Walls at Sty Town

Read that.. How common is this? Is this subletting. college kids using as a dorm, or occupants renting out spare bedrooms to make extra money?

Residents of the 91-building property, which includes the neighboring Peter Cooper Village, often install pressurized walls in their units to subdivide the space and create additional bedrooms.

Read more: http://dnainfo.com/20100616/east-village/stuyvesant-town-forcing-tenants-install-new-walls-splitting-up-apartments-even-more#ixzz0rCU3cctT

Usually it was college kids. Unless they are already installed in a unit the tenant pays to have them installed.

Earlier installations, especially in the one bedroom units, created living rooms without any windows. As well as being cavelike, the fire department deemed them to be against the fire code and they had to be taken down. Now pcv/st conducts random apartment visits to confirm that there are no illegal walls. They do not start eviction proceedings for violation of lease terms. The illegal wall must be removed. Walls ain't cheap.

I haven't seen the legal walls but I can say that I have seen FAR fewer college-aged kids move in this last year, including last year before school started. I don't think this wall decision is new. cccharley was given the option of a unit with a pre-installed wall when she moved in a number of months ago. she didn't like the layout.

jazzman, I think they are still pressurized you now need two walls.

Thank you for the information. College kids co-habitating is definitely not conducive to a family environment.

It's oddly building by building. And it depends on the kids. Our building is fine. My super tells me that the other building he takes care of is a filthy sty and ours is great. also, it tends to happen far more frequently in sty town. the rents are cheaper and the location better and more convenient for the kiddums.

I'll take it over buildings filled with recent grads any day.

Plus,as I wrote, there have been far fewer new young group additions. Probably the wall situation, but probably also one bedrooms declined greatly in price so they have more options. As I have indicated I don't think management here is offering the rs rental rates so the apts seem high to me for today's market.

The parties extended the stay of the court proceedings through the end of the year and are continuing settlement negotiations.

AR - what I don't get is this "T" formation - I've been in a few of the units at Stuy Town and Peter Cooper - if I remember the living rooms are all rectangles with the window only on one end - so how can one put a "T" wall in a rectangularly shaped room and create something safer than just dividing the room in half with the window in one room (the bedroom) and the other section used as a windowless living room? Sorry I may be missing the obvious here?????

Plus I fail to see how a windowless living room is less safe in the case of a fire? The buildings don't have fire escapes and so what if you have to go through a door to get to the window to jump out - just make it illegal to put a lock on that door.

As a guy who had a wall built in one of my apartments I think these walls are important to the City. New hires can't afford market rents in good neighborhoods. They need these walls and we need the new hires.

Actually - are they suggesting that they split the window in half and give one room half a window and the other room the other half? Do both sides of the window open up? This arrangement creates more hall space too - a total waste of sq ft.

They aren't less safe. There's absolutely no way to get out of or into my window. But that's the fire code.

With the new rules you create a room within the room. It might work ok in turningnthe two bed in pcv into a three bed but for all other layouts it sucks. Which is one of the reasons there are fewer students these days.

Jazzman, I think in most buildings the fire inspector doesn't care, although that's conjecture. I suspect when ts jacked up the rents they allowed large numbers of occupants per apt which in some buildings created major strain with existing tenants. Said tenants, known to be a complaining, educated and vocal bunch, likely took it upon themselves to discover the violation and report it.

Not only college kids. People put walls all the time to make 2 beds into 3 when they have a second child.

ar - so building a room within a room means you add an "L" wall in the rectangle room? Sorry for all of the follow up - I'm a landlord and do this to some of my units every once in a while.

it's really shocking what we will do to live in Manhattan...i just spoke with a man in the laundry room married with two children living in a one bedroom for $3100...the parents sleep in the living room on a murphy bed. $3100 a month...i thought about what they could be renting in queens, bklyn, bx for $3100. We loved Manhattan!

Julia - welcome to the world of people who are new to the City.

"the parents sleep in the living room on a murphy bed. $3100 a month..."

What I find even more shocking tha the cramped living quarters is that they are paying $3,100 for a ONE BEDROOM.