On the campaign trail with East Village landlord Jared Kushner

[Reader photo at 118 E. 4th St. from March 6]

Several readers passed along the link to the Page 1 feature today in The New York Times titled Quiet Fixer in Donald Trump’s Campaign: His Son-in-Law, Jared Kushner.

According to the Cooper Square Committee, only Steve Croman owns more residential buildings in the East Village than Kushner does.

And as we've noted in multiple posts, there haven't been any shortage of tenant horror stories since Kushner and his company, Westminster City Living, started buying up properties in the East Village in 2013. For instance, in March, tenants at 118 E. Fourth St. went to Manhattan Housing Court as part of ongoing litigation against Kushner. Tenants there had been without gas for cooking since October. There are other issues too, such as collapsed ceilings, overflowing trash and sporadic heat. (Kushner eventually settled with the tenants.)

Brandon Kielbasa at the Cooper Square Committee told Gothamist in March that Kushner "treats both rent-stabilized and market-rate tenants badly, and seems to feel that he can get away with not maintaining buildings because the housing market is so tight he can keep them full anyway."

In July 2014, DNAinfo reported that "Kushner is using lawsuits, disruptive construction and neglect to force rent-stabilized tenants out of two buildings he owns in the East Village, as he converts them to high-end apartments, according to court documents and residents."

Meanwhile, around that same time, the Daily News filed a story with the headline Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner forcing residents out of East Village building so he can get higher rents: tenants

In any event, the feature in the Times does not mention any of Kushner's holdings in the neighborhood or his reported aggressive tactics... focusing on his role as a key Trump adviser.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

In a gradual but unmistakable fashion, Mr. Kushner has become involved in virtually every facet of the Trump presidential operation, so much so that many inside and out of it increasingly see him as a de facto campaign manager. Mr. Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka ... oversaw the creation of an online fund-raising system and has had a hand in drafting Mr. Trump’s few policy speeches. And now that Mr. Trump has secured the Republican nomination, Mr. Kushner is counseling his father-in-law on the selection of a running mate.

It is a new and unlikely role for Mr. Kushner, a conspicuously polite Harvard graduate whose prominent New Jersey family bankrolled Democrats for decades and whose father’s reputation was destroyed, in a highly public and humiliating manner, by his involvement in electoral politics.

The article notes that given the hectic campaign trail, "Kushner is devoting far less time to his real estate empire."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tenants claim: Kushner and Westminster want to destroy this building's beautiful garden

Reports outline how Kushner Companies is aggressively trying to empty 170-174 E. 2nd St.

Local politicos join residents of 2 Jared Kushner-owned buildings to speak out about poor living conditions, alleged harassment

Jared Kushner's residents at 118 E. 4th St. would like gas for cooking and some heat