Living with Legends

As reported in the NY Post Monday, Rosanne Carone, who owns the Sunshine Hotel on the Bowery, has had her unconscionable plot to throw the legal, rent stabilized tenants out of her building foiled.  The HPD has ruled that she harassed tenants to get them out, and so—Ha Ha Ha—she will have to wait three years to re-apply for a Certificate of Non Harassment (CONH), necessary to tear down the building. (Photo: Flickr)

There’s a lesson involved here, especially for Chelsea Hotel tenants: report every single instance of harassment by dialing 311 (they will connect you to the relevant agency).  Harassment is defined, basically, as anything that is intended to make you give up your rent stabilized apartment, or to destroy your quiet enjoyment of same.  In the Sunshine Hotel case, Carone was cited for, among other offenses, verbally abusing and threatening tenants, neglecting leaks, chipping plaster and paint, and roach infestations.  (And if these new security guards hassle you or make you feel uncomfortable in any way, that is harassment.)
            As you can see, failure to make repairs to you apartments in a timely manner can be considered harassment.  Anything that you would fix yourself if you owned the place is their responsibility to repair.

Marlene Krauss, David Elder and Andrew Tilley are of course not trying to tear down the building, but they do want to start some sort of construction project, and they need a CONH to do so.  What they want to do is to pass the cost of the “improvements” along to tenants, which would allow them to raise our rents, possibly even past the threshold where they would be legally decontrolled.  They might even be able to force some of us to move out while the work is going on.  Repairs, yes; new construction, no!

As an addendum, I also think it’s hilarious how biased the New York Post title is: calling the rent stabilized tenants of the Sunshine Hotel bums.  They may not fit a rich person’s definition of a “good citizen,” but hey, they’re not living on the street.  Not yet anyway.  And what’s more, they had the wherewithal to fight back and assert their rights.  At least it’s not as nutty as calling Dan Peckham a squatter—leave that to the Village Voice—but still. — Ed Hamilton