the director of SmackMellon, Kathleen Gilrain, are tenants at 475 Kent. This is an opportunity for Bloomberg to really be pro-arts and work with the Loft Board instead of the DOB to get these people back to work, back in their houses.
There are so many artists without Sussman and Gilrain’s influence living in exactly the same circumstances in gentrifying neighborhoods like Bushwick and Bed Stuy that are clinging to every bit of 475 Kent news, because whether or not this administration is willing to protect them has everything to do with whether Brooklyn remains a cultural capital.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, has *everything* to do with whether or not your real estate values continue to climb. Bloomberg is not pro-arts out of the goodness of his heart. He knows what side the bread is buttered on! The artists of Brooklyn, and the rest of this city, add value to your enterprise, no matter what you greedy Philistines think about art.
Shut the F up 4:21! You’re not the one waiting outside in the cold. You think everyone’s a trust fund kid? I hope you’re brownstone burns.