By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Meenakshi Srinivasan, chairwoman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) since 2014, has announced her resignation as of June 1, 2018. Published comments in recent weeks from a few of the dissatisfied public reflect the controversies surrounding historic preservation laws that have existed since their American introduction in the 1960’s.
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Consider Co-housing
Dear Editor, Your February 2018 article “G-d at the Drafting Board” was thought provoking and novel. Readers can disagree with taking an active playground to build more buildings, but the real point must have been that we need a new approach to senior and affordable housing. As such, mixing the older demographic with the younger is an
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Ready to Write Checks to Save Pier 40
By George Capsis Oh wow, a Crain’s New York article from April 24th quotes Hudson River Park Trust engineer, Steven Perker on just how they are going to encase the 3,600 corroded steel piles now shakily holding up the 15 acres of Pier 40 (the largest pier in the Hudson) to allow it to provide
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Neighborhood Preservation Updates
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP West Village Houses Residents Fight Back The West Village House (WVH) co-op board reportedly spent $300,000 exploring the feasibility of an unsolicited Madison developer’s offer. How can the WVH board spend that when they now say it “never was on the table,” when there is so much pressure to
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5Pointz Decision, Part 2: The Tuesday Morning Massacre
By Catherine Revland On March 14th, the lecture room at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South was packed with artists, attorneys, curators, art dealers, critics, and historians to hear a discussion about the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA).The speakers were Federal District Court Judge Frederic Block (who spoke to the broader subject of
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Tech Hub
By Andrew Berman Mayor de Blasio has filed an application for a rezoning to allow a large new “Tech Hub” to be built on the south side of 14th Street just east of Fourth Avenue, on the longtime site of a P.C. Richard and Son store. Sandwiched between two high-rise New York University dorms, the
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Consider Co-housing
Dear Editor, Your February 2018 article “G-d at the Drafting Board” was thought provoking and novel. Readers can disagree with taking an active playground to build more buildings, but the real point must have been that we need a new approach to senior and affordable housing. As such, mixing the older demographic with the younger
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Artists, Property Rights and the Law
Dear Editor, I am thankful for the article The 5Pointz Decision, March 2018, by Catherine Revland, because it offers a comprehensive distillation of a very controversial legal matter. Part Two is promised for the April 2018 issue. The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) has been litigated in a jury trial for the first
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Correction
Within the February 2018 issue of WestView (print edition only), the dollar amount referenced in the article entitled “Give it Back, Chuck” was incorrect (page 6). The corresponding phrase should read: “…at a $1,200 per plate dinner.”
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Google Gobbles Meat Market
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has reached an agreement to acquire Chelsea Market for $2.4 billion. Jamestown, the sellers, won approvals from the city to add almost 300,000 square feet on top of the property back in 2012. That would increase the number of office floors above the famous ground
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Go For It, God
Senior share housing is a great idea, George! I hope you can get the wheels in motion, especially in that excellent location! I had to chuckle, too…finding our minds running on the same track. In my case, I was wondering whether—if and when one of them became available—I could possibly afford to pay the rent
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The Truth About Rent Control
Dear WestView News, Your February 2018 article “The Rent is Due—$127.61 Please” is one of the most misleading articles I have ever read on rent control, and probably a plant by a landlord association. Professor Neuman obviously doesn’t know how rent control works, or has ulterior motives. It is different from rent stabilization and is
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Senior Share Apartments: Now Renting
By George Capsis I recently got a call from what sounded like a very nice senior lady who read my February 2018 front-page proposal to build connected apartments with seniors on one side and young people on the other. The young occupants would be just out of college and would want to live in the
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The Rent is Due – $127.61 Please
By W. Russell Neuman $127.61. Yep, for a nifty 1,000-square-foot apartment in an award-winning Federal townhouse on Morton Street. Yes, indeed. That is the current rent, per month, in 2018. West Village heaven. How is this possible, you ask? The answer, of course, is rent control. Other similar but uncontrolled apartments in the same building
