FCR is a crap landlord

I have had some crap landlords. Once, my apt. flooded with sewage and it took three days for my landlord to react. It was my own private Katrina. That was awful. That landlord just opened a pizza shop in Carrol Gardens. I'm sure it's great. Tell him he still owes me my $700 deposit.

My current landlord hasn't been faced with a similar disaster, thank goodness, but I am confident that were one to arise, FCR, the owner of my apt. building, would do terribly. I have been trying to get in touch with our property managers for three (3!) months to handle a couple of repairs. My kitchen is falling apart and my bathroom requires a plumber. I have called or emailed just about every week, sometimes several times per week and have either been blown off or ignored each time. The management company is Esquire Management, and they can only be described as negligent.
The photos to the left are of our front steps, which have been gradually falling apart. Recently an attempt to keep the steps from crumbling was made. See that hard foam that was sprayed into the cracks on either side? Looks nice don't it? Why stop there? There are a lot more cracks on those steps that could use a good foaming.

Sometimes I feel like FCR is doing the bare minimum to keep this building standing until it comes time to take it down. The problem is that my rent remains the same even as they shirk their responsibilities. Given that FCR is in the business of acquiring tenants I shudder to think what it would be like should AY get built.

When I suck at my job I get a demotion, yet when FCR sucks at theirs they get more city funding.

No Escape

You may have noticed it's been pretty quiet around here, on this blog that is, not the neighborhood. The neighborhood is still pretty noisy, and the block looks like ass. When the green wall was removed, evidence of the pounding our block took for months on end was revealed in the form of cracks in the sidewalk. My fiancee awoke one morning to find that the front tire of my car, parked in front of my apt., had fallen into a sink hole in the hastily paved over street.

Which brings me to my latest grievance. First some history: Ratner owns my building, Ratner owns the construction mess going on outside. Ratner does not own the street, Ratner does not own me. The reason it has been quiet on this blog as of late is that I've been away on the west coast a-workin'. Yet the early awakenings and construction nonsense native to The Footprint somehow managed to find their way to my hotel in California.

I got a phone call at 4:30am PST from a construction worker:
"Hey how ya doin' buddy? It's the construction workers outside on Dean St. We need you to move your car ASAP. Thanks."

Apparently my super thinks it's OK to give out my cell phone number to construction workers who are in the process of dismantling my community. There a many levels of inappropriateness here. FCR has introduced a brand new way to harass the people whose homes they are bent on destroying by not only making a mockery of their block and the civic process, but now they'll give you early morning wake up calls with things they need you to do.

Anyhow, my car stays put.

Unintended Affordable Housing

This wall here isn't all bad. It was able to offer shelter to this homeless woman while she went through the dumpster in front of the Union hall on Dean St. She then laid down for a rest in it's shade.

The affordable housing originally promised by FCR may not come to fruition but in the meantime all these walls they've erected are at least providing shade to the city's homeless.