Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Protesting against Vantage

The Queens Vantage Tenants' Council, formed earlier this year from residents living in buildings owned by Manhattan-based Vantage Properties, is seeking a meeting with executives of the company and its financial partner Apollo Real Estate Advisors.

Vantage has been accused by tenants and housing activists of using aggressive tactics to force tenants out of apartments. The company has said it’s abiding by the law and only targeting illegal occupancies.

The tenant group is planning to rally outside Apollo's offices at the Time Warner Center.


Queens tenants to protest private equity funder

Vantage Properties, partnering with a number of funders, has purchased more than 9,000 apartment units in Upper Manhattan and Queens.

The tenant group claims more than 1,000 members from among approximately 80 buildings.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whats wong with these people dressing that ? That 5? year old like a Munchkin out of the Wizard of Oz.
THIS IS NOT F_ TRINIDAD !!!

Anonymous said...

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? WAIT I KNOW WHAT. YOU SURE ARE ONE BIG MISERABLE CREATURE.

Anonymous said...

Brillaint.

I always said you dont need scholarly testimony or position papers.

Give me a disadvantaged kid in the picket lines the product of lesbian moms (chinese and hispanic thank you) from Corona and I can get the media's attention and anything passed in NY.

Ben said...

I'm a resident in a Vantage property in Astoria. I happen to live in one of the renovated apartments. From talking to my neighbors, no less than 4 apartments in this bldg. have had their ceilings collapse, with no rush from Vantage to fix it.

The renovations in my apartment, which now runs almost 200% more expensive than what the previous tenants rented it for, were really shoddy. There was no window in the bedroom window frame of my 4th story walk-up when I moved in. Nothing compared to what other tenants are dealing with, but I assure you that my calls are ignored just as much as theirs. They finally got around to fixing all the problems a full three months after I moved in and dozens of calls later.

It's unbelievable to me that Vantage can cop a plea of "we're dealing with years of neglect from previous landlords" as if that's an excuse to be a s^%^%y landlord itself. As if they didn't know exactly what they were buying, liabilities and all - and even if they didn't, how is it the residents' problem that they failed to do their homework?

It doesn't have to be illegal to be wrong.