After looking at the bare floors in the photographs of the inside of the trailer, I can see why so many people who live in Stuyvesant Town complain about the noise. Imagine a troupe of high-heeled students coming home from the bars at 4 am in the apartment upstairs from you! Oy!
5
Many of us who live in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village don’t have to IMAGINE it, we LIVE it on a daily basis. Every lease in ST/PCV has a provision in it that REQUIRES 80% of floors, excluding the kitchen and bathroom(s), to be covered with rugs. However, getting managment to enforce this provision with new renters is like pulling teeth. And often when they do “enforce” it they allow the flimsiest of rugs to pass muster, rugs that anyone with a real interest in preventing the transmission of noise to neighboring apartments would never approve. The tenants here are mostly powerless and management take full advantage of that to run roughshod over us.
4
So sorry to hear that. It is no wonder that they have to cruise in a trailer to try to pull in new tenants. Didn't you used to have a really good Tenants Association over there? I knew somebody who lived there in the 80s and a few years into the 90s and I remember him say that the Tenants Association was awesome.
I can't imagine why the property has been let get so cruddy in the last few years. All I know is that I never hear anything good about it! It's a shame.
The reason why ST/PCV has deteriorated so much is simple. MONEY and GREED. Big real estate companies have paid a fortune to buy ST/PCV two different times in the last several years and now, in order to make the property pay, they will allow almost anything to take place here as long as they can fill apartments. Sadly, it’s an old story here in NYC.
And, yes, we once had a very strong tenants association, but the big real estate owners of the property have vast sums of money and a lot of power that they can and have used against us, so it can be very difficult to fight them. Additionally, the lawmakers in power in Albany are very pro big real estate - they get loads of donations from big real estate - and very anti-tenant. We desperately need a repeal of the Urstadt Law, which, for many decades “has effectively handcuffed the city when it comes to dealing with the main problems facing housing here -- rents and evictions. That is because the law largely took control of rent regulation out of the hands of the city government and gave it to the state legislature. The legislature, a body with many representatives from upstate districts that have few renters, has weakened rent regulation laws year after year.”
You can read more about the Urstadt Law here and lots of other places online:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/demographics/2727-repealing-the-urstadt-law
http://legislation.nyc/id/3491192
1
Disgusting. The destabilization of rental apartments in Stuy Town and PC Village is one of the great tragedies of housing in NYC.
6
Real estate predators are like a pack of hungry wolves, only more vicious.
1
Don’t know where the author of this article got the information that there are 56 buildings in the two complexes. That is incorrect. There are 110 buildings in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village and 25,000 and 30,000 people live there.
2
The 56 # is correct for the total number of individual buildings PCVST. The 110 # is the total number of separate building ADDRESSES in PCVST. Example, playground #7 in ST has 4 individual buildings that face the playground. These 4 buildings have a total of 11 separate addresses. There at least 30,000 people living in both projects, CWC, the former owner, gave out that number some time ago. That number has most likely increased post the Blackstone purchase.
1
My previous comment should have read that 25,000 - 30,000 people live in the two complexes.
2
I checked Wikipedia to see if what my father advised me of was correct or incorrect. I couldn't find anything to support what my father told me, so I stand corrected. But my father never mislead me or told me stories which were made up. Perhaps what he advised me of was an aside. There was a controversy regarding those buildings regarding allowing Black persons to rent apartments in that development which went back to the 1940's.
1
Your father did not mislead you. At one time, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village had a no blacks allowed policy. In the late 1940s, there was a tenant-led effort to desegregate the property, which was initially unsuccessful. Desegregation came eventually but not without a fight and at great personal cost to some of the brave, activist tenants who spearheaded the movement. Here’s an article from The NY Times about that unsavory part of Stuy Town’s history.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/nyregion/22stuyvesant.html
1
This is so dumb on many levels:
The unit in the truck looks and feels like a modified railroad apt with Room and Board furniture. Wow.
How about instead of burning 150K on a dubious stunt, just lower the rents or have a better signing bonus.
