Zombie Renovations Are ComingLandlords are claiming that work completed decades ago is grounds to take a building out of rent regulation. What’s a tenant supposed to do?
ByClio Chang
the rent is too damn high
Are the Landlords Bluffing?They say thousands of rent stabilized apartments are too cheap and too far gone to rent. You’ll just have to take their word for it.
ByClio Chang
coronavirus
CDC Issues Eviction Moratorium Until Year’s EndIn a surprise move of sweeping scope, upwards of 40 million renters will be temporarily protected from evictions, though not from liability for rent.
Bushwick Hipsters Left Out in the ColdAnother battle in the never-ending war between Man and Landlord was fought this morning, when a large collection of young artists and hipsters gathered in front of 17-17 Troutman Street, a warehouse in Bushwick, to protest their abrupt eviction from the building. On October 18, they said, they were given ten hours’ notice to collect whatever belongings they could carry down the stairs (the service elevators had already been cut out) before the Fire Department broke down doors with sledgehammers and ordered them outside. Their landlord, David Steinberg, has been scarce since the trouble began. “I’ve talked to people who have talked to him,” ex-tenant Evan Greenfield said. “But he hasn’t returned my calls. He says he doesn’t want us to vilify him.” That hope was probably a tad unrealistic, as Steinberg had been signing up new leases mere days before the city deemed the building uninhabitable, citing fire-code violations.
the morning line
Free at Last, Free at Last
• What were we doing in the days before DNA testing? Well, apparently jailing busloads of innocent people, for one thing. The eighth — eighth! — New York State convict in thirteen months to be exonerated by DNA evidence was released yesterday after fifteen years in jail. [NYT]
• Both tabloids look at the State of the Union address through the eyes of Ceasar Borja Jr., the son of a WTC cop whom Hillary Clinton had flown to Washington. His father died of lung disease hours before Bush’s speech. [NYP, NYDN]
• It’s not exactly the Oscars, but a consortium of community activists got to nominate the city’s worst landlords last night. The runaway winner: Adam Mermelstein of TreeTop Development, who used fake inspectors with prop badges and invalid eviction papers to harass his tenants. [NYDN]
• Now this is a divorce case. Four children, $55 million in assets, $5 million in legal bills, and the heaviest dueling allegations in recent memory (kiddie porn and spousal rape versus drug addiction and mental disease). Welcome to Westport. [NYP]
• And you know you love the Mets a little too much when they have to take out a restraining order against you. An 18-year-old Piazza fan was barred from Shea for three years after faking a press pass to get closer to his idol. [amNY]
