A mugger attempted to steal the purse of Canadian tourist Lilly Sun and struck her several times on the head. The woman fought back with courage worthy of our immigrants! There wasn’t much money in her purse but it held valuable documents. When Sun struggled to defend herself, the assailant smashed her head with a bottle and knocked out two of her teeth.
Sun said she would never come back to New York.
Can we tolerate this sort of thing? Absolutely not! Mayor Bloomberg immediately said that an attack is not typical of “the safest big city in America” and urged Lilly to get to know the city better. Multimillionaire Donald Trump didn’t let this insult pass either: and offered the victim a free stay in the Trump International Hotel &Tower. As a competitive gesture, the Waldorf-Astoria invited Ms. Sun for a free stay in the fashionable apartments on Park Avenue. Even Sergio Matsione, the owner of the expensive restaurant Le Cirque, is luring the frightened Canadian with free lunches. The renowned Tavern on the Green in Central Park also invited her for lunch. And to help her digest all of these refreshments, New York Waterways arranged a cruise for Lilly all the way around Manhattan.
Ms. Sun said that for now she will abstain from getting to know the city better.
And what a shame! Under conditions like that, any New York resident would be happy to fall in love with the city.
Tell the inhabitants of the Sea Rise Renting complex at the intersection of Neptune Avenue and West 33rd Street in Brooklyn, many of whom have been attacked in the building entrance, the elevator and their own apartments, that the city is willing to show this much concern over them and they will laugh: all of Trump’s buildings and hotels couldn’t hold those who have been attacked.
Dmitry N. had his face beat in with brass knuckles not far from his home. This was only one of four attacks on members of his family. As Dmitry put it, assailants almost tore his wife’s head off.
These are not isolated instances: many other Russian immigrants have been attacked in the elevator. When Larisa N.’s apartment was robbed, the robbers broke everything that they couldn’t take and strangled so hard that she was hospitalized for several months. Larisa, who has a musical education, can forget about singing.
“My daughter is growing up,” said Larisa. “I had to ask permission to take time off from work to meet her after school. We’re all scared. So scared that I bought a German shepherd. They asked me what kind I wanted and I told them to give me the meanest one!”
Recently there was an armed attack on two apartments. One of the robbers was detained, but residents are scared he will soon be set free.
“My neighbor is terrified,” said Dmitry, the vice president of the Sea Rise Renting Residents’ Association. “An African-American who was detained by our guys at the time of the robbery was let go by the police: what’s going to happen now to the people who handed him over to the cops?”
Seventy percent of the apartments in Sea Rise 1 and Sea Rise 2 are Section Eight, rent-stabilized, subsidized apartments. These low costs lead residents to hang onto their old haunts, grumbling about the dirty corridors, apartments that haven’t been painted in years, and rats which average 7.5 per person in New York are three times as many. The surveillance cameras in the lobby, elevators and the laundry often don’t work, while the building guards are unarmed and for this reason don’t constitute much of a threat to hooligans.
One Sea Rise landlord announced recently that he was going to raise rents significantly: in the first year, $28 per month for each room, and $35 in the second year. Rent for a one-bedroom apartment will go up by hundreds of dollars.
At a meeting about the rent hikes, many residents were wrapped up in their own affairs. One guy’s toilet is leaking, another has a child and no money to live on, a third one doesn’t know why he has to pay a dime, and another can’t even say what he wants at all.
Others wondered aloud who was entitled to a subsidized apartment and when. Will rent increases affect invalids and those living on SSI? What can be done with the elderly now that Section Eight is stalled again?
The events taking place in the Sea Rise complex reflect the quality of life that Mayor Bloomberg fights for, a goal that is becoming more incongruous with the rising cost of living in New York.
Representatives of the city housing agency attended a meeting organized by Sea Rise residents. At the first meeting New York State Senator Seymour P. Lachman and Assemblywoman Adele Cohen were in attendance and City Councilmember Domenic Recchia came to a subsequent one.
I take my hat off to them. Many problems were solved.
The example of Sea Rise is instructive: sooner or later, we will all face the same thing! The “exemplary commune” of Starrett City is running a $320 million management debt. And it will be like that everywhere.
This specific disagreement between residents and landlord at Sun Rise should be settled by November 1st. But this is the first bell. For whom does it toll? For all of us, not just “Russian” New York.
