Recidivist city slumlords bringing their scummy tactics upstate

The Real Deal

E&M Management — a longtime multifamily owner known for buying rent-stabilized buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx and converting them to market rate — is finding greener pastures beyond the city.

The controversial landlord, which owns and manages more than 3,000 apartments in the boroughs, is aggressively expanding its portfolio to upstate New York, where taxes are lower and rental laws are far less stringent.

E&M pounced on the Hudson Valley rental market in March 2018 when it bought two multifamily complexes in Kingston, Lakeshore Villas and Sunset Gardens, for $44 million. The firm is also set to close on another rental complex in Kingston for $28 million and has plans to buy a six-story senior residence in Newburgh.

E&M is “out of the city,” said managing partner Daniel Goldstein, who has taken over the company’s day-to-day operations, while its founder, Irving Langer, spends most of his time in Florida.

The landlord is on track to own and manage more than 850 units upstate. At the same time, E&M has been selling off dozens of properties in the city, reportedly including two Harlem portfolios last year that went for north of $300 million combined.

Goldstein said the upstate expansion was a natural move for the company for several reasons: 

Negative media attention in the city was causing publicity problems, while hefty regulations and property taxes were putting a squeeze on E&M’s bottom line, among other factors.

But tenants and public officials accuse the landlord of foul play — from aggressively pushing out tenants to failing to provide basic maintenance in areas like heating and plumbing. An E&M subsidiary was a subject of an extensive New York Times exposé last year for evicting 15 low-income renters and suing 250 rent-regulated tenants at a property in East Harlem.

And the company may soon face similar pressures in Ulster County, as two bills in the state Senate could extend the reach of New York’s rental laws and hinder the firm’s plans to corner the Hudson Valley market.

Here's proof of E & M's shenanigans.

A dozen senior centers are on de Blasio's budget cutting chopping block.

Queens Chronicle

 
Four senior centers and clubs in Queens are among 12 in New York City Housing Authority complexes that have been targeted for closure in Mayor de Blasio’s 2019-20 executive budget.

The administration says the centers up for closure are underutilized, are in poor condition or both; under the mayor’s plan seniors in the affected centers or clubs would be bused to ones nearby by the city’s Department for the Aging.

In Queens, the sites on the list include the centers or clubs at the Baisley Park Houses and Shelton Houses in Jamaica; the Bland Houses in Flushing; and the Astoria Houses.

In response to an inquiry from the Chronicle, the Mayor’s Office submitted a quote from the mayor in last month’s budget address, and comments made by DFTA Commissioner Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez during her testimony to the Council.

“There will be a cost effective new approach to providing seniors in public housing with access to senior centers rather than the ‘senior clubs’ that had been provided by NYCHA directly,” de Blasio said. “Those clubs, we found were underutilized, could not provide the same quality of service as our DFTA programs could. So, seniors will go to an established senior center that specializes in supporting seniors. There’ll be free transportation provided that will also save us money while providing a better product to our seniors.”

“[M]any of these senior centers were not meeting essential senior center health and safety standards,” Cortes-Vazquez said. “Many are not [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant and have chronic leaks, flooding and sewage back-up. Additionally, several have low participation rates that resulted in higher than usual per-participant costs.”

But the administration is taking fire from all directions from the City Council.

Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) acknowledged that the Shelton Houses building is not a sprawling complex like some other NYCHA developments; and that its senior club is a modest one.

“But it provides vital services,” he said. “And for the sake of saving a few bucks, they’re going to force elderly residents to travel a half mile every day ... It’s just another effort to try and squeeze money out of the NYCHA budget.”

Councilwoman Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) said the proposed $800,000 in savings is relative pocket change in the context of a $92.5 billion budget, and that the Baisley Houses center long has suffered from neglect by the city.

“Of course when you don’t offer programs and you don’t keep them in good condition, people are going to stop coming — and then you say they are underutilized?” Adams said. “We’ve seen that closure method before in communities of color.”

In response to de Blasio’s budget proposal last month, Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) expressed disappointment that the mayor did not consider savings of $1 billion that the Council recommended in order to keep some of its priorities funded.
“We made a good-faith effort,” Lancman said of the Council’s counteroffer. “And we got the back of the hand from the mayor.”

And if the mayor’s intention is frugality, Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) and state Senate Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris (D-Astoria) are questioning why the Astoria Houses center is set to shut down just weeks after a $500,000 refurbishment is going to be completed, with money Constantinides secured from the Council in 2014.

