Results matching “stuyvesant”

When the state's highest court ruled in October that the new owners of Stuyvesant Town should not have raised rents beyond certain set levels while also receiving tax breaks from the city for major renovations, other landlords started to sweat. Tishman Speyer, which bought the sprawling housing complex in 2006 but must now pay back millions of dollars in rent rebates, is not the only property owner in the city to raise rents on formerly rent-stabilized units, while also getting a J-51 tax break. Smelling fresh meat sensing injustice, the lawyers have sprung into action!

Last night, a 51-year-old woman was killed outside her family's home in Brooklyn. Audrey Johnson had stepped outside of 149 Clifton Place, between Classon and Franklin Avenues, apparently to check on her niece's boyfriend, who was being assaulted by three men. She was shot in the head while 14-year-old nephew Daniel Johnson, was shot in the leg.

You'll recall the brouhaha sparked by the video of a cop body-slamming a man off his bicycle back in the summer of '08; the officer lost his job and the cyclist, Christopher Long, filed a fat lawsuit. Well, the Post is quick to report today that Long was recently involved "in a drunken incident" in Bedford-Stuyvesant just before 1 a.m. on Wednesday. Does this mean we have to find a new hero?

Just days after a student was suspended from Stuyvesant High School for allegedly setting fires, investigators say a copycat arsonist has been lighting blazes in the esteemed Lower Manhattan school — and taunting police in hieroglyphics.

A 16-year-old Stuyvesant High School student was caught on camera setting two fires in school bathrooms this week, according to police. Cops arrested junior Mohammed Hassan after obtaining surveillance tapes that apparently show the teen entering a seventh-floor bathroom at 1:13 pm and leaving two minutes later as a trash can went up in flames. At 1:16 pm, a different camera purportedly captures Hassan entering and quickly exiting another bathroom, leaving "bright orange and yellow flames rising out of a large garbage can," according to investigators quoted by the Daily News.

Today's end of day links: Mayor Bloomberg's media company wants to rule the world, the Boss tells a Michigan crowd "Hello, Ohio," Stuy Town residents want to keep their rent-stabilized rents and more.

Today's mid-day links: A teen was indicted for the stray bullet killing of a Bronx woman, two rapes in the Far Rockaways have the police on alert, Sarah Palin says she never called her son "retarded," the Post looks at how threesomes are mainstream, Stuyvesant Town rental prices are nowhere to be found on its leasing website and more.

Yesterday one ebullient Stuyvesant Town tenant said he expected his market-rate apartment to revert back to rent-regulated rent levels "immediately," now that the state's highest court has ruled that property owner Tishman Speyer improperly raised rents while also receiving tax breaks from the city. But tenants are almost definitely in store for more legal foot-dragging from Tishman Speyer, which could be liable for some $200 million in damages. After fighting off the tenants' lawsuit for years, Tishman Speyer isn't just going to roll over, especially since the company is at high risk of default on some $4.4 billion in loans. Every million counts!

In a decision that could have major repercussions for landlords of rent-controlled buildings citywide, the state’s highest court has ruled this morning that owners of the sprawling Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes in Manhattan improperly charged market-rate rents on thousands of apartments. In what is probably the final deathblow for Tishman Speyer's ownership of Stuy Town, the Court of Appeals ruled that the owners should not have raised rents beyond certain set levels while also receiving tax breaks from the city for major renovations.

     

If you've ever seen Warhol's Factory, it was likely in part through the lens of Nat Finkelstein, who documented much of that era and the characters who created it. The photographer died of pneumonia and emphysema on October 2nd at the age of 76, while at his home in Shandaken, New York. The NY Times notes that he was the house photographer at the Factory from 1964 to 1967, and "created spontaneous portraits not only of Factory regulars like Sedgwick and Gerard Malanga but also of the artists and celebrities who drifted in and out of the Warhol orbit."

Unhealthy food purveyors are fed up with what they see as City Hall's scaremongering about their products, so they've gone on the offensive with a $1 million nationwide ad campaign. In New York, the Center for Consumer Freedom—a "consumer advocate" front for a collective of food corporations—is asking people, "When did the Big Apple become Big Brother?" We thought it started around the time Peter Stuyvesant imprisoned people harboring Quakers, but no; the answer to that rhetorical question is Mayor Bloomberg. His Health Department is behind a number of public health initiatives, including requiring chain restaurants to display calorie info, and, most recently, a public awareness campaign against soda.

Proof that everyone could use a little Chuck E. Cheese in their lives; reportedly the establishment got hundreds of Muslim-Americans flocking to their spot in the Atlantic Terminal Mall "as part of the three-day Eid al-Fitr festival on Sunday." That's right, it's tradition (dating back to around 2004)!

Besides a run-off for Public Advocate, yesterday's primary election also resulted in a run-off for City Comptroller, with City Council member John Liu (D-Queens) getting 38% of the vote and fellow Council member David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) getting 30%. Two other Council members from Queens ran— Melinda Katz got 20% and David Weprin 11%.

