Feeling furry on the Southbound 1 train at Columbus Circle. Photo by Jordan Cooper taken at noon on Friday.
February 1, 2016 Weather: Afternoon showers expected, with a high of 52 degrees.
Notices:
Meditation, tango, meetings, and readings will calm your heart, or get it racing this week. Check out dozens of local events on our calendar.
Donate books to an under-resourced public school library through the JCC.
News:
A death last year at the Comfort Inn on West 71st street has been ruled a homicide. “The death of a New Jersey man in an Upper West Side hotel has been ruled a homicide — and two men who used drugs with him during sex could be charged, police sources said Wednesday.”
The West End Secondary School on West 61st street has been able to arrange a lease extension, a win for prospective UWS middle school parents. “The School Construction Authority said it would not begin the $40 to $50 million in improvements needed to make the building appropriate as a shared space for middle and high schoolers until a lease was signed. A ‘handshake’ agreement was made to extend the lease until 2035, meaning construction can begin this summer, Rosenthal said. The official papers will be signed in the coming weeks, she added.”
Seniors told the mayor last week that they need affordable housing on the UWS as soon as possible. “Many of the seniors at the meeting told the mayor they are concerned they will be homeless long before the housing becomes available, because landlords are pushing them out now.”
Many Manhattan property owners, on the Upper West Side and elsewhere, wouldn’t rent to black people in the late 1950’s. Harry Belafonte, who is still an Upper West Sider, found a way around the discrimination. “Back in 1958, Mr. Belafonte, who was the first recording artist to sell more than a million LPs, was turned away from one Manhattan apartment after another. And he was furious. So he sent his publicist, who was white, to rent a four-bedroom apartment in the building at 300 West End Avenue. His publicist passed on the paperwork, and Mr. Belafonte signed the one-year lease in his own name. Within hours of moving in, Mr. Belafonte said, the building’s manager “became aware that he had a Negro as a tenant.” The building’s owner asked him to leave. Mr. Belafonte refused. Instead, he bought the building, using dummy real estate companies to cloak his identity.” Later he rented the penthouse to Lena Horne. Read the whole story here.
Shakespeare in the Park will feature “Taming of the Shrew” and “Troilus and Cressida” this summer. “The production of ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ a comedy in which gender is central, and problematic, will feature an all-female cast, including Cush Jumbo, best known as Lucca Quinn on TV’s ‘The Good Wife,’ as Katherina, and Janet McTeer, who won a Tony Award for ‘A Doll’s House,’ as Petruchio.”
A film about Symphony Space co-founder and artistic director Isaiah Sheffer, who died in 2012, debuted at the Jewish Film Festival. “The documentary includes vintage interviews with Sheffer as he amusingly recalls the creation of his signature projects, which included Bloomsday on Broadway, an annual marathon reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses; Selected Shorts, featuring well-known authors and performers reading celebrated short stories; and the Thalia Follies, a political cabaret series. His ebullient personality shines through, especially in a television show segment in which he expertly demonstrates how to make the perfect egg cream.”
It’s exhausting hearing about seniors and their “affordable housing” problems.
There are no landlords “pushing them out”. In fact, just the opposite is happening. Landlords are offering these people tons of cash as an incentive to vacate.
Furthermore, there are no seniors who are suddenly – or under any threat of – becoming “homeless” because of rising rents as it is virtually impossible for a landlord to evict a rent controlled/stabilized tenant.
By portraying himself as some kind of protector of seniors DeBlasio is simply exploiting the situation for cheap political gain.
The only people who truly have an “affordable housing” problem are young middle-class families paying bloated market rate rents that support these seniors.
Shamir, you sound angry. Are you upset because you can’t afford the rent in Manhattan, and blaming it on seniors and other rent stabilized tenants?
Wrong again, Shamir. I’m a senior citizen, and I was offered cash to leave the stabilized 1 BR I’ve lived in for over 40 years. It sounded like a lot of money, but in this real estate market, it wasn’t. It wasn’t enough to buy a studio. So, my wife and I stayed. And we’re still there; I’m sure our landlord would love for us to leave, but he’s just gonna have to wait. He’s in a win/win situation. By the time we’re gone, it’ll be worth even more.
your landlord is in a win/win situation? LOL. He actually invested in this neighborhood by buying a property yet you live in his property and deprive him on a full return on his investment (and cost him tens of thousands of dollars of income a year). If you could just take yourself out of your entitled mindset for a moment you’d also see that you are a burden and drain on your landlord. If you can’t afford the UWS, move somewhere you can afford. Living in Manhattan is no “right” and though I’m not a landlord, I can really sympathize with yours and all the rest who deal with stabilized tenants.
