Thursday, May 18, 2023

Summary of May 17, 2023 meeting of the Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association

Summary of the May 17, 2023 Tenant Meeting

We began with a moment of silence for our late State Senator and City Council Member Bill Perkins who died two days ago. Then we heard from City Council Member Shaun Abreu.  
He talked about: 

RIGHT TO COUNSEL: Shaun is working to get $350 million funding to ensure that the Right to Counsel in Housing Court (RTC) is a reality and not just on paper.  If you go to Housing Court and you can't get a lawyer, (1) contact the Housing Court Answers desk in the courthouse, and (2) ask the judge for an adjournment until you get a lawyer. 
  • RENT GUIDELINES BOARD: Right now, the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) has no public hearings scheduled for Manhattan - aside from the preliminary vote and the final vote on June 21st). Shaun has co-signed a letter asking for a hearing in Manhattan, and opposing the RGB's proposed hikes of 2-5% for 1 year lease renewals and 4-7% for 2 year lease renewals.  YOU can contact the Rent Guidelines Board directly at ask@rgb.nyc.gov  and tell them
    • You can't afford a big increase.
    • The RGB shouldn't rely on 2021 data since it was a pandemic year, and the real estate market has bounced back for landlords. 
    • To make the same rate of profits they made in 1990, landlords needed the RGB to increase rents 203% since then. But the RGB has actually increased rents 220%.  So even with a dip in 2021, landlords are making a higher rate of profit. 
    • COME to the rally just over the Brooklyn Bridge this Saturday at 11 AM in Cadman Plaza. (C,2, or 3 trains to Cadman Plaza East).

  • WAREHOUSING:  Shaun is a co-sponsor of Intro. 195, a bill to reduce hazards in vacant apartments.  There is a hearing on that bill on TUESDAY, JUNE 6 at 1 PM at City Hall. The Stand for Tenant Safety/End Apartment Warehousing (we're a member) will have a rally in City Hall Park just before the hearing. Come: We need a lot of people!    In addition, Shaun plans to introduce a resolution to support Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal's new bill to tax rent-regulated apartments that are vacant for 6 months or more. 
  • RATS: In order to reduce rats, the city may be putting all garbage into sealed containers on the street, rather than just black bags. There will be a pilot project of containerization between 110th and 158th Streets, with containers near every school and on 10 residential blocks.  We also talked about the difficulty of sealing existing compost bins.  That said, if all our food and garden waste goes into compost, that leaves much less to go into the trash bags that are put outside.

We also talked about: 

PAYING OUR DUES:  We've made a change in how you can contribute money to the tenant association.  Please make your contribution ($10 per apartment per year for dues and the voluntary $100 toward our legal fund) 
  • at our meetings
  • at the fundraising tables we have a few times a year in the lobby
  • or give it to our treasurer Barbara Geller in Apt. 11T. You can also slide your check under her door if she's not home. 
When tenants were giving money to floor captains, copies of the receipts sometimes got lost and it was hard to balance our books!

PEDESTRIAN SAFETY as bikes (electric or not), scooters, etc. are on the sidewalk. The email below comes from a neighbor in another building on W. 97th Street.  Shaun Abreu mentioned the possibility of requiring licenses for ebikes so that summonses can be issued. 

​From a neighbor: ​PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION!!! Pedestrians deserve safe sidewalks and streets!!
Inline image


​"​NO RULES-NO REGULATIONS- NO ACCOUNTABILITY​"​ needs to stop.

LANDLORDS SUING TO END RENT STABILIZATION.   The associations that represent owners of rent stabilized housing have appealed to the US Supreme Court to end rent stabilization.  It's not clear that the Supreme Court will take the case. Among other things, this is a "states' rights" issue and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in its decision that "the case law is exceptionally clear that legislatures enjoy broad authority to regulate land use without running afoul of the Fifth Amendment's bar on physical takings."

ALBANY BILLS. Support these by clicking "Aye" on the bill's website. 

