We had a great afternoon in the lobby yesterday with 34 tenants calling Governor Hochul - on top of those who had already called on their own. And tenants in other buildings and organizations are calling too!
Saturday, December 9, 2023
If you haven't called Gov. Hochul yet, do it this week!
We had a great afternoon in the lobby yesterday with 34 tenants calling Governor Hochul - on top of those who had already called on their own. And tenants in other buildings and organizations are calling too!
Thursday, December 7, 2023
We want to hear from you!
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Call Gov. Hochul this Friday - and join us in the lobby noon to 5
- call on your own: 518-474-8390, then #3, then #1, and tell her "Hi, I’m a New York City resident from 10025, and I urge Governor Hochul to make this a happy holiday for all tenants by signing S2980, S2943, S1684 and S995 now! These bills will keep rent-stabilized apartments available and affordable statewide at honest rents, with known landlords."
- call through the computer.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Happy Thanksgiving!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING !
- Having a roof over
our heads,
- Being part of a
strong tenant association that has kept rents affordable for those in
stabilization and is working to get rents affordable for market rate
tenants,
- Having wonderful
friends and a community of support in the building and the neighborhood,
and
- Having something
to eat.
New Regulations do more than just regulate "Frankensteined" apartments
Sunday, October 29, 2023
New Regulations on "Frankensteining" May Discourage "Warehousing" apartments
Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing Wins
New Regulations That Retain Affordable Housing
for New York City
The new NYS Homes and Community Renewal regulations are a good start, but
state bills need to be signed by Governor Hochul now to make the changes more
comprehensive and permanent
New York, NY — With a lot of hard work, testifying, and campaigning, the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing, a New York City tenant and advocacy group, has helped win new regulations at the New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) agency to close a loophole in the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA). The new regulations — which take effect November 8 — will enable New York City to retain more of its affordable, rent-regulated housing. We urge Governor Hochul to sign S2980/A6216 to make the changes more comprehensive and permanent.
Through that loophole in the HSTPA, owners have been able to set a new, market-rate first rent on rent-stabilized homes by combining adjacent, formerly affordable, regulated apartments into single large “Frankensteined” monsters at sky-high rents.
The loophole has encouraged landlords to warehouse vacant rent-regulated apartments —sometimes for years — in the hope of Frankensteining them later when an adjacent apartment becomes empty.
In one building, for example, an empty stabilized apartment (rent: about $850 a month) was combined with an unregulated market-rate apartment directly above it (rent: about $3,000 a month). The result was a duplex apartment advertised on Streeteasy.com for $13,000 per month and the removal of yet another affordable apartment from New York City’s housing stock.
The practice of Frankensteining — combining separate, adjacent apartments into one single larger apartment — has made an untold number of affordable apartments unavailable throughout the city.
Frankensteining has converted almost entire buildings in stable, affordable communities into extremely high-rent buildings, often with a rotating cast of tenants who cannot afford to stay long term.
Estimates from the city and others put the range of warehoused, vacant rent-stabilized apartments in New York City anywhere from 13,000 to 60,000 — with all of those apartments sitting empty during an unprecedented housing crisis. (Unfortunately and shamefully, the city and state don’t maintain accurate data on rent-regulated apartment vacancies.)
Tenant Sue Susman of Stellar Tenants for Affordable Housing said, “These new regulations may make a big difference in my building where the landlord is keeping 13 rent-stabilized apartments off the market — and has already Frankensteined 4 others. So many people need those affordable homes, and most of the vacant apartments need little more than a coat of paint.”
Cooper Square Committee organizer Jodie Leidecker said, “It’s a shame that it’s taken almost five years since the passage of the HSTPA to close this loophole, and countless truly affordable apartments have been permanently lost to high rents. It’s not a case of too little too late, but when we talk about preservation, this was an obvious no-brainer. Most buildings I’ve worked with since the passage of the HSTPA have experienced Frankensteining. We hope these rules help tenants in mostly affordable rent-stabilized apartments feel slightly more protected from predatory real estate interests instead of just being sitting ducks.”
In response to the ongoing advocacy of the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing and other tenants and tenant groups, New York State’s housing agency proposed these regulations, and they should make a difference. The new regulations, which clarify the HSTPA’s intent, say that the new rent of a Frankensteined apartment must be the last legal rents added together (plus any “individual apartment increases” capped at $85 over 15 years and normal Rent Guidelines Board increases). So that $13,000 rent seen above would be more like $5,000, and the apartment would stay rent stabilized.
Moreover, landlords who created those vacancies by harassing tenants out, or by fraud or evasion, may be entitled to no increase at all.
Tenant Edward Ratliff from East 26th Street: “These regulations can potentially really help our city have more affordable, regulated apartments. Unfortunately, the changes come too late for my building, where a large percentage of the affordable apartments have already been lost to Frankensteining.”
