[May 2005]
Fair warning. I have some accumulated very
parochial gripes I expect to vent, among other
things, here. For starters:
The Village Voice declared the owner of 51-53
Leroy Street and a vast portfolio of other downtown
residential buildings one of NYC's 10 worst landlords
a few years ago. The NYTimes ran a long B section lede
piece a year or two later on his purchase of two upper
East Side buildings; he'd promptly started eviction
proceedings against the numerous rent-stabilized
longtime tenants, asserting that he planned to convert
the buildings into a private residence for his family,
immediate and extended. This, after all, wasn't just
down there in the Village–this was <gasp> Timesturf.
If the NYT ever did a follow-up I missed it. I've heard
distant rumblings of state attorney general's office
interest in his business practices over the years,
but proceedings never take off. You have to figure
that in a real estate market as hot as Manhattan,
any owner who mounts permanent Apartment for Rent
signs on his buildings [small sampling of snapshots,
including a possible S.O.S. from Bleecker and Cornelia,
at end] isn't doing much to keep tenants happy,
much less to foster stable communities.
The building where this window-pane guillotine [photo
left, the condition since June 2005] hangs outside a
vacant fourth-floor apartment [above photo, at top
center] is 53 Leroy. Pedestrians would have to cross
the street–or at least step into the street–and carefully
examine the facade of a run-of-the-mill tenement to notice
the menace.
The owner's office has been notified repeatedly. I showed the
Sixth Precinct desk sergeant a photo when I lodged a complaint
in May. I even blocked the sidewalk with some borrowed yellow
caution tape one summer morning. That didn't last long.
When a gust finally dislodges the pane and the head of
some passerby gets split in two, my conscience won't be
clear. Only removal of the hazard would do that. Meanwhile,
I detour into the street. Despite a discreet–so it won't
be disappeared too–caution notice on either side of the
danger area (one is taped to the post of the No Parking
sign where the bikes are locked, above), scores of other
pedestrians walk innocently through it day after day.
< update, 3 November > The skewed guillotine blade
disappeared sometime yesterday or today. Since I've heard nothing
of a head-splitting. it's entirely possible that workmen cleaning
out the apartment removed it. That larger sheet of glass with the
arched bottom still hangs overhead, but looks more securely in
place than the precariously wedged pane did.
< update, 14 November > Hal did a lot of paperwork for
FEMA to get that A.C. after the WTC attack. I'll never fathom the
casual disregard that allows a condition like this to persist.
< update, 3 February 2006 > Mmm, well, I don't think I have any snaps, but workmen installed new windows a few weeks ago. Hazard removed finally, problem solved.
