Hellish Landlord Drawing Protest in the Slope
A three-story building at 152 Fourth Avenue between Douglass and Butler is drawing attention for the particularly negligence of its landlord, Gustav Rodriguez; another four buildings owned by Rodriguez have also drawn similar complaints. Among the complaints: Peeling paint, no heat and “an overwhelming stench of sewage in the halls.” The building had 40 tenants…
A three-story building at 152 Fourth Avenue between Douglass and Butler is drawing attention for the particularly negligence of its landlord, Gustav Rodriguez; another four buildings owned by Rodriguez have also drawn similar complaints. Among the complaints: Peeling paint, no heat and “an overwhelming stench of sewage in the halls.” The building had 40 tenants last year and now only 8 are left, prompting charges that the landlord is doing everything he can to rid the building of its rent-stabilized tenants so he can cash in on the Fourth Avenue boom that’s underway. A protest rally is scheduled for today outside the buildings.
Tenants Rally vs. Hell Buildinh [NY Daily News] GMAP
Those websites do not offer any proof, they merely offer opioion and diatrad, which is far from facts or proof. One is for the cato instutite, which is a right wing think tank that has nothing to do with reality. The website that you listed as “center” is also simialar, and uses for its “facts” the opions of candians, swedes, etc (no disrespect to swedes or candains or etc, I happen to like em) and the website that you listed for the left makes no argument pro or con as to the virtues of rent control. That is proof? Where is a stastical break down? Where are facts? Where are figures? You could maybe start with something like NYC (not canada) average rent for a studio, 1,2, and 3 bedroom apartments, bourgh by bourgh, rc and rs vs. “free market” and then offset and compare that against various other economic factors. But you did’nt do that, you merely refered me to some other persons opinion. That is not proof.
Now please prove to me why landlords should be allowed to break the law because they don’t want to deal with rs or rc even thought they knew thats what they were buying and who that serves, which is the real subject of this thread.
Joshk you argue that rc and rs raise the cost of non rc apartments and ask for proof that they do not and yet you offer no proof of your own. I wonder also if you considerd, when you made your comments, all the tax breaks and special deals that landlords get for rs housing, who is that costing? Certainly not the landlords.
I await your nomiation for a noble.
And to your other “absurd comment”, yeah landlords are going broke, just look at poor donald trump, or broke leona helmsely or the tishman group, or extell, or the day group, obviosuly they figured it out. To blame a landlord who can’t make money legally on tennants who assert their legal rights when slum lords violate the law is absurd. Talk about blaming the victum.
Allentown Pa is simply not comparable, or near to NYC, its about the same distance away as phili, to claim that is “in the area” is pretty disingeutious. No I do not live in a rent stablized apartment, “killer of liekiller” nor do I wish that I did, good try though, although you did not answer if you were the landlord in question, or a landlord who is breaking the law, so much for honesty I suppose.
As for buying a building and not being able to charge 3k a month, the market went up, sometimes it goes down thats the way it works, and you want to cry about it, well you bought it, you knew who was living there and the terms and conditions of the relevant leases, and all of that was disclosed to you when you bought it, as is required by law. Who’s fault is that? Who’s fault is it that you don’t like the deal that you yourself negotaited, at arms length, likely using an attorney to do so? Heard of the word responsible?
In addition, as for trying to turn buildings around, if you do that, then you get a rent increse, do enough work and the apartment can be deregulated, and in many cases landlords get taxes breaks, cheap loans, and in some cases outright grants to do just what you are claiming you do. Are you comlpaing about that? No, you simply want the city/state to subsidize your profit, and then abdicat the responsiblity that comes with the benefits.
In addition, to the poster who said that apartments are going for $80 dollars a month and ocst $110 a month to heat, that is simply not true, rents go up, even for rent controlled apartments, and even if what you were saying was true, a landlord can get a rent increase for things like higher heat costs, higher labor costs, rehabilition, capitial improvment, and even economic hardship. SO if you had a 80 dollar apartment with 110 in heat bills you would get a rent increase.
Obvioulsy you are mis-infored on this subject of the law, and I sugget you check out the city of new yorks website on the subject.
In addition, the cyndi lauper thing, I do not know whether that is true, but given the misinformation that has been branded about on this board, I tend to doubt it, the reason being that when the tenant has an income of $175,000 the apartment can be de-regulated. But then again her career is not doing much these days so maybe she is not making that kind of income any longer. Everybody knows stories of famous people who wind up with nothing.
