[St. Mark's Place last January]
Jimmy McMillan, founder of The Rent Is Too Damn High party, had filed suit in Brooklyn Federal Court seeking to stave off an eviction from his St. Mark's Place apartment of 38 years.
As Curbed summarized the situation:
Lisco Holdings, McMillan's landlord at 107 St. Marks Place, says that the rent-stabilized $872/month apartment is not McMillan's primary residence, which violates stabilization rules. Lisco says the perpetual political candidate's primary home is in Flatbush, but McMillan says that was just a campaign office.
So McMillan was seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the eviction scheduled to be carried out on Thursday.
Today, though, a Brooklyn federal judge tossed out McMillan's lawsuit, which included $1.3 million in damages.
"I'm done. I got one week left and my options are limited," he told the Daily News. "They just want me out."
However, McMillan isn't done yet. Per the Daily News: "He has another lawyer trying to get a stay of the eviction order in the state appellate division. But if that fails, he's not putting up a fight, and he'll leave quietly."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Jimmy McMillan facing Feb. 5 eviction from St. Mark's Place apartment (32 comments)
22 comments:
Welp. That was depressing.
"he is gong to leave quietly" ... Hmmm I think that bridge has already been crossed. (Aside of course he has right to do what he wants, it's just that his own words indict him.)
Why is it depressing? If it's been proven that he has not been meeting the requirements of a primary residence, then why should he be able to stay?
Clearly, the judge has decided this isn't his primary residence. The decision has been made. Accept it and move on. Jesus Fucking Christ. I am so tired of this story. Enough.
When it comes to housing in nyc nothing is easy. This has been going on since 2011 so he clearly isn't going quietly. There are all sorts of things people do to make it seem they live somewhere when they actually don't. And the court is biased toward tenants. Leads me to believe this isn't his primary residence. The rent wasn't too damn high if he has multiple residences and vehicles. Bye Jimmy.
The courts are in no way biased towards tenants. If you have ever been to housing court you would know that. Tenants are never represented as getting a housing court attorney only happens in big cases with organized tenants. In the vast majority of the cases the Judge makes tenants meet with the landlords attorney and sign some sort of deal. If not these cases drag on forever, get repeatedly adjourned and tenants who can't keep taking time from work, or school, or kids etc. give up and go away with crumbs at best. Get you fact's straight landlords use the terrible and clogged housing court system to their advantage to screw tenants.
I always knew there was something skeevy about this cat; like Charles Rangel who at one point had up to FOUR rent stabilized apartments using some as 'offices' {pure bullshit on that one] and plain out renting the others, they give us RS & RC folks who do actually live here a bad name and more ammo for landlords to push those of us out in favor of MR tenants.
Some idiot was renting out his RS place in my building on AirBNB while 'working'/living in his artist loft in Brooklyn...eventually he stopped when WE told him we were tired of luggage people coming in and out 24/7 & odd hours.
Again I say that the ease by which several posters here automatically assume that McMillan is scamming the poor landlord is disturbing.
WHY is too hard to understand that a lawyer could have an office in Brooklyn (for work) AND an apartment in Manhattan (for living)?
To meet the standards of purity of others, is McMillan supposed to live in the back of his business), Chinese laundry-style, lest he be accused of having multiple residences?
I hope that he fights this, but the deck appears to be stacked against him at this point....
Why anyone would be taking the side of landlords against one of the only guys who has ever run for office and stood up to the entire Real Estate Industrial Complex and the ways they harass and bleed working people dry is a mystery to me. These idiots are either trolls, paid posters, or landlords themselves. And isn't it a nice coincidence that the one guy who stuck his neck out and took on the real estate robber barons is now being evicted himself, with the help of the same government the REBNY members bought and own?
I see Jimmy all the time having coffee at The Bean and hanging out in the neighborhood. I bet most of these pro-landlord sycophants taking cheap shots at him don't even live here. If they did they know he is a neighbor and a genuine good guy who just stuck his neck out and is now getting payback. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book for falsely evicting people in this city, it happens all the time.
So when it happens to you don't come crying here or to your mommy, because she will probably be getting evicted soon too.
Shut Up Hooker never shuts up.
The lesson here is that if you are operating in the grey, whether that means maintaining a rent stabilized apartment that you don't really live in, playing games with your taxes, dealing a bit of weed, etc., you need to learn two words: low profile.
