Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Bushwick landlord pushing out tenants

The picture painted of 208 Evergreen Avenue by tenants and housing advocates is a study in how people on the edge of the economic abyss vanish in the swirl of buying, selling and development in what some call an “up-and-coming” neighborhood.

Bushwick Holdouts Battle Their Landlord

Msgr. John Powis, a Catholic priest and housing advocate, sees what is happening there as the flip side to the hip side of gentrification and speculation, where banks eagerly financed even the most dubious of purchases. New owners neglect repairs to push out rent-stabilized tenants, and in several extreme cases, he said, landlords have shown up unannounced at night to harangue tenants into moving.

This eight-unit tenement on Evergreen Avenue, which is half vacant (or half occupied, for you optimists out there) is the last residential building remaining on its block. Next door is an empty though newly renovated building and a floral wholesale business. But the rest of the large, triangular parcel along the elevated tracks is leveled and walled off with plywood. Residents and advocates wonder if the landlord is stalling on repairs to push the remaining tenants out of the way for development.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

They keep pushing out all their tenents in Bushwick and all their tenents keep moving to Glendale........great.

Anonymous said...

Of course the landlord is failing to make repairs to push the tenants out. What other reason would he have, he is after all a landlord.

Anonymous said...

Uhh, and this is NEWS?

Anonymous said...

I personally am glad this is being brought attention to. Boo hoo, the landlord can't make as much money off them as he could a market rate tenant. Tough shit. You knew that when you bought the building.

I have lived in rent regulated buildings that were decent. Not all landlords are scumbags. Under Bloomberg, they were encouraged to become slumlords.

Anonymous said...

There was a move about this where Mel Brooks as a slumlord was sentenced to live in one of his buildings. Sounds like a good punishment.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone noticed that all of Glendale west of "Zum Stammtisch" is well on its way to becoming the new Bushwick?

Anonymous said...

yes it comes down from the top. Bloomberg doesn't care about tenants, except to drive us out.
he is the real estate lobby's inside man.


His deputy mayor, Dan Doctoroff, forced the privatization of Mitchell Lama Buildings, Independence Plaza by the World Trade Center.

The mayor and his cadre were so upset when NYC didn't get the Olympics and the West Side Stadium. Bloomberg wanted to use eminent domain to seize private property and do rampant development in order to destroy rent stabilization and rent control.

those pesky tenants won the day.