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<p>Tuesday, 06-Jan-2009 08:20:05 EST<br>Pleased to meet you, site 38.103.63.60!</p>
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<strong>
<h1><font face="Arial" size="3"><center><A NAME="link">Primary Links.</A></center></font></h1>
<font face="Arial" size="2"><p><A
HREF="http://vicric.com/indextext.htm" target="indextext">Home Page</a>.</p>
<p>Fiction and doggerel by Vicki.</p>
<blockquote><p><A HREF="/fiction/PATRIM.htm" target=_top><i>The
Patrimony</i></A>, a short story by Vicki from about 20
years ago. Mystery, with murder and grisly violence.</p>
<p><A HREF="/fiction/COFFIN.htm" target=_top><i>The
Restoration of Manion's Coffin Works</i></A>, another short
story by Vicki from about 20 years ago. Horror, not for the squeamish.</p>
<p><A HREF="/fiction/dd.txt"
target=_top><i>Double-dactyl doggerel.</P>
</blockquote>
<p>Our Eviction.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><A HREF="/boot.html" target=_top>In plain
English</a>.</p>
<p><a href="/law/" target=_top>Recent events</A>.</P>
<p><a href="/memoleave.htm" target=_top><i>Memorandum of Law</i></A>, our <i>pro
se</i> pleading for leave to appeal our eviction.</P>
<p>Our <a href="/appeal.htm" target=_top><i>Brief for
Appellants</i></A>, in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) form.</P>
<p><A HREF="/reply.html" target=_top>
<i>Reply Brief for Appellants</i></a>, our <i>pro
se</i> reply to the landord's brief, in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) form.</p>
<p><A HREF="/oral.html" target=_top>
Oral argument</a>, before the five justices.</p>
<p><A HREF="/law/addecision.txt" target="indextext">
The Appellate Division decision</a>, before the five justices.</p>
Recent events</a>.</p>
<p>Selected Columbia Univesity <a href="/law/columstars.txt"
target="indextext">officers and employees</A>, with email addresses.</P>
</blockquote>
<center><p>Writers and Civil Liberties, off-site links.</P></center>
<strong>
<font face="Arial" size="3"><p>Writers.</font></p></font>
<blockquote>
<font face="Arial" size="2"><p><A HREF="http://www.asja.org" target=_blank>ASJA</A>, the
American Society for Journalists and Authors.</p>
<p>The poet and editor <a href="http://members.aol.com/benedit1/miniweb.html"
target=_blank>Michael Benedikt</a>, prolific in moving from print to the Web.</p>
<p>The political writer <a href="http://www.ultranet.com/~kyp/"
target=_blank>Bob Chatelle</a>, with links to support on
free expression of minority views.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.hwg.org" target=_blank>HWG</A>, the
HTML Writers Guild, for Web authors, designers, and code writers.</p>
<p>The photographer <A HREF="http://www.petsalive.com/maureen.htm"
target=_blank alt="Mohin's article on equine retirement"
title="Mohin's article on equine retirement">Andrea Mohin</A>.
<p><A HREF="http://www.nlgja.org" target=_blank>NLGJA</A>, the
National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.nwu.org/" target=_blank>NWU</A>, the National Writers Union.</P>
<p><A HREF="http://www.pen.org/" target=_blank>PEN</A>,
which is also among civil liberties groups.</P>
<p>The novelist <A HREF="http://www.tracyquan.net"
target=_blank>Tracy Quan</A>.</P>
<p>The technical writer <a href="http://www.andreas.com"
target=_blank>Andreas Ramos</a>, with fine support on
using the Web and online technologies.</p>
<p>The investigative reporter <a href="http://www.contracabal.org/"
target=_blank>Paul Trummel</a>, denied protection of the
First Amendment for not being a "real" journalist.</p>
</font>
</blockquote><font face="Arial" size="3">
<br><p>Civil Liberties.</font></p>
<blockquote>
<font face="Arial" size="2">
<p><A HREF="http://www.aclu.org"
target=_blank>ACLU</A>, the American Civil Liberties
Union.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.amnesty-usa.org/"
target=_blank>Amnesty International</a>.</p>
<p>Free Bernard <A HREF="http://www.freebaran.org/"
target=_blank>Baran</A>.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://cars-suck.org"
target=_blank>cars-suck.org</A>, Right of Way, for
bikers, pedestrians, and public-transit riders.</p> <p><A
HREF="http://www.gaycenter.org" target=_blank>The
Center</A>, Lesbian and Gay in New York City.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.bayswan.org/COYOTE.html"
target=_blank>COYOTE</A>, founded by <a href="http://www.bayswan.org/margostory.html" target=_blank> Margo St. James</a>, to
organize prostitutes and gain legal protection for them.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.eff.org" target=_blank">EFF</A>, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.feminist.org"
target=_blank">Feminist Majority</A> Foundation Online.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.glaad.org" target=_blank>GLAAD</A>,
the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.lambda.org" target=_blank>Lambda</A>,
Lesbian and Gay Legal Services.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.lesbian.com"
target=_blank>lesbian.com</A>, with great support for
sexuality and gender identification, as well as the international
struggle against racism, or <A HREF="http://www.lesbian.org"
target=_blank>lesbian.org</A>, concentrating mainly on
feminism and related political issues.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.norml.org" target=_blank>Marijuana</A> advocacy.</p>
<p>Mumia Abu-Jamal.</p>
  <a href="http://www.amnesty-usa.org/abolish/reports/mumia/ "
target=_blank>Amnesty International on Mumia</a>.
<br>  <a href="http://http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media_control_propaganda/Censorship_Execution.html" target=_blank><i>Censorship by Execution?</i></a>, by Al Weinrub.
<br>  <a href="http://www.mumia.org" target=_blank>International
Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia</a>.
<br>  Justice for Mumia at <a href="http://www.j4mumia.org/"
target=_blank>http://www.j4mumia.org/</a>.
<br>  Justice for Mumia at <a href="http://www.mumia2000.org/"
target=_blank>http://www.mumia2000.org/</a>.
<br>  <a href="http://www.freemumia.org/"
target=_blank>Mobilization to Free Mumia</a>.
<br>  <a href="http://pan.afrikan.net/mumiaboard/" target=_blank>News reports</a> by Mumia.
<br>  <a href="http://www.mumia.com" target=_blank>New York City events</a>.
<br>  <a href="http://www.pacifica.org/programs/mumia/" target=_blank>Pacifica Radio</a>.
</p>
<p>The <A HREF="http://www.naacp.org" target=_blank>NAACP</A>, seminal African-American group.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.now.org" target=_blank>NOW</A>, seminal
women's group.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.peacefire.org/"
target=_blank>PeaceFire</A>, on stealth cyber censorship.</P>
<p><A HREF="http://www.pen.org/"
target=_blank>PEN</A>, which is also among writers'
groups.</P> <p><A HREF="http://www.peta.org"
target=_blank>PETA</A>, nonhuman rights. But see also
Declan McCullagh's <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46313,00.html"
target=_blank> <i>Wired</i> news story</a>.</p><p><A HREF="http://www.politechbot.com"
target=_blank">Politech</A>, technology and civil
liberties, by <a href="http://www.mccullagh.org/" target=_blank>Declan McCullagh</a>.</p> <p><A
HREF="http://www.pridesenior.org/" target=_blank">Pride</A>
Senior Network.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.shelterreform.org/" target=_blank">Shelter Reform</A>, advocacy for the nonhuman homeless.</p>
<p>Tenant Advocacy.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><A HREF="http://www.housingworks.org" target=_blank">Housing
Works</A>, advocacy for the homeless, especially with AIDS.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.rentwars.com" target=_blank">Rent Wars</A>, by Ronin Amano.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.tenant.net"
target=_blank">Tenant Dot Net Forever</A>, tenant rights in
New York City.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Transgender advocacy.</p>
<p>  <A HREF="http://www.ntac.org"
target=_blank">National Transgender Advocacy Coalition</A>.</p>
<p>  <A HREF="http://www.nyagra.org"
target=_blank">New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy</A>.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.meatstinks.com/"
target=_blank>Vegan</A> advocacy.</p><p><A HREF="http://www.warresisters.org/"
target=_blank>WRL</A>, the War Resisters League.</p>
<p><A HREF="http://www.fem-world.com/" target=_blank>Women's Diversity</A>.</p>
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<p><A HREF="mailto:vicric@vicric.com" target="indextext">Vicki</A> or <A HREF="mailto:casey@access.net" target="indextext">Casey</A>.</P>
<p><A HREF="/indextext.htm" target="indextext">Home Page</A>.</P>
<p><A HREF="/#link">Primary Links</A>.</P>
</font>
</strong>
<a name="indextext">
<table width="100%">
<tr columnspan="2">
<td rowspan="2" width="40%" align="left" valign="top" border="0" bordercolor="#FF99FF">
<SPAN STYLE="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Verdana,
Helvetica, Swiss">
<font size="2"><sub>Photo by the City of New York.</sub></font>
<A HREF="/slumlord/censorVicki.html" target=_top
border="0"><img src="/graphics/TALogo.web.jpg" align="left"
valign="top" border="0"
width="500" height="125" title="What happened to the "Home
Page for Vicki Richman"?" alt="What happened to the "Home
Page for Vicki Richman"?"></A>
<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><p ALIGN="center"><font size="0">
Copyright © 2007-2009 500W140 Tenants Association. All rights reserved.
