Thursday, April 21, 2011

New Round of Whining from Cobble Hill Towers

The conversion going on at the Towers has prompted some fresh cries about...well, I'm not exactly sure. From the Brooklyn Paper:

"Regardless, renters say that the changes would dismantle the mission of utopian builder Alfred T. White, who set out to show that private developers could build decent housing for the working class and still make a profit.

This is the last bastion of diversity in Cobble Hill,” said one 10-year tenant. “And to take these rent-stabilized apartments out of the housing pool is really harsh.”

Former residents agreed.

“The people who live in that building, there’s no way they can buy,” said Carl Rosenstock, who lived in the complex for 13 years."

What the Brooklyn Paper seems to miss (and, to be fair, so did the Times and Patch) is that NOTHING changes for the residents if they don't want it to. If they are subject to rent stabilization and/or rent control, they can stay in their apartments with no changes to their rent other than who they make the check out to (which could change at any time anyway). Their neighbors might change, but that is a factor of their neighbors accepting five or six figure buyouts, not a fault of the new owners.

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