“Astoria Houses seniors’ excitement about moving into an upgraded center quickly turned into despair over these proposed budget cuts,” the councilman said in a statement issued with Gianaris. 

“Instead of paying for buses to another center almost two miles away, I ask the administration keep this center open to not disrupt the daily lives of Astoria Houses seniors.”

“Seniors rely on this center for hot meals and recreation but even more importantly to foster a sense of community we cannot put a price on,” Gianaris said. “I urge the administration to do the right thing by our seniors and revisit this proposal so we can keep the doors open.”

After judge's decision, the city is still trying to disenfranchise Brooklyn homeowners

Kings County Politics

With millions of dollars of intergenerational black and brown community wealth on the line, the city argued in federal court filings yesterday, that its Third Party Transfer (TPT) program passes U.S. Constitution muster, and that property owners who have had their fully paid off properties taken with no compensation should be denied recourse in their effort to certify a class action lawsuit.

Under the TPT program – the subject of an ongoing KCP investigative series – the city seizes properties they deem “distressed,” and give them to the public/private non-profit Neighborhood Restore, who in turn give the property for a nominal fee to a qualified non-profit or for-profit developer. The program was created in the late 1970s, when the city had a large number of abandoned and neglected buildings.

However, with gentrification, these properties, and others in the same program, are now worth millions of dollars in market value. Almost all were completely paid for with no mortgage and located in traditionally black and brown neighborhoods, which are becoming increasingly gentrified.

In early March, three of the property owners, McConnell Dorce, Cecilia Jones and Sherlivia Thomas-Murchinson, filed papers in the U.S. Southern District of New York Federal District Court alleging their properties were unconstitutionally confiscated under the in rem foreclosure process.
Their filing was to seek certification to pursue a class action lawsuit, which if successful, could cost the city tens of millions of dollars and the return of dozens of property.

 Their suit was bolstered in late March, when Kings County Supreme Court Judge Mark Partnow ordered the city to give six Central Brooklyn property owners their property back, restoring millions of dollars of intergenerational wealth in the black and Latino community.

More "affordable housing" promised by developer for Peninsula Hospital site and Councilman Richards

The 

Rockaway Times

“The clock officially starts now,” Councilman Donovan Richards said before a packed house at the RISE Center, where many gathered for an information session on the plan for the future of the old Peninsula Hospital site.

The ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) for the redevelopment plan has officially begun and principals, Alex Arker and Dan Moritz, from the developer, Arker Companies, were on hand on the evening of Tuesday, May 7, to present the latest details of their plan. As a Councilman, Richards explained that he and City Council will have the final say on the plan, so it is important to gather input directly from the community now. “We want to make sure we give the community a lot of say on the things they’d like to see in a specific project and we want the developers to understand the needs of the community. I want to make sure that towards the end of this process, when it comes before City Council, that I feel comfortable with your input in the plan,” Richards said.

Arker first revealed their mixed-use development plan for the site in early 2018, after purchasing the property in 2016. The presentation of the latest plan showed that some changes have been made since the original plan was presented, but at Tuesday’s meeting, many pointed out that the plan still needs to be revised, including Councilman Richards. “I’m currently not in support of the plan that has been proposed. We have a long way to go with negotiations,” Richards said.

 A major concern for a few community members is the density of the project, with the development of 2,200 units. Some expressed concern that this would bring in at least 6,000 new people to the neighborhood in a place that lacks certain resources, transportation and adequate infrastructure. Councilman Richards said that at least 50 percent of the units, and likely more, would be reserved, with first priority given to people that already live in the neighborhood. The developers also explained the reasoning behind such a high density, saying it was necessary to allow for the building to be affordable, and to support some of the community benefits that the project will bring, such as the supermarket. Richards added that it was likely that the number of units will eventually be scaled back to some degree.

 Some also questioned what “affordable housing” means and urged that the development should accommodate a mix of incomes. “You say you’re building affordable housing, but the idea is to give people an opportunity for an economically diversified neighborhood. I don’t think the plan you’re putting forward does that,” Arverne resident Glenn DiResto said. “A majoriy is for those at 80% AMI or lower. It doesn’t balance out incomes. I understand the need for affordable housing, but only 13% is going to be for people with 80% AMI or higher, so if a wife makes $35,000 and a husband makes $35,000, they do not qualify. You very much need to look at a balance of income here.” Richards and the developers said they agree that a mix of incomes is necessary.