I don't think rent control "scammers" are the reason rent control has a bad name, to the degree that it does. If it has a bad name, it's because the entire real estate industry is opposed to it. Even if there wasn't a single scammer, those tenants would be under attack, just as teachers are under attack, and union workers, and retirees with pensions, etc.
Scamming itself would not be an issue if there were enough affordable apartments in the city.
"Luggage people" ha
Hey Chris- Its clear he had two apartments. You keep saying the same thing. My response ios rent an OFFICE in Brooklyn and ONE RENT STABILIZED APT in Manhattan. How many apts does this guy have? If he can afford multiple apts/offices/cares he doesn't need to be RS.He should have kept a low profile since he's a shady apt hoarding clown. And since the city cant give the unions and retirees enough - how are they 'under attack". And the NYC school system is so bad those teachers and the system they perpetuate should be attacked. Everybody has a scam and an excuse. Ridiculous.
Anon 1:11:
It is NOT "clear that he has two apartments". It is the LANDLORD'S allegation that his Brooklyn OFFICE is his primary residence, as opposed to his Manhattan APARTMENT where he is seen practically every day, with his car parked outside. An ALLEGATION in furtherance of an attempt to retrieve an apartment that can be gut-renovated in order to acquire a higher rent is NOT fact. WHAT factual evidence have you seen that he's got TWO apartments?
By the way, in MY New York, plenty of people (I knew several) had more than one apartment. They signed leases and paid their rents. No one was "scammed" then. And, in the case of a tenant presently renting and paying rent on more than one apartment, no one is being scammed now....
LoL... always gotta have the haters [aka those who did no retirement or any kind of financial planning] who complain about those pesky people who put in decades into city [or federal] service.
Crazy Eddie: Step away from the keyboard and drop your weapon. Oh, I'm so sorry, you say that's not a weapon in your pocket, it's just a hard on? I see, you say you're just glad to see us? Well very good then. Now take your meds and go to bed. See you on the dark side of the moon....
Shut Up Hooker
The old rallying cry Housing is a Human Right and Protests for Low Income Housing and Homes Not Shelters is completely gone. Most of those I know who used to care about this Do Not Do or say anything about it anymore they just have parties and a museum to celebrate the good old days when they did open squats and hold demos and helped homeless people. F that ! The City Shelters in NYC are overflowing with homeless families and because of out of control gentrification it will keep getting worse. I wish that some of the leadership of the Black Lives Matter protests would pay some attention to the NYC Housing Crisis because those shelters are not filled with White kids and the Black and Latin families packing into them are the some of those who are dealing with poverty, racism and cops on a daily basis. Anyone remember the last housing street protest or feeding homeless people thing they went to ? Many will say yeah the last time you were in NYC sleeping outside NYU John. This really sucks and people should read the lead story in The New York Daily News today about it. Very Sad but hell lets do another party at the Museum for squatters to remember the good old days and go home to the apartments we own now because of all those blood, sweat and tears in the streets. Your House is Mine MFers.
If you want to help the street homeless like I do you can volunteer at Holy Apostles on 9th/28th M-F. They serve between 10:30am- 12:30pm. Its the largest soup kitchen in the USA I believe. Or go to 31st bet 6/7 and volunteer at 7am when St Francis breadline operates. You can arrive at 6:45 help hand out sandwich bags and coffee and be gone by 7:15 and go to work. There are guys there who are working and get lunch there to save money. Its a great service. As far as the shelters go the city spends all this money and gets bad services in return. I also can't sympathize with a woman who has 12 kids with multiple men. Sorry. The shelters are filled with women like that. Why keep having kids? Because you keep getting welfare and food stamps and housing? I feel for the mentally ill guys on the street who have problems keeping it together. Not irresponsible women who have kids they can't support and end up in taxpayer funded shelters. What a mess.
Hey EV... "However, commentary that is intended to "flame" or attack, ..."
Only works one way does it??
There are many RS and RC who would have had to move if not for the protections and securities that their subsized housing affords them. It is sad that the bad apples who exploit the system provide grist for the mill. And defending those bad apples is analogous to the efforts of NRA who will not allow any reasonable legislations fearing a slippery slope.
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