<br>Copyright © 1999-2007 Vicki Richman. All rights reserved.
<br>Except where otherwise noted, permission granted,
<br>with attribution and copyright notices affixed.<br><br>
2009 Jan 06 Tuesday 08:20:05 -0500.<br>
Pleased to meet you, 38.103.63.60!
<br><br>
</font><font size="0">
Encoding protects all cited<br>email addresses against
spambot<br>spiders, screen-scrapers, and crawlers.</font></p></span>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="middle"><SPAN STYLE="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Swiss, Verdana">
<p align="center"><font size="2">
<strong><b><A HREF="http://www.popphoto.com/inamericanphotomagazine/2971"
target=_blank alt="Capturing History and Heroism"
title="Mohin on Capturing History and Heroism">Andrea Mohin</a>'s<br><i>New York Times</i> photo
<br><a href="/nyt.htm" target=_top title="Enlarge
Photo"><img src="/graphics/nytphoto.jpg" border="0" width="75" height="53" valign="top"
alt="Enlarge Photo"></a>
<br>of Vicki and Casey,<br>with
Watson.</b></strong></font>
<br><font size="1">[Click on photo for
larger size.]
</font></p></span></td>
<td align="center" valign="bottom" border="0"></td>
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target=_blank><img src="/graphics/cpban.gif" align="right" valign="top"
border="0" width="200" height="40" title="The truth behind censorware, by PeaceFire." alt="This site has been banned by censorware."></a><br><br><br>
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<SPAN STYLE="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Verdana,
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<p align="center"><font size="3" color="#000066">
<a name="topright" HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>Full
eviction story</b></a> | <A HREF="/memoleave.htm" target=_top><b><i>Memorandum of
Law</i></b></A> | <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b>Appeal brief</b></a> | <A
HREF="/reply.html" target=_top><b>Reply brief</b></a>
<br><A HREF="/oral.html" target=_top><b>Oral argument</b></a>
| <a href="/law/addecision.txt" target="indextext"><b>Appellate Division decision</b></a> | <a href="/map.html" target=_top><b>Site map</b></a>
<font size="2" color="#000066"><br>Scroll down
the left column for recent
developments; the right for less recent. </font></p>
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<td> </td>
<td width=368 align="left" valign="top">
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="4" color="#ff0000"><b><i>FLASH!!</i></b> New York,
Nov. 11, 2008.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Well yes, we're well aware of our unseemly
silence for the past week, but Veterans' Day has finally routed us
from our state of shock.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Returning to our senses, we find no reason
to celebrate newfound patriotism or the
blundering, blustering first steps of
long-slumbering liberty shaking the
sleep from its clouded eyes. Protest
must prevail! I mean, if I posted the one
good review this site got, I'd have to clear out space for all
the pans.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">
Last week no one elected Barack Obama to any office. We elected maybe about 364 electors who have
promised to vote for Senator Obama between December 15 and
December 24. The Congress shall count their votes on January
6 of next year.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Give us a break! That's a lot of shit we
have to wade through before we can salute a <i>President</i>
Obama. If history teaches us anything, it's the shit
that has risen to the surface when our
honorable representatives have taken to (s)electing a president.<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">A week after New Year's Eve. Vicki will finally be able to
rejoice in the one and only truly African-American leader of
the expensive, expansive world.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
August 8, 2008.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>OWNER. BROKER.<br>PROPERTY MANAGER.</b></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">But "slumlord" no longer. At least not in
the conventional sense of the word. The bosses of us, <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Philip Tager and Steven E. Carter</b></a>, of <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/transaction-types.html"
target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital Management</b></a> and
<a href="http://perseusmgmt.com/index.php?pr=Company_Info"
target=_blank><b>Perseus Management</b></a>, have gone well
beyond minimal responsibility and responsiveness in managing
our home.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">We have no resident
super, no active phone contact. But a porter
arrives every morning, cleans, prepares garbage for collection, effects
rountine maintenance, and takes random requests
from tenants. The staff returns calls to
voicemail. The elevator has been reasonably regular in the
last three months. The intercom and front-door lock are
adequate.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">Perhaps most gripping is
Mr. Carter's sudden emergence from behind his iron broker
curtain. Less than a year ago, the staff answered, "We can't
reveal that information," when we asked whether Mr. Carter
was in charge. Now he's "Steve" to tenants on voicemail
and even personally takes care of certain issues. No
longer is it true that he stays in the back room and "hires
handlers for us."</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">But if they aren't "slumlords" in
the popular sense of the word, neither are they the typical
"landlord" who traditionally lives on rent collected for
maintaining comfortable homes and caring for
tenants' needs. Messrs. Tager and Carter are investment
brokers. They own us in the sense that traders own Wall
Street securities. They simply hope to sell us off one day
as profitably as possible.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">But they've figured out that
their investment does not slip into a file folder in the cabinet; we
squawk. And our squawks have apparently taught our owners
that they should at least make nice until they can flip us.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
August 1, 2008.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>17 is PRIME.</b></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Vicki reaches the cusp of
adulthood today. She comes of age this year. Since 1940 this is her fourth attempt at growing up, but she assures her readers
that the new millenium is finally her time.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
June 12, 2008.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>From CONTEMPT<br>To <i>BON TEMPS</i>!</b></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Our landlords' <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>personal names</b></a> and <a
href="/slumlord/" target=_top><b>addresses</b></a> on this
Web site show no
contempt of court.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">The bottom line aside, the
<a href="http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/housing/Judge/Profiles/PWendt.shtml"
target=_blank><b>court</b></a>'s <i>dictum</i> was not quite what we had <a
href="/indextext.htm#beenthere"><b>predicted</b></a> — uh,
<a href="/indextext.htm#beenthere"><b>begged for</b></a> —
<a href="/indextext.htm#beenthere"><b>two months ago</b></a>. As is typical of lower courts, the <a href="http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/housing/Judge/Profiles/PWendt.shtml"
target=_blank><b>judge</b></a> shunned locking the door when
leaving it ajar with a portable "no entry" sign would do just as well. If some landlord later chooses, as one
surely will, to kick the sign aside, it will be up to a
higher court to decide how strong a lock the door needs.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">With no mention of freedom of
speech, the <a href="http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/housing/Judge/Profiles/PWendt.shtml"
target=_blank><b>judge</b></a> ruled simply that, although this site
violated a court stipulation, the slumlord plaintiff, <a href="/slumlord"
target=_top><b>Perseus Capital Management</b></a>, had
presented only hearsay evidence of financial harm suffered
from the mind of Vicki. <i>Prima facie</i> evidence, the
judge held, would be a prospective renter's testifying that
she had balked at signing the lease only after reading this site.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066"> Well,
the plaintiff should have come to us. We get a phone call a
week from renters considering
<a href="http://perseusmgmt.com/index.php?pr=New-Tenant_Application"
target=_blank><b>Perseus</b></a>. Please sign the
lease, we plead; we need brave battlers fighting at our
side in our tenants
association. Uh-huh, we hear them say before they hang up.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">For now our site works. But in the future, we don't doubt that a landlord will easily
scare up such witnesses at what they'd consider trivial expense.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">A stronger minimum, in our
humble opinion, would
have been the physical appearance of <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Philip Tager</b></a> or <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Steven E. Carter</b></a> to
affirm what personal — not just commercial
— goodies Vicki's wit had whittled away. But the
whole <i>raison d'être</i> of their vulture brokerage, <a
href="http://cronuscapital.com/investment-criteria.html"
target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital</b></a>, is
to treat tenants as property. They hide from us; they hire handlers for us. They send only employees
and contractors to court.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">The <i>dictum</i> held
our attorney, <a
href="http://manhattanfirm.com/newsite/let_us_help/index.htm"
target=_blank><b>Steven DeCastro</b></a>, a courthouse
virtuoso. We had struggled mightily to find <a href="/indextext.htm#beenthere"><b>witnesses</b></a>, but when the plaintiff rested, <a
href="http://manhattanfirm.com/newsite/let_us_help/index.htm"
target=_blank><b>DeCastro</b></a> told us
not to sweat the
small stuff; they had proved nothing. Let's just
stand pat, he advised, and raise the pot in closing. <a
href="http://manhattanfirm.com/newsite/let_us_help/index.htm"
target=_blank><b>Our lawyer</b></a> knew his game. Our site didn't <a
href="/indextext.htm#beenthere"><b>hint</b></a> at it, but
we hadn't a full night's sleep after closing, fretfully praying in
our sweat-soaked bed that we'd finally tell Steve, "Well done, <a
href="http://manhattanfirm.com/newsite/let_us_help/index.htm"
target=_blank><b>counselor</b></a>!"</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">Well done, <a href="http://manhattanfirm.com/newsite/let_us_help/index.htm"
target=_blank><b>counselor</b></a>! Well argued! Well played!</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York, May
9, 2008</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Gretchen Morgenson in today's
New York <i>Times</i>: "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/business/09rent.html?hp"
target=_blank><b>Questions of Rent Tactics by
Private Equity</b></a>." But remember, you saw it here first, in our
<a href="/indextext.htm#first"><b>entry for December 31, 2005</b></a>.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">L&T differences aside, our sympathy and support are with
our <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>landlords</b></a> for the
strife the people of Beirut are now enduring. With their
wives, both have
<a href="http://www.seal-usa.org/donor_report.html"
target=_blank><b>worked to rebuild Lebanon</b></a> after at least five
decades of civil wars, assimilation of Palestinians
driven from their home, and bombings by Israel.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3" color="#000066">New York, May 6, 2008</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>AUNTIE SEMITE?</b></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">That's how the <a