Who are the ad wizards who thought of this one?
2
Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village are full of people renting their apartments out on AIRbnb. While home-sharing is legal in NYC when hosts follow the law, meaning that they are present in the apartment while they are renting to guests, unfortunately we also have tenants who either rent apartments here, never actually occupy the apartment themselves and just rent the entire apartment out to strangers or occupy the apartment but stay elsewhere while they are renting to guests. Both of these scenarios are illegal. The question is if I and other tenants can EASILY locate these illegally rented apartments on AIRbnb, why can’t the managment of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper? Too often it’s up to tenants - who constantly see strangers going in and out of an apartment on their floor - to alert management that illegal rentals are taking place here before anything is done about it. These illegal rentals contribute to the wear and tear on our buildings’ infrastructure, add to our noise problems and create safety and security concerns.
6
Because all of PCVST is currently under NYS RS law, ALL Airbnb rentals are illegal. EOS.
5
Here’s the applicable text from the NY State Multiple Dwelling Law. I added the capital letters for emphasis.
8.
a. A "class A" multiple dwelling is a multiple dwelling that is occupied for permanent residence purposes. This class shall include tenements, flat houses, maisonette apartments, apartment houses, apartment hotels, bachelor apartments, studio apartments, duplex apartments, kitchenette apartments, garden-type maisonette dwelling projects, and all other multiple dwellings except class B multiple dwellings. A class A multiple dwelling shall only be used for permanent residence purposes. For the purposes of this definition, "permanent residence purposes" shall consist of occupancy of a dwelling unit by the same natural person or family for thirty consecutive days or more and a person or family so occupying a dwelling unit shall be referred to herein as the permanent occupants of such dwelling unit. The following uses of a dwelling unit by the permanent occupants thereof shall NOT BE DEEMED TO BE INCONSISTENT with the occupancy of such dwelling unit for permanent residence purposes:
(1)
(A) occupancy of such dwelling unit for FEWER than thirty consecutive days by other natural persons living within the household of the permanent occupant such as house guests or lawful boarders, roomers or lodgers;
http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/pdf/MultipleDwellingLaw.pdf
I dislike having ANY AIRbnb rentals happening in Stuy Town, but you are incorrect. NY State guidelines, even for rent stabilized apartments, state that it is legal to rent out an apartment for fewer than 30 days as long as the tenant is present in the apartment while their guest is renting.
From Airbnb about renting in NYC:
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/868/new-york--ny
Multiple Dwelling Law. The New York State Multiple Dwelling Law restricts renting out a Class A multiple dwelling for periods of fewer than 30 days when the host is not present. The definitions of "Class A" and "multiple dwelling" can be found in Sections 4-7 and 4-8 of Article 1 of the Multiple Dwelling Law. The law exempts rentals to a “boarder, roomer or lodger,” which has been interpreted to mean that, in general, if a guest shares the apartment with a permanent resident who is present for the duration of the rental (i.e., a "shared space" rental), it is permissible under the Multiple Dwelling Law.
Link to the NY State multiple dwelling law referenced in the AIRbnb article:
http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/pdf/MultipleDwellingLaw.pdf.
1
Interestingly, SuyTown was originally a NYCHA property during the 1950's and is now touted as a luxury property with lower end luxury prices. What can anyone say about this one? IDK!
Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were NEVER under the auspices of NYCHA. They were privately owned, by Met Life then, and by Blackstone, now.
11
I can tell you the truth about Sty Town because you need to look it up. The NYC Housing Authority also and still now owns 1536 Lexington Avenue, NYC 10023. Back in 1950 my parents lived at 1536 and those tenants were polled on if they wanted to go private as had occurred before with StyTown and PCV. 1536 declined the offer. At that time in the 1950's I believe if you trace the history you will find out that I am correct. I was a child at the time and my father often spoke about that piece of history. If you have better info, please advise. BTW, the floors within Sty Town were identical to 1536. Unless my dad got it wrong, that's what I was told. I was born in 1949.