Defiantly hypocritical, stupid, moronic, incompetent, unethical, amoral, and corrupt idiot mayor of New York City is running for President of the United States of America

No other words for now.

But his campaign is already off to a comically disastrous start...

Queens leads all boroughs in marijuana arrests

 


Queens Eagle

Queens leads the five boroughs in low-level marijuana possession cases — misdemeanor charges that have drastically decreased in volume under new NYPD protocols but are still marked by stunning racial disparities.

The number of unlawful, fourth- and fifth-degree marijuana possession cases have dropped significantly in Queens this year, but the borough accounts for more low-level weed prosecutions than Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island combined, according to client data compiled by The Legal Aid Society, which represents about half the indigent defendants in New York City.

And while low-level marijuana arrests have decreased by more than 88 percent citywide, racial disparities in who gets busted for weed possession have actually gotten worse.

In fact, nearly every single person busted for low-level weed possession in New York City was Black or Latinx during the first three months of this year, according to data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, which was provided by the NYPD.  Of the 476 people arrested for fifth-degree marijuana possession citywide, just 20 were white, according to the data set. The other 456 people arrested — more than 95 percent — were people of color.

People of color accounted for 93 percent of the 4,081 people arrested for fifth-degree marijuana possession during the first three months of 2018. Fifth-degree marijuana possession includes smoking in public or possessing more than 25 grams of marijuana.

“Even though arrests are down, the racial disparities are increasing. And they’re meaningful. You can see who they are targeting for sale and possession,” said Robert Gangi, director of the Police Reform Organizing Project, which obtained and shared the data from the state.

Councilman Barry Grodenchik cops to sexual harassment charges

 

NY Post

A Democratic Queens legislator admitted Tuesday to sexually harassing a female City Council staffer for more than a year — giving her so many unwelcome hugs and kisses that she avoided meetings with him.

Councilman Barry Grodenchik agreed to undergo sexual harassment training at his own expense and give up his chairmanship of the Parks and Recreation Committee.

“I understand that my actions caused the council staff member to suffer embarrassment, stress and discomfort, and emotional distress,” Grodenchik said with his head down.

He zipped through his prepared statement, only looking up at the assembled members of the council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics when he finished.

“I am deeply sorry for my conduct and for any harm suffered by the council staff member as a result of my conduct,” he said.

Grodenchik hustled out of the hearing room past waiting reporters as soon as he finished.
The 59-year-old Democrat, who has represented northeastern Queens in the council since 2015, waived a full hearing on the allegations by admitting to “discrimination and harassment of [an unnamed] female staffer,” according to ethics committee chair Steven Matteo (R-SI).

Woman gets raped twice by two men with her family present in Little Neck home invasion robbery

 QNS


Two men robbed and raped a 34-year-old woman and terrorized her family during a home invasion in Little Neck over the weekend, police reported.


Cops are looking for the duo, as well as a third individual who assisted them, in the violent encounter that took place at about 9:31 p.m. on May 4 in the vicinity of 251st Street and 57th Avenue.

According to law enforcement sources, the 34-year-old woman was leaving the residence when the two men — one of whom brandished a firearm — approached and forced her back into the home.


Security camera footage that the NYPD released on May 6 shows one armed suspect chasing the victim inside the house and two other perpetrators walking in.

 Seven other people were in the residence when the victim re-entered along with the two home invaders, sources familiar with the investigation said. The seven residents were forced to a bedroom, where they were detained as one of the robbers took the victim upstairs and searched for loot.


The victim provided the robber with $1,000 in cash, and then the suspect sexually assaulted her, police said. After the attack, he brought the victim back downstairs and removed another $800 in cash from the woman’s 54-year-old mother.


But that wasn’t enough for the perpetrators, police said, as they demanded more money. Authorities said the victim then went to another bedroom and provided $8,000 in cash from a nightstand. The second robber then sexually assaulted her in that bedroom, police noted.

 #SafestBigCity my ass de Blasio.

Phantom landlord terrorizes tenants by weaponizing construction

CBS NY

An apartment battle in the Brooklyn between rent-stabilized tenants and their landlord is getting heated.

Residents claim they’re being forced out with a construction nightmare and now they’re fighting back.

CBS2 first told you about the tenants at 97 and 99 Clay Street last week. They claim their landlord is using construction to harass them in an effort to drive them from their rent-stabilized apartments.

They add they’ve enduring leaking ceilings, construction debris, and the threat of rats in their building. Now they’re rallying for their rights.