href="http://www.borahgoldstein.com/practice-areas.php?id=holdover"
target=_blank><b>litigator for a feared
and hated
eviction mill</b></a> in New York, specializing in putting
African-American and Latino tenants on the street to make
room for affluent whites, chose to characterize Vicki for
writing this web site. Perhaps "Trannie Semite" would have been more
apt. Borah Goldstein has evicted me three times since 1977,
twice for the crime of being transgendered.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">"As the child of Holocaust
survivors," the litigator appealed to the judge, "I object
to her web site and want her held in contempt." He must have
made his family proud, passing the bar and joining the law
firm that many tenants see as a virtual New York Gestapo,
which keeps its receptionist in a bullet-proof cage.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">"She's sophisticated," the litigator
described me, begging the court to ignore my dowdy appearance. "The web site goes back to the 1990s," he went on,
once again proving that history is written by the winners, "with a
long record of harassing landlords."</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066"><b><i>Harassment</i></b>:
1. being called "John and/or Jane Doe" in eviction papers after returning
to care for an ailing mother; 2. getting the boot from one's childhood home;
3. entering the database of blacklisted tenants.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">Its rise to power began in 1977,
when it booted me from the home where I became
transgendered. It was called Finkelstein Borah Goldstein
then. The founding partner, <a
href="http://www.fnfllp.com/DFinkelstein.html"
target=_blank><b>Danny Finkelstein</b></a>, now known as the
dean of New York landlord-tenant law, wrote the textbooks
judges consult before ruling. Less than two decades
after his partner Robert Goldstein litigated me out of my West 82nd
rent-controlled home, Mr. Finkelstein joined his son's modest <a href="http://www.fnfllp.com/"
target=_blank><b>real-estate firm</b></a>,
forever gone from what had
become the <a href="http://www.tenant.net/forum/board/messages/arcs01/arcs0101/12111.html"
target=_blank><b>most prolific eviction mill</b></a> in the city, the <a
href="http://www.borahgoldstein.com/practice-areas.php?id=nonpayment" target=_blank><b>firm he had founded</b></a>.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">Final arguments are over; memoranda
of law are filed; we await the <a href="http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/housing/Judge/Profiles/PWendt.shtml"
target=_blank><b>court</b></a>'s decision on contempt.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3" color="#000066"> New York,
</font><font size="4" color="#ff0000"><b>MAY DAY</b></font><font size="3" color="#000066">, 2008. </font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>SOLIDARITY!</b></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">For tenants without liquidity, that's all we
have.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066"><a name="beenthere">New York,
Apr. 16, 2008. </a></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">In hearing <a
href="http://manhattanfirm.com/newsite/let_us_help/index.htm"
target=_blank><b>our lawyer</b></a>'s argument against
contempt, the <a
href="http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/housing/Judge/Profiles/PWendt.shtml"
target=_blank><b>court</b></a> ruled that that plaintiff
has produced no evidence that <a
href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Philip Tager</b></a>, a respected <a
href="http://adlamassoud.com/_mgxroot/page_10750.html"
target=_blank><b>leader of the
Lebanese diaspora</b></a> in New York, is affiliated with our
landlord, and has in fact denied it. Therefore we infer that
we may now cite Mr. Tager as one of the two partners of the
<a href="/500W140Tenants" target=_top><b>LP
that owns us</b></a>.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">While none denied the other partner's identity, none
fully affirmed it. Rather than speak for himself, <a
href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Steven E. Carter</b></a> preferred
presenting the plaintiff's preening posse of parcel-peddling
puppets, pampered <i>Pesakh petseles</i>, and
pandering poseurs on parade.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">Representing us, <a href="http://manhattanfirm.com/"
target=_blank><b>Steven DeCastro</b></a>
has taken the bold and dangerous move of resting our case without presenting
any testimony or evidence. Answering plaintiff would provide
little, our lawyer reckoned, that his cross had not already shown. Worse, it
would allow the plaintiff to rebut our defense and perhaps
fill the gaping holes we believe it had left in its case.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">But the most compelling reason to
refrain from presenting fact, in our merely ethical opinion, is to leave our First Amendment
protection in the overarching position for acquittal.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Mar. 17, 2008. </font></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Our <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>slumlords</b></a> have hauled us into court,
calling this site in contempt. Setting them off was our <a
href="http://www.vicric.com/law/Perseus.v.Richman-Casey.html" target=_top><b>reply</b></a> to their nonpayment
claim. We had withheld <a href="/slumlord/shoveit.html"
target=_top><b>60%</b></a> of our
rent for <a href="/slumlord/shoveit.html"
target=_top><b>violations and lack of required
services</b></a>.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York, Mar. 11, 2008. </font></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>GOOGLE BOMB!</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Attempting to prove that Vicki is in contempt of court for this
site, the Borah Goldstein litigator representing our
landlords is claiming that Vicki has
doled out copious coin to convert this site to a <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb" target=_blank><b>Google bomb</b></a>.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Pay Google?!! Borah Goldstein, <a href="http://perseusmgmt.com/index.php?pr=Company_Info"
target=_blank><b>Perseus Capital Management</b></a>, and <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital</b></a> have enabled our
bomb by <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb"
target=_blank><b>repeatedly searching</b></a> for citations
of themselves on this site. In what may
be the most perfect circle in legal logic, Borah's attempts to
prove contempt have generated their sole evidence for contempt. Google
should be paying Vicki for the heavy hits this site has
fetched for the search engine.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our trial resumes on March 24, at 2 p.m. The
<a href="http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/housing/Judge/Profiles/PWendt.shtml"
target=_blank><b>court</b></a> has shown an even-handed judicial restraint and
respect for justice. Criminal
contempt has been thrown out. It is now a civil matter, with
a "preponderance" — much more than 51% — of the
evidence needed to affirm the plaintiffs' motion.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Feb. 27, 2008. </font></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>CONTEMPT!</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Vicki is now in contempt of court for this
site. It's all over but the trial, scheduled for March 10.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">A blindfold has not
spared Dame Justice a rancorous reaction to our <a
href="500W140Tenants/indextext.htm#censor"><b>December
5</b></a> entry. We complied with our agreement to remove
the identities of our actual owners. But upon reading our <a
href="500W140Tenants/indextext.htm#censor"><b>edited
text</b></a>, the court has expanded its order, without
prompting by our adversary, to include any
reference to our landlords' business names, <a href="/slumlord/"
target=_top><b>Perseus Capital Management</b></a>, which is
for tenants only, and <a href="/slumlord/"
target=_top><b>Cronus Capital</b></a>, for investors only;
no tenants allowed on the latter site.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">In our opinion, stripping, shredding, and
slip-shodding this page any further will not change the
<a href="http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/housing/Judge/Profiles/PWendt.shtml"
target=_blank><b>court</b></a>'s view of our site. But it will destroy
the work that Vicki has been creating for over ten years.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Or, as e e cummings writes in his
<i>i sing of Olaf</i>, "'there is some shit I will not eat'."</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Feb. 22, 2008. </font></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>TENANTS GAIN<br>RENT REDRESS.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: justify"<font size="3"
color="#000066">Turning back various regulated
rent increases for as long as two years, with retroactive
rebates assessed, the
Division of Housing and Community Renewal has just <a href="/law/DHCRvPerseus.html" target=_top><b>ruled in
favor of the Tenants Association petition</b></a> citing unsanitary
conditions and the lack of essential
services and habitability.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">The decision has been logged as <a
href="/slumlord/Case_Status.htm"
target=_blank><b>VB430010B</b></a>. It was handed down about
a year after our submission. It fails to
acknowledge that the present owner removed the resident
superintendent about three months after the date of our
petition. The tenants are considering another RA-84 petition
for lack of a resident employee or of 24/7 maintenance service.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Jan. 30, 2008, 12:31 p.m. </font><font size="3"
color="#000066">An Israeli govenment
commission has just reported "'grave failings' among political and
army leaders," according to <a
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSHAR04709520080130"
target=_blank><strong>Reuters</strong></a>, in shelling southern Lebanon in July
2006. The skirmish, which reportedly killed 1200 Lebanese
civilians and about 150 Israeli soldiers, is said to have
driven the harvestable fish from the eastern Mediterranean
coast, depriving the fishemen of Tyre of their livelihoods.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Without openly criticizing Israel themelves,
a group of Lebanese-Americans, <a href="http://www.seal-usa.org/"
target=_blank><b>Social and Economic Justice
for Lebanon</b></a>, has undertaken to <a
href="http://www.seal-usa.org/projects/humanitarian/E_04.html"
target=_blank><b>build affordable housing in
southern Lebanon</b></a>. We tenants are proud that <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Philip
Tager</b></a>, one of
our landlords <a
href="http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=258945896"
target=_blank><b>founded SEAL</b></a> and that his wife is its
<a href="http://www.seal-usa.org/board.html"
target=_blank><b>treasurer</b></a>, and we urge support for
its efforts. The Israeli commission offered no apparent
reparation for what it admits was a mistake. Lebanon has
sought no redress, but,
funded by Hezbollah, <a
href="http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2007/08/hezbollah_to_su.php"
target=_blank><b>private Lebanese are suing Israel</b></a>.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Dec. 6, 2007.</font><font size="3"
color="#000066">This</a> is no longer the Home Page of Vicki
Richman. This page is now registered by the 500W140 Tenants
Association. The new owners of this site will gladly
post any objection to the content from the
landlords. Hard copy, email, or fax. Links to the landlords'