So you’ve been living for over 40 years in a rent stabilized apartment and you haven’t been able to put aside any money?
Now your landlord offers you a bucket of cash to leave and you’re still complaining?
Don’t cry to me. You won’t get my sympathy.
Dear Shamir: It’s EXHAUSTING to, yet again, explain the predicament of seniors. 1)Most live on fixed income – i.e. can’t produce the increases passed along to them -BECAUSE THEY CAN NO LONGER WORK AND PRODUCE INCOME. didn’t put enough away while they did work; but did not count on crazy rate of inflation. 2) Don’t mix up your dislike of Mr. De Blasio with a severe shortage of affordable housing. that one belongs to Mr. Bloomberg who, during his terms of office,the last one clearly illegal . chose to IGNORE the problem by catering to landlords and builders.3) You are correct in mentioning middle class families BECAUSE THERE IS A DEARTH OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING OVERALL, PARTICULARLY IN MANHATTAN.
I am personally and publicly offended by Shamir’s comments. It’s the elderly people who reside in our neighborhoods who’ve staked everything in the community, who’ve founded block associations to make the streets safer, who’ve planted lovely flowers to make the streets and parks more lovable, who’ve stayed and served. I think you are a transient sort who has no roots in the community and cares not a whit about your neighbors. I’m tired of reading about the selfishness of older people who live in rent-controlled or rent-stabilized apartments. You’re exhausted? Shame on you.
I think Shamir is spot on and I’m an owner and have lived on the UWS for years and years.
You’re an owner??? Well, that says it all! Aren’t you lucky!
thank you Martha. i think Shamir is just “trolling” — immaturely saying ignorant things to annoy other people. that someone would spend his time this way is just sad.
@Shamir… Really?? Tired of hear senior citizens affordable housing complaints?!! How old are you? If you’re not a senior or don’t have a parent who is one who lives in the city on a fixed income… Don’t complain!!! Hopefully we all grow to a ripe old age! And frankly, it’s very unfortunate this city and in fact this country doesn’t give as much attention to the elderly as it should! Too youth oriented!!
Shamir – Guess it depends…
For example, in my building, folks in the 25-40 year demographic who are moving in are much wealthier than most of the other residents. The 25-40 folks are in finance, media and don’t seem to have an affordability problem as they have completely renovated and often combined apartments, big SUVs for the family, many have second homes, etc. Not too long ago it was a building of the middle class – professors, musicians etc – but no longer.
Actually a significant reason for high market rate is the snowballing effect of the huge expansion of the super luxury market (for example, One57 or High Line/Chelsea luxury etc) especially for very affluent who don’t actually live in NYC.
sounds like someone that despises old people
Please be UWS-er2 or something. I’ve been UWS-er on here for a while. Thanks.
No, it’s just reality.
exactly.
I wonder what Mr. Belafonte paid for the building back then.
He got it for a song.
Cute!
Excellent.
Housing is absolutely a problem for seniors. Many/most who live in rent controlled apartments are in walk-ups & become trapped in their apartments. When they try to find a place to move there is nothing that is the same rent. And don’t say move to the outer boroughs – there aren’t even apartments at that level rent (say $150-500 – even up to $800). Anywhere. I’ve looked. And PLENTY of landlords pressure seniors to move out. They don’t do repairs, they “lose” rent checks, etc… and yes, it is difficult to evict a senior in a rent controlled/stabilized apartment, but imagine the effort for a senior to fight that?! And let’s not think of the “seniors” who are 65-75 (70 is the new 50, you know). Many/most of these seniors are 80 & above & are frail and often homebound (see above). Also, many/most get by on only their social security. Not all get pensions. These are not the seniors who spend their weekends at the 92nd St Y. The poverty level, and level of food insecurity for seniors is huge in this city (https://www.citymeals.org/food-for-thought/the-elderly-and-malnutrition). Why not let them move into apartments that are more appropriate for them – senior housing, buildings with elevators, etc & live out their lives in peace?