 The owners are sidestepping accountability,” tenant George Manatos said.

The property is run by a company called “Perfect Management,” under LJC Towers LLC, but the address leads to this shipping store filled with non-descript mailboxes.

“You can’t talk to a mailbox, there’s no one to talk to and they don’t want you talking to them, they don’t even want you know who they are,” Williamsburg resident Phil Smrek explained.

Smrek says he endured the same kind of abuse and knows the game landlords play all too well; especially when it comes to construction violations.

“I’ve seen them pay the fines like parking tickets, $5,000, $10,000… when you’re talking about $20 million  properties, a $5,000 fine is nothing so there has to be actual prosecution and prison time for these landlords.

CBS2 reached out to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development which investigates tenant harassment. The agency said it rejects “mail drop addresses” like this location.

“Many times they have the buildings listed under DOB with one owner and under HPD with a different owner. They drop letters in their last names, they change their spelling, it’s very shrouded, they’re under LLC’s.

CBS2 checked the address for LJC Towers LLC on the HPD website; it’s not at Lee Avenue where they claim, but a building on Manhattan Avenue that says Perfect Management on the door.

CBS2’s Valerie Castro rang their buzzer to ask some questions, but while she was waiting they turned the lights out.

 This is where I got my internet handle from.

Jimmy Van Bramer calls for more surveillance cameras to stop parking in bike lanes

Sunnyside Post
 
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer joined forces with members of Transportation Alternatives in Long Island City this morning to condemn motorists who block sidewalks, bike lanes and crosswalks—and to call on the NYPD to ticket these drivers.

Van Bramer also announced his support for a pilot program that would bring 20 cameras to the streets of New York tasked with catching drivers who block bicycle lanes and pedestrian pathways. The program, which is likely to be introduced as a bill before the council, is part of Transportation Alternatives’ new #TechforSafety campaign.

 When cars turn our sidewalks into parking lots and block our bike lanes and crosswalks, they put pedestrians and cyclists in danger,” Van Bramer said. “The NYPD must step up its enforcement against illegal parking and ticket and tow cars that are blatantly breaking the law. We need a comprehensive, zero-tolerance policy and legislation to increase penalties.”

Sure we need more enforcement of habitual pig parking offenders, but more cameras on the streets is not the answer and any ideas from TransAlt are always bad.

It's a short post but the comment thread is long and interesting. Notably the one dink who describes drivers as "car people"

Overdeveloped Jackson Heights wants to convert street to a park

From CBS 2:

More than 100 people gathered at Travers Park in Jackson Heights calling on the city to keep promises they say were made about expanding a pedestrian plaza, reports CBS2’s Aundrea Cline-Thomas.

“We are here today yet again to demand that Howard Koeppel and his car dealership get this service road out of our park,” said one protestor.

Koeppel Mazda opened a location last fall along Northern Boulevard.

The $1 million construction project included creating a service entrance on 78th Street, an area the protestors say the city promised would become a pedestrian plaza.

Why demand an actual new park when the government has you begging for crumbs...

And you thought Queens was bad...

From NBC:

There is a new battle over illegal housing in Rockland County and the mounting pressure by a special task force and hearings ordered by a state senator. The I-Team's Sarah Wallace.

Community, supermarkets and mom and pop store owners decry Target's small-format store expansions

THE CITY

Target has Queens in its sights, with new stores planned for Astoria and Elmhurst — but activists in both neighborhoods are waging separate battles to boot the big-box retailer.

The Targets are set to open by 2022 on bustling blocks steps away from subway stations and near grocery stores, pharmacies, newsstands and restaurants.

Opponents fear the chain stores will erase union jobs and mom-and-pop shops, and lead to potential displacement of longtime residents.

“These corporations — Amazon, Target, Walmart, whoever — treat our neighborhoods like corporate playgrounds, and think our people are just open wallets,” said Patricia Chou, an organizer with Queens Neighborhoods United, a grassroots group that is taking legal action to stop the Elmhurst store.

 “These stores bring us closer to new and existing guests, and give us the opportunity to meet the needs of new communities,” said DeBuse, touting the smaller stores as an “easy and inspiring shopping experience.”

In Astoria, Target’s arrival at busy 31st Street and Ditmars Boulevard would push out five active businesses, while consuming other vacant storefronts.

Neighborhood resident and newsstand operator Kinnira Patel said her landlord informed her it won’t renew the lease on her decade-old business come August.