proud <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>citation</b></a> of themselves now replace their personal surnames everywhere on
this site.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent
developments.]</font></p></span>
<a name=censor><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Dec. 5, 2007.</font></p></span></a>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>AMICABLE.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">That was how Vicki and Casey agreed to
describe their settlement with their landlords. The tenants got a 19% abatement on unpaid
rent. The legal regulated rent was reduced to what we
claimed from a higher figure billed by the landlord, and
our lease goes to next year. The
landlord agreed to provide a 24-hour maintenance number, and
to improve conditions.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">That brilliant <i>coup</i> was devised and executed
by the top
tenant lawyers in New York, <a
href="http://manhattanfirm.com/newsite/who_we_are/steven_de_castro.htm"
target=_blank><b>Steven DeCastro</b></a>, Esq. and his associate <a
href="http://manhattanfirm.com/newsite/who_we_are/peter_sayer.htm"
target=_blank><b>Peter Sayer</b></a>, Esq.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Despite their willingness to go to trial
to protect our civil liberties, Vicki agreed to redact
citations of our <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>slumlords</b></a>. Therefore we
link to the <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>site</b></a> where they
proudly cite themselves. We expect no thanks for this
exposure. Tenants call them <a href="/slumlord/"
target=_top><b>Perseus Capital Management</b></a>, LLC, and
their loaded clients know them as <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/"
target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital</b></a>, LP. In fact they
identify their real selves on the <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Cronus</b></a> web
site, but hide their names on the <a href="http://perseusmgmt.com/index.php?pr=Company_Info"
target=_blank><b>Perseus</b></a> site.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"How dare you okay such limitation on our
strongest means of
petitioning for redress of grievances?"
demanded a tenant committee of their president
and secretary when we got home.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"Well," we answered sheepishly, staring at
the floor and swaying from side to side, "if we didn't
agree, we'd have to go to trial, and the judge" —
apparently a fan of 1950s cool jazz (Miles, Sugar Hill needs
you now!) — "called our web site petty, mean, worthless, insignificant, libelous, spiteful, traitorous,
offensive to natural law, and probably linked to cyber-terrorists.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"Wow, the judge sure knows your web site,
Vicki. How come he didn't add 'Hitler' and 'Stalin'?"</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"No, he just heard the landlords' lawyer
describe it."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"And for that he made you agree to nonsense?" asked the
incredulous tenants.
"We can't dignify a rant with the word 'unconstitutional.'"</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"With such judicial restraint," Vicki continued, "if we refused and went to trial,
his decision would no way be as favorable as what we
were getting. The bench might even have spewed an injunction
against this site, and we'd now be in the can for contempt."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"So we wouldn't have to listen to your
endless lectures at our meetings."</font></p></span><span
style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana,
Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"Hey, come on," Vicki argued hopefully, "I
did it for you guys, the tenants. We
got major concessions in return for voluntarily censoring
our site. Besides, maybe the judge was right. Even
life-destroying, mass-eviction slumlords have a right to privacy."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"Vicki, Vicki," the tenants sighed, shaking their heads more in pity than sorrow, "you constantly
carry on
about your <a
href="http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/124/blacklist.html"
target=_blank><b>article</b></a> on the <a
href="http://www.rentwars.com/discus/messages/136/180.html"
target=_blank><b>tenant
blacklist</b></a>. A couple of mouse clicks, you showed us, and the
landlords have our social-security numbers, our salary, our
debts, our
rent history, our spousal squabbles, and every
landlord-tenant dispute, for any reason. Did the slumlords stipulate to stay away from
the blacklist database? No, they have the money and the
power. Will-to-live power. Their property is our homes,
and our homes are our lives. You gave away our only means of defending
ourselves."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Vicki shrugged, looked at the ceiling, and
tried to blink away a tear from an eye.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"The landlords demanded photo ID from each
of us," the tenants went on, "and copied it,
before giving us a front-door key. Look at what their own
<a href="http://perseusmgmt.com/index.php?pr=New-Tenant_Application"
target=_blank><b>web
site</b></a> asks us to tell them. They know who we
are. Well, <a
href="http://adlamassoud.com/_mgxroot/page_10750.html"
target=_blank><b>Philip Tager</b></a>, one of our landlords, is a founder of a
courageous, principled <a
href="http://www.seal-usa.org/donate_now.html"
target=_blank><b>activist group</b></a> that builds affordable housing for the <a href="http://www.seal-usa.org/projects/humanitarian/E_04.html" target=_blank><b>fishermen of
southern Lebanon</b></a>, whose livelihoods were destroyed
by Israeli shelling in 2006. It has
to deal with prejudice, discrimination,
know-your-place caste targeting every day. And yet you,
Vicki, sit silently as the court levels the same class bias and
judgment-jumping against you."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Vicki's heart is filled with shame. Her
agreement to save some bucks, improve our lives, and stay out of court has sold
out her friends and neighbors. "I am unworthy," she blurts
out. "I don't deserve my own web site." And she collapses
silently sobbing.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"No you don't!" say the tenants sternly. "That's why we're confiscating your site. This
is no longer the Home Page of Vicki Richman. This is now
a tenants site. And as our
group has entered into no foolish agreement, we choose to leave the
content just as it is. And just to show you we have no hard
feelings, Vicki, we appoint you webmaster of
our site."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"Hmm," says Vicki, once again struggling to
pretend she has a grasp on the law, "that may not work. Letter
versus spirit, like that."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">But the tenants know more about
the ruling than they had let on. "Didn't His Honor
tell you, Vicki, that the landlords are free to hide their existence with
whatever nonce LLC <i>du jour</i> they've decided to invent
for themselves, and no one is allowed to identify or even to know who is
profiting from those idiotic <i>noms d'arnaque</i>? And
didn't the landlord's lawyer put that very ruling on the
judge's lips? Surely
then neither the judge nor the landlord can attempt to peek
around a tenants organization name and find the mere human person Vicki Richman."</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Nov. 24, 2007.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>9 WORST.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Among the nine most decrepit tenements in
Manhattan, according to the NYC Department of
<a href="http://nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/pr2007/pr-11-21-07.shtml"
target=_blank><b>Housing Preservation and Development</b></a>, is one owned
by our <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>slumlords</b></a>. Known as <a href="/slumlord/"
target=_top><b>Perseus Capital Management</b></a>, LLC, by
tenants, or <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/"
target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital</b></a>, LP, by clients, they are also the
slumlords of 612 West 182<sup><font size="1">nd</font></sup>
Street, zip 10033, cited in the
<a href="http://nyc.gov/html/hpd/downloads/pdf/list-of-200-buildings.pdf"
target=_blank><b>list just released</b></a> by the HPD.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<a name=bb><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Nov. 11, 2007.</font></p></span></a>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>The LORDS of<br>the VANDALS.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our Tenants Association bulletin
board has just been ripped out of a
plastered brick wall in the tenants' mail room. The item cost less than $50 new and
was likely destroyed in the act. The area appeared immediately cleaned, and the damaged bulletin board was nowhere on the
premises. The board had been marked as belonging to the
Tenants Association and was mounted in the tenants' common area.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">From the
flimsy evidence, Vicki infers that our <a
href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>slumlords</b></a> contracted for
the vandalism in retaliation for: tenants'
complaints about lack of heat, a defective, damaged
elevator, and the absence of a superintendent or any
employee on the premises; and, specifically, Vicki and
Casey's counterclaim for damages in the slumlords'
<a href="/slumlord/shoveit.html" target=_top><b>nonpayment court action</b></a> against us.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">To hide from their tenants,
our <a
href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>slumlords</b></a> use <a href="/slumlord/"
target=_top><b>Perseus Capital Management</b></a>, LLC, giving tenants
only a useless <a href="/slumlord/" target=_top><b>voicemail
number</b></a> and a <a href="/slumlord/"
target=_top><b>postal box</b></a> for rent. To their chums
and acquisitive clients, they are known as <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/"
target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital</b></a>, LP. </font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">The bulletin board had been bolted to the
wall with anchors cemented into the brick. The vandalism
left four gaping holes in the wall. Where the board used to
be, Vicki and Casey posted <a href="/slumlord/Thanks.html" target=_top><b>Thanksgiving greetings</b></a> to the
tenants. As the paper stock may be easily ripped off the
plaster, we shall see.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Sept. 30, 2007.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>GENTRIFICATION.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Well, we predicted it. It just took <a href="http://www.vicric.com/indextext.htm#gentrify"><b>five and
half years</b></a> to happen, probably spurred by
Columbia University's attempt to expand above 125th Street.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html" target=_blank><b>slumlords</b></a>, using the
business names <a href="/slumlord/" target=_top><b>Perseus Capital Management</b></a> and <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/"
target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital</b></a>, have begun mass
evictions of tenants of color, many on subsidies paying low
rent. Are they pulling a <a
href="http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060519131025672"
target=_blank><b>Joel Saul Weiner</b></a>, not bothering to
show up in court? No, they really mean it. They're using the eviction-mill
law firm Borah Goldstein. At the same time they're gut-rehabbing the many
vacant apartments, with, for example, real wood floors
instead of the faux tiles.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Casey and Vicki are among the evicted,
facing Borah for the third time since