FRANKENSTEINING: S9280B​ and A6216A.  This bill would set the first rent of any combined ("Frankensteined") apartment at the last rent stabilized rent paid, increased by the same percent as the size is increased.  It is sponsored by State Senator Brian Kavanagh (head of the Senate's housing committee), along with all the Upper West Side senators: Hoylman-Sigal, Cleare, Jackson.   In the Assembly, it is sponsored by Housing Committee chair Linda Rosenthal. 

WAREHOUSING: A4455. This bill would tax rent-regulated apartments that are held vacant for 6 months or more. DHCR would presume that any rent stabilized or rent controlled apartment that the landlord hasn't registered with the state that year is vacant. 

One reason owners are warehousing apartments is to pressure the state legislature to roll back some of the tenant protections written into a permanent law in 2019.  To accomplish that, landlord associations have drafted S.6352 in the Senate and A6772 in the Assembly.  That bill would provide for enormous rent hikes when someone moves out of a rent stabilized apartment after 10 or more years.  We have to fight this!  When Albany made the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act permanent (the first permanent housing law in many years), they meant it.  

GOOD CAUSE: This would protect tenants who are NOT rent stabilized or rent controlled. It would offer tenants a defense in court if the landlord refuses to renew their lease and then tries to evict them, and would prevent enormous rent hikes. Governor Hochul does not support this bill, but she should.  The name stands for "No eviction without good cause."

Got questions, suggestions, or comments? Tell the Executive Committee or a Board Member of the tenant association. 

JOIN US!

The Executive Committee of the Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association

Sue Susman, 15T, president, sue [dot]  susman (at sign) gmail .  com
Jodi Brockington, 14C, vice president, niarajb \at\ gmail {d o t] com
Barbara Geller,11T  treasurer, barbarageller39 {At} gmail |dot\ com 
Denis Hayward, 7K, vice president, denis (dot) hayward \at\ gmail {dot] com
Patricia Jordan, 4R, vice president, pjordan0711 [at) gmail/dot/  com
Steve Koulish, 12C, vice president, eskoolman ~at~ yahoo [dot} com
Ray von Dohren, 4N, vice president, vondohren \at\ comcast {dot] net

Additional Board Members:

Rosa Delgado, 2T
Ayana Dixon, 11C
Debbie Gonzalez, 15G
Alexandra Martin, 6E
Alec Merber, 10G
Letty Orellano, 8T
John "Bones" Rodriguez, 11F
Maxine Soares, 15N

Thanks to Jodi Brockington for the photo. 


Friday, April 21, 2023

A terrible bill in the state senate. Just say NAY!


Sen. Leroy Comrie's bill would eat into the 2019 tenant protection law, ending
  • the caps on IAIs,
  • the ban on longevity increases, and even
  • vacancy deregulation.



Thursday, April 20, 2023

Rent Guidelines Bd proposing 16% increase! Take Action!


Email the Staff/Board/Chair of the Rent Guidelines Board to let them know
  • You can't afford the double-digit increases that the Rent Guidelines Board is talking about right now. 
  • Stellar obviously doesn't need the increase: It's already forgoing rents from the roughly 13 empty rent stabilized apartments it's refusing to offer for rent. 
  • Stellar is getting a lot of money from its 65 market-rate apartments. Their rent seems to be higher than the city-wide median (half tenants are paying more, half less) of $4,175. 
Do it today!

Image from Wikimedia Commons

 




Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Bring Back Mitchell-Lamas! (NY Daily News Op Ed)

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-restart-mitchell-lama-to-generate-more-housing-20230328-zblt2ptlhjcbvklldxkv56y7i4-story.html

OPINION

Restart Mitchell-Lama to generate more housing: 

No new legislation is needed to create homes for New Yorkers

The article points out these new developments would be 

  • built with 100% union labor 
  • on vacant land, so no one would be displaced
  • with existing financing mechanisms
  • without changing existing zoning.] 

 


Thursday, March 16, 2023

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Thursday, Mar. 16, 2023: Council Member Shaun Abreu at our meeting

Our next General Tenant Meeting will be

8 PM
THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2023*
in the COMMUNITY ROOM

to vote for treasurer and 2 board members 

and

to hear


OUR COUNCIL MEMBER SHAUN ABREU

_________

*This is a change from the original date of March 15, 2023.