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Give It Back, Chuck
By Cynthia Chaffee and Mary Ann Miller On January 18th, a frigid Thursday evening, the senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, was feted by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) at a $1,200 per plate dinner. This all took place at the Midtown Hilton Hotel on 6th Avenue and 53rd Street. While
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The Fight to Save Small Businesses
By Andrew Berman One of the most pressing neighborhood issues on the minds of many West Villagers, and many New Yorkers, is the disappearance of local small businesses. Time after time, we see cherished neighborhood businesses closing, often replaced by chain stores or worse, and storefronts that remain empty for years while property owners seek
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High-Priced Condos Drive Up the Cost of Everything
Dear Mr. Capsis, I met you at the November 23rd inaugural concert at St. Veronica’s Church. I was truly sorry to read in WestView News of your loss. It sounds like you and your cousin John had much in common. I write to you concerning two articles that appeared in the December 2017 issue of
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I’ve Seen the Light and It Ain’t Pretty
Dear Editors: My apartment faces the towering buildings across the river in Jersey City. While I can mostly see only their higher floors and not the river itself, the views of the open sky and sunsets are important to us West Siders. I was shocked, stunned, and appalled a few months ago to look out
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God at the Drafting Board
By George Capsis If God sat down at the drafting board to design a perfect solution for seniors now living alone in a five-story walk-up, with an ancient dog that has to go four times a day, what would He come up with? He would have a nice, fresh-faced youngster offer a strong arm to
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When Landlords Commit Sexual Harassment
By Joseph Turco, Esq. “If I had a hammer, I’d SMASH the Patriarchy.” This message was seen on a sign at the Women’s March on January 21, 2017. It should come as no surprise that several Village big wigs (all white, all male) have been exposed as cads and worse as a result of the
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A.G. Schneiderman Announces Unprecedented Consent Decree With NYC Landlord Steven Croman
The New York State Office of the Attorney General (OAG) published the following press release on December 20, 2017. It has been edited by WestView News. Today, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced an unprecedented settlement with Steven Croman, a major New York City landlord, for engaging in illegal conduct, including harassment, coercion,
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Against the Destruction of West Village Houses
Dear Editors: As long-term residents of the West Village Houses, we are appalled at how the Board is trying to destroy this low-rise community, which was championed by Jane Jacobs. They want to tear our buildings down and turn us into luxury housing. The community needs to rise up to stop this. —Alice Moore &
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An Historic Moment
By Cynthia Chaffee & Mary Ann Miller On Wednesday, December 20, 2017 at 60 Centre Street, an historic consent decree was reached between the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the lawyers for Steve Croman. This decree included an unprecedented monetary restitution ($8 million), which the disgraced landlord must pay to his injured
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Nothing’s Changed!
By Mary Ann Miller and Cynthia Chaffee You can ask any Croman tenant, “Has anything changed since Steve Croman went to jail?” and you’ll get a resounding, “NO.” And why should anything have? Steve Croman is still in charge and, rumor has it, he’s running the business by cell phone from his cell—giving new meaning
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New Tools To Fight Bad Landlords: Free Lawyers
By Joseph Turco, Esq. Here is some good news for tenants: The gradual rollout of the ‘Right to Counsel’ for tenants in the NYC Housing Court is progressing as expected. The promised funding, which Mayor di Blasio has declared as crucial to preserving affordable housing, is being allocated in stages. By 2022, it will reach
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Where is Steve Croman?
By Mary Ann Miller and Cynthia Chaffee When Judge Jill Konviser sentenced Steve Croman to one year in Rikers, she said, “Rikers ain’t the Ritz.” Well, we know he’s not at the Ritz, but it seems that he ain’t at Rikers either. We found him. A bit of snooping revealed that Steve Croman is actually
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An Update on Steve Croman
By Joseph Turco, Esq. In my September 2017 WestView article, “Landlord of the Flies: Steve Croman’s Social Diary is Empty,” I wrote that ‘The Madoff of Landlords,’ Steve Croman, had lost his famed lawyer Ben Brafman over a fee dispute. A few days after publication, I received a call from the Stop Croman Coalition advising
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Move Along, Nothing to See Here!
