Tenants Making Way for Subway Ask: You Want Me to Move Where?
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM NY Times
Finding an apartment in Manhattan can be tough. Just ask the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Next year, dozens of New Yorkers in some of the city’s wealthiest ZIP codes are set to be evicted to make way for the long-delayed Second Avenue subway, and federal law requires the transit agency to find them comparable new homes. So far, it has not been going so well.
Dave Zigerelli was told to consider low-income housing across from an on-ramp to the Queensboro Bridge. The first apartment shown to Nicolle Poian was half the size of her own. Ann and Conrad Riedi, ensconced in the same rent-stabilized apartment for 40 years, said they were encouraged to move out of Manhattan — and their dog, Biscuit, might not be allowed to come along.
“They told us to think outside the box,” said Ms. Riedi, 64.
The Riedis’ apartment, a big three-bedroom in a stucco-walled walk-up, is one of 60 homes on the Upper East Side that will soon be converted into ventilation shafts, public stairwells and electronics hubs, the infrastructure for the $4.5 billion underground line, scheduled to open in 2017.
The transportation authority said that it was doing its best to accommodate residents who want to stay in the neighborhood, and that no one was being forced to leave the area. Affordable housing was suggested to residents who might be eligible, said a transportation authority spokesman, Kevin Ortiz.
But the options for tenants are limited. At first, Mr. Ortiz denied that the relocation service hired by the authority, a national real estate company called O. R. Colan Associates, had suggested that residents move outside their district, which stretches from East 59th Street to East 96th Street. Given an e-mail message showing that one tenant was encouraged to consider housing in Harlem, at East 116th Street, Mr. Ortiz said the authority wanted to offer as many choices as possible.
“We’re doing our due diligence,” he said. In the case of the Harlem apartments, he added, “No one seemed to be interested.”
Under federal law, the transit authority must find replacement housing deemed “comparable,” a phrase that officials have interpreted to mean an apartment of a similar size and rent, in the same neighborhood or nearby. If the tenant chooses a more expensive replacement, the authority must pay the difference in the rent for three and a half years.
But New York’s real estate market makes this an onerous task. Many of the residents live in rent-regulated units that cost far less than similar ones in the neighborhood. Rents could be an additional $1,000 a month.
Such a situation was not anticipated by federal eminent domain law, which says the authority is obligated to pay each tenant up to $5,250 in subsidies over the three and a half years, a pittance on the Upper East Side. In a pamphlet distributed to tenants, a sample case involves a move from a $500-a-month apartment to a $600 one.
The authority said it planned to spend more than the required amount to assist the tenants. So far, the agency has had no problem finding rent-stabilized units in the area, said Mr. Ortiz, the spokesman. (O. R. Colan referred questions to the transportation authority.)
But some tenants have rejected those units, saying they did not live up to expectations.
“Not exactly equivalent” is how Ms. Poian, who pays $1,850 a month for a one-bedroom at 253 East 72nd Street, described the choices she was given. An apartment several blocks away was “half the size” of her own, she said, and the kitchen was about as big as a sidewalk square. “They said I could find a different one for $1,800,” she said. “I said you’re out of your mind.”
Marc Shatzman, 23, moved last month from Ms. Poian’s building, where he had lived in a studio for a little over a year. Although his moving expenses were covered by the transportation authority, he used his own broker after rejecting the options provided by O. R. Colan.
“They kept trying to show us low-income housing,” Mr. Shatzman said. “They kept trying to see if somehow we could come up with some numbers that would qualify it for us.”
Sally Ardrey, who pays $1,600 a month for a one-bedroom at 257 East 72nd Street, said traditional measures of an apartment’s fitness were being ignored. “I was informed that light, view and big windows are not important,” she said.
Mr. Riedi, 76, has lived in the squat building at 83rd Street and Second Avenue since he was 12. When he and his wife married in 1969, they moved down one flight to a rent-regulated five-room apartment, now $1,120 a month.
Like other tenants, the couple was urged by the relocation agents to consider moving to 250 East 60th Street, a housing development beneath the Roosevelt Island tramway. The building faces a traffic-clogged intersection at the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge.
The Riedis balked, saying the location would be dangerous for elderly residents. They said their agent also suggested that, because of their fixed income and the limited rent subsidy, they should consider moving out of Manhattan.
Tenants can find apartments through their own broker, but the relocation service must agree to the price based on a formula.
“Tenants are matched up with three units, based on what they can afford to pay and what their needs are,” Mr. Ortiz said. “We’re not in any way, shape or form saying you have to do this, you have to move there.”
But tenants may be left with little choice. “There are many rent-stabilized units on the Upper East Side and Yorkville, but the problem is people are already living in them,” said Stephen Love, a broker at Ardor Realty.
Anticipating these problems, the authority approved a program in 2007 to rent vacant apartments and hold them for displaced tenants. That never happened, though the authority did spend more than $200,000 to rent empty units in the buildings it plans to acquire, to mitigate relocation costs and legal troubles.
Six tenants have already moved out, according to the authority.
But after decades of living by the site of a long-planned subway line, the Riedis are not prepared to go just as the project comes to fruition.
Ms. Riedi, her voice straining, said she and her husband had been scared since the eviction proceedings began. “We were married in here,” she said. “We lost our first baby. We mourned the death of our child. There’s history in this apartment. How do you take the memories?”
