What is the black smoke pouring out of the chimney on the Village View apartment complex on First Avenue? No other building in the neighborhood (with many oil burners) is sending out as much. Hmmm — burning trash on a Sunday morning?
If you were home, it was scary. Smoke. Flames. Lots of firefighters.
There is only one fire extinguisher (by the trash) for the entire building, which is basically all wood construction with a brick shell. One kitchen accident, faulty appliance, overloaded outlet or untended candle – and it all goes.
Even if the fire is small, smoke and water damage would make at least half or all of the building inhabitable. Bye-bye apartment.
Picture coming home to everything gone or evacuating in minutes (like those of us who were home thought we might have to Monday night) and not being permitted to return, and you know it’s time to — get a fire extinguisher for your apartment!
Saifee Hardware, First Avenue at Seventh Street, has a good selection ... as well as Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, Amazon, etc.
Has anyone else in 10009 found this kind of notice in their building?
Has anyone written to you to say there has been a burning wood smell in the East Village since this morning? I opened the windows in the back of my apartment late this morning, and I got a big whiff of the smell. I have been out for a few hours and just got home, and now my whole apartment smells like burning wood! But I don't hear or see anything in the back of the building.
The landlord of my small, rent-stabilized building just converted a one bedroom into a three bedroom/two bath unit and put it on the market for $5,900 a month — probably from less than $1,000 a month.
Is this huge jump legal?
Can anyone explain what these workers have been doing outside East Side Community School on East 12th Street for the past month or more, besides spending millions of tax dollars? This is the second time in five years they've reconstructed this wall. Cheaper to tear down the existing structure and replace it with a state of the art school, no?
So, this is at least the fourth time since January that Con Ed has torn up East Sixth Street between Avenue A and B in front of our building. Jackhammers, heavy machinery, later tar and mechanical stompers. CRAZY NOISE! They obviously can’t find the problem.
My issue is they invariably show up at 6 p.m. on Friday to start the work. Start jackhammering about my son’s bedtime at 8. Now it’s a holiday weekend so its probably triple time. I think its a kind of boondoggle. There is no reason that this work always starts at 6 on Friday.
It makes the apartment uninhabitable. Of course, if there is a leak then they are simply incompetent. They were here two weeks ago and ripped the sidewalk in front of our building. I don’t know what’s worse, the noise or the fear they are incompetent.
Is there anything to do about it?
I'm seeing these pink flags all over East River Park. Near the running track and the baseball field. I'm wondering if you have any information on what they are and if it's safe to walk your dog through here?
I'm curious about the legality of these crews taking over the street hours before the time posted on these no parking posters. For example, this poster says no parking after 10 p.m. on Tuesday. It's only just after noon and already the cones are blocking drivers from parking on the street and there's a parking guard out here directing people away. What gives?
I've been in my rent-stabilized apartment for about 15 years now. The first day of move-in I became immediately and seriously ill with flu-like symptoms. I was diagnosed with asthma, which I never had before.
In the first or second winter (I cannot remember) we realized that there was a serious roof leak that led directly to our bedroom ceiling. Anytime snow melted on the roof, we'd get the leak.
By 2005, it was sort of "fixed" but again, whenever the show or rains were serious, we'd get the leak.
A few years ago, while making the bed, I leaned my hand against the wall where the leak was. It collapsed into a hole about the size of a human head. I covered it immediately with duct tape, in several layers, because the smell of mold was so bad.
I've told my landlord about the problem in writing several times as well as over the phone. He refuses to fix it or even look at it. Neither he nor the super will help me.
Because I am constantly behind in rent (I've not been fully employed as an editor since 2010), I have not pursued the matter. While I'm currently making some strides in paying back rent thanks to eBay, I'm always in the hole for at least $2K...and I'm running out of stuff to sell.
I'm broke. I have no money or resources to move. I went through my 401(k) and savings paying for rent years ago. No health insurance now. No social services of any kind ... and no family to help.
What can someone like me do? I have no legal representation. I'm afraid that the expense of a gut renovation in this unit will force the rent beyond the current $1,630. I cannot afford a penny more. What I'd love would be to go to court and seek an abatement for the use of my bedroom for the past however many years and apply that money to the money owed as well as removal of the mold (or cleaning) and new sheetrock.
Currently, I'm thinking of moving the bedroom into the living room and closing off the bedroom and then calling the inspector. Is this the best solution to both solve the problem while keeping me in my home? I really have no other place to go.