By discouraging Frankensteining, the new regulations will preserve existing affordable housing in the midst of the one of the greatest housing shortages New York has ever seen.
We thank the many tenants who worked hard to demand these changes, and we are glad the New York State Homes and Community Renewal enacted these long overdue new regulations.
#####
Sunday, October 8, 2023
Rally this Thursday at noon - and Call/Email the Governor!
RALLY THIS THURSDAY OCT. 12 at NOON
Join Central Park Gardens tenants going to
633 Third Avenue, between 40th & 41st Street.
We’ll meet at 11:15 in the lobby here.
and
Urge her to sign 4 bills* that will
· End Frankensteining by keeping combined apts. affordable!
· Fairly calculate rent overcharges.
· Ease housing surveys to let upstate areas get rent stabilization
· Expose secret landlords hiding behind LLCs (limited liability corporations).
Read the Memo we're delivering to the Governor and watch the video
Monday, October 2, 2023
Link to order your car from the garage
Monday, September 18, 2023
Urge Gov. Hochul to sign tenant bills NOW!
Call Gov. Hochul's office. Click here to do it through your computer, or just dial 518-474-8390. You can email her too. Tell her,
Tenants need you to sign S2980, A4047, A6843 and A 3484 to keep more rent stabilized apartments available
- at honest rents
- by landlords known to their tenants, and
- enable more municipalities to decide whether they want the same.
Please sign them as soon as they cross your desk! Thank you.
- S2980 (Frankensteining, fraud, subst. rehab, succession)
- A4047 (calculate rent overcharges going forward)
- A6843 (landlords must respond to vacancy surveys so municipalities can decide whether to join rent stabilization)
- A3484 (transparency for limited liability corporations)
Wear a Frankenstein costume (or not), and let's urge the Governor to sign those bills when they cross her desk!
SUMMARY OF THE SEPT. 14, 2023 MEETING
- Our annual Halloween fundraiser will be on Saturday, October 28 in the lobby. Volunteers are needed for the 5-6 pm slot, and your gifts of individually wrapped candy is welcome. Leave it with the doorman for Rosa Delgado in 2T.
- The US Supreme Court will likely decide in the next couple of weeks whether to take the case of landlords claiming that rent regulation "takes" their property without compensation. In the past, all 9 justices (including Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia - the Court's most conservative justices), ruled that states can regulate property use including by rent regulation.
- NYC is funding some more "Shape Up NYC!" classes, like those that Jodi Brockington taught before the pandemic. We may get 2 classes: one strenuous one evening, and another less strenuous, possible during the day. (She will not be teaching them.)
- The Park West History Group is planning an evening on how tenants have shaped our buildings and neighborhood. If you have old documents from this building - particularly about our getting a tax break early on - please let Sue know: sue.susman [at ] gmail.com.
- HEAT season begins Oct. 1 and runs through May 31.
Thursday, August 31, 2023
Sen. Hoylman-Sigal at our Tenant Meeting THURS. 9/14 at 8 PM
COME HEAR AND ASK QUESTIONS OF
STATE SENATOR BRAD HOYLMAN-SIGAL
at our TENANT MEETINGand other state issues.a. S2943/A4047 (Kavanagh, Dinowitz) (calculating overcharges)b. S2980/A6216 (Kavanagh, Rosenthal) (Frankensteining, fraud definition, succession, substantial rehab)c. S1684A/A6843 (Hinchey, Clark) (vacancy surveys out of NYC)
Sunday, August 6, 2023
Sad News: Frank Leonardo has died
The
Central Park Gardens Tenants’ Association mourns the loss of long-time tenant, photographer, friend, and man of wonderful
humor and impish intelligence,
FRANK LEONARDO
who
died on July 22, 2023 .
Frank was known to many of his neighbors for generously fixing computer problems and donating pieces - and even entire computers - from his collection of electronics.
We extend our condolences to his wife Barbara Garson and to their extended family.
A memorial will be held on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023 from 2-5 PM in the Community Room.
Thursday, May 18, 2023
Summary of May 17, 2023 meeting of the Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association
- 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.
- 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.
"NO RULES-NO REGULATIONS- NO ACCOUNTABILITY" needs to stop.
Friday, April 21, 2023
A terrible bill in the state senate. Just say NAY!
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Rent Guidelines Bd proposing 16% increase! Take Action!
- 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.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Bring Back Mitchell-Lamas! (NY Daily News Op Ed)
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
8 PMTHURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2023*in the COMMUNITY ROOM
to vote for treasurer and 2 board members
and
to hear
*This is a change from the original date of March 15, 2023.
Friday, February 17, 2023
Thurs., Feb. 23: Learn basic CPR
CPR class
taught by
The FDNY Mobile CPR Training Unit
THURSDAY, FEB. 23, 2023
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)