The Trouble with Scaffolding

A scaffolding was erected in front on 118 and 120 East 4th St. in early July. They have painted the fire escapes on the front of the buildings. That was finished in a few short days, but the scaffold has remained in place for more than a month.

This is the scaffolding being erected the second week of July.

This tree and another were savaged, maimed, and butchered by the workers that assembled the scaffold. The Parks Dept. is the only agency that has the authority to prune the city's trees. This violation was reported to the Parks Dept.

Garbage began to accumulate quickly, and putrefy in the hot July sun.

This accumulation of garbage and debris is a violation and was reported.

Most days the ladder to the fire escape is down. It is often left like this and obviously compromises the safety of the tenants. Any common criminal strolling down East 4th St. has free access to our homes. Fortune East/Magnum Real Estate seem to have little regard for the safety and security of its tenants.

Broker Harassment

I'm posting this in response to Stardust's post "Liar Liar Pants On Fire". This morning I was approaching the building after doing some Saturday errands. There were two women out in front that looked like Real Estate Agents. I got to the door and one of then said to me, "I need to get into the building". No Hello, no introduction. I asked if they lived here and they said "No, we just have to get in". They were rude and refused to identify themselves, so I refused them entry. If they would have told me that they were Brokers I would have begrudgingly let them in. Here is a sign that was posted at 86 East 4th St. I think we need one.

Locked Out

There was a malfunction of the new technologically superior electronic surveillance/security key device. The power died and the door was not functional. No tenant could gain access to the building and their homes. The former key hole was plugged with a piece of metal, so using the old key was not an option. Someone decided that the solution was to tape the latch of the door. That way one could gain access to the building. This also left the building exposed to the criminal element. The tape job was sloppy and easily observed by any passerby on the street. 120 had a robbery during the day about a year ago with this electronic door nonsense.

One of the readers of our blog emailed some info on the keys. They are made by a Swedish company called ASSA ABLOY. The emailer said that the keys use 'Proximity technology"which was developed by the military industrial complex. They have codes in them that track the activity of the user. The reader said that they can detect the presence of the key from 100 yds away, and suggested this may be the reason they refused to give out 2 keys. The law says they must provide us with 2 keys. If one leaves home for work, one takes a single key. The second key is left behind in the apartment. This may cause confusion in their data gathering. I'm not sure if this is true, but it makes for some interesting thought. A few tenants have suggested we switch keys regularly to mess up their data.

Flyers At 86 East 4th Street

This was posted on the door of 86 East 4th Street following the stair collapse.

Collapse At 86 East 4th Street

There was a collapse of a landing of a stair on the 3rd floor, due to construction going on in the building. A quote from a TA member that was there and took the photos.


"Yesterday around 4pm a woman was leaving and stepped on a landing in the stairway and fell through to the next floor. She was carried out in a stretcher and four fire trucks showed up. The firemen built a temporary landing before leaving. It was a mess, to put it lightly.
Even though this is not a Ben Shaoul building, the same construction crew is being used"



The infamous Shalom family own 86 E4th St. It is rumored that they are related as cousins to  Ben Shaoul.

"This is when they began building a temporary platform for the stairway. The thing about this is that there were tons of cops and firemen around, but none of them were asking questions of the construction crew, unless they were doing that inside. I didn't see any workers going in or out of the building, and I'm guessing they ran as soon as the accident occurred. So basically a woman is in the hospital and no one was held accountable. She will sue, no doubt, but that will be in court for years."

If the workers there did flee the scene, it would not be a surprise. All of the workers in these buildings on East 4th Street are undocumented laborers. We are not getting all Republican on this issue, just stating a fact. Another issue with these workers is that there is very little supervision of the work going on at any given moment. One can see the name of a foreman on the paper work posted in our buildings, but one would be hard pressed to actually locate that person on the premises during work hours.

How many injuries and deaths will it take for the media and the law to take notice?
I think lots and lots and LOTS of injuries and deaths.

Predator in the Hall

This guy got into the building today and was lurking about in the halls for a couple of hours. He was on my floor knocking on doors. A loud aggressive knock with something metal in his had. He knocked the way the police do, but he was clearly no cop. No one answered their doors if they were home. He didn't knock on my door. He stayed on my floor for about 45 minutes taking pictures of each rent stabilized apartment door with his iPhone. Not just one picture, but 8 or 9 pictures of each of those doors. He took a lot of notes regarding the pix he was taking. He was big too. About 6 foot 4 and overly heavy. A cheap dark topcoat with a red sweat shirt underneath.  Not real friendly looking. I was not able to make out what his deal was. Since Ben Shaoul and Fortune East have taken our buildings, there have been a  lot of these menacing suspect characters wandering the halls of 118 and 120 East 4th Street.

The Eastern Empire (East Village) of Ben Shaoul/Magnum Management/Westbrook Partners/
Meadow Partners/PVE Associates/Fortune East LLC

Pictured at left: 35 apartment buildings in the East Village owned and managed by Ben Shaoul and his many corporate disguises partners.

Not shown: 2 in Chinatown, 20 elsewhere throughout the city, and 2 luxury developments in Chelsea.

Why is a negligent landlord and flawed developer who for years has been flagrantly violating city building codes and ethics still conducting business in every corner of New York City?

Click Map and Violations page for more details.

Strangers

Connecting to the Street

Intercom for those with Rent Stabilization. 

Constant Strangers

Search and Destroy.

Security! (Swarm! Swarm!)

Construction workers regularly prop open our front door and leave it unattended (not just when they are transporting materials).  They do not know who is a bona fide tenant.  The tenants do not know who is a bona fide construction worker.  Any person may enter our building and wander without questions.  Meanwhile, we have the added burden of realtors trying to piggyback in on legitimate residents.  They are given no contact information for the super, they just wait until a tenant (who either doesn't know better or is too timid to challenge them) walks in.

What is so ridiculous (and living under Fortune East we've all gotten a healthy dose of ridiculous) is that while we had to submit to our GI photo IDs being SCANNED into their "system", so that our comings and goings are electronically monitored, construction workers, realtors, and just about anybody else have free access to come and go as they please!