RC and RS can sometimes cause problems for the landlord who ownes a single building and has leveraged themselves to the hilt with debt in order to aquire the building, and those people operate on very small margains, but like any business, if you get too much debt and you have a problem then you have to go under, just like anyone else, bad business is bad business, but none of that is really the point here. The building in question, and my point from the start, has been that landlord should not get to break the law simply because they no longer want to deal with RC or RS. You don’t get to do “whatever you want”. We live in a society of rules and laws, and if you don’t want to follow them, then you either need to go to jail, or move to someplace like Somalia where they don’t have laws and you can benefit from the wonders of being able to do “whatever you want”. I say you last 30 seconds.
re- anon 10:37’s comment about SUV’s, the only reason SUV’s have become such a major portion of new-car sales is because of a regulatory loophole (protected by the US auto conpanies), exempting them from fuel-efficiency requirements. Considering how SUV’s contribute much more than their share of pollution, etc., your 50 cents/gallon tax seems fair to me.
completely off topic I know, but while I am certainly no fan of rent control (I’m a landlord now, but it never did me any good as a renter either), some regulations are necessary to provide a safety net.
Do we want to be like those fancy ski towns in colorado, where schoolteachers have to commute 2 hours to their school?
anon 10:07,
I’m actually opposed to rent stabilization for many reasons, but it is misleading for you to claim you have been forced (sorry, I mean “FORCED”) to do anything. If you have been a landlord for the past 10 years, and if you are as knowledgeable as you say, then you went into the business fully aware of the regulations and their requirements, which had been in place for years.
I totally agree it is unfair for one subset of citizens (landlords) to pay for something that is supposedly a good for the whole of society. But, nobody forced you to buy into that unfair system.
If the government can regulate rents keeping them at below operating levels then why don’t they regulate the heating cost, insurance and propery tax as well.
Some RC apartments are as low as $80 a month. The cost of heating and apartment is about $110 a month.
Many buildings with RC and RS are crumbling. The tenantes should vacate and the buildings should be torn down.
well said 10.07. imagine goverment will force every SUV driver to pay 50 cents more per gallon to cover expenses those driving cars…1 it’s not fair, 2 what about those cadilac drivers..
New York’s rent laws are evil. As a landlord with a lot of experience, I’d guess that half my regulated tenants illegally sublet for profit. When I take legal action against them, they move back in and I’m out hundreds of dollars in legal bills. It’s a lose-lose situation for landlords and a win-win situation for tenants.
ALL YOU PRO RENT REGULATION LIBERALS ARE FULL OF IT. IF YOU BOUGHT A BUILDING AND WERE FORCED TO TAKE PHONE CALLS EVERY DAY FROM TENANTS PAYING $600/mo FOR AN APARTMENT THAT COULD RENT FOR $3000/mo, YOU’D CHANGE YOUR OPINIONS FASTER THAN YOU COULD SCRAMBLE EGGS.
THE CITY SHOULD HAVE TO SUBSIDIZE THE DIFFERENCE. WHY SHOULD PRIVATE CITIZENS BE FORCED TO SUBSIDIZE OTHER PRIVATE CITIZENS?
I’ve spent the last ten years of my life trying to turn around neglected NYC tenement buildings. It’s nearly impossible. I can’t renovate half the apartments because of NYC rent laws which encourage a combination of low income and just plain frugal people to latch onto apartments forever.
I WANT TO HAVE NICE BUILDINGS BUT I CAN’T BECAUSE OF THE RENT LAWS.
CAN’T YOU BLEEDING HEART LIBERALS UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM? DON’T YOU SEE THAT GOVERNMENT ENFORCED PRICE REGULATION HURTS MANY MORE PEOPLE THAN IT HELPS? ARE YOU ALL INSANE?
Allentown, PA is just an hour and half bus ride from NYC. In Allentown, you can get a studio for $350.00 to $400.00/mo., a one bedroom for $400.00 to $550.00/mo, a two bedroom for $550.00 to $650.00/mo., etc. It’s a very affordable place for people to live.
Why should some shmuck who lucked out and rented a cheap rent stabilized apartment in Greenwich Village, Park Slope, or some other nice neighborhood be allowed to suck his landlord dry year after year because he happened to rent an apartment twenty years ago?
If that shmuck can’t afford rents in he Village anymore, why shouldn’t he move to Allentown? Why does he DESERVE to live of his landlords sweat for the rest of his life?
IT MAKES ME SICK AND ALL YOU LIBERALS HAVE TURNED ME INTO A REPUBLICAN WHICH I NEVER THOUGHT WOULD HAPPEN, AND FRANKLY IT MAKES ME SICK THAT IT HAS HAPPENED.