The Buzz

Volume 1, Number 35 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | May 18 - 24, 2007

The Buzz

ILLEGAL HOTELS UPDATE: The fight against illegal hotels is in limbo at the moment but is sure to heat up in a month or so, according to John Raskin, director of organizing at Housing Conservation Coordinators, an anti-poverty agency in Hell’s Kitchen that also focuses on tenant advocacy. At a meeting of C.B. 4’s Housing, Health & Human Services Committee on Tuesday night, Raskin briefed members—many of them recently appointed—on the state of the battle to stop residential apartments from being used as tourist suites. He said the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement is doing a crack job by, among other things, encouraging whistleblowing tenants to call 311 (“That’s how the city documents these cases”). The office is also interviewing tenants and issuing violations when applicable, but Raskin said the fines it levies are too low to be a disincentive for landlords and hotel chains taking a chunk out of the city’s residential housing stock. City Councilmembers Dan Garadnick, Rosie Mendez and Gayle Brewer introduced legislation a month ago to increase fines, but that bill is being held up while all await Mayor Bloomberg’s own legislative package. OSE has collaborated in that legislation, which will help them overcome enforcement hurdles, including clarifying the Department of Building’s definition of “transient” and “residential,” which has left a gaping loophole for those making a killing in this black market. Meantime, C.B. 4 committee member Micah Lasher reminded everyone that the problem also afflicts co-ops, when residents themselves rent out their apartments to tourists; he remarked that one of his co-op neighbors actually coaches her hotel clients on what to say if accosted by anyone in the building. “One couple told me they’re her relative,” Lasher said, “and when I asked what the relation was, they told me she was their ‘second aunt.’ I’m not sure that’s even a proper relational designation, but it sure was creative.”

BUT WHAT IF BREARLEY AND ANDOVER ARE BOTH FULL?: With thousands of new residential units planned in both Community Board 4 and 5, as documented in a recent report commissioned by CB 5 (see our class-B office space story in this issue), locals are beginning to ask, How many children will live here, and where will they go to school? CB 5’s Human Services and Youth Committee, chaired by Susan Baida, placed the topic on its most recent agenda, while across town at the Robert Fulton Houses, parent and youth advocate Miguel Acevedo said he thinks of this issue every time he looks at one of the luxury condo complexes being built near his development. Local parents are still smarting, he added, at the lack of a simple zoned middle school nearby: With the Museum School and the Lab School stuffed with out-of-district kids admitted through an unusually competitive process, many local 5th-to-8th graders must trek all the way to 21st Street and Lexington Avenue to attend Middle School 104, the Simon Baruch School. This is not easy for the younger and smaller children, and the distance also cuts down on parent involvement, says Acevedo. “And now, we’re scheduled to get 10,000 more people in Chelsea?” he said. Perhaps the high-rollers buying all those apartments will automatically send their kids to private school and unwittingly keep the problem from exacerbating. More on this issue in a few weeks.

Boys in the bubble: Cartel, the rock band soon to take up residence in the bubble on Pier 54 at W. 13th St., won’t be leaving it at all for 20 days. Martin, the Hudson River Park Trust’s spokesperson, said at least they will have bathroom inside. “That’s all accounted for,” he said. “That doesn’t take up much space. They’re locked in the bubble. All their food is in there.” For their sake, we hope they also have a shower. Cartel will be in the bubble from May 24 to June 12, when they will burst out for the Trust’s first RiverRocks concert. Also on the RiverRocks lineup are punk legend Joan Jett and the Blackhearts on June 28, the Grammy-winning Blind Boys of Alabama on July 19 and Latin funksters Yerba Buena on Aug. 9.