1976. This is our first nonpayment; the others have been
holdovers. We have paid only 40% of our legal rent since January
2007, withholding 60% for such lack of habitability as no
resident employee, no locked entranceway, no intercom, and
no reliable, safe elevator. We are arguing for the
abatement; we are prepared to pay the balance if we
lose. While the other evictions are meant to open the
building to <a
href="http://www.perseusmgmt.com/index.php?pr=New-Tenant_Application"
target=_blank><b>middle-class tenants looking for bargains near
Columbia</b></a>, our eviction appears only personal retaliation for
this Web page and for organizing a tenants association.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Gentrification also appears to explain sudden
improvements. The front door has
been repaired, with a powerful magnetic lock opened by an
encoded <a href="http://www.kerisys.com/pages/products/psp/psk-3.asp"
target=_blank><strong>Keri key fob</strong></a> — a small, firm plastic
amulet that identifies the apartment to which it was issued,
with perhaps additional information — and installation of a new intercom
system promised to begin tomorrow.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">In place of a resident
superintendent, the slumlords have contracted for cleaning
and maintenance crews, appearing only at the slumlords'
pleasure. While the contractors are efficient on the common
areas, the tenants have no one to contact for a personal
problem, like a leaking pipe, a clogged toilet, a
malfunctioning stove or refrigerator. However, if the
apparent gentrification is successful, we may get a resident
concierge to interact with tenants.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Such gentrification will lead us to return
to paying our legal regulated rent, but it will destroy the
lives of the tenants forced to the street to make way for
well-heeled replacements.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
June 30, 2007.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>0.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">No super. No porter. No front door. No
intercom.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">So what have our <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html" target=_blank><b>slumlords</b></a>, who <a href="/indextext.htm#cash"><b>bought</b></a> us two months ago,
given us? A postal box to receive our rent. Oh, and a
voicemail number.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">They use variable and elusive stooges
under the name <a href="/slumlord/" target=_top><b>Perseus Capital Management</b></a>. Their
investment brokerage, <a
href="http://cronuscapital.com/transactiontype.htm"
target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital</b></a>, L.P., speculates in "urban housing" suffering
"distressed or unique situations." Well, if that's not
what they bought, that's what they have made of this purchase.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">They have inflated their monthly statements
to include a full security deposit and a 5% late fee charged
on the second day of the month, with sundry other
undeciferable fees. Every tenant is suddenly
thousands in arrears. We continue our <a href="/slumlord/shoveit.html" target=_top><b>preferential rent</b></a>, 40% of the legal
regulated maximum, and the <a
href="/slumlord/searchdhcr.asp.htm"
target=_blank><b>DHCR grievance</b></a> by our tenants association remains alive, if
stagnant, with those recent addenda.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<a name=cash></a><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
May 28, 2007.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>CAPIN CASHES CASAS.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">As <a href=/indextext.htm#ostad><b>predicted</b></a> on May 5, our <a href="http://www.vicric.com/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>slumlord</b></a>
has sold our home separately, apparently unable to find a single buyer for
his block of ten Harlem apartment buildings.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">A pair of stylishly strutting scroungers, two youthful MBA
types, using the <i>nom d'arnaque</i> <a
href="/slumlord/" target=_top><b>Perseus
Capital Management</b></a>, L.L.C., now own our home.
<a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Philip Tager</b></a> lives in a
far-east Upper East Side high-rise sprung from the debris of
Old Law tenements once housing tradesmen and domestics
to the doyens and denizens of Park and Fifth
Avenues. <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Steven E. Carter</b></a> has a one-bedroom condo on the fifth floor of
a gutted sweatshop loft building, <a href="http://www.lionsheadcondo.com/"
target=_blank><b>Chelsea Lion's Head</b></a>, once
generating the gentility that kept Ladies Mile full and flowing at the
confluence of Chelsea, the Village, and Gramercy. They
founded the investment brokerage <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html" target=_blank><b>Cronus Capital</b></a>, L.P., 275 Madison
Avenue, New York.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Mr. Tager</b></a> is an alumnus of the notorious <a
href="/indextext.htm#praed"><b>Praedium Group</b></a>, the
primary <a
href="http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060519131025672"
target=_blank><b>source of financing</b></a> for the rapacious slumlord Joel Saul Weiner of the Pinnacle Group. After
dabbling in downtown condos for a decade or so, <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Mr. Carter</b></a>
turned to Harlem about three years ago, apparently as a protégé of <a Href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Mehmet A. (Luca) Capin</b></a>, who sold him our
home (neglecting, one suspects, to mention this website).</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Mr. Tager</b></a> rents. <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Mr. Carter</b></a>'s
condo is less a home than a barrel-scraping <i>pied à
terre</i> investment. Not to worry, both have second, and even third, homes from the
Catskill foothills to the para-Hamptons. In 1997 <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Mr. Tager</b></a> co-founded Social and
Economic Action for Lebanon (<a
href="http://adlamassoud.com/_mgxroot/page_10750.html"
target=_blank><b>SEAL</b></a>), and his wife is its <a href="http://www.seal-usa.org/board.html"
target=_blank><b>treasurer</b></a>, often hosting
fashionable fund-raisers. <a href="http://cronuscapital.com/contact-us.html"
target=_blank><b>Mr. Carter</b></a>'s <a href="http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/affirm.nsf/pages/bib10"
target=_blank><b>wife</b></a> is an academic clinical
psychologist. Both families have <a href="http://www.cedarsusa.com/articles/2007/SEALNewsletter_2006Review.pdf"
target=_blank><b>contributed to SEAL</b></a>.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">By what may be a coincidence, lacking <a
href="http://www.vicric.com/slumlord/shoveit.html" target=_top><b>a
lock or an intercom</b></a> to the front door of our building is no longer a
problem. We now have no front door at all. The world has
seemingly welcome access to our mail, hallways, elevator, stairways, and apartments.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<a name=ostad><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066"> New York,
May 5, 2007.</font></p></span></a>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our slumlord has paid off his $1,400,000 secondary
<a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>mortgage</b></a> on our home and the nine other covered properties. That was on March 28, 2007, and
our sources are somewhat slow. So it seems likely that Mehmet A. (Luca) Capin, the
slumlord's broker and building manager, has already
sold the buildings.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">One of those properties — 23 East 109th Street, or 1632
Madison Avenue — has indeed
been sold, to the landlord <a
href="http://www.courts.state.ny.us/REPORTER/3dseries/2007/2007_03659.htm"
target=_blank><b>Michael Ostad, M.D.</b></a>, a urologist at
Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, residing in Old
Westbury, Long Island, with a <i>pied à terre</i> on the 15th floor of
the Beekman Regent at East 51st Street.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Solar Realty Management and Capin's Associates
may be fronting the deal. The
"sale" just changes the silent investor. <a
href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>William
Robbins</b></a> cashes out, and the urologist pisses in. We'll
probably still be owned by Capin. Our Tenants Association petition for lower
rent, Division of
Housing and Community Renewal Docket Number <a
href="/slumlord/Case_Status.htm"
target=_blank><b>VB430010B</b></a>, stays alive.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Apr. 6, 2007.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>4 MONTHS, <a href="/slumlord/shoveit.html" target=_top><b>40%</b></a> MAX.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">With our April rent payment in our
slumlord's <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Clifton,
N.J.</b></a>, bank account, we've paid <a
href="/slumlord/shoveit.html" target=_top><b>40%</b></a> of the Rent
Stabilized maximum for four months. Four
check endorsements should set a "preferential rent," crunching any claim of automated
inadvertence by William Robbins and his building manager, Mehmet A. (Luca) Capin of Solar Realty Management
Corporation and Capin and
Associates, Inc.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our slumlord continues to bill us for what
Solar Realty claims is the Rent Stabilized
maximum, taking our check and incrementing arrears every
month. But a rent check is not payment against an incurred
debt. It's an offer to pay in advance for
occupancy. The courts typically take the
endorsement on the back of a rent check as an agreement to a lease-like contract.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans
Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">
Meanwhile the 500W140 Tenants Association
has filed the "Application for a Rent Reduction Based upon
Decreased Building-Wide Service(s)," form <a
href="http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/forms/forms01.htm#ra84"
target=_blank><b>RA-84</b></a>, with the
New York state Division of Housing and Community
Renewal. It includes three pages of tenants'
signatures, form <a
href="http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/forms/forms01.htm#ra84"
target=_blank><b>RA-84.1</b></a>. If the building gets an effective lock
— if each unit has an intercom — if the
slumlord hires a porter — then Solar Realty
will have responded to our <a
href="http://vicric.com/indextext.htm#forty"><b>grievances</b></a>.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans
Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">With Casey the acting
president and Vicki the acting secretary, the majority of
our tenants prefer petitioning the DHCR to following their
officers' rent-striking example. The DHCR has
accepted our petition as Docket Number <a
href="/slumlord/searchdhcr.asp.htm" target=_blank><b>VB430010B</b></a>.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font size="3" color="#000066"> New York,
Apr. 1, 2007, 11:59:59 p.m.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">April Fool's Day completes 24,350 days, or
two-thirds of a hundred years, on this
earth for Vicki. No cheapie, Vicki took it all with a century of
humor.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<a name=praed><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font size="3" color="#000066"> New York,
Mar. 7, 2007.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b><A
HREF="http://www.indypendent.org/?p=230"
target=_blank>PINNACLE</a> WANTS US?</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">The notorious slumlord <A
HREF="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/421050p-355459c.html"