A lot of these walk-ups you refer to are ugly, decrepit, unsafe and inefficient.
They should have been torn down years ago so new and modern apartments could be built in their place.
Unfortunately, these walk-ups can’t be torn down and replaced because they are stuffed with rent-controlled tenants. Landlords let these buildings get run down because they don’t have any economic incentive or cash flow to properly maintain them. These buildings become eyesores and quality of life issues.
If the market was allowed to function properly these old walk-ups would be replaced with more efficient buildings. This would increase supply, therefore lowering housing prices for EVERYONE – seniors, middle class, etc…
A lot of these walk up buildings are also brownstones. And the ones that are about 5 stories high are not mostly decrepit. They may be old but not all run down. And no, they should not be town down! And no they are not “stuffed” with rent controlled tenants. In fact, a lot of these building have students living in them. 3, 4 or 5 of them in 1 and 2 bedroom apts.
I’m not talking about old brownstones.
If you go to Amsterdam and Columbus in the 80s and 90s you will see hideous old buildings. Nobody considers these architectural gems worth saving.
Besides, you just proved my point. If these old buildings are full of young students stuffed 5 people in a two bedroom – while seniors in rent controlled apartments are oftentimes paying a pittance for apartments that are usually much larger than they actually need – then something is terribly dysfunctional with NYC’s rent laws.
Shamir – just wondering. What is your plan? Where would you move these seniors? It’s great to tear down the decrepit apartments – and I’ll even give you the “landlords not getting enough money” argument (Although with SCRIE they do get tax credits.) But what’s your solution? Where should they go?
There is no need to “move them” anywhere. They can decide where they can afford to live. Maybe a cheaper town in the midwest or south or upstate. They are not tied to jobs in NYC and while they might want to remain here we all want things we don’t get because we can’t afford them. I have respect for the elderly but do not feel that needs to include me subsidizing them to live in one of the priciest zip codes in the country if their personal finances don’t support that. The money should be spend on infrastructure, education and other necessities – not keeping populations in places they can’t afford. If you can only afford $500 in rent then you live where rent is $500. If you have $2000 for a vacation, you vacation where it will cost $2000. In an ideal world we could all afford what we want when and where we want it – but the reality is that resources are limited.
Shamir & Anonymous – the bigger picture – what I mentioned earlier – is that there Are No Apartments available at the rents that seniors who are in rent controlled/stabilized apartments pay. None. Not in all the city. And trust me – I have looked. I had a client trapped in her apartment which was a walk up in horrible condition. We could not find an apartment in all of the 5 boroughs that she could afford given her fixed income (had worked as a caregiver; very little social security).And again – remember that these are not the seniors who are able to get around, have big pensions, savings, etc. These are the old old (80s & 90s) and the unseen poor -and there are a lot more of them in this city than you think. And in terms of moving out of the city/state… think about living in a city and access to transportation. Outside the city people need to drive. It’s not all that simple.
First, I would like to commend your work with the elderly.
I would like to add that you concede that there are wealthy seniors out there. Just because someone is a senior it doesn’t automatically mean that they’re poor and can’t afford to pay rent.
My wife has a relative who is a retired doctor and very wealthy who has lived for decades in a giant rent-controlled apartment on Central Park West. He’s a heckuva nice guy, but it’s situations like his that cause inefficiencies and price distortions and contribute to the housing affordability crisis for everyone else.
Perhaps if someone is elderly and truly indigent a better way to house such a person is to move them to a safe but less expensive part of the city and for the city to provide a stipend to help with the rent – as it already does for poor people.
to anonymous:
but elderly who have lived here for years have been paying taxes all that time.
thus, generally speaking, the elderly have paid taxes longer than us younger folks.
so from that standpoint, seems that the elderly are actually entitled to remain in NYC.
Your comments are 100% correct, my friend.
What you are stating is simple common sense and Economics 101.
Unfortunately, it ain’t very politically correct to speak this way – in NYC at least.
Everybody knows that rent regulation is an unmitigated disaster but no NYC politician has the balls to phase it out.