The Curmudgeon of Rivington Street
February 17, 2024 1:39 PM Subscribe
As his apartment on the Lower East Side crumbled, a former Club Kid resented the moneyed millennials who filled his building. Then he let them in on a secret that transformed their lives. (NYTimes gift link)
tl;dr the neighbors' apartment was actually rent-controlled
posted by Rash at 2:31 PM on February 17 [18 favorites]
posted by Rash at 2:31 PM on February 17 [18 favorites]
The reduced rent provided freedom for Ms. Kieu to leave her job at BlackRock. “I can explore what I want to do,” she said.
Man...imagine how many less people would need their stupid fake "project management" jobs at evil investment firms if they weren't so burdened by housing costs.
posted by windbox at 2:35 PM on February 17 [30 favorites]
Man...imagine how many less people would need their stupid fake "project management" jobs at evil investment firms if they weren't so burdened by housing costs.
posted by windbox at 2:35 PM on February 17 [30 favorites]
I can't quite understand how you'd doggedly defend living in an apartment for five hundred years and never tackle that pictured leaky pipe yourself.
posted by mittens at 2:42 PM on February 17 [8 favorites]
posted by mittens at 2:42 PM on February 17 [8 favorites]
I can't quite understand how you'd doggedly defend living in an apartment for five hundred years and never tackle that pictured leaky pipe yourself.
Many leases contain a clause that says that renters are not allowed to attempt to make these repairs. That's why we keep pestering the landlord to fix things and that's why we're so screwed when they don't - they know that we are trapped and can't do it ourselves, so the only thing they risk by not doing things quickly is that a tenant (who may be stuck there because of a tight rental market) would be grumpy, but that's about it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:54 PM on February 17 [22 favorites]
Many leases contain a clause that says that renters are not allowed to attempt to make these repairs. That's why we keep pestering the landlord to fix things and that's why we're so screwed when they don't - they know that we are trapped and can't do it ourselves, so the only thing they risk by not doing things quickly is that a tenant (who may be stuck there because of a tight rental market) would be grumpy, but that's about it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:54 PM on February 17 [22 favorites]
PARTY MONSTER 2: PARTY OUT OF BOUNDS OF THE RENT CONTROL ORDINANCE
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 2:57 PM on February 17 [7 favorites]
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 2:57 PM on February 17 [7 favorites]
So glad that rent control is getting to the people who really need it: project managers at BlackRock.
posted by entropone at 3:05 PM on February 17 [26 favorites]
posted by entropone at 3:05 PM on February 17 [26 favorites]
I hope this generates some interest in and money for Former Club Kid - I bet he's a real memoir waiting to happen.
posted by Frowner at 3:26 PM on February 17 [6 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 3:26 PM on February 17 [6 favorites]
So glad that rent control is getting to the people who really need it: project managers at BlackRock.
Yes agreed, people who rent and are not part of the property owning investor class need rent control. Everyone should have rent control and affordable housing and stability regardless of whether they have a Millennial Person Email Job or whether they meet whatever stupid liberal means-tested standards of poverty that people deem sufficient, and watching a landlord get fucked brings me joy no matter who it is that is fucking them
posted by windbox at 4:15 PM on February 17 [36 favorites]
Yes agreed, people who rent and are not part of the property owning investor class need rent control. Everyone should have rent control and affordable housing and stability regardless of whether they have a Millennial Person Email Job or whether they meet whatever stupid liberal means-tested standards of poverty that people deem sufficient, and watching a landlord get fucked brings me joy no matter who it is that is fucking them
posted by windbox at 4:15 PM on February 17 [36 favorites]
Fun pedantic fact, the apartments in the article are described as rent-stabilized, because rent stabilization and rent control have two different and very specific meanings in the context of New York City, though they both fall into the broader category of rent regulated apartments (NYT article linked in the original; archive link).
As that article notes, there are only about 16,000 of the older rent-controlled apartments left (vs. 1M stabilized). Most people aren't going to care about the distinction, but it's a kinda fascinating bit of minutiae. (Also, I live in one of the 16,000, so I definitely care.)
posted by Pryde at 4:45 PM on February 17 [23 favorites]
As that article notes, there are only about 16,000 of the older rent-controlled apartments left (vs. 1M stabilized). Most people aren't going to care about the distinction, but it's a kinda fascinating bit of minutiae. (Also, I live in one of the 16,000, so I definitely care.)
posted by Pryde at 4:45 PM on February 17 [23 favorites]
I can't quite understand how you'd doggedly defend living in an apartment for five hundred years and never tackle that pictured leaky pipe yourself.