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM NY Times
Finding an apartment in Manhattan can be tough. Just ask the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Next year, dozens of New Yorkers in some of the city’s wealthiest ZIP codes are set to be evicted to make way for the long-delayed Second Avenue subway, and federal law requires the transit agency to find them comparable new homes. So far, it has not been going so well.
Dave Zigerelli was told to consider low-income housing across from an on-ramp to the Queensboro Bridge. The first apartment shown to Nicolle Poian was half the size of her own. Ann and Conrad Riedi, ensconced in the same rent-stabilized apartment for 40 years, said they were encouraged to move out of Manhattan — and their dog, Biscuit, might not be allowed to come along.
“They told us to think outside the box,” said Ms. Riedi, 64.
The Riedis’ apartment, a big three-bedroom in a stucco-walled walk-up, is one of 60 homes on the Upper East Side that will soon be converted into ventilation shafts, public stairwells and electronics hubs, the infrastructure for the $4.5 billion underground line, scheduled to open in 2017.
The transportation authority said that it was doing its best to accommodate residents who want to stay in the neighborhood, and that no one was being forced to leave the area. Affordable housing was suggested to residents who might be eligible, said a transportation authority spokesman, Kevin Ortiz.
But the options for tenants are limited. At first, Mr. Ortiz denied that the relocation service hired by the authority, a national real estate company called O. R. Colan Associates, had suggested that residents move outside their district, which stretches from East 59th Street to East 96th Street. Given an e-mail message showing that one tenant was encouraged to consider housing in Harlem, at East 116th Street, Mr. Ortiz said the authority wanted to offer as many choices as possible.
“We’re doing our due diligence,” he said. In the case of the Harlem apartments, he added, “No one seemed to be interested.”
Under federal law, the transit authority must find replacement housing deemed “comparable,” a phrase that officials have interpreted to mean an apartment of a similar size and rent, in the same neighborhood or nearby. If the tenant chooses a more expensive replacement, the authority must pay the difference in the rent for three and a half years.
But New York’s real estate market makes this an onerous task. Many of the residents live in rent-regulated units that cost far less than similar ones in the neighborhood. Rents could be an additional $1,000 a month.
Such a situation was not anticipated by federal eminent domain law, which says the authority is obligated to pay each tenant up to $5,250 in subsidies over the three and a half years, a pittance on the Upper East Side. In a pamphlet distributed to tenants, a sample case involves a move from a $500-a-month apartment to a $600 one.
The authority said it planned to spend more than the required amount to assist the tenants. So far, the agency has had no problem finding rent-stabilized units in the area, said Mr. Ortiz, the spokesman. (O. R. Colan referred questions to the transportation authority.)
But some tenants have rejected those units, saying they did not live up to expectations.
“Not exactly equivalent” is how Ms. Poian, who pays $1,850 a month for a one-bedroom at 253 East 72nd Street, described the choices she was given. An apartment several blocks away was “half the size” of her own, she said, and the kitchen was about as big as a sidewalk square. “They said I could find a different one for $1,800,” she said. “I said you’re out of your mind.”
Marc Shatzman, 23, moved last month from Ms. Poian’s building, where he had lived in a studio for a little over a year. Although his moving expenses were covered by the transportation authority, he used his own broker after rejecting the options provided by O. R. Colan.
“They kept trying to show us low-income housing,” Mr. Shatzman said. “They kept trying to see if somehow we could come up with some numbers that would qualify it for us.”
Sally Ardrey, who pays $1,600 a month for a one-bedroom at 257 East 72nd Street, said traditional measures of an apartment’s fitness were being ignored. “I was informed that light, view and big windows are not important,” she said.
Mr. Riedi, 76, has lived in the squat building at 83rd Street and Second Avenue since he was 12. When he and his wife married in 1969, they moved down one flight to a rent-regulated five-room apartment, now $1,120 a month.
Like other tenants, the couple was urged by the relocation agents to consider moving to 250 East 60th Street, a housing development beneath the Roosevelt Island tramway. The building faces a traffic-clogged intersection at the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge.
The Riedis balked, saying the location would be dangerous for elderly residents. They said their agent also suggested that, because of their fixed income and the limited rent subsidy, they should consider moving out of Manhattan.
Tenants can find apartments through their own broker, but the relocation service must agree to the price based on a formula.
“Tenants are matched up with three units, based on what they can afford to pay and what their needs are,” Mr. Ortiz said. “We’re not in any way, shape or form saying you have to do this, you have to move there.”
But tenants may be left with little choice. “There are many rent-stabilized units on the Upper East Side and Yorkville, but the problem is people are already living in them,” said Stephen Love, a broker at Ardor Realty.
Anticipating these problems, the authority approved a program in 2007 to rent vacant apartments and hold them for displaced tenants. That never happened, though the authority did spend more than $200,000 to rent empty units in the buildings it plans to acquire, to mitigate relocation costs and legal troubles.
Six tenants have already moved out, according to the authority.
But after decades of living by the site of a long-planned subway line, the Riedis are not prepared to go just as the project comes to fruition.
Ms. Riedi, her voice straining, said she and her husband had been scared since the eviction proceedings began. “We were married in here,” she said. “We lost our first baby. We mourned the death of our child. There’s history in this apartment. How do you take the memories?”
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