After the Blizzard

Its Sunday. Day after the big storm. Lucky for most of us it hit on the weekend. Still no gas to cook with, which was sorely missed on the 2nd biggest snow on record to hit NYC. You had to get your take out early in the day, before the Governor Coumo shut everything down. Getting very expensive all this take out month after month. Its 2pm as I write this post and the side walk in front of 118 East 4th St still has not been cleared. All the rest of the block has been cleared. Same thing last winter with all the snow we had. Sidewalks ignored.

This is looking out the front door.

This the large glass canopy over the door. It was installed by the previous owner Ben Shaoul. There was no work permit assocciated with it, posted on line with the DOB at the time. Its just attached to the brick with screws. Who knows how long it will remain up with all the freeze and thaws and the heavy snow left in place.

This in front on 118 East 4th St. 2PM Sunday after the storm. By law the owner Jared Kushner had until 11AM to clear the sidewalk.

One can see the sidewalk cleared on either side of 118 East 4th St. There was a rumor going round the building that we actually had a new Super living in 118. We are not allowed to call him for repairs, but must contact Mgmt. Requests to Westminster Mgmt are always an exercise in futility. With all the snow still on the sidewalk, it seems the rumor of a Super in the building is untrue. On the lighter side. With all the snow covering the meager units for trash disposal perhaps we will have fewer rats for a day or two.

New Year No Gas

We are sailing into the new year without gas to cook with. Westminster Mgmt slid a note under our doors requesting us to be here on Monday the 4th for an inspection from Con Edison. We all juggled our schedules or gave a key to a neighbor if we could not be here. The note said that Con Ed needed access to all apartments. Monday arrives and Con Edison only looks at 3 apartments, and makes a lot of noise in the basement. They say it will be 2 more weeks until there is some movement towards turning the gas back on.

We were hit with a blast of winter on monday night. The heat that Westminster provides is anemic at best. The chill in the air  inside the apartments of 118 East 4th St. on Tuesday morning was rather brutal. 

The heat was pumped up sometime during the day on Tuesday. The amped up heat is a welcome relief from the freezing conditions outside. One problem however. There is no moderation. Its been blasting at full strength for almost 2 days. Stupid amount of heat. We don't really need cooking gas now. We can all cook on the red hot radiators. There is no Super living on site here. No Super within miles of the building. So the over worked boiler will presumably go unmonitored and unadjusted. Perhaps another visit from the NYFD will make the proper adjustments usually performed by a Super before things go off the rails. 

Take Out Christmas

Not going to have a White Christmas this year. Not going to be a Holiday dinner this year either, at 118 East 4th St in New York City. It will have to be a Take Out Christmas this year unless the Grinch steps in and takes that too. Still no cooking gas here, and no word on when that will change.

72 Days and Counting

72 days without cooking gas.

Not much heat either. We have temporarily benefited from Global warming the past few weeks. If there is any heat on a chilly day, its on during the day when most of us are at work. The heat goes off before we return home.

 72 days of take out food. Its getting to be 

VERY VERY EXPENSIVE. 

 Most of us have had to make do with hot plates, but one can only do so much with a hot plate. In this building keeping the hot plate on for too long makes the lights flicker and the fuses blow.
Almost no contact, or progress reports from Westminster Mgmt.

No Turkey

Six weeks and still counting without cooking gas. Looks like a no turkey Thanksgiving Holiday. Actually its probably going to be a no Thanksgiving Holiday of any sort this year.

Tenant Rights Workshop

Contact

Westminster Management made a visit to the building during the day on Friday the 13th, bearing gifts. There were 4 WM executives bearing hotplates, explanations for the gas (waiting on Con Ed inspections), effuse apologies and a passionate desire to right all wrongs/repairs immediately. They said they would be starting immediately and working this weekend. They handed out free hot plates to the tenants that were at home. Those of us that work during the day did not receive one, which is OK because we all had to buy one a month ago when all this started. Here is a photo of one of the free Hotplates.

Looks nice, but those of us that have been using a hotplate burner for a month now find them to be problematic. A tenant's quote...

  "the deluxe version: the double burner. I now have 3 burners. Not that I will be able to use them: even one burner trips the circuit breaker if anything else is on."

We all have had the circuit breakers trip in our apartments with the hotplate cooker. Gotta unplug nearly everything else and keep a sharp on it. It seems most of these electrical problems are in the Stabilized units due to neglect and careless mismanagement. There was an electrical fire in the walls in July of 2014. The FDNY did a fine job of snuffing it out, but they had to nearly destroy 2 of the market rate apartments to do it. The firemen kindly but urgently told tenants to pack things you will want to keep if the whole building goes up. They said to pack and stand by. Very SCARY. We were lucky, but its only a matter of time until some other neglected electrical wiring goes off. This fire hazard is a danger to all. I hope all tenants have some kind of renter's insurance. If there is another fire and one must use the fire escape to flee.... well just look at the pictures below.

I think these photos say it all.  Not only do these wires pose a deadly threat to the tenants, they also pose the same threat to any emergency response teams like the Police or Fire Dept. The FDNY are our friends. They have had to make multiple visits to 118 and 120 East 4th St the past 2 or 3 years. We have no Super, so the FDNY unfortunately has to put out all sorts of fires that a Super's daily work routine might prevent. These wires are part of the legacy left behind by the Ben Shaoul regime.

We'll pray that all the hot plates in use don't trip all the circuits at once and set the building ablaze. The FDNY can only do so much to protect the citizens in the neighborhood.

Not sure how long this process will take. Some of the tenants in stabilized units were told by the plumbers working on the gas lines that their stoves were too old and would not work with the new gas lines. One can easily envision a scenario where the building is hooked up with gas and the stabilized units go without new stoves or cooking gas. I would like to think that Con Ed would not allow that to happen.


Another tenant quote regarding the hot plate gift.

"I think I said to Jamie that the distribution of hotplates made it look like we were in for a long wait on gas. his reply was that it was all up to Con Ed now."