We can do repairs where I rent (assuming certain requirements are met) but good luck getting reimbursed. The law says you can deduct repair costs from your rent but they can also not renew your lease leaving you at the mercy of the courts and legal fees.
posted by JakeEXTREME at 4:47 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
We can do repairs where I rent (assuming certain requirements are met) but good luck getting reimbursed. The law says you can deduct repair costs from your rent but they can also not renew your lease leaving you at the mercy of the courts and legal fees.
posted by JakeEXTREME at 4:47 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
Fun pedantic fact, the apartments in the article are described as rent-stabilized
Thank you! I was wondering how rent control could possibly apply to the neighbors, and I haven't gotten to the part of the artilcle where it's explained yet. The misinformation posted in the second comment here had me confused.
posted by Umami Dearest at 5:24 PM on February 17 [3 favorites]
Thank you! I was wondering how rent control could possibly apply to the neighbors, and I haven't gotten to the part of the artilcle where it's explained yet. The misinformation posted in the second comment here had me confused.
posted by Umami Dearest at 5:24 PM on February 17 [3 favorites]
but they can also not renew your lease
With very limited exceptions, regulated apartments in NYC must provide renewal leases to all tenants.
posted by 1adam12 at 5:53 PM on February 17 [4 favorites]
With very limited exceptions, regulated apartments in NYC must provide renewal leases to all tenants.
posted by 1adam12 at 5:53 PM on February 17 [4 favorites]
Gen-x is now curmudgeon.....*snarl*
posted by brujita at 6:55 PM on February 17 [3 favorites]
posted by brujita at 6:55 PM on February 17 [3 favorites]
Oh, I'm old GenX, and I'm very much owning the curmudgeon thing. I curmudge with the best of them. In fact, let me do a little curmudging here.
As always, gay people are at the cutting edge of social trends, in this case, the disintegration of social support systems in old age. My generation of gay men has it bad right now; the AIDS epidemic literally decimated us, and left a whole lot of us dealing with chronic illness. So as the usual chronic illnesses of age catch up to us, our already-stressed support systems are failing.
Mr. Tyler-Leonard is fortunate to live in an area with decent social services and to have an apartment he can afford, despite his disability. Yeah, his floorboards are held together with duct tape and his pipes leak and his ceiling is coming down, but his situation is a lot better than a whole lot of other disabled people. But if he misses a step in his negotiations with either the landlord-company or his social services representatives, he's going to be homeless. And as his health declines and his living quarters become less livable, you can be sure he's going to miss a step somewhere.
So, two questions.
What the hell do we expect him, and people like him, to do?
If things are this bad for old people now, what do you think it'll be like when your generation, with your increased burden of pollution and disease, gets old?
posted by MrVisible at 7:38 PM on February 17 [18 favorites]
As always, gay people are at the cutting edge of social trends, in this case, the disintegration of social support systems in old age. My generation of gay men has it bad right now; the AIDS epidemic literally decimated us, and left a whole lot of us dealing with chronic illness. So as the usual chronic illnesses of age catch up to us, our already-stressed support systems are failing.
Mr. Tyler-Leonard is fortunate to live in an area with decent social services and to have an apartment he can afford, despite his disability. Yeah, his floorboards are held together with duct tape and his pipes leak and his ceiling is coming down, but his situation is a lot better than a whole lot of other disabled people. But if he misses a step in his negotiations with either the landlord-company or his social services representatives, he's going to be homeless. And as his health declines and his living quarters become less livable, you can be sure he's going to miss a step somewhere.
So, two questions.
What the hell do we expect him, and people like him, to do?