All this marketing is just lipstick on a pig.
Let’s not sugarcoat StuyTown’s origins. The land was seized under eminent domain and turned over to MetLife to build middle class housing. It wasn’t just a gas works, there were working people who lived in the neighborhood. But when StuyTown was built, MetLife excluded Blacks from renting for years.
The rents stayed affordable for decades because of government tax breaks and because the City fell into serious decline. By the time MetLife demutualized, the City was hip again and they we’re doing renovations that allowed them to raise vacancy rents above the the de-stabilization level. MetLife sold to private equity investors before the recession, but those buyers paid and borrowed too much, ending up in default during the recession. Thought they could quickly turn out stabilized tenants and ended up suffering disastrous legal defeats instead.
Blackstone leads the new private equity buyers. They paid much less and agreed to keep 5,000 units semi-affordable for 20 years in exchange for tax breaks. But the 6,000 market rate units have been priced too aggressively. Wonder what’s the vacancy rate?
5
SuyTown has now become PigStuyTown.
Whoever rents in this dump at wildly inflated rents is insane.
This used to be an oasis in Lower Manhattan.
Now it has become a dump.
My advice: STAY AWAY.
I am a long time resident.
8
Stuy Town is now “Sty Town”. EOS.
5
If there's one thing Manhattan traffic needs, it's ads.
5
I lived in the complex for years so the deterioration is particularly sad for me. What had once been a lovely family complex became a dorm of students and recent grads with noise and trash. Better screening should be done of incoming tenants. Security is not sufficient. The owner should seek to recapture the type of community that first attracted residents and focus on maintaining a stable neighborhood.
11
The Stuyvesant Town property has deteriorated in recent years. It used to be a lovely place to live.
Many of the apartments are dorms filled with NYU students and it appears that there are many short term leases(tourists) as well. A consequence of this has been extreme noise and smoke issues. In addition, tenants constantly moving in and out can result in security issues.
There are uncovered mattresses and garbage strewn about the property as a result of constant moves in and out. On any one day , many u-hauls can be seen on the property.
Loud, noisy events are frequently held and these concerts/movies disturb the peace of those living around the Oval area.
This truck is another example of misleading PR.
16
StuyTown isn't what it used to be. Building doors are constantly hooked open and left open, packages are stolen, new neighbors are extremely noisy and leave public areas dirty ( not everybody, but a lot of them ). Just waiting for home invasion and apartment robberies to happen. Where is security? The amount of new tenants stuffed into renovated apartments causes plumbing problems and more garbage than these buildings were built to handle. Sense of neighborhood and family are barely existent like before. Dogs leave messes in elevators and the grounds. Where is security to enforce rules? For the same rent, you can get a brand new apartment that is full service with a doorman for security and receiving deliveries. And maybe some peace and quiet.
15
Oh, where to begin to list the problems that living in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village sadly now entail. It used to be a great place to live, but that was many years ago, before the real estate predators got their hands on it. Here are just a few of the delights you will find if you move here:
Boatloads of noisy, inconsiderate students who move in and out yearly, so they don't feel any need to behave themselves while they're here. The majority of them have little furniture to absorb noise and no rugs on their floors, so the sound of them walking around and otherwise just living in the apartment above your head (or beside or below you) can drive you absolutely CRAZY.
Signs posted EVERYWHERE on the property with rules telling you how to behave like you might see if you lived in a dorm, which is what living here feels like now. The token security force here is a joke, often ignoring infractions of the rules that take place right in front of their noses.
I can't say enough bad things about the never ending renovations of apartments that take place here. When an older apartment is vacated, MONTHS are spent renovating it. Heaven help you if you're unfortunate enough to live near a renovation. And there are often multiple renovations going on in the same building at the same time.
My advice. STAY AWAY.
If you don't believe me, check out the YELP reviews for this place and the also the STPCV Tenants Association FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/stpcvta/
16
So, Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village goes around in a fuel-guzzling, emissions spewing, CO2 generating vehicle touting how green and sustainable they are. Cognitive dissonance? Hypocrisy?
