Wednesday Links
City Seeks New Powers in Fight Against Homelessness [NY Times] Despite Pleas for a Freeze, Stabilized Rents to Go Up [NY Times] Rent Hikes OK’d As Board Squabbles [NY Post] Strike Threatened at City’s Biggest Power Plant [NY Daily News] Another Burglary at 55 Washington Street [Brooklyn Paper] Post-Game Analysis of ESDC Meeting [AY Report]…
City Seeks New Powers in Fight Against Homelessness [NY Times]
Despite Pleas for a Freeze, Stabilized Rents to Go Up [NY Times]
Rent Hikes OK’d As Board Squabbles [NY Post]
Strike Threatened at City’s Biggest Power Plant [NY Daily News]
Another Burglary at 55 Washington Street [Brooklyn Paper]
Post-Game Analysis of ESDC Meeting [AY Report]
Partial Building Collapse In Bed Stuy [WPIX]
Photo of Green-Wood Cemetery by bklynflea.
This is a terrific photo.
According to PropertyShark the building on Myrtle that collapsed was built in 1969.
Renters who luck onto rent stabilized apartments are not gaming anyone for the most part. They have nothing to do with whether or not an apartment falls under rent-stabilization so it makes little sense to demonize the tenant for the problem the city and state create. And many people who do live in those apartments are far from rich. Rent control is a different issue and considering how abused it is, needs to be totally revamped or just done away with. And in all fairness, landlord costs in general go up. The fairly small rent increases that get voted are are not going to break most renters and the whole adversarial us vs them thing is nothing but destructive to everyone.
Apartment buildings and flats were being constructed in the the 19th century. There are many many pre-war apartment buildings all over the city. While I have no good answer to Kens question as to why our buildings seem to fall down more than the much older ones in Europe- my guess is that in Europe they care more. We’re more careless because we don’t believe in preservation and reuse, to the extent the rest of the world does. But I also think in the long run older buildings are better constructed. Yes they need upkeep but there are buildings over 200 years old still in use and not deteriorated while much new construction is being patched and fixed and patched and fixed again. I would love to see the reaction of a victorian craftsman to the claim made by builders today of “quality” construction. I’m sure they would laugh themselves silly.
Greenwood, I hope that’s the case when we get re-assessed because I really don’t want my co-op to increase maintenance solely because of tax increases.
right Joe. but if a 50 apartment building was put up in NYC in say 1920’s on a sound foundation, how long do you think it’ll stand before collapsing?
Kensingtonian: Really. Not every owner’s net property taxes are going up. My landlord wanted to raise our rent this year but when I pointed out the large decrease in his taxes and stories in the media about NYC rents dropping about 10% across the board, he backed off and left the rent as is.
Is not the Judicial system independent from the city government????
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at June 24, 2009 9:51 AM
I would hope so but not in my experiences. The law firm that we retained to represent us in tax assessments (their specialty) said pretty much the same thing. They used to have a very good track record and all of a sudden, they barely win any cases. Thank god they only require payment when they win, which is a good deal for us.
I also have a very funny personal experience in court when I was younger. I had to go to court for disorderly conduct summons. The judge was literally bargaining with the people for fines. It was surreal.
Does it count as a one family if the pigs sleep in the house?
I don’t think people in Brooklyn needed apartment buildings until the second half of the 19th Century, for most of Brooklyn not until the last 50 years of the 20th. Victorian
Brooklyn more resembeled the Dutch countryside (complete with Dutch people!) than the City of Amsterdam