If things are this bad for old people now, what do you think it'll be like when your generation, with your increased burden of pollution and disease, gets old?
posted by MrVisible at 7:38 PM on February 17 [18 favorites]
You’d think his neighbors would take a bit of their rent savings and throw it his way to keep him housed and just sort of as a thank you for saving them literally thousands of dollars of month in rent.
posted by flamk at 8:10 PM on February 17 [14 favorites]
posted by flamk at 8:10 PM on February 17 [14 favorites]
I'm really fortunate to have a RS apartment in a nice modern building with (so far) no significant problems with management, but the rent is still enough that I still have to have a "real" job to pay for it. If I was ~$350/mo., boy...I don't know.
I've worked on a few housing cases in my time, and the shittiness and shamelessness of the smaller-scale NYC landlords simply cannot be overstated. (I also had to sue the debt collector for one of my landlords pro se, but that's another story.) Note that there is now a right to counsel in NYC housing court, but also a significant delay in getting one.
posted by praemunire at 8:36 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
I've worked on a few housing cases in my time, and the shittiness and shamelessness of the smaller-scale NYC landlords simply cannot be overstated. (I also had to sue the debt collector for one of my landlords pro se, but that's another story.) Note that there is now a right to counsel in NYC housing court, but also a significant delay in getting one.
posted by praemunire at 8:36 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
I've worked on a few housing cases in my time, and the shittiness and shamelessness of the smaller-scale NYC landlords simply cannot be overstated.
This was the part of the article that I found most interesting - the evolution/devolution of the ownership of the building until it because some anonymous asset in the portfolio of some anonymous financial entity that seeks maximisation of profit generating asset-izations. Through the cracks falls the one salient point (the status of the building (despite intentions to subvert that, through inadequate renovations! Always Be Grifting!) as rent-stabilised) that voids the building's usefulness as money-generating entity. Capitalism defeated by incompetence! Lame-ass grift saves tenants.
A pretty wild story, really. All in one building, the NYC real estate market of the last forty years, summarised.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:32 AM on February 18 [8 favorites]
This was the part of the article that I found most interesting - the evolution/devolution of the ownership of the building until it because some anonymous asset in the portfolio of some anonymous financial entity that seeks maximisation of profit generating asset-izations. Through the cracks falls the one salient point (the status of the building (despite intentions to subvert that, through inadequate renovations! Always Be Grifting!) as rent-stabilised) that voids the building's usefulness as money-generating entity. Capitalism defeated by incompetence! Lame-ass grift saves tenants.
A pretty wild story, really. All in one building, the NYC real estate market of the last forty years, summarised.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:32 AM on February 18 [8 favorites]
Fascinating. I think I'm in a rent stabilized building but I'm in my first year and haven't been able to get the city to confirm, so I guess we'll see what happens when the renewal comes around. I have a few friends that have managed lease takeovers and pay about 50% of market rate, and they definitely have a lot more flexibility in life. I'm a little envious.
I can't stand those pipes though. I guess I'm lucky that I grew up around people who fixed stuff and am not intimidated by basic repairs. There are probably other issues, but the parts duct taped together are maybe $20 and a half hour to fix. Letting it get to the point that it rots your floors is just, I dunno. How do you live with it? Yes it's the landlord's responsibility, but sometimes you need to just take care of your own situation for your own health and sanity.
Jesus though, why does housing have to be an asset used to squeeze money out of other people? Especially when you don't do the job of landlord, i.e. take care of maintaining the space, giving the building regular repair and upgrades, etc... I get that it's a crowded and desirable city, but the rents here, and nationally now really, are fucking insane.
posted by jellywerker at 5:39 AM on February 18 [3 favorites]
I can't stand those pipes though. I guess I'm lucky that I grew up around people who fixed stuff and am not intimidated by basic repairs. There are probably other issues, but the parts duct taped together are maybe $20 and a half hour to fix. Letting it get to the point that it rots your floors is just, I dunno. How do you live with it? Yes it's the landlord's responsibility, but sometimes you need to just take care of your own situation for your own health and sanity.