target=_blank><b>Pinnacle Group</b></a>,
headed by <a href="http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060519131025672&mode=print"
target=_blanks><b>Joel Saul Weiner</b></a> of Brooklyn, aims
to buy our home, according to rampant rumor. We're now owned by
<a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Mehmet A. (Luca)
Capin</b></a> of Capin & Associates, Inc, and
Solar Realty Management Corporation.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Oft-cited by tenant activists and
politicos as the most
feared slumlord in Harlem, Pinnacle seeks profit not merely by
market fluctuation, as does our present owner, but also by vacating its properties and
sending its tenants into the streets
homeless.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans
Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">But Joel Weiner is
only a bellowing, blustering bully, bearing no big
billy. Although he typically begins thousands of eviction
actions a year, Pinnacle almost <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/415880p-351304c.html"
target=_blank><b>never actually appears in
court</b></a> against tenants who dare to stand up to Weiner
and his henchmen.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Pinnacle Group receives almost all of
its financing from <a href="http://www.praediumgroup.com"
target=_blank><b>The Praedium Group</b></a>, which claims such "<a href="http://www.praediumgroup.com/investment_overview.php"
target=_blank><b>'value enhacement' opportunities</b></a>"
as acquiring properties with: "deterioration of the asset's physical condition; inadequate
repairs and maintenance"; and "present ownership's failure to aggressively manage the
current tenant/leasing base." Anything under the <i>éminence
grise</i> Mehmet Capin qualifies.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font size="3" color="#000066"> New York,
Jan. 8, 2007.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b><A HREF="/slumlord/index.html" target=_top>SLUMLORD</a> TAKES<br>REDUCED RENT.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Lowered by 60%,
our January, 2007, rent check is now in the Clifton,
N.J., account of <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>William Robbins</b></a>, the "sole member" of the LLC that
owns our building. <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Solar Realty Management
Corporation</b></a> shrouds Robbins and his broker and
building manager, Mehmet A. (Luca) Capin of <a
href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Capin and
Associates</b></a>, from the tenants who make their livings for them.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">In <a href="/slumlord/shoveit.html"
target=_top><b>warning our slumlord</b></a>, we appealed to
the bedbug case,
won by the tireless tenant attorney <a href="http://www.manhattanfirm.com/Firm_Background.htm"
target=_blank><b>Steven De Castro</b></a>, Esq. The loser,
<a href="/slumlord/Heiberger.html" target=_top><b>Jamie Leigh
Heiberger</b></a>, Esq., now represents — fortuitously, one hopes — Solar Realty Management and Luca Capin.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">By common law and a sleep-sowing slew of
Solomonic say-so, taking less rent overrides any earlier
contract and affirms lack of redress. Cashing the check
may also set a lower maximum, or a "preferential,"
rent-stabilized rent for our apartment.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">However, in practice, legalities
work only for the landlord, not for the tenant. The court
may yawn and nod as the slumlord claims
that taking the check was the forgivably inadvertent bug of office
automation.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">In our
landlord-leaning legal system, we may need a few months of reduced rent to shed the sham of
inadvertence and secure our lawful
compensation for the continuing failure to redress violations.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<a name="forty"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"> <font size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Dec. 28, 2006.</font><font size="3" color="#000066"> <b>Slumlord's Holiday Jeer:</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>HAPPY NEW FEAR!!</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">No tree. No lights. No deco. No porter. No intercom. No
lock from the street to the lobby. Just a bare,
litter-strewn entrance. With muggers, panhandlers,
scammers, and the legions our City has chosen to leave
unwashed and unwanted waiting to let us in.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Well, the elevator has had minimal repairs
after over two months of our slapping soles to steps in this
seven-story building.
But it's still down about a day and a half a week. It's groaning and
thumping new warnings at us every time we're in it. <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Our
slumlord</b></a>, Mehmet A. (Luca) Capin, boss of Solar Realty Management
Corporation and Capin and
Associates, has mailed a new rent statement just in
time for 2007, with creative holiday increases backdated for months
and years. He's placed just about every old-time tenant
in overbearing arrears.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">But we have a new tenants association, with
Casey elected the acting president, and Vicki the acting
secretary. We're working on a rent strike. Bearing our
leadership burdens gravely — perhaps lured to join the City's unwashed and unwanted — we've begun by <a
href="/slumlord/shoveit.html" target=_top><b>deducting 60%</b></a> from our
rent check for January 2007: no entrance lock or
intercom loses 45%; sacking the porter, with only the
super for all building maintenance, shaves another 15%.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Reading <a
href="/slumlord/shoveit.html" target=_top><b>our
letter</b></a>, you'll see that our legal grounds for
withholding rent is the infamous <a
href="http://www.manhattanfirm.com/landlord_tenant/bedbug%20case.htm"
target=_blank><b>bedbug case</b></a>, which <a
href="/slumlord/Heiberger.html" target=_top><b>Jamie Leigh
Heiberger</b></a>, Esq., lost to the tireless tenant attorney <a
href="http://www.manhattanfirm.com/Firm_Background.htm"
target=_blank><b>Steven De Castro</b></a>, Esq. Now it happens
that Ms. <a href="/slumlord/Heiberger.html" target=_top><b>Heiberger</b></a> is the landlord lawyer representing
Solar Realty Management.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Will Ms. <a
href="http://www.manhattanfirm.com/landlord_tenant/bedbug%20case.htm"
target=_blank><b>Heiberger</b></a> get her round two against
<i><b>us</i></b>?</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Nov. 22, 2006, 9:44 a.m.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>MAYBE RENT.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">After about 51 hours of hypertensive
aggravation, repeated phone calls, and loss of income, our heat and hot water
have returned. The elevator remains motionless and useless,
without any apparent repair work. The slumlord
has about ten days to show us why we should pay rent for December.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Nov. 21, 2006, 7:13 p.m.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>NO RENT.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">No heat. No hot water. No elevator. No Thanksgiving.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">No bending our knee for relief from the lords of Rent
Stablization. If our slumlord wants to get paid, and if he can find his balls, he'll plead his
case to the judge.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our slumlord, Mehmet A. (Luca) Capin,
has "temporarily suspended" his unlisted <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html"
target=_top><b>land line in Great Neck</b></a>, Long
Island. Our boiler has been down for over 36 hours. The
elevator . . . well, read on. The voice at
his emergency service says the building manager and
the front office are
"unresponsive."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Has the Manhattan real-estate tsunami
— has slumlord millions dumped into structurally unsound
properties without pennies remaining for renovation —
left high-rolling <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Capin's
Associates, Inc</b></a>., and its slumlording offspring <a
href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Solar Realty Management
Corporation</b></a> flailing and thrashing in the sand, gasping for
another bubble to keep them afloat?</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Nov. 16, 2006.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>OUR WISH.<br>GRANTED?</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"></font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">The stake is in the undead heart. We're slapping our soles as high as to the
seventh story until whenever. Our slumlord, <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Solar Realty
Management</b></a>, cut a $20K check — sez the office — on a $40K
contract to have the
deathtrap elevator rebuilt. Some
day, unknown or unmentionable. But not replaced, alas.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Nov. 6, 2006.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>THE DEAD RISES.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our elevator. The inspector condemned the crate
two weeks ago. We tenants of 500 West 140th Street in
Manhattan had to trudge as many as six flights.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">It's up again, although, after hearing
the clunker body-slam the shaft, after feeling its tooth-loosening vibrations,
and after never quite hitting the floor we
were aiming at, many would say we'd be better
off with the undead junker forever out of its misery.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066">New York,
Oct. 26, 2006.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>CASA CAPIN CAVES</b>.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Describing Washington Heights property owned by <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Solar Realty
Management Company</b></a> as "a squalid apartment building," the
<a
href="http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30F10F838540C738DDDA90994DE404482"
target=_blank><b><i>New York Times</b></i></a> reported on
October 10, 2006, that our slumlord, "Mehmet A. Capin, the chief
executive" of Solar, has vacated most of the tenants. He was reportedly
acting under order of the Department of Buildings, which cited such
"violations" as "a partly collapsed ceiling and a bathtub
sinking through the floorboards."</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Also known as Luca Capin, he heads
<a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>Capin's
Associates</b></a>, Solar's holding
company. According to the <i>Times</i>, Capin now refuses
phone calls. A <a
href="http://70.47.124.114/" target=_blank><b><i>New York Resident</i></b></a> reporter
has privately told us the same. From 1998 to 2003 to <a href="http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4949&page=43"
target=_blank><b><i>September 3, 2006</i></b></a>,
Capin would loudly and proudly boast of his investment strategy to
publications from the <a
href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F06E3DB163AF932A35751C0A96E958260"
target=_blank><b><i>Times</i></b></a> to the <a href="http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4949&page=43"
target=_blank><b><i>Real Estate Weekly</i></b></a> to <a href="http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4949&page=43"
target=_blank><b><i>Crain's</i></b></a>.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">About a year ago, in a dramatic departure from his earlier rôle as broker
and building manager for other investors, Capin bought the sorry squalor as part of a package with four other buildings
in upper Manhattan and Queens. As borrower, he has signed for
the mortgage under different dummy LLC names.