After the early evening drive-by shooting that killed two and injured another on Thursday night, a victim's mother spoke out. Antoine Stokes, 20, and 15-year-old Steven Hill were fatally shot by gunmen in a SUV as they sat on their Bedford-Stuyvesant stoop, while Derrick Henry, 14 or 16, was wounded. Stokes' mother Ernestine said her son was in the wrong place at the wrong time, adding he even worried about the violence in the neighborhood, "I just want you to catch his killer and get these crimes off the street because it's too bad that you have to lose your child over stupidness that he didn't do." Yesterday, the Daily News said that locals were weary of the drug-related violence, with a school principal saying, "There's a street turf war around here. We've been putting up with this for too long."

Yesterday, right before 6 p.m., gunmen in an SUV opened fire on a group of people sitting on a stoop in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Steven Hill, 15, and Antoine Stokes, 20, were both shot multiple times and later pronounced dead while Derek Henry, (either 14 or 16), is in stable condition at Kings County Hospital. The NY Times spoke to witnesses, who said "the three youths were caught off guard when a car drove by and a barrage of shots — as many as 20, some estimated — poured out its windows"; one added, "I saw people running and screaming, scattering all over the place. Any place they could find a place to hide." According to the Daily News, "A three-way feud among rival groups sparked" the violence. "The beef involved the gunned-down group, which hung out on Bainbridge St., and competing crews from the Brevoort Houses in Ocean Hill and the Jackie Robinson Houses in Manhattan, the police source said." The Post, which suggests that Hill may have been the target, reports, "Community activist Tony Herbert said cops told him the shooting was in retaliation for a robbery earlier in the day."

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: An officer assist at Lenox & Central Park in Manhattan, an unusual MVA on Rockaway Blvd in Queens, and an unusual rescue along W Fingerboard Rd on Staten Island.
• Cloud nine: A baby was born at 9:09 a.m. yesterday (on 9/09/09) at New York Medical Center in Flushing.
• Sigh: A Bronx livery cab driver was found allegedly drunk driving the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway, 10 miles north of where Diane Schuler died and killed seven others in a wrong-way crash.

Today's Times exposé on the financial woes gripping the owners of StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village is filled with insider analysis that makes our eyes glaze over, such as, "At Stuyvesant Town, there is a $3 billion first mortgage, or commercial mortgage-backed security, and a $1.4 billion second loan, known as “mezzanine debt” held by SL Green, the government of Singapore and others." But the bottom line is easy enough to grasp; as one analyst puts it, "I’d say their equity has been wiped out, given the decline in apartment values."

Both tabloids detail the "deadly love triangle" where one man killed another over Catalina Hernandez. The Daily News spoke to the 24-year-old (with dramatic photo) reports that "Michael Lebron walked from his shelter to her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment at 10:30 p.m. Saturday and screamed for her on-again, off-again boyfriend to show himself," yelling, "I ain't no p---y I'm going to kill you; we're going to finish this tonight." And Pedro Marquez, 46, who has a two-month old with Hernandez, yelled back, "Let's see who's going to die tonight!" and emerged from the building with kitchen knife, stabbing Lebron numerous times. Hernandez told the Post that Marquez was disappointing—"We were arguing, and he wasn't working, and I was doing everything alone"—while Lebron, who was 40, "knew how to treat a woman. He wasn't trying to have sex all the time. He just showed me attention emotionally." (But it turns out that Lebron had a fiancee, who visited her yesterday.) Marquez, who was charged with murder, wrote in a note to Hernandez, "Please forgive me. It was not my intention to do this. I've been depressed. I feel sorry for what happened but that's life."

In a highly contentious July decision, Brooklyn's Community Board 1 voted to convert a 31-acre area zoned for manufacturing on the border of Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant into 1,895 low-rise apartments—905 of which would charge below-market rate rents. Opponents say the buildings would be too small and accuse the city of awarding housing contracts to non-profits tied to influential Assemblyman Vito Lopez—the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and the Bushwick Ridgewood Senior Citizens Council—without putting the sites up for bid.

     

The New York Transit Museum is presenting a photo exhibit featuring images taken on the last day the Myrtle Avenue El in Brooklyn was in operation, all taken by noted photographer Theresa King. You can revisit the past starting September 29th at the museum (running through the end of February), but here's a sneak peek and a little history.

Around 4:30 a.m. today, a shooting broke out on Avenue A and East 13th Street—a total of three men were shot, and one was killed. According to 1010 WINS, "All three of the unidentified men were rushed to Bellevue Hospital where one of them was pronounced dead. The other two were listed in stable condition." It's unclear what caused the shooting, which occurred just south of Stuyvesant Town, and the investigation is ongoing. 1010WINS adds that East Village residents told "reporter Glenn Schuck, that they are upset the bars and clubs in the area stay open so late." Update: The Daily News reports that the shooting occurred outside the bar Forbidden City and that the bouncer was killed after throwing two men out: "The men, who continued to fight with another group as they exited the night spot, hopped into a waiting white van and one of them reemerged a moment later brandishing a handgun, horrified witnesses said." One witness elaborated that a man got out of the vehicle and "popped one guy. He then walked around another car, went straight up to [the bouncer] and capped him point blank in the forehead."

