Summer

Lease Negotiations

Lease Negotiations

In the coming months, many leases will expire. Market conditions are such that renters no longer need to accept the terms landlords dictate (renew the old lease with a $100-200 increase). Rather, renters have more power to negotiate a new lease, demanding lower rents. In case you haven't heard, we're in a recession...

If the 132 tenants share some information, we'll be more able to negotiate lower rents for ourselves. My apartment will be renegotiating our lease soon. If anyone wants any information about how it went, please hit me up. I am willing to share information, but would rather do it in person or personal email rather than posting it.

In order to negotiate the best deal possible, we'd like to share information with our fellow tenants:

1. How much rent people who recently moved into apartments are paying (include # of bedrooms).
2. How many apartments are up for renewal/renegotiation in the next few months.
3. How many people plan on staying/leaving in the next few month.

If you recently moved into the building (or know who else has), please get in touch. I'd like to exchange a couple emails or talk to people for three minutes to see what's up. Please email me: hipsterlawyer at gmail

If you are thinking about moving out or will renegotiate your lease in the next few months, please get in touch. It's super helpful to know how many vacancies the landlords are expecting; the more vacancies, the better our bargaining power because they don't want to risk an apartment laying vacant for a month.

Please send me an email (if you want to remain anonymous, I won't email you back). You can also post to the comments section of the blog anonymously. No need to post your apartment number, but please let us know how many bedrooms you have. In a week or two, I hope to have a better ideal of where the building is at. When I do, I'll be sure and post some (anonymous) statistics.

Thanks...

Please email me: hipsterlawyer@gmail

About the Friday Night Roof Party -

As a direct result of this party, emerging from all the people in our hallway at about 2 AM we heard someone trying to open our door. They were trying the door handle incessantly and we thought it was the normal confused drunk person who often wanders the halls at these affairs. I was already up because the party was extremely loud and with the people running around on the roof there was little bits of our ceiling paint falling. When we looked through the peep hole we saw three men one of which was winding up to kick our door down. His first kick against our door was hard enough to knock items off our wall. This was literally happening as we watched through our peephole. They were actually trying to kick our door down to get into our apartment. For real. Luckily the police were quick to come because they had already been called to the building several times because of this party. So I want to offer my appropriate gratitude to whoever threw that party last night.

Our building has been tagged! We live in the turf of a Southside gang!

Good news! Our building has been tagged! We live in the turf of a Southside gang!

When I asked the guy tagging our building about it on Saturday night, he and his buddies beat the snot out of me in the middle of Bedford (sorry if we woke you with all those police cars and the ambulance).

I've always wanted to be the victim of gang violence and now I have fifteen staples in my head to prove that I was! Too bad they didn't use their machetes--that would have been so rad. But not to worry, the Williamsburg machete season will be in full swing soon enough. http://gothamist.com/mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&limit=30&search=machete

More good news: Since our landlords aren't doing anything about the graffiti on the building; Cyn Lounge caters to a young, urban clientele; and the police are totally unable to catch these guys; you might be lucky enough to be the victim of *our* gang! It's so fucking easy! You don't even need to look for them--they'll find you (after all, we do live in *their* turf).

If you want to be the victim of a gang assault, just do what I did: walk down N.5th towards our door. It's just that simple!

See you at Woodhull and good luck with rent negotiations!

containers filled with weeds and the like on the roof

Dear 132n5thers,There are numerous containers filled with weeds and the like on the roof, and I was wondering if anyone plans on using them, or if they are old and up for grabs. I am starting to grow some herbs, and in trying to save some extra cash, wanted to know if I could reuse some of the containers. Let me know. Thanks

