'Slumlike Conditions' in Foreclosed Slope Building
The Daily News had an article on a group of tenants who live in 294 Fifth Avenue in the Slope and say conditions in the rent-controlled building have deteriorated since the property went into foreclosure a couple years ago and a receiver was appointed to take care of it. The building’s boiler, for example, didn’t…
The Daily News had an article on a group of tenants who live in 294 Fifth Avenue in the Slope and say conditions in the rent-controlled building have deteriorated since the property went into foreclosure a couple years ago and a receiver was appointed to take care of it. The building’s boiler, for example, didn’t work for three weeks this winter, and the front-door lock is broken. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio held a news conference yesterday to support the tenants in seeking a court order that would force the receiver to make repairs. According to the article: “The slumlike conditions at 294 Fifth Ave. spotlight a growing concern: smaller apartment buildings that fall into disrepair in part because the building is overleveraged. ‘We think this is a growing problem around the city that the banks and lenders are not taking responsibility for,’ said de Blasio.”
Park Slope Tenants, de Blasio Team Up to Force Building Repairs [NY Daily News]
“brOOklyn- what do you say to the people who don’t have the resources to improve their situation, who work hard and don’t make it, who have mental problems, who are overwhelmed by the obstacles they face?”
let them eat cake (in east new york)
brOOklyn- what do you say to the people who don’t have the resources to improve their situation, who work hard and don’t make it, who have mental problems, who are overwhelmed by the obstacles they face?
What do you sat to the people who work hard at their job, have to pay for childcare while they work, and only end up with enough money to scrape by, come home exhausted to screaming kids and a messy house, smoke a joint and drink some beers to try and have a moment of quiet before they get up at 6am and start again? When do they become rich? Do you really think *all* those folks have some magic inner strength that will allow them all to somehow magically bust out of that? Are you in favor of 100% inheritance taxes? Could you make it yourself, really and truly on your own? With two kids? Three kids? No degree? No diploma? No savings?
And it’s awful nice of you to be willing to shake that person’s hand. I bet they’re really excited about that. Do you get off the horse first, or do they have to stand on a stepladder?
By benson on May 10, 2011 12:59 PM
Br00klynguy’s 12.56: QOTD!!!
Seconded.
Dona, that seems more like an argument for a general limit on the amount all rents can increase, meaning that everyone is slightly more secure in their situation, irrespective of its cost.
Unless you’re proposing that if everyone was really insecure about their rent and had to pay more money, they would all save up enough to buy a house in new york. Which I can’t imagine is what you actually mean. Because that would be crazy. 😉
Br00klynguy’s 12.56: QOTD!!!
b) It should also be pointed out how well the free market has done at making buying housing affordable in NYC. I would assume equally stellar results on the rental front.
The free market is just that. it’s job is not to make housing affordable. Why should it be?
bfarwell,
It’s not poor people I have a problem with. It is those that can’t take care of themselves and those close to them when needed, rich or poor, and the system that rewards such irresponsible behavior by shoveling money to them.
I have a problem when people think they deserve to live someplace just because they have been there for 5, 10, 20, 40 years even if it no longer makes sense financially to live there.
I have a problem with people who do not assume a certain amount of personal responsibility for their situations and lack any desire to change it for the better.
I have a problem with people trying to “keep up with the Jones’s”. They want to buy the best things, live in the best neighborhoods, have the nice clothes and the nice cars They just WANT it; They don’t want to work for it.
I will shake the hand of the poorest (wo)man who is realistic about their situation. Who lives in a crappy neighborhood, pays his own rent, keeps a clean home, works whatever job is thrown their way, puts food on the table, ensures their children have better opportunities than they had and makes sure their kids understand that there is no free ride, there is no magic check that appears in the mailbox twice a month, that only through hard-work will their situation be any better.
There I go again, talking nonsense though.
I don’t know if this is off topic, but rent control as a system is a disaster and I think primarily for the person/persons who live in rent controlled spaces. I say this from the perspective as a person who has seen people shape their economic decisions around the expectation of extremely low rents forever.
Sure, you could be very sharp and ambitious, get a great job, save money, buy another property some place, etc. etc. But often, it doesn’t work that way. I am not blaming here….but when you get used to not having to pay a real market rent, you can become trapped somewhere. Some people will make the argument “How could I ever leave this cheap place?” But then you wind up in a ratty (BUT CHEAP) apartment all your life. Also, people then knowing the dangerous world of real costs that exist outside of this bubble, they start thinking SCARED, like holdouts. It is a shitty psychological space to inhabit. As a rc tenant, you can lose your apartment too. There are certain conditions which allow your landlord to evict you (i.e. he needs the space for his own family) As a landlord, you not exactly incented to maintain your building, to make money, etc. It stinks. It was an attempt to hold down costs post WWII on housing for returning servicemen and now it just stinks.
“If that’s the case then the hell with them. they get what they deserve if they vote these down when the LL is trying to improve the building.”
Okay, assuming that happened, and assuming the improvements were ‘fix this problem’ which is actually not an improvement. So that’s a lot of assumptions.
If your LL says “Hey, I want to do all this renovation that will therefore increase your rent substantially” then voting it down makes a lot of sense.