November 2009 Vol. 29, No. 11
The November 2009 issue of The Cooperator newspaper focuses on Building Maintenance.
In this issue, you can read about maintenance deferred, keeping NYC buildings safe, life spans of building systems, installing & maintaining laundry facilities and Chinatown.
Visit our archives to see other articles that were published in 2009.
News Briefs
- 11.20.09 The snooty co-op board of a luxury Upper East Side building is trying to evict one of its high-class residents for marrying one of its lowly porters [The NY Post]
- 11.13.09 What was once the workplace of tellers and loan officers is being recycled into street-floor commercial space with 12 income-restricted condominiums above. . [The NY Times]
- 11.13.09 ERICA FRIEDMAN had a checklist. She knew exactly what she needed in her new home, and the importance of every feature. [The NY Times]
- 11.13.09 THE entrance to the building on Anderson Avenue at 167th Street in the Highbridge section of the Bronx looks like something out of Hansel and Gretel. [The NY Times]
- 11.13.09 A TWO-BEDROOM apartment on the Upper West Side is listed at $1.595 million and sells within two weeks. [The NY Times]
- 11.12.09 It’s bumpy all around, but if you’re self-employed, buying new construction or trying to secure a jumbo loan (anything above $729,750), getting a mortgage is downright nightmarish. [The NY Post]
- 11.10.09 The Long Island Board of Realtors (LIBOR) announces the signing of fair housing legislation for co-ops. [Real Estate Rama]
- 10.30.09 A member of her co-op board for six years and the president for nearly two, Helen Pearlstein is deeply involved with local affairs.[NY Times]
- 10.30.09 Fixer-Uppers are not the darlings of the New York City real estate market right now. [NY Times]
- 10.23.09 She shopped for co-ops in the Long Island communities of Floral Park, East Rockaway and Bellmore, among others, and also in Bellerose, Queens. [NY Times]
- 10.23.09 Roofs and windows that leak whenever it rains. .[NY Times]
- 10.23.09 Their view is the main reason that the Gisslers, who are both 74, are so enamored of the place where they live.[NY Times]
- 10.18.09 The names of New York neighborhoods are not carved into the sidewalk. As an area begins to gentrify, a new label often pops up to match the rising property values. A southern piece of Harlem was recently rebranded SoHa, and Park Slope, Brooklyn, keeps creeping south into territory once known as Sunset Park. [NY Times]
- 10.16.09 On Fort Hill Circle in St. George, Staten Island, nestled amid an assortment of shingle style, Italian Renaissance, Dutch colonial and Tudor houses, there sits an unassuming red-brick split-level. [NY Times]
- 10.09.09 As many co-op and condo owners can attest, ownership has its drawbacks. [NY Times]
- 10.09.09 And so, brokers say, Steven Mnuchin, a former executive vice president at Goldman Sachs, is giving up the comfort and lordly status of his five-bedroom duplex co-op at 740 Park Avenue, one of the most prestigious addresses in New York, for the suburban wilds of Pasadena, Calif. [NY Times]
- 10.09.09 L+M Development Partners is taking a classroom-packed 1906 building in Harlem and making it into a mix of market-rate and moderate-income apartments. [NY Times]
- 09.25.09 The economic downturn is giving renters a break. [NY Daily News]
Featured Articles
Installing & Maintaining Laundry Facilities
Clean laundry. It’s one of those basic things without which we would go mad but which we rarely
stop to consider. Within New York’s co-op and condo complexes, laundry room facilities are an integral part of a
happy, functioning environment. Over the last decade, those facilities have
evolved to suit changing needs and expectations from residents and managers
alike. As a result, many laundry room service providers are offering new
options that put them squarely at the forefront of customer service, both for
individuals and the buildings as a whole.
Read More
Working with the New Building Codes
If you’re part of a co-op and condo community, you’ve definitely had to deal with the New York City’s Building Codes. They’re a complex set of regulations, documents, amendments, local laws and more,
regulating all sorts of things, from boiler maintenance to elevators to
exterior walls. Read More
Life Spans of Building Systems
Even when living in a multi-family building, individual residents must handle
some of the same responsibilities as those of a