“They said I could stay month-to-month. How can you stay month-to-month? I have to pay two months ahead to keep the lights on,” said Patel, 54. “Now I don’t know what I’m going to do next.”

 On, these bodega Targets rely on automated cashiers.

Hudson Yards is already showing cracks

The Village Spoke

In only a month after opening, New York’s most expensive private development is already falling apart.

If you look up from your phone camera for a second before you take a selfie of the Vessel, you’re bound to see something broken at Hudson Yards.

 Hudson Yards bills itself as New York’s newest neighborhood, however it reflects many of the shortcomings of the city’s prior superblock development projects.

The original World Trade Center’s Austin J. Tobin Plaza was an enclosure of skyscrapers along the Hudson River, inadvertently creating a brutal wind tunnel. Hudson Yards is much the same.

Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center lacked a unified vision with its variety pack of 90s-fad architecture and is today largely unremarkable. Hudson Yards developer Related Companies took a similar approach, commissioning numerous so-called “starchitects” to build what New York Times Architecture critic Micheal Kimmelman describes as an “architectural petting zoo.”

But Hudson Yards also appears to have created their own problems, particularly with the build quality of the development.

One day, this is going to be exposed as the Titanic of hyperdevelopment.

It's ironic that Hudson Yards already looks like a distressed area.

City is still sitting on billions of dollars of federal Hurricane Sandy recovery money for housing damaged by storm

NY Post


The de Blasio administration still hasn’t spent $8.1 billion in federal funds for Hurricane Sandy recovery six years after the storm — including $1.8 billion for NYCHA, according to a new report by city Comptroller Scott Stringer.

The city has used up just 54 percent of a total $14.7 billion allocated for infrastructure, homeowner recovery and resiliency projects.

Only 41 percent targeted for the New York City Housing Authority has been spent.

“All the talk of a monitor, all the NYCHA investigations from lead to boilers, there’s a pot of money, $3 billion, and NYCHA and City Hall could only allocate 41 percent! This is the tragedy of this moment,” Stringer said.

Chirlane McCray's mental health program is a billion dollar flop

NY Post


The $560 million in taxpayer money spent on First Lady Chirlane McCray’s ThriveNYC program hasn’t adequately addressed the need for mental-health services in the city — which actually “worsened” over the past year, The Post has learned.

The bombshell finding by the city Health Department was revealed in a draft report that was reviewed last week during a meeting of the department’s advisory Community Service Board.

“We are seeing consistently high demand for high needs services including rates of suicide,” the report says.

“We need to engage in a process with state partners to expand our portfolio of services and better address the needs of New Yorkers.”

Despite McCray’s claims of transparency regarding her embattled mental-health program, City Hall refused to release a copy of the Health Department report.

But a source provided The Post with details, including the report’s conclusion that during the past year, “Mental health service needs have worsened, as have substance use disorder needs, and developmentally disabled needs.”

The report blames the situation for a long-term increase in emergency room visits by mentally ill people who face “barriers to appropriate and relevant community care.”

ThriveNYC has spent $2 million on a program called NYC Safe, which is supposed to pair cops with health-care workers to help steer homeless and mentally ill people into treatment so they don’t wind up in the hospital.

But the program has only aided 1,000 people over the past 2¹/₂ years, according to figures released in March.

de Blasio initiates pilot health insurance coverage plan with glossy card

NY Daily News

Mayor de Blasio unveiled the design for the city’s new health care card on Tuesday — even though uninsured New Yorkers won’t be able to use it for months.

Launching Aug. 1 in the Bronx, the NYC Care program is part of an effort to provide either insurance or health services to roughly 600,000 New Yorkers who are uninsured.

Half of them are undocumented immigrants who can’t be insured, and the rest either can’t afford health coverage through Affordable Care Act exchanges or have opted out of purchasing it.

Those roughly 300,000 New Yorkers who cannot be insured will be able to get an NYC Care card and membership that gives them access to a primary care doctor in the city’s Health + Hospitals network.

Undocumented immigrants already have guaranteed health care at the city’s public hospitals, but the new program is intended to help them better manage their health and avoid costly emergency room visits.

 The NYC Care card is expected to reach all five boroughs by the end of 2020 and cost $100 million a year when fully implemented, with about $25 million going toward Bronx memberships.

The city will also expand its MetroPlus program, the public hospital system’s health insurance program, as part of an overall effort to increase health care enrollment for the other 300,000 uninsured.