Friday, February 17, 2023

Thurs., Feb. 23: Learn basic CPR


The tenant association presents a one-hour 

CPR class 

taught by 


The FDNY Mobile CPR Training Unit


THURSDAY, FEB. 23, 2023

at 1 PM 
in the Community Room

FREE to all tenants and building staff



The FDNY Foundation is proud to partner with NYC Service to fund the Be 911 Compressions Only CPR program.

The program equips New Yorkers with the skills to act in the event of cardiac arrest by offering free instruction across the five boroughs. The program, taught by certified FDNY EMS personnel, has successfully trained more than 50,000 New Yorkers in compressions-only CPR.

CPR, or Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation, is a life-saving technique that helps increase survival rates for victims of cardiac arrest. It works by maintaining blood flow to the heart and brain until help arrives.

CPR Training is free and convenient. You can register online for one of our session across the five boroughs. The FDNY Mobile CPR Unit will host bystander CPR Training sessions at your location for groups of 15 or more.

What we offer:

  • Basic instruction on how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED)
  • Certified FDNY EMS instructors
  • Compressions-only mannequins and “watch-while-practice” DVD instruction
  • Convenient locations throughout the New York City
  • Parting gifts: key fobs with CPR instructions and access to the Life Saver app, which guides users through the CPR process, locates nearby AEDs, and keeps beats for 105 compressions per minute (available for Iphone & Android)

Friday, January 27, 2023

Want to collect your compost but don't know how?

We have compost collection in our very own building!

On the ground floor in the trash room on each side of the building (just next to the elevators as you head to the side door) there are brown bins.

Click on the image below to see how to open and close the bin to lock in the odors that attract vermin. 




Keep your food scraps in the freezer in a plastic bag or container.  When it's full, empty the bag into the "organics collection" bin on the ground floor. Throw the plastic bag into the regular trash bin next to it.   Or bring the same bag bag upstairs to reuse for food scraps. 

IF we can make this work, perhaps we can persuade Stellar to put a brown bin on each floor to make things even easier.  But we have to show that we'll CLOSE THE LID properly. 

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Summary of the Jan. 18, 2023 Tenant Meeting

We had a good crowd!  (Thanks to Jodi Brockington for the photo.)







I. Announcements 

  • Come to our February 11, 2023 pre-Valentine's Day fundraiser in the lobby!  Probably 11 AM to 6 PM.  Contact the tenant association if you'd like to help, and give individually-wrapped goodies to Rosa Delgado in 2T in advance. 
  • Elevators:  Please email CPGTenAssoc@gmail.com or Tenant Association Vice President Denis Hayward at: Denis [dot] Hayward [at sign] gmail DOT com whenever you're in the elevator and it bounces or has some other problem.  We need hard data to make an effective complaint.  Please include the date and time, which elevator (they're numbered 1,2,3,4, starting from the east end of the building), and what the problem is. 
  • RiteAid is closing at the end of January.  (The company is distressed nationally, not just in NYC.) It will be transferring all prescriptions to the Duane Reade/Walgreen's on 94th Street and Columbus on January 31st. That Duane Reade's pharmacy is closed on weekends and may not honor refills past the first one. If you'd prefer another pharmacy, ask your doctor to send NEW prescriptions to that pharmacy.  
  • The notice from Stellar about submetering says if you have a problem with your electric bill, tell Stellar. It's the same notice we get every year, as required by the state.  You can complain to Stellar about the amount of the bill, request that the bills be "evened up" so you pay roughly the same amount each month, and more. They can't shut your electricity off if you have a medical issue that needs electricity.
  • The NYC Fire Department will present a 1-hour class on CPR (no mouth-to-mouth!) in our Community Room on Thursday, Feb. 23.  All tenants are welcome. 


II.  Tenant Association Election

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Tenants Meeting with MBP Mark Levine

8 PM
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18, 2023


Tenant Association Elections*

and hear
 

MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT
MARK LEVINE


Photo from https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/about/

in our Community Room on the ground floor 
with masks.
Bring a friend and a neighbor. 

*All dues-paying tenants are welcome to vote. 

If you DON'T live in the building, you're welcome, but please RSVP.