When Rocky's phone service went out

Here's a newish neighborhood blog to tell you about — Occupy East Fourth Street. Here's their tagline: "We are 2 Tenant Associations, joined together to defend ourselves against a Corporate Real Estate Investment Hydra, that seeks to expell us from our homes in order to maximize their profits."

So it's very specific to a certain corridor of the neighborhood... but it provides a snapshot of what's going on in the East Village at large.

Here's a post from Monday ... the kind of story that needs to be told...

The Death Letter
Rocky is a retired senior citizen who lives in 120 East 4th Street. He is a very pleasant, kind, salt-of-the-earth type of a man, and a wonderful neighbor. On December 9, 2011, an apartment on the ground floor of 120 East 4th Street was being gutted. Rocky, who has a land-line phone and no cell phone or computer, lost his phone service, along with a few other tenants in the building ...

The risers to his part of the building were cut and removed without explanation. The risers are the metal protective cases that house and protect the phone lines throughout the building. There was a question as to whether it was a Federal offense of just a stupid mistake. Verizon, when contacted, said it was the responsibility of the owner to maintain the risers. It's unclear whether Verizon, or Magnum Real Estate Group took responsibility. It was not until January 5, 2012, that Verizon installed a wire from the roof to the basement to restore service. ...

Five days after it was installed, Rocky received a letter in the mail from a nursing [home] in one of the outer boroughs where his beloved sister Esme resided. Rocky called Esme frequently and visited often. The letter stated that Esme suddenly became very ill and passed away on January 1st. The nursing home had tried repeatedly to call Rocky without success. They resorted to sending him a letter.

In addition to not receiving the news of his sister's illness and death when he should have, Rocky had to make all the wake and funeral arrangements from a pay phone on the corner. The phone service to his apartment was not restored until January 25, 2012.

Find, and bookmark, the site here.