The vacated building is at 501 West 173rd Street in
Manhattan, lot 48 of block 2130. The Post Office also
recognizes 2284 Amsterdam Avenue as its address.
</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Meanwhile the Department of Buildings has condemned our
elevator, in 500 West 140th Street, or 1616 Amsterdam Avenue,
on lot 36 of block 2071 in Manhattan. We tenants shall have
to walk as high as seven stories until and unless Capin gets
around to correcting the elevator violations.
</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">If he fails to do that in a reasonable time we
will withhold our rent. Bypassing the New York state <a
href="http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/ora.htm" target=_top><b>Division of Housing
and Community Renewal</b></a>, an ill-disguised landlord front, we
will rely on the courts, if necessary, to rule on how much we owe for
living in desperation and despair.
</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">New York,
Aug. 1, 2006, midnight.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>BOXCARS!!</b></a></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">So begins the final 12 months in which Vicki can
reckon her years on this earth in dicemal notation. She's
happy only to have made it
through snake eyes.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"> New York,
July 21, 2006.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>SLUMLORD SENDS<br>A <a href="/slumlord/Heiberger.html" target=_top>NASTYGRAM</a>.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">This time he paid for a real lawyer.
<a href="http://p076.ezboard.com/fcoopvillageonlinecommunityfrm1.showMessage?topicID=460.topic"
target=_blank><b>Jamie Leigh Heiberger-Jacobsen</b></a>, Esq.,
is her majestic moniker.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Omitting any mention of this web site,
she objects to the physical distribution and
posting of our <a
href="/slumlord/oldind.html"
target=_top><b>slumlord leaflet</b></a>. It calls for
a tenants association and cites our slumlord as Mehmet or Luca Capin, of
Capin and Associates and Solar Realty Management
Corporation, with his actual home and business addresses and
phone numbers. She finds it "libelous and slanderous"
and worthy of unspecified retaliation.
</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><a
href="http://p076.ezboard.com/fcoopvillageonlinecommunityfrm1.showMessage?topicID=460.topic"
target=_blank><b>Ms. Heiberger</b></a>, as she is known in the
eviction industry, is celebrated among tenant
activists for losing three cases — <a
href="http://www.manhattanfirm.com/landlord_tenant/bedbug%20case.htm"
target=_blank><b>bedbug</b></a>, <a
href="http://tenant.net/Court/Hcourt/index.html?x=1541"
target=_blank><b>predicate-notice</b></a>, and <a
href="http://www.tenant.net/Court/romea/USCAdec.html"
target=_blank><b>consumer-rights</b></a> — to the well-spoken
tenant lawyers Steven DeCastro, Edwin Vega (of Legal Aid),
and Robert E. Sokolski (of Zekaria and Sokolski). In the
last, <a href="http://www.tenant.net/Court/romea/USCAdec.html"
target=_blank><b><i>Romea v. Heiberger
Associates</i></b></a>, Ms. Heiberger's office was the
defendant, not the litigator. Answering her firm's
appeal to the Second
Circuit of the U.S. Court
of Appeals, Mr. Sokolski established that a
lawyer seeking a nonpayment eviction is a debt collector
subject to Federal law.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"> New York, May
26, 2006.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>LANDLORD<br>on the LOOSE.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Calling himself
the "in-house attorney" for <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/library/docfree.asp?DOCID=1G1:107204431&ctrlInfo=Round20%3AMode20c%3ADocG%3AResult&ao="
target=_blank><b>Capin & Associates</b></a> and Solar
Realty Management, a real-estate wheeler-dealer threatened "subpoenas of all your records"
to get us to take down this site and stop organizing a <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html"
target=_blank><b>tenants
association</b></a> for 500 West 140th Street in Manhattan.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our phone caller, <a href="http://www.allbusiness.com/periodicals/article/238324-1.html"
target=_blank><b>Michael Goldman</b></a>, is in fact just a broker for our slumlord, Luca Capin, according to the <a href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_9_51/ai_n6252123"
target=_top><b><i>Real Estate Weekly</i></b></a> and the <a href="http://www.rejournal.com/ny/sections/salesandleases/SL/Nov.pdf"
target=_blank><b><i>New York Real Estate
Journal</i></b></a>. Contrary to the threats of the "in-house
attorney," Mr. Goldman has never litigated. He typically
represents both sides of real-estate deals.
</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"> New York,
May 24, 2006, 6:25 p.m.</font></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>LUCA'S "LAWYER"<br>SQUAWKS!!</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">This site must remove any reference to <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/library/docfree.asp?DOCID=1G1:107204431&ctrlInfo=Round20%3AMode20c%3ADocG%3AResult&ao="
target=_top><b>Luca Capin</b></a> as the
owner, owner's representative, or manager of our home at 500
West 140th Street, in Sugar Hill, Harlem. Or so said a phone
voice claiming to be the attorney for our slumlord — uh, make
that, <i>for the bloke who plays the</i> <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/library/docfree.asp?DOCID=1G1:107204431&ctrlInfo=Round20%3AMode20c%3ADocG%3AResult&ao="
target=_blank><b><i>rôle of our slumlord</i></b></a>.</font></p></span><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">
Accusing us of "slander" and "restraint of trade," about half an hour ago, a man identifying
himself as
<a href="http://www.allbusiness.com/periodicals/article/238324-1.html"
target=_blank><b>Michael Goldman</b><a>, "the in-house attorney for Capin &
Associates," phoned Casey and Vicki with threats of sundry
"legal actions," including "subpoenas of all your records,"
if we fail to redact our citations of Mehmet or Luca Capin,
Capin & Associates, and Solar Realty
Management.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">
The apposition of the word "slumlord" against the various
compounds of the proper noun "Capin" seemed to stir some
sonorous straying from our communicant's routinely restrained
recitative. Repeatedly accusing us of courting an
"adversarial" relationship, our putative slumlord's alleged
attorney insisted he was "the only friend you have," and
meant only "to help you." </font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"> We asked Mr. Goldman to put his gripes in
writing. He failed to acknowledge our request.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">More, we have very little doubt, is yet to come.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">New York,
Jan. 1, 2006, 2:30 a.m.</font></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>NEW YEAR!!<br>NEW RENT BILL.</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">At some time in the last twelve hours, our
rent bill came skidding over our threshold.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our new year's surprise: Luca listens!</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;">As domestic partners for over
29 years, Casey and Vicki have learned one legal point:
Don't rely on rent law to protect us; get both our names on
every document. We made sure Casey and Vicki were on the top and
last lines of our Rent Stabilization lease.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"> But, of course,
the field for "tenant" in the slumlord's software database
allows only one entry. We've so far refused two
computer-generated renewal
leases until the slumlord manually added Vicki's name to
Casey's in the "tenant" field. Every month we squawk for
Vicki's name on the payment demand, as a rent bill is useful
ID. The omission is not sufficient cause to withhold rent,
but we threaten anyway.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">To make matters worse, our slumlord, <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html"
target=_top><b>Luca
Capin of Capin & Associates, Incorporated, and Solar Realty
Management Corporation</b></a>, refused to acknowledge the
one payment
we had sent to his physical address, rather than to the
post-office box he gives to tenants. For two months we had
been carrying arrears.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">The rent bill shoved under our door on New
Year's Eve, 2005, is to "Vicki Richman & Eileen Casey." It shows
our earlier rent paid in full, with no arrears.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Happy new year, Luca.</font></p></span>
<center><font size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full story</b></a>.