In regards to the roof

First off, I appreciate you taking some time out of your day to handle all that the 132n5thst blog has become, and boy has it become (a place for tenants to argue). I was sitting on the roof today and thinking about the issues regarding the cleanliness of the roof. In the past I have contemplated cleaning up, just for the sake of cleaning, but for some reason, I felt as though getting spotted on the roof, cleaning up, would somehow make me look like the bad guy who caused the mess in the first place. But as I thought about it, I remembered that there have been numerous occasions where people with no association to our building would be on the roof, adding to the mess, and because of that, it was likely that the blame would go round and round and round. So I decided to clean up the mess, cigarette butts and all, though not perfect, because while I may have not been the culprit, I do not want to lose the privilege of going on the roof, cause damn it is one hell of a roof, and I love hanging out up there. Based on all of the other blog entries, it seems as though there is a lot of false, and blind blame being thrown around, that has resulted in some silly arguments that ultimately lead nowhere. Personally, I would prefer if everyone would take care of the roof and clean up after themselves, but as we have seen that is not going to happen, so my own personal solution was to clean up, and not make a big deal out of it. Reminds me of a story, I once was out to dinner with an old girlfriend of mine and ordered something that she thought was terribly unappealing. I remember her saying, "that looks disgusting, how could you eat that", to which I replied, "just because you think it looks gross, doesn't mean I will like it any less". This is sort of how I feel about cleaning, there are some that like to keep things neat and organized, and there are others who could care less, so for us that prefer cleanliness, we can try to keep things clean, not worry about it, or continue to get upset and complain. Personally, I would prefer to do what I feel is right, given the situation, and not get upset that someone else does not agree with my beliefs. I am not going to deny that there are plenty of arguments to what I am saying (well if you keep cleaning up, than others will keep thinking they can openly trash the roof, etc, etc), but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. I can't really say why I am writing this letter because I would prefer to be kept anonymous, but I wanted to mention why things were cleaner than usual up there.
Thanks again for controlling the blog.

Negotiating leases in light of the current rent decreases

This was in the mailbox this morning ...

Hey, was wondering if we could post an open thread about negotiating leases. in light of the current rent decreases (see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/realestate/29cov.html), might be interesting to discuss negotiations to renew our leases. i know we're looking to have our rent decreased, as it's already overpriced, otherwise we're considering moving out.

Spring Roof Blues

With the dawning of Spring A.K.A. the ever escalating party season here at 132 North 5th it’s time to fire up the blog again. All I ask is that YOU DON’T shoot the messenger. With that – this was in the 132north5@gmail.com mailbox this morning sent by anonymous …. Here we go!



As if the ever growing garbage was not bad enough on the roof I went up there at about 11:00 PM last night and there was not one, but two unattended fires going.

I’ll say it again - two burning fires with no one on the roof! One was burning in a new Hibachi/mini grill sort of thing, (I say new because the box it came in was littering the roof right next to it –of course) and the other unattended flames could be found in the round portable fire pit which has been on the roof since time immemorial. The fire pit was recently relieved of its contents of spent beer cans and rank garbage etc. by simply dumping it on the roof. Nice!

Oh, Btw, the Hibachi was butting up against the tar wall. UNATTENDED!
Can you fucking believe it?
Who are you?
How could you be that FUCKING stupid?

The new tenants in this building become more moronic as time goes on.

If I find out who you are I am taking the contents of those grills and any associated garbage and I will happily dump them on your front door.

Wake the fuck up!

Anyone Subletting?

If anyone is subletting a room for the month of March, please contact Katrina at (917) 528-2603. I'm currently living in 4C, but have to move out by March 3rd and would love to stay in the building.

Best,
Katrina

Bedford & North 5 January 28 2009 - Morning

Last hours of 2008 Williamsburg

Really Disappointing -

 

Less than a year and a half ago ......

Music from 2A

(This was in the Blog Mailbox this morning - )
Just wondering if anyone else hears the constant music they play in 2A. I know I hear their band practice and so do the neighbors above me (the elevator shaft that runs through the A apartments lets noise travel freely) that goes on well after 9pm on weeknights. I know I've asked them to stop, and tonight I heard someone yell for them to stop playing piano, but then they just went into their room and started play music with lots of bass at 12:10am on a Tuesday! This is a common occurrence, too. Last Monday night, they were playing bass-heavy music in their room from 12:30am - 2:30 am despite my going down there to knock on the door. I always have to resort to stomping on the floor multiple times before they get it. Do the guys in 2A disturb anyone else?

Is anyone else having water problems?

Wednesday -