Staples officially left the premises of 390 6th Avenue in early October. It joins the ranks of Barnes & Noble, which vacated the building on the northern corner of that block in January 2013, leaving the space empty for the past several years. The Duane Reade on the southern corner closed its doors earlier this
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He Didn’t Jaywalk, But He Did Just About Everything Else!
By Mary Ann Miller & Cynthia Chaffee On June 6th of this year, when Judge Jill Konviser sentenced landlord Steve Croman to one year at Rikers Island, she added this admonishment, “If you so much as jaywalk, I’ll make sure this sentence is increased.” The Croman tenants at the sentencing hearing that morning thought,“Finally, here
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Urban Myth: West Village Landlords Save Money When They Keep Spaces Empty (Part Two)
By Steve Wilson In the September issue of Westview, I discussed the impact of escalating commercial rents and the resulting closures of restaurants and retail stores within the West Village. In Part Two, I explore the impact of online retailers on that commercial landscape. The impact of online merchants like Amazon and FreshDirect on West
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The Real Cost of Rising Rents
By Christopher of Christopher Street On March 13, 2016, Council Member Corey Johnson, New York State Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, and New York State Senator Brad Hoylman gathered in front of the Associated Supermarket near the corner of 14th Street and 8th Avenue to protest the imminent closing of the store due to rent hikes.
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VID Takes on Law-Breaking Landlords
By Erik Coler, President of the VID The first time Aaron Carr tried to explain what a state-issued J-51 tax credit was, I had no idea what he was talking about. He might as well have been speaking another language. Aaron had recently left his job as chief of staff to a New York State
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West Village Houses Today: The Garage Struggle
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Attending Community Board 2’s (CB2’s) full board meeting on July 20th gave me an earful of local news. Following up on previous West Village Houses (WVH) articles for our readers, the debate over the parking requirement for WVH at their 738 Greenwich Street Parking Garage at Perry Street was a
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Historical Commercial Rent Controls in New York City
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Contrary to common belief, there is still rent control for historic commercial buildings in New York City, as was reported at a recent Community Board 2 (CB2) meeting. Under discussion were applications for variances to allow Group 6 ground floor and cellar uses in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, both
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Department of Buildings Shrugs as Megatowers Take Over New York City
By Nan Victoria Munger If you want to get to Carnegie Hall, you could practice a whole lot. Or, you could simply raise your eyes to the City skyline and head toward the ‘Billionaire Building,’ a 1,005-foot luxury condominium across the street from the legendary concert venue. One57 is one of many megatowers springing up
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Landlord of the Flies: Steve Croman’s Social Diary Is Empty
By Joseph Turco, Esq. Let’s gather what we know about the ever-sinking fortunes of the ‘Bernie Madoff of Landlords,’ Steve Croman. 1. In May 2016, just as his despicable son Jake went viral after calling an Uber driver “a minimum wage faggot,” little Jake’s dad, Steve Croman, was indicted on 20 felonies for lying on
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Urban Myth: Landlords Save Money by Keeping Spaces Empty (Part One)
By Steve Wilson Passing by empty storefronts and restaurants, Villagers can often be heard uttering the widely accepted urban “truth”—They (landlords) make money by deducting the high rents which they no longer receive. Leading local commercial real estate broker Brian Kanarek insists that landlords don’t make money on empty storefronts: “Landlords cannot claim a deduction
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Temporary Closing of Gourmet Garage
Gourmet Garage, located at 117 7th Avenue South (between West 10th and Christopher Streets), has announced a mid-August temporary closing. The building owner needs to install columns to reinforce the building in order to add additional floors for new residential apartments. (The accompanying rendering illustrates the design proposal by Cruzen Samton Architects.) The New York
