Occupy East 4th Street: 2013

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Something Shady Afoot?

The rent stabilized tenants of 118, 120 and 122 East 4th St are no longer receiving rent invoices according to the Westminster Mgmt agents. They announced they are going Green. They have a website set up for tenants to log into to pay rent, and to schedule repairs etc. Sounds like a great idea. This service however is only available to the market rate tenants. This "Green" service is not for the rent stabilized or SCRIE tenants. Calls to the Mgmt office have confirmed this. We are just to send our rent to the usual address without any invoice, or invoice number to keep the records straight. Sounds shady. Here is the login page of the website that is blocked.

Westminster is owned by Jared Kushner. He purchased our buildings from Ben Shaoul. This is Mr. Kushner pictured with his wife Ivanka Trump.

Here is a copy of the letter with the details of the "go green initiative".

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Rent Stabilized Apartment For Rent

There are Apts for rent in 118 and 120 East 4th St. There are always Apts for rent here. Seems Magnum only offered 6 month or 1 year leases. Some tenants got $400 increases on the rent and had to leave. Websites offering the Apts contain misleading info. Some real estate sites refer to them as "Condos" for rent. Reading a bit on this subject one finds this is code for "things are not going well" in terms of getting a renter. The false terms "Condo" and "Condo touches" are used to entice and seduce.
Apartment 21 is available for $2700. The rent before renovation was $800. If one looks at the DOB website, one can find the budget for the renovation. We have done the math and with the renovation cost, and vacancy fee factored into the equation, the legal rent should be no more than $2000 a month which keeps it in Rent Stabilized territory. The next renter might be lucky and get a rent stabilized Apt if they do their homework. Check the rent history and challenge the illegal rent. The pix of the apartment space displayed on half a dozen real estate sites are a bit creepy. They show the previous tenants personal items. They were taken without the knowledge or permission of those tenants.

Magnum Real Estate regularly entered the renovated apartments without the tenant's consent. They were observed doing this multiple times, often rifling through, and fingering the tenants personal items, leaving behind dirty foot prints and hand marks on surfaces and walls. The next 2 photographs show one such instance.

We believe that our former Super was fired because he refused to let these guys into the apartments of tenants that were not at home.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

RIP Taylor Mead

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Open House

There was an Open House sign on the front door of 120 East 4th. Not sure which Apt is available, unless the new Mgmt has put a stop to the illegal hotel that flourished under the Shaoul Regime. Meanwhile in 118 some aggressive Christians were determined to gain access to the building. Their agenda was to bring meaning to our lives. I told them meaning was not required, but a life free of Corporate tyranny and Real Estate greed run amok would be welcomed.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Aftermath

Some photos of the aftermath of the Mono + Mono fire. Some of the apartments in 114 East 4th next door are uninhabitable from the blast and fire damage. This is visible in the second photo.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Mono + Mono Backlash

Someone has an axe to grind.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

It's Official, Magnum and East 4th St. Split

This letter was posted in the lobby of 118 East 4th St with scotch tape on Thursday April 18th. What is especially strange about this letter, is the fact that after nearly 2 years of letters from the Mgmt, this is the first letter to have a date, a name, a signature, and correct, honest, and useful information.

Its official, Ben Shaoul and East 4th street are to part ways.

Explosion and Fire on East 4th St.

Last night, April 20th, there was an explosion on the roof of the Mono + Mono Restaurant. A fireball went 6 floors up in the air. We all ran out of our buildings to see what happened and to save our skins. We didn't actually know what had happened until we were out on the street. Flames continued to leap above the 6th floor of 118. When the NYFD arrived the fire was put out swiftly. The blast was on the roof in the back of the 1 story building, and it shattered the windows of the building directly behind it, which is the Hells Angels residence. Some said that 2 floor of Hells Angels building were in flames. This morning there is plywood covering those glassless windows.
I believe the explosion occurred at about 12:45am. We were able to get back into our apartments at around 2:30am.

This is looking down onto the roof of Mono + Mono.

The boarded windows of the Hells Angels building.

I must give a shout out to the New York City Fire Dept. They were on it fast and took care of it. They were all down right friendly and more than kind and helpful to those of us stressed out and freezing of the street. They stuck around for quite a while and were back this morning checking it all out again. Can't say enough good things about them.