Detectives from the 88th Precinct have arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with last week’s assault on Eddy Sanchez, a 22-year-old Pratt architecture student who is still in critical condition in a medically induced coma at Kings County Hospital Center. The suspect, Eugene Adams, is charged with assault, robbery and criminal possession of stolen property. A police source tells The Local Adams resides at 1100 Bedford Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, three long blocks east from the site of the August 4th attack at Grand and Lexington Avenues in Clinton Hill. After releasing surveillance footage of teens attempting to use Sanchez's ATM card at a bodega, police tracked down Adams through a tip called in to the Crime-Stoppers hot line, (800) 577-TIPS. According to ABC News, as many as four other teens may have been involved in the attack, but no other arrests were immediately made. It's being reported that the suspects beat Sanchez after he refused to give them money, and one of the assailants used a crowbar.

A police cruiser responding to a call was T-boned by another car in Bedford-Stuyvesant earlier this morning. The incident occurred at Greene and Lewis Avenues around 3:30 a.m. WCBS 2, whose footage shows the cruiser flipped over, reports, "The two officers were taken to Bellevue Hospital. Two people in the other car were taken to Brookdale Hospital, where they are believed to be in stable condition. According to police, none of the injuries are life threatening. Police said they do not expect to press charges, and the incident was an accident."

    

Umi Nom, the Brooklyn outpost of the Lower East Side's popular Kuma Inn (one of Tyra Banks' favorite spots, incidentally), opens tonight on DeKalb Avenue, along the border of Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant. The pile of bricks, broken concrete and odd bits of old electrical conduit have now become an open kitchen. Chef/owner King Phojanakong and co-chef Soulayphet “Phet” Schwader have gotten rid of the washing machines in the former laundromat, but managed to salvage many of old building's interior details, including its exposed brick and an old skylight that was uncovered during the renovations.

A former NYPD narcotics officer who was shot in the back by a fellow cop during a drug bust eleven years ago has agreed to a $3.25 million settlement with the city, far less than the $31 million he originally sought. It's better than nothing, but Dexter Brown, who takes steroids every day just to get out of bed and needs a cane to walk, is, understandably, still pissed about the shooting—especially since the NYPD has not admitted any wrongdoing nor disciplined the cop who pulled the trigger: Detective Luis Lopez, who is still on the force.

Frank McCourt, the NYC public school teacher turned bestselling author of Angela's Ashes, a memoir about his harsh childhood, died at age 78 today in Manhattan. He had been ill with meningitis and his cause of death was metastatic melanoma.

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: a homicide at First and Palladino Aves in Manhattan, a water resuce at Great Kills Park on Staten Island and a construction accident at the Governors Island Ferry Terminal in Manhattan.
• Today marks the tenth anniversary of the the flight that would lead to the death of JFK Jr.
• A 7-year-case in search of a missing 17-year-old from Piscatway, NJ has been called off when it was confirmed that his DNA matched that of a dead body found buried in NYC's Potter Field six weeks later.

On Tuesday night, Brooklyn's Community Board 1 voted 23-12 to convert a 31-acre area zoned for manufacturing on the border of Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant into 1,895 low-rise apartments. But the highly controversial plan for the so-called Broadway Triangle still faces bitter opposition from community groups who say they were cut out of the planning process. Opponents complain that the city awarded housing contracts to non-profits tied to influential Assemblyman Vito Lopez—the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and the Bushwick Ridgewood Senior Citizens Council—without putting the sites up for bid. Marty Needelman, a Broadway Triangle Community Coalition lawyer, says the project excludes Hispanic and African-American groups, and his group will file a lawsuit accusing the city of violating anti-discrimination laws. Opponents actually want the buildings to be much taller than the planned eight stories; Needelman says the height cap is a sop to the area's Orthodox Jewish families, who can't use elevators on the Sabbath. He tells the Daily News, "The people who voted yes sold their soul to a corrupt deal." For more on the controversy, Brooklyn Paper takes an in-depth look.

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: Crowd control at Rutland Rd & Kingston Ave in Brooklyn, a construction accident at Murray St & West St in Manhattan, and a pedestrian struck at Rosedale Ave & Soundview Ave in the Bronx.
• As part of the NY Times' article on the re-consecration of the Ganesha Temple in Queens, there's an amazing slideshow. The guest of honor was Minnie, an elephant visiting from a zoo—she symbolized Ganesh.
• Police are looking for a man who has robbed senior citizens in Manhattan—so far, he's targeted men between the ages of 62 and 91 at Peter Cooper Village, Stuyvesant Town and the West Village.

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: A double shooting at 140 St & 115 Ave in Queens, a jumper up at Broadway & Rector in Manhattan and a stabbing at Westchester Ave & Whitlock Ave in the Bronx.
• Financial analyst Meredith Whitney thinks banks are strong but expects unemployment to go up to 13%.
• Eight people were rescued when a pleasure boat ran into a sandbar in between Liberty Island and LIberty State Park yesterday.