“We’re on track to guarantee health care for every single New Yorker,” de Blasio said in a statement. “Access to quality and affordable health care is one of the biggest burdens working people face. Now they won’t face it alone.”

Mayor Big Slow has made announcements like this and programs to help the low income citizens before and they have not been helpful nor have materialized. And his own and his administration's incompetence and prolifigate spending is now legend:

Ny Post

The idea here is to make it as user friendly as it possibly can be,” de Blasio said.

“We’re saying, come get this card, we’re going to assign you a doctor, we’re going to show you all the services you can get with this,” he added.

The mayor said his number crunches are still determining how much the plan will save in emergency room costs.

 He's not doing this to help people get health care, he's doing this to boost his national profile for his delusional presidential aspirations.

Hedge fund landlords are tripping balls capitalizing on home foreclosures

CBC


A new documentary argues that housing has become a commodity much like gold, to be bought and sold on the stock market in bulk — and that the practice is driving up rents globally.
Fredrik Gertten, director of Push, says that hedge funds can snap up real estate quickly and forcefully.

 

"They have more money than a normal landlord, so it's kind of almost like a landlord on speed," he told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

The result is often an owner who lives very far away from the property, he said.
"
You can't knock on his door and talk to him about your problems because your landlord is now a hedge fund ... somewhere [in a] totally different part of the world, maybe."


Leilani Farha, the United Nations' special rapporteur on adequate housing, explained that private equity firms and asset management firms "survey landscapes all around the world looking for what they call undervalued properties."

"When they find them, they buy them up with their liquid capital — backed by banks — and their model is to then refurbish the units and increase the rents, forcing people out," Farha, who is featured in Push, told Tremonti.


She said the business model isn't just gentrification, but a financialization of housing, driven by an "unprecedented amount of wealth."

"This is on a totally different scale. They're buying thousands of units at a time," she said.

The city approves plan to stack sandbags four feet high to mitigate flooding from hurricanes

New York Times


After Hurricane Sandy devastated New York in 2012, city officials considered some drastic responses to storm surges, like long concrete sea walls and tall earthen berms.

But as the seventh hurricane season since then approaches, the city is relying on something more modest as the first line of defense against another inundation of Manhattan: a row of glorified sandbags.

In the next few months, the city’s Office of Emergency Management plans to oversee the installation of four-foot-tall sacks of soil along the East River esplanade, from Wall Street to just north of the Brooklyn Bridge.

For up to five years, they essentially would form the only barrier to keep water from again rushing into the low-lying neighborhoods around the South Street Seaport.

City officials say they are a temporary step while permanent solutions to New York’s vulnerability to big storms are still being planned and debated.

But the barriers have already provoked derision.

“Six years of studying it and you come up with sandbags? Really?” said Marco Pasanella, whose family owns a 180-year-old building with a wine shop that faces the river on South Street. He said he felt no less vulnerable than he did on the night that Sandy flooded his shop and left the district without power for two weeks.

Along with the doubts about their effectiveness, the barriers have also been panned as unsightly interlopers along a stretch of waterfront popular with pedestrians and bicyclists — one woman called them “atrocities.”

They will cover only about one mile of the waterfront, leaving the area below Wall Street unprotected, possibly for another decade or longer.

Developer and recidivist slumlord gets loan from bank he robbed to buy historic building and bar

Patch

When the White Horse Tavern building was purchased by the notorious landlord Steve Croman, West Villagers grew anxious for the building's future.

Croman had served jail time for tax fraud and was required to pay $8 million in restitution back to tenants he was accused of harassing. The landlord ultimately pleaded guilty to a scheme that involved obtaining multi-million dollar refinancing loans — which included submitting false mortgage documents to New York Community Bank and Capital One Bank.

But now, New York Community Bank has welcomed Croman back.

The bank is the lender for Croman's purchase of the $13.7 million building, located at 567 Hudson St., mortgage documents and property records show.

A spokesman for New York Community Bank did not return multiple calls for comment. 

 Tenants' advocates have raised concerns about the standards banks hold landlords to when they give out loans.

"I'll leave it to the bank regulators to decide whether it's safe and sound to lend to someone who defrauded you," said Jaime Weisberg, a senior campaign analyst for Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD).

"We've been in regular conversation with the bank about this particular landlord for years," Weisberg added. "To be doing business with somebody with such a poor record with tenants is concerning.
"We want banks to be mindful of this because their lending matters," she said.