Friday, September 29, 2017

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.



Tenant: Ralph

Ralph came to the East Village in 1985 from Sylhet, Bangladesh.

A friend and neighbor introduced Ralph to the landlord of his current apartment, where he has lived since 1992. Until this point, he had been sharing an apartment with friends from Sylhet.

Upon moving into the apartment photographed here, he was joined by his wife Lipi and 3-year-old daughter Lisa, who remained in Bangladesh until he had his own place. He and Lipi had another daughter in 1999.

Ralph worked for years at a now-closed East Village restaurant. Today, he is retired. His daughter Lisa is married, and she has a son and daughter.

The family has many friends, and this apartment sees many visitors. It is a home as a place for enjoying family, sharing food and celebrating life.

















If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.
at

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2017 at 11:14 AM

    Good for them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2017 at 11:34 AM

    my aunt from india had a place that looked just like this in murray hill from 1977-2015. the building rapidly went from mostly indian families to loud 20-something white chicks vomiting in the vestibule, shouting in their apts every night and day drinking and blasting music all weekend, so she moved to florida.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2017 at 3:31 PM

    I love the coloring and bracelets. People have no idea how much joy and freedom these apartments have meant for so many of us. I love to chat with people at Commodities during the holidays. People still cook and invite friends and family over despite the changes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SarahSeptember 29, 2017 at 3:49 PM

    Looks cozy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousOctober 1, 2017 at 6:49 PM

    Again notice how rent-stablized apartments are decorated so uniquely and nicely. These people have imaginatons. 'Love that checkered fridge - wallpaper?

    Imagine a typical bro/shebro studio:

    Cheap or really expensive sofa, ugly foot table (as who has coffee anymore to call it a "coffee table"?), 40-60" tv on an ugly stand, plastic box drawers, or basically "I don't plan or think I can plan to live here very long, especially when Mom and Dad decide NYC costs too much for them to pay half my rent."

    ReplyDelete
  6. MarjorieOctober 2, 2017 at 5:47 PM

    LOVE! IT!

    The brights with the black-and-white checkerboard are so good. And I love the bracelet tree.

    ReplyDelete

Your remarks and lively debates are welcome, whether supportive or critical of the views herein. Your articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to an article are welcome.

However, commentary that is intended to "flame" or attack, that contains violence, racist comments and potential libel will not be published. Facts are helpful.

If you'd like to make personal attacks and libelous claims against people and businesses, then you may do so on your own social media accounts. Also, comments predicting when a new business will close ("I give it six weeks") will not be approved.