The Voice of the West Village WestView News VOLUME 15, NUMBER 7 JULY 2019 $1.00 Big Victory for We Need Robert Moses All Tenants By Arthur Z. Schwartz the city’s rent-regulated system looked like more than 30 years ago. The plight of renters, both rent-regulated and non-regulated ones, has long been New York City tenants may never again part of New York City lore—steep rent have to hear the words “vacancy de- hikes, shoddy maintenance, fear of be- control” and “vacancy bonus.” ing blacklisted and evicted, and a general These two provisions don’t affect current PARK MANAGEMENT FAILS—PIER 40 BECOMES OFFICE: Under the original charter Pier 40 sense of powerlessness against a landlord tenants while they are living in rent- was to be leased to a developer who would provide a public park-like use, and the lease rev- who doesn’t care. regulated units, but rather, future tenants. enue would help pay for the operation of the park. But long neglected corroding steel piles and crumbling concrete roof slabs are forcing management to covert the pier to an 88-foot The State Senate and Assembly’s land- The elimination of vacancy decontrol, high,15-acre office building. mark deal on New York’s rent regulations, which enables landlords to deregulate adopted on June 21st, will introduce a apartments once the rents reach a certain By George Capsis landmark. It never happened. They pro- new normal for the 2.4 million tenants in threshold, currently of $2,774, is one of posed aquariums, a permanent home for the city’s rent-regulated system, and add the biggest steps forward. After all, the Robert Moses’ career ended when he want- Cirque du Soleil and big box stores. No some new protections for tenants who are provision has been blamed for the dereg- ed to build an elevated highway across Ca- no, no—whoever was in charge of the park not rent-regulated (“market rate”). After ulation of more than 155,000 units. nal Street, and we locals rose in protest and said no, no, no, to all and every proposal decades of living under landlord-friendly Same with another measure known as closed his book forever, but in his early days while the steel piles on the massive 14-acre rules like vacancy decontrol and renova- “high-income deregulation,” which al- when he was casually condemning bunga- Pier 40 rusted because somebody had shut tion increases, the city’s rent-regulated lows a landlord to deregulate a rent-sta- lows in the path of the LIE he did so with off the anti-rust current to save money and tenants are poised to become newly em- bilized unit if the tenant makes more than imperial immunity because the car was king now they have to spend millions or it goes powered, armed with more financial secu- $200,000 a year for two straight years. No and Long Island was just scrub growth. plop into the water. rity due to the elimination of sharp rent longer will the landlord have the right to When the Federal government wanted to And now Diane Taylor, president of the hikes and increased accountability for ask for your tax returns. unroll a super highway right down the West park, who I have recently learned with a landlords. Side over the clutter of old docks and a rust- knowing smirk is a “friend” of Michael The bulk of the landmark changes to That boiler update or kitchen renova- ing elevated highway, we same protested Bloomberg, has decided that Pier 40 should New York’s rent laws last month was tion your landlord elected to perform is said no—it was too insensitive to the clut- be a big fat office building surrounding the aimed at strengthening protections for the no longer going to cost you a fortune in ter of old buildings that still made their way soccer field. They had to keep the athletic 2.4 million people who live in New York perpetuity. down to the river and we filed a lawsuit to field because sports dads instantly lock into City’s rent-regulated apartments, or al- Renovation increases in the form of ma- protect the breeding ground of the striped a hard, resistant mass when challenged. most half of the city’s tenants. jor capital improvements (MCIs) and indi- bass (more valuable than bungalows ) and They even threw them a little more acreage But buried in the 74-page bill is an ex- vidual apartment improvements (IAIs) were the Feds got so mad they took their billions to still their snapping jaws. pansive patchwork of new protections that a big target of rent reform activists. These and walked away, and then a budget-ha- But, oh my a big fat 14-acre office build- apply to all renters statewide, including 43 measures, which allowed landlords to use rassed City and State had to do something ing sitting on the Hudson looking down to percent of New York City renters who live renovation spending to exact permanent with all the piers they had bought in an- the Statue of Liberty blocking our view for in unregulated apartments. rent increases on tenants, were loopholes ticipation of West Way so they concocted 3 blocks—not nice—not nice. Taken together, the new laws—on ev- that invited fraud and tools of displacement. a plan that would lease three of the larger So how, you may ask, after 10 years, do we erything from evictions to security depos- Landlords, on the other hand, said they en- piers to get revenue to operate the park. come up with a big fat office building as our its—represent a significant power shift couraged investment and maintenance in About this time we started WestView contribution to the legend of Greenwich Vil- away from landlords. But while the new older housing stock. News and learned what “RFP” stood for, lage that will attract tourist buses of the future. rules may seem dramatically different, Currently, landlords who performed Request For Proposal, as the city and state "On our left is a big fat office building they actually represent a reversion to what continued on page 3 invited developers to give New York a new that obstructs three blocks of river view... White Horse Use It or Lose It Nicky and Me David Porat reviews new Up-to-the-minute coverage Local publisher Webster menu items at the recently of local efforts to manage Stone details his unlikely re-opened White Horse bus coverage in the West association with a notorious Tavern. Village. NYC drug kingpin. SEE PAGE 27 SEE PAGE 4 SEE PAGE 20 2 WestView News July 2019 www.westviewnews.org WestView WestViews Published by WestView, Inc. by and for the residents of the West Village. Correspondence, Commentary, Corrections Publisher George Capsis, Local Hero Now Praise Judson Church.” The first sen- him, and now we have him in custody.” Executive Editor Hi George, tence and the history that follows is a real grab- Stone pulled out a business card. “Can George Capsis Hope you are doing well and still giving ber. From what I have read, I again give praise you give this to the guy who caught him? Managing Editor ‘em hell. for enlightening your readership. Thank you. Let him know I owe him a couple drinks.” Art Director In browsing I see coverage of spaces, events The townhouse is often a target of graf- Kim Plosia Loved the Trigg, MD article about Pier 40. St. Vincent’s screw job all over again. and issues dealing with those of mature age fiti such that nearly two years before the Advertising Manager and Designer (to me, that’s better than saying elderly); you co-op had decided to simply paint the side Stephanie Phelan And the usual brilliant planning to have the meeting just after Memorial Day. make the West Village Bookstores look very of the building instead of leaving the origi- Traffic Manager enticing. In general you make me want to nal 1866 brick. “It was a shame to paint Liza Whiting Surprised they didn’t do it on the Friday before, but of course that would have ru- come down again to the Village. over that brick,” explained Stone, “but get- Photo Editor ined the moguls and politicians’ long beach Thank you very much for your courage ting graffiti off brick is much tougher than Darielle Smolian weekend. Disgusting and so abusive of the to educate your readers. You all are truly simply painting the wall over.” Photographers people that actually live in the Village. journalists. Weeks later Stone was asked to sign a Maggie Berkvist And then there was the piece on the —Donna Gianell-Romo supporting deposition for the office of the Joel Gordon Lenox Hill redevelopment. This is exactly P.S. I’m taking a subscription New York District Attorney, which he did. Associate Editors what the upper east side needs since we all Subsequently all records have been sealed, Gwen Hoffnagle, Justin Matthews, know there is a desperate shortage of hos- Pier 40 presumably due to the defendant’s age. Anne Olshansky, Carol Yost pital beds and acute care access up there. Dear WestView, The district attorney refuses to release any Comptroller Just watch how much money the city, state, I really appreciated the articles in your June information regarding the case. Jolanta Meckauskaite and feds kick in for this renovation and re- edition by Bruce Trigg and Bunny Gabel The townhouse wall was painted two Architecture Editor member how generous they were with St.