Jesus though, why does housing have to be an asset used to squeeze money out of other people? Especially when you don't do the job of landlord, i.e. take care of maintaining the space, giving the building regular repair and upgrades, etc... I get that it's a crowded and desirable city, but the rents here, and nationally now really, are fucking insane.
posted by jellywerker at 5:39 AM on February 18 [3 favorites]
In unrelated middle-aged gay new yorker real estate news: "For five years, a New York City man managed to live rent-free in a landmark Manhattan hotel by exploiting an obscure local housing law. But prosecutors this week said Mickey Barreto went too far when he filed paperwork claiming ownership of the entire New Yorker Hotel building — and tried to charge another tenant rent."
posted by mittens at 6:19 AM on February 18 [3 favorites]
posted by mittens at 6:19 AM on February 18 [3 favorites]
and haven't been able to get the city to confirm
You should be able to get this through the HRC web Portal..if that isn't working I've gone in person to visit a borough office and make an inquiry. Bring a copy of your lease.
https://hcr.ny.gov/contact-us
posted by 1adam12 at 6:40 AM on February 18 [5 favorites]
You should be able to get this through the HRC web Portal..if that isn't working I've gone in person to visit a borough office and make an inquiry. Bring a copy of your lease.
https://hcr.ny.gov/contact-us
posted by 1adam12 at 6:40 AM on February 18 [5 favorites]
Yes agreed, people who rent and are not part of the property owning investor class need rent control. Everyone should have rent control and affordable housing and stability regardless of whether they have a Millennial Person Email Job or whether they meet whatever stupid liberal means-tested standards of poverty that people deem sufficient, and watching a landlord get fucked brings me joy no matter who it is that is fucking them
Agreed, it speaks to a failure of scope of nonuniversal programs when these (falsely scarce) opportunities go to the wealthy, when the people whose labor invests in the city (the educators, health workers, civil servants) are pushed further toward precarity, toward the margins. Means testing sucks, universal programs only, but please allow me my grudge against systems in which limited social and economic benefits are captured by the very well off.
posted by entropone at 8:45 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]
Agreed, it speaks to a failure of scope of nonuniversal programs when these (falsely scarce) opportunities go to the wealthy, when the people whose labor invests in the city (the educators, health workers, civil servants) are pushed further toward precarity, toward the margins. Means testing sucks, universal programs only, but please allow me my grudge against systems in which limited social and economic benefits are captured by the very well off.
posted by entropone at 8:45 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]
Capitalism defeated by incompetence! Lame-ass grift saves tenants.
It's partially that the grift got so absurd that the rules were tightened up in 2019, catching some predatory landlords and their even-more-predatory financers off-guard, but it is very often a feature of capitalism that, even though obligations (as simple as keeping receipts!) are supposed to be transferred along with assets, no one bothers. Honestly surprised they didn't try faking 'em.
posted by praemunire at 9:00 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]
It's partially that the grift got so absurd that the rules were tightened up in 2019, catching some predatory landlords and their even-more-predatory financers off-guard, but it is very often a feature of capitalism that, even though obligations (as simple as keeping receipts!) are supposed to be transferred along with assets, no one bothers. Honestly surprised they didn't try faking 'em.
posted by praemunire at 9:00 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]
but sometimes you need to just take care of your own situation for your own health and sanity.
As someone up-thread pointed out, you are often prohibited from doing your own repairs, or at least certain kinds of repairs, in your lease. And it sounds like this guys situation is precariously balanced on top of meticulous adherence to the lease terms. This isn't unreasonable[1], especially things like electricity and plumbing where one well intentioned handyman can burn the building down or flood all the units below them. It's probably also stipulated in the insurance coverage the landlord (hopefully?) holds. And, this being New York, there's possibly some additional covenant that any electrical or plumbing work be done by a Union shop.
[1] Before someone tut-tuts me, it's the landlord not conducting repairs in a timely manner is the unreasonable part, not the requirement that repairs be done by a professional.
posted by kjs3 at 8:37 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]
As someone up-thread pointed out, you are often prohibited from doing your own repairs, or at least certain kinds of repairs, in your lease. And it sounds like this guys situation is precariously balanced on top of meticulous adherence to the lease terms. This isn't unreasonable[1], especially things like electricity and plumbing where one well intentioned handyman can burn the building down or flood all the units below them. It's probably also stipulated in the insurance coverage the landlord (hopefully?) holds. And, this being New York, there's possibly some additional covenant that any electrical or plumbing work be done by a Union shop.
[1] Before someone tut-tuts me, it's the landlord not conducting repairs in a timely manner is the unreasonable part, not the requirement that repairs be done by a professional.
posted by kjs3 at 8:37 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]
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