19
Agreed. How is mobile auto advertising consistent with "green living" <https://www.stuytown.com/about-nyc-apartments/stuytown-green-living>.
1
They have "green living" over there? Not what I heard!
The hypocrisy/cognitive dissonance is truly amazing. Residents of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village received this in an email today from our management company regarding a sustainability/green initiative they’re undertaking:
“The team at StuyTown Property Services (SPS) embarked on a multi-year plan to reduce the carbon footprint of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. The motivation was not only to answer the Mayor’s call to reduce emissions 80% by 2050, but more so because it’s right for the environment...”
Right for the environment? If they REALLY cared about the environment, they wouldn’t be using their bad-for-the-environment marketing truck.
Ahahahah, a "cool factor" at Stuy Town. My sides!!!
3
When the L Train closes for repairs, the closest subway station to StuyTown also closes. Not a convenient commute for most people even now, particularly if your building is by the FDR.
Nothing about those buildings justifies the market rents. Utilities are included, but $300 annual charge for each air conditioner. No central air. No doorman. Gym is small, pricey, and costs extra.
The towers in the park layout doesn’t appeal to many New Yorkers. Feels like you’re living in the projects. The affordable regulated rents were what drew and keep people.
12
This is embarrassing! There used to be a several years waiting list to get an apartment in Stuyvesant Town and PCV. Now they have to cruise in an ice cream truck to try to lure in tenants! If they ran the place better and didn't let it become an unsupervised dorm, they wouldn't need to do this. The apartments are, indeed, large and very nice and the grounds are lovely but, unfortunately, the quality of life has taken a dive because management doesn't enforce any of the rules it makes to ensure a good quality of life. Too much noise, constant turnover of tenants and a great diminishment in security.
15
To anyone tempted by this "truck" and its offerings, just know that these are NOT luxury buildings; there is very, very little security (and what there is, according to the many people I know who live in both complexes) is slow to react.
As to "awesome service" - well, let's just say my friends who live there would NOT use the word "awesome" to describe how management deals with long-term tenants (especially the rent-stabilized ones).
"Oversized apartments" is also a stretch for Stuyvesant Town. And find out how much extra they charge you each month to have air conditioning!
16
I applied for an apartment in Stuyvesant Town about twenty years ago. I was told that there was at least a six-year waiting list. I never heard back from them after that, but i worked and saved and bought a nice little co-op, but I am still interested in what happened to Stuyvesant Town because I used to think it was such a lovely place. I guess it's gone the way of everything that used to be good in New York ... down the sewer.
I wonder who they get to drive that hideous trailer around? I'm guessing they hire day laborers with legal drivers licenses. If that truck is really illegal and the cops crack down on it, I hope that only the idiots who came up with the idea get into trouble. Where is Mayor DeBlasio? I guess he doesn't care so long as it doesn't go near Park Slope and lower the tone over there!
1
Talk about an argument in favor of congestion pricing...
9
Use of vehicles like this is illegal! If a vehicle serves no purpose other than advertising, its use in NYC is illegal. Of course no one cares, and the powerful perpetrator is gleeful. See Chapter 4 section (j)(1) of the Rules of the City of New York. Plus we don't need even more vehicles clogging our streets.
"(j) Commercial advertising vehicles.
(1) Restrictions. No person shall operate, stand, or park a vehicle on any street or roadway for the purpose of commercial advertising. Advertising notices relating to the business for which a vehicle is used may be put upon a motor vehicle when such vehicle is in use for normal delivery or business purposes, and not merely or mainly for the purpose of commercial advertising, provided that no portion of any such notice shall be reflectorized, illuminated, or animated, and provided that no such notice shall be put upon the top of the vehicle and that no special body or other object shall be put upon vehicles for commercial advertising purposes. Advertisements may be put upon vehicles licensed by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission in accordance with the Commission's rules."