My MacBook Air is on its last legs and needs repair. Any sense where our neighbors are taking their machines in for repair now that Digital Society on East 10th Street has left us? They were so awesome. The folks at Tekserve can be obnoxious — a bit too much testosterone. And I'd rather take sandpaper to my [redacted] than go to an Apple store.
I am a dedicated reader and appreciator of your blog. I am also 21, have lived in the neighborhood for less than two years, and am, in the eyes of many, part of the East Village's central problem. I have always wanted to voice my opinion on this matter, as it is one on which I feel very strongly, and such a feeling is only ever heightened after I read the many user comments on Grieve.
I recognize fully how the influx of young, yuppie college students and 20-somethings has dramatically altered the neighborhood, but I want to defend myself and say that while I can easily be grouped into this category (and I'm not arguing it — 21-year-old NYU student living in an over-priced apartment that still happens to be cheaper than living in an NYU dorm), I have found myself resenting this more and more.
Before I moved into an apartment (versus a dorm) in the East Village, I did my research. I investigated the shady and unlawful landlords, corrupt management companies to avoid, the best small businesses around the apartments I was considering, and the like.
As an 11th Street resident, I protested 7-Eleven when it arrived, I devote all my business to the local deli beneath my apartment, and I agree that many things happening in this neighborhood regarding rent, landlords, what have you, are truly absurd.
However rambling this may seem, I just want to give a voice to those younger residents who consider themselves to be on the same page. We are not all the same — I don't get belligerently drunk and hang off of fire escapes, I don't scoff at the rent-stabilized tenants in my building, I don't ignore my super and the other supers on the block. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I recognized immediately upon moving here that in order to make the most of the two years I'd be spending on this street, I would have to earn some respect by developing relationships with the people who've been here the longest and are truly residents of this neighborhood.
I also recognized that this is, in many ways, just how the growth of a city unfolds. My entire family grew up in a building on Christopher Street beginning in the 1940s, and they were priced out far before gentrification was a term being thrown around. While I did not live through the gentrification of this neighborhood, I can appreciate the good and bad it has done.
All I am trying to say in the end is that I want to enjoy and appreciate the East Village's quirks and unique charm as much as those who have resided here for decades, not drunkenly puke all over them in the early hours of a Saturday morning.
Sincerely,
Olivia
11th Street Resident
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Can you ask readers to weigh in on the best coffee shops in the neighborhood with WiFi? Please help!
I'm an East Village resident looking for a very tiny kitchen space (without a storefront) in the area, something hopefully the size of where Otafuku used to be (236 E. Ninth St.). I just need to fit an oven, a refrigerator and a table for rolling out dough. I deliver pastries throughout NYC and I ship them nationally but I want to move on from using a shared space kitchen in Brooklyn.
It's kind of an odd request because of the lack of storefront.
What happened to all the auto tire repair/flats fixed places? Are there any left? I need a tire repaired.
I know everyone agrees that the Cooper Station Post Office has sadly gone downhill.
I'm also wondering if other people in the neighborhood are having problems with their home mail delivery? As in sometimes it doesn't even get delivered?! About half the apartments in my building turn over very quickly, with college or just post-college students staying for a year and then leaving.
This results is a lot of mail for people who no longer live here. The mail delivery people lately just leave it on the floor or on the radiator and it gets strewn about the entry area. This is annoying in itself, but also sometimes I find my own mail on the floor, or mail for other people who are definitely residents. (If I know they live here, then I rescue it and slip the mail under their doors). This makes it really obvious when the mail has been delivered that day.
The second issue is that sometimes it seems like mail isn't delivered at all. In addition to there not being new mail on the floor/radiator, the mailboxes have little slots, so you can see when they're all empty. Recently this has happened more and more often -— twice a week or so. This is a lot, especially when one is waiting for a check to arrive! What the Hell?
"I have emailed my apartment's management company asking what's going on with the building, and when we can expect it to be completed, but received no response ... based on experience, I will probably never receive a reply no matter how many times I follow up or call. Our super does not live in the building and I have never had any contact with him.
As of the end of the day, there are holes in the walls on every single floor in the building, as seen in the above picture. How do I find out if I am going to be woken up every morning by construction until the lease ends or not? Does anyone recognize, based on the picture, what this construction process could possibly be the start of? To my knowledge, the building doesn't have any structural or plumbing issues that need to be fixed."
"The thing is, I haven't found a garage in the East Village that has anything near those prices. The garage on East 11th between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue charges nearly $140. The one across from Whiskers on East 9th Street is $90+ and the one under Bowlmor is a whopping $175/month. The only place that's reasonable in our neighborhood is the Edison garage on Lafayette and Grand, which charges $20/mo and $1/day for storage outside."
