Strollerderby : apartment

Pregnant Tenant Evicted For Criticizing Landlord Online?

Brett Singer — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:54:00 GMT

David Griffiths, whose wife Katy is pregnant, was told that the lease on his Queens apartment would not be renewed. As a result, the couple moved from a "luxury tower" to a "Brooklyn walkup," according to the New York Times.

No matter how luxurious the tower, I bet it has an elevator, which beats the heck out of a walkup. Especially when you are pregnant. Oh, and after you have the baby. Ever try getting a stroller, a kid AND groceries up five flights of stairs? It's really fun. And by "really fun" I mean "a recipe for back injury."

So why was the couple tossed out, with the landlord requesting that they… never… return? Because Mr. Griffiths said unkind things online about the landlord, Rockrose Development Corporation. (Allegedly. He was evicted for this reason allegedly.)

Griffiths claims that a Rockrose employee told him, "Dave, we understand that you’re not happy living here, so we made the decision for you." Rockrose denies this, although they do admit that they decline to renew about 10 tenants every year for being, well, annoying. Rockrose's senior vice president for marketing, Sofia Estevez, uses the words "hothead and a troublemaker." (Non-rent regulated apartment dwellers do not have to be offered lease renewals; it's only the person paying $300/month for an Upper West Side two bedroom that can't be thrown out – but I digress.) Estevez told that Times that there was no evidence that Griffiths had been a troublemaker, but – and here's the kicker – "that a Rockrose employee does monitor tenant complaints on the Web."

Monitoring customer complaints can be a good thing. For example, Comcast employee Frank Eliason is, as one blogger put it, "helping Comcast suck a little bit less" by responding to complaints via Twitter. But if Rockrose actually declined to renew a lease because of something someone wrote about them online, that's a really bad idea. An even worse idea is telling the tenant that.

There's another part of this, of course, which is that perhaps it's not such a good idea to be posting comments about your landlord online. It may be legal but why bother?

The issue with the wife being pregnant makes it more interesting, since that will probably help the couple get some sympathy votes that they might not otherwise receive. It's one thing for a landlord to tell some dopey 23-year-old to get lost. But a mom-to-be? Watch out. (Note: that is, obviously, not a legal opinion.)

Source: NY Times

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Child Alerts Family to Fire Danger

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:01:00 GMT

Thanks in part to a young child, 22 people were safely evacuated from a burning apartment building.

In Clarkston, Georgia, a fire started around 1:30 a.m. in the kitchen of one unit in the building. A young boy woke up when he smelled smoke. He immediately woke up his family, who rushed out of the building along with their neighbors. None of the building’s occupants was hurt.

This is similar to a recent event in Arizona, in which a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old saved their family from a house fire after they smelled smoke and heard popping noises. Their parents said that they, too, had heard the noises, but thought nothing of them and had gone back to sleep. But the kids got out of bed, noticed smoke in the living room, and immediately woke up their parents, who were able to put out the fire before it caused much damage.

Go kids! It seems their heightened awareness to any and all changes to their environment has some very important advantages.

Photo: Flickr

Body Found in "Baby Buyer’s" Apartment

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:30:00 GMT

The story of the Pennsylvania woman who told police that she paid $1,000 for a baby has a taken a turn for the worse. Tragically, it appears that the dark suspicions of some commenters to my first story about Andrea Curry-Demus (pictured) were well founded: police have found a woman's body in Curry-Demus’ apartment. A placenta was discovered nearby.

This is not the first time that Curry-Demus has attempted to steal babies: In 1990, she stabbed a woman in a ploy to kidnap her infant. The day after the stabbing, she took a baby out of Children’s Hospital and brought the infant to her apartment. Police found the baby there the next day, unharmed. Curry-Demus pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, and was sentenced to 10 years’ probation, a sentence that, in retrospect, was far too lenient. Curry-Demus has also been found guilty of theft.

She will remain in jail unless she can post $10,000 bond and agrees to be examined by a psychiatrist.

Photo: New York Daily News

Woman Claims She Paid $1,000 for a Baby

Would You Live in a House From Ikea?

Madeline Holler — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:12:00 GMT

It's hard to swear off Ikea (and not just because they sell food). As much as the inner-monologue screams "college years" when you see the Swedish company's unmistakable furniture, the price, look and convenience keeps me going back. (And also why I love seeing Ikea stuff in totally enviable homes).

I wonder if I would draw the line, though, at an entire Ikea engineered apartment building or townhouse built wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling with the whole flatbox delivery method in mind.

The first of such structures are being unveiled in the U.K., where Ikea and a home-builder came together to come up with a solution for more affordable housing. The result is unmistakeably mass production and Ikea, but cozy and appealing nonetheless.

It's hard not to think of New Orleans and FEMA trailers when I read about these. Or even the still insanely expensive housing market in large parts of the country.

What's your feeling on Ikea? Would you live in an Ikea townhouse?

Toy Rooms: Suburban Myth?

MetroDad — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:37:00 GMT

One of my best friends, James, has the uniquely distinct ability to separate the chaff from his life and focus on the truly important things in life. His general philosophy revolves around the fact that, as America has become a more affluent and suburban nation, people have lost perspective and tend to spend a lot of time bitching about their "high-class problems."

Needless to say, James' words were at the forefront of my mind when I read this article telling me why I absolutely needed to have a "toy room."

First of all, I didn't even know what the fuck a "toy room" was until I read this article. Apparently, a toy room is "a special place where children can escape and get lost in their own imagination...because every child needs a special, magical place." It's a separate private room in the house where a child can keep all his toys so that the entire house doesn't become overrun with them.

Bwahahaha!

I laugh because the first thing any of my single or childless friends says when they come over to our apartment is, "Holy shit, dude! What the fuck happened to your apartment?" Needless to say, our entire apartment is a "toy room." I'm constantly stepping on crayons, wiping play-dough off my clothes, or spiking my foot with Legos.

Yes, it's true. I live in Manhattan, a city where 750 square feet of apartment can run well over a million dollars. However, I have friends who live in the suburbs whom I think would also find the concept of a "toy room" equally laughable. For most of us, having a "toy room" is like one of those legendary parenting myths...like affordable daycare or safe public schools.

I don't know. Maybe I've just been living in the concrete jungle too long. Do you people actually have "toy rooms" for your kids?