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/trafrule.pdf
19
So who has standing to challenge the Owner's violation of this law?
Don't they still have a tenants association over there? I heard they used to have a good one. Maybe they all died off.
Who indeed! That's a very good question. As the owner is a multi-billion dollar corporation, managed by the Soulless, I doubt that anybody can challenge it. All the politicians in New York are corrupt and get money from the Real Estate Board of New York, so it's unlikely that would even want to stand up to the owner. It would be too expensive for them in many ways.
I'm sitting here in disbelief, thinking about a New York City (former) family community, that currently is bloated with New York University and other local students living in apartments that have been chopped up and converted to dormitory areas.
We all understand the continuing conduct of college students and the "new" normal that has been set for the remaining families and children in the community.
The former family style, comfort and security levels that were the hallmarks of this cherished suburban-like community called Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper village, are now trampled on daily, by students who invade the property for about ten months of each year.
The reality is an over-whelming number of additional people, living in newly created dormitory style areas within existing apartments. These same apartments were never built for or intended to be used for this purpose and has created a constant physical abuse of the property and emotional abuse of its residents.
To those who believe that the "word" about the conversion of the apartments to dormitory use hasn't spread, or that the rent has become just too much for average New York families, welcome to STPCV "Reality."
21
@Gerald: Agree 100% with everything you said.
NYU, as it does with nearly everything it touches, has debased and destabilized Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village by shoehorning so many transient students into SO MANY apartments there. The students appear to be exempt from all rules of decent behavior, as the sheer noise levels and the amount of partying that goes on there is horrendous.
I have a number of friends who live in either Stuyvesant Town or Peter Cooper Village, and every one of them feels very strongly the negative impact of these formerly hard-to-get-into apartments being handed out to NYU students as if they're disposable dorm rooms.
NYU, it seems, respects no one and answers to no one; it certainly has ZERO concern for the long-term residents of these buildings who are actually TOLD OFF by the students when the long-term residents complain about late-night parties and other transgressions that damage the quality of life for the majority of residents.
In NYC today, NYU's money buys them anything they want, and I guess this is a great way to chisel away at the former desirability and stability of living in these two complexes.
And to the students: I hope your karma comes around very fast, because you're truly ruining the quality of life for an enormous number of people living in these lovely buildings.
Fie on you, StuyTown Property Services, for not caring about the quality of life in these buildings.
11
They changed Heaven into Hell. Before the property was sold to predatory real estate concerns for a lot more than it was worth, incurring massive debt, there was a waiting list of several years to get an apartment in Stuyvesant Town. When the rent stabilized laws were watered down to the point that every vacated apartment went out of rent stabilization, they started bringing in students and transients who pay enormous rents for cramped dorm units. The quality of life has gone down very significantly.
It's sad that a place that used to have a long waiting list because it was so affordable and desirable, now has to cruise to solicit renters. Reminiscent of a different type of profession!
12
Some of the students are very nice and very well-behaved; however, many are NOT and those are the ones whose behavior drags the place down and gets all of the students a bad name. Management does a very poor job of enforcing the rules pertaining to noise and the tendency has been to threaten the longtime tenants that they can be sued for harassment if they complain. The security people are very good, BUT their hands are tied and their numbers diminished significantly since Blackstone took over. I don't think they are allowed to enforce the rules and management relies too much on security cameras which are all over the place (and for which tenants are paying a very large permanent MCI), but there are not enough personnel in the security (Public Safety) department to monitor these cameras. All the cameras are good for is seeing a crime in action AFTER the fact.
What is sad is that many New Yorkers would be better off buying one of these trucks and living in them than paying the extortionate rents on offer here. It might seem a ridiculous statement, but look at London where even some young professionals now live in these canal boats that are basically floating RVs, because they can (so far at least, since the success of shantytown living as an alternative to extortionate rents means authorities are limiting it more and more).
18
It's called living in a trailer. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when you consider what you would be asked to pay to live in a "apartment" trailer, I can see why they have to grovel for tenants.
1