<br>Top of <a href="indextext.htm#topright"><b>right column</b></a> for
less recent developments.]</center>
</font></span> </td>
<td> </td>
<td width=368 align="right" valign="top">
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><a name="first">New York,
Dec. 31, 2005.</a></font></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>THE YEAR<br>of the <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html"
target=_top>SLUMLORD</a>!!</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"><span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Does <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html"
target=_top><b>Luca Capin</b></a>, our slumlord for the past
six months, at least, actually own 500 West 140th
Street, in Sugar Hill, Harlem USA? Not exactly. Someone else — a bloke called <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html"
target=_top><b>William Robbins</b></a> — signed
the mortgage papers under the nonce
limited-liability company name that we write on our rent
checks. Luca just runs the building to protect his client's
investment until he can sell us at a handsome profit.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Luca has done the same for a slew of other tenements in the
Bronx and uptown Manhattan — at least a dozen in this
millenium, by my count. He's not exactly hiding his work. He
seems to want people to know his business and lifestyle. He's offered
<a href=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_4_50/ai_109133569"
target=_blank><b>press interviews</b></a>; he's written about his investment strategy
<a href="http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/NationalRealEstateInvestor/2003/10/01/279809?extID=10026"
target=_blank><b>under his byline</b></a>. But he has
apparently intended <a href="http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=499007727" target=_blank><b>his public
relations</b></a> only for certain people.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">From certain others — us tenants of the apartment buildings
he manages — he most certainly is in hiding. He gives us
tenants only a business name and the numbers for a post-office
box and voicemail.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Identifying myself as his tenant, I have heard <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/library/docfree.asp?DOCID=1G1:107204431&ctrlInfo=Round20%3AMode20c%3ADocG%3AResult&ao="
target=_blank><b>Luca</b></a> hang up
on me over the phone at his home and at his office. He has
not answered my mail. He has not answered email to the
<script language=javascript>
<!--
var ctc1 = "<b>contact address</b>"
var em1 = "dbatuhan"
var Hst1 = "hotmail.com"
document.write("<a href=" + "mail" + "to:" + em1 + "@" +
Hst1 + ">" + ctc1 + "</a>")
//-->
</script>
for the capinandassociates.com site. He has my email address for sure; he
owns a URL that has hit this Web page repeatedly in December
2005.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">"I make my living talking to people on the phone all day,"
Luca <a href=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_4_50/ai_109133569"
target=_blank><b>tells</b></a> the press. The people he
talks to don't
include us tenants, who make his living for him.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">But if I had identified myself only as a journalist, I would
have had no problem speaking to Luca Capin. He loves giving
<a href=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_4_50/ai_109133569"
target=_blank><b>interviews</b></a>. His brokers — Benjamin and Timour Shafran,
Isaak Kohannim — are frequent sources for <a
href="http://www.realestatejournal.com/columnists_com/buildingvalue/20040413-buildingvalue.html"
target=_blank><b>real-estate
reporting</b></a> in such rags as <i>Crain's</i>, <i>Wall
Street Journal</i>, and <i>Real Estate Weekly</i>. This blog
entry is based only on public records,
conversations with tenants, and published material.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Under the name "Mehmet A. Capin," he arrived here with his
family from Turkey about fifteen years ago. Claiming
to be a writer, he defines journalism as the business of
selling facts, and, in a flash of self-aggrandizing insight,
instantly finds that real estate fetches a higher price in
the USA.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">He starts out with the title "vice-president" at Metrovest
Equities in Astoria, Queens. <i>The New York Times</i> cites him
as "Mehmet Capin" in a <a
href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F06E3DB163AF932A35751C0A96E958260&sec=&pagewanted=all"
target=_blank><b>February 1, 1998, article</b></a> on upper-Manhattan real estate. As "Mehmet Capin," he also
affiliates himself with the Hyde Park, Long Island, law firm <a
href="http://www.nylawyer.com/cgi-nyl/PrinterFriendlyLA.pl?AdID=548264"
target=_blank><b>Mandell Mandell Okin & Edelman, LLP</b></a>, where
he learns how to file Articles of Organization for nonce LLCs to buy property for
his clients under cover from the people living there.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Several years later, he begins
using the name "Luca" among his friends and associates, as
well as the press, and founds Capin & Associates,
Incorporated, to run his investment brokerage.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Needing an extra layer of protection between himself and the
sentient portion of the property he profits off, he founds a
sub-corporation for tenants only. Perhaps whimsically, as Luca has just
bought his vacation home in environmentally conscious Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, Luca calls his tenant trap the Solar Realty
Management Corporation. That flight of fictional fancy
is the only entity he chooses to reveal to his tenants.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">He incorporated both businesses under the name Mehmet
A. Capin, according to New York State records. He also used
that name in 2003 to sign the mortgage on 742 Saint
Nicholas Avenue (just down the block from St. Nick's Pub,
the legendary jazz joint), according to <a
href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/download/foil/job050605.xls"
target=_blank><b>government records</b></a>. That is perhaps the only uptown tenement he
personally owns; the broker was alleged to be one Batuhan
Capin at Luca's business address. The administrative contact of capinandassociates.com
is also a <script language=javascript>
<!--
var ctc1 = "<b>Batu Capin</b>"
var em1 = "dbatuhan"
var Hst1 = "hotmail.com"
document.write("<a href=" + "mail" + "to:" + em1 + "@" +
Hst1 + ">" + ctc1 + "</a>")
//-->
</script>. According to a <a href=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_4_50/ai_109133569"
target=_blank><b>published article</b></a>,
Luca's son Deniz Capin "represents" Solar Realty Management, but the son's name
appears on no official papers.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">A phone call for "Mr. Capin" to Capin & Associates will draw
the reply, "Which Mr. Capin?"</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Luca Capin is a "real-estate investment broker." Let's say
you have a couple of million — or at least hundreds of
thousands — dollars lying around. You want something more
exciting than tired old stocks and bonds. You go to a guy
like Luca. He already has a couple of other dudes even more
loaded than you waiting for action. Luca pools your gelt
into a limited-liability company, and uses it to buy a
slum tenement — for maybe 3.5 to 12.5 mil — in the Bronx
or upper Manhattan.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">The elevator may be down, the boiler may be out, but the
place has tenants like us living in it. That doesn't bother
Luca. He runs the building until prices in the neighborhood
zoom, like everywhere else in metro New York. He's not as
bad as some of his colleagues. He buys oil a couple of times
a year. He burns the oil, sometimes excessively, often
insufficiently, always inefficiently. He plugs holes that
don't cost him more than three or four figures. He half-pays
a nonunion superintendent and a cleaning man; they're
replaced three or four times a year. He provides
no apartment for the super; all living space in this
building are for paying customers only.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Our rent pays mainly his expenses and his income. The payoff on
your investment comes after his tenants and our neighbors
have worked for years to improve the surroundings and to
raise the price of real estate. The price finally doubles on
the building we live in and he owns.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">That is, Luca Capin lives off the sweat and smarts of his
tenants, and brags about his way of life to the real-estate
industry. His home is on Windsor Road in Great Neck, one of the
wealthiest sections of Long Island. He owns a luxury condo
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He even runs his business in
PR-heavy <a href="/slumlord/oldind.html"
target=_top><b>central midtown Manhattan</b></a>ƒ, a half
hour or more on the subway from his
properties.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">He has built nothing in this neighborhood. He has
contributed nothing to this neighborhood. He has introduced
no new living space, business, or facility to this
neighborhood. He buys and sells what others have toiled
to build.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Luca Capin cares nothing for this neighborhood. He simply
lives off the people living and making a living in
this neighborhood. Refusing even to talk to us, he profits off our daily struggle to
survive.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Enlightening readers outside of New York
City as I celebrate New Year's Eve by cutting my rent check for January 2006, I am writing this blog under what I pray is protection
of Rent
Stabilization Law. "What a great country," Luca <a href=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_4_50/ai_109133569" target=_blank><b>says</b></a> about his
career in the United States. "Only in the Big Apple," says
Vicki about this Web page.</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066"></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,
Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif"><p align="center"><font
size="2" color="#000066">[See the <a href="/appeal.htm"
target=_top><b><i>Brief for Appellants</i></b></a> or our <A
HREF="/boot.html" target=_top><b>full
story</b></a>.<br>Scroll down for less recent developments.]</font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss">
<p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">New York,
Oct. 28, 2005.</font></p>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica,
Verdana, Swiss"> <p style="text-align: justify;"> <font
size="3" color="#000066"><p style="text-align: center;"><font size="6"
color="#ff0000"><b>SLUMLORD<br><a href="/slumlord/oldind.html" target=_top><b>OUTED</b></a>!!</b></font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Five days without heat
or hot water while outdoor temperatures dropped below
45º. That's what we tenants of 500 West 140
Street, in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem, had to endure yesterday. Our slumlord was too cheap to pay for repairs to
the boiler and for oil to burn in it. </font></p></span>
<span style="font-family: Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Swiss"> <p
style="text-align: justify;"><font size="3"
color="#000066">Late yesterday evening
through today, the inside heat had soared to
over 83º F., and the water has been hot enough to
scald. What happened to chang]]>