Landlord Leaves Tenants In The Cold, So They Turn the Heat Up On Him
Tenants of a Bronx apartment building are filing a lawsuit in order to force their landlord to clean up their building.
Seventy people who call 1849 Sedgwick Avenue home, want to remove their current landlord, Mario Milevoi, and have the building’s ownership transferred to an independent administrator.
It’s the first such law suit in the Bronx in three years.
The tenants say there are more than 400 code violations in the 15-apartment building, including holes in the ceiling, broken windows, rodent infestations, and water damage.
But they say the biggest problem is no heat.
Tenants claim Milevoi tried to patch the problem when he found out they were taking him to court.
“He decided that he’s gonna play the game of giving us a little hot water now and then and a little heat and then he would turn it off and we can’t live like that,” said Morris Heights Tenants Association president Eugenie White.
A Bronx building where a young DJ pioneered hip-hop in the 1970s has been saved from a plan that would have moved it from affordable to market rate housing, Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday.
Last year, tenants of the building reached out to DJ Kool Herc after receiving word that the owner planned to leave an affordable housing program that would have opened the door to rent increases.
During the 1970s, DJ Kool Herc began spinning records at parties in the basement recreation room of the Sedgwick Avenue building. The hip-hop movement then spread around the world.
The 100-unit apartment building has been deemed eligible to be listed on national and state registers of historic sites.
The affordable housing program, known as Mitchell-Lama, offers owners incentives such as low-rate mortgages and tax breaks in exchange for charging tenants low to moderate rents for a certain period of time.
Schumer said the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development rejected the proposed sale to developer Mark Karasick because current rents could not be sustained if the sale had gone through.
“This very positive development is the first step toward preserving affordability” for all endangered Mitchell-Lamas housing, Schumer said.
The HPD’s decision paves the way for tenants to negotiate directly with the owner, the senator said. The tenants are working on a plan to buy the building.
Bronx Sweet 16 Turns Sour Killing 1 Man & Wounding Another
A sweet 16 party in the Bronx turned fatal Monday after one person was shot to death and another wounded.
Revelers began fighting during the party in the Sedgwick Avenue complex, named Riverview 1600 for its views of the Harlem River. The altercation moved outside, where a 22-year-old man was shot in the back and a 17-year-old boy was shot in the stomach.
Both gunshot victims were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where the 22-year-old was pronounced dead. Police said the teenager was in serious condition, but is expected to survive. Neither victim has been identified by police, and there have been no arrests so far.
Residents were reluctant to talk Monday afternoon. One woman, who said she has lived in the apartment complex for 21 years, expressed frustration over the shootings.
“I’m very appalled. I’m very worried,” said the woman, who did not want to give her name. “I’ve been here for 21 years and it’s getting worse and worse. You hear shots, but never anybody getting shot outside of our front door.”
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