January 25, 2006
Like many New Yorkers, I live in a rent-stabilized apartment owned by a huge slumlord corporation. Like many New Yorkers, waiting for the slumlord to do even the simplest maintenance—like fixing a broken bathroom sink—takes forever. For example, a fat plumber came one Friday in early December to fix the shower, and said he'd be back on Monday to fix the sink. That was over 45 days ago, and he hasn't returned, despite repeated calls to the slumlord's office.
So that's why I was excited to hear about this new website that profiles slumlords. It's just started up, but I can imagine it will be filled with invective about all those creepy evil slumlords who fail to provide heat or repair stuff or leave scaffolding in front of the building for months at a time without doing any work. Sound familiar?
This new website also has links to some useful sites, like the New York City HPD and New York State DHCR as well as tenant.net, all filled with helpful information for you to wallow in your rent-stabilized misery.
A report by Housing Here & Now identified 12 landlords included on the HPD's "problem-owner list" as financing their properties with mortgages from New York Community Bank. Maybe it's time to visit the bank on behalf of your slumlord?
Tags:
landlord, slumlord, tenant, website
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Posted on 1/25/2006
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January 16, 2006
It's hilarious that even in its retirement, the MTA won't discuss the money train, that yellow train often seen late at night in subway stations, from which the armed money men would get out to grab the cash from the token booths and then quickly return to their rolling dollar redoubt. The New York Post has a nice farewell story today: The "money train," the secret train that travels the city's subway lines in the early hours of each night collecting cash from station booths, completed its final run Saturday morning. "It's a great loss for the city and for transit, and we're going to miss it," said one longtime money train worker. "Now we'll make all the pickups with armored trucks, and we'll have to be stuck in traffic like everyone else."
The official denial of the train's existence or demise is pure MTA, the usual nonsense and pseudo-secretive bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo: "We do not discuss the money train," said James Anyansi, a transit spokesman. "And we will not say whether it is still running." Well, James, the Soviet Union would have been proud of your sercrecy. But the secret is out: your train has gone to the great railroad graveyard in the sky.
Tags:
money train, mta
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Posted on 1/16/2006
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January 06, 2006
Up to $1500/hour for ladies that were allegedly dispatched around the world, reports the Associated Press: An indictment alleged the service made $13.5 million in the last four years by attracting a wealthy clientele that included lawyers, Wall Street brokers and other professionals.
Tags:
manhattan, prostitution ring
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Posted on 1/6/2006
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January 04, 2006
Can such a thing really happen? A Brooklyn man choked his sister to death during an argument over how loud she was playing her television, police said. You might ask how a 27-year-old man can kill his 28-year-old sister over something this ridiculous. You might ask: isn't that a typo? He was 7 and she was 8, right? Wrong.
The story gets even more shocking:
After she collapsed, the suspect called 911, but pretended he had found his sister unconscious, police said.
Later, according to police sources, the suspect admitted to detectives from the 73rd Precinct that he had killed his sister.
As Goldwire was being readied for arraignment, detectives from the same precinct were looking for the gunman who killed store worker Amadou Sawou, 45, during a botched robbery on Tuesday afternoon.
Police said Sawou was alone inside Jack's Sportswear on Belmont Avenue in Brownsville, when the suspect walked in and demanded money.
Sawou resisted, sparking a struggle, police said. During the struggle, Sawou was shot once in the chest and staggered outside, where he collapsed.
The suspect fled empty-handed.
Tags:
kill your television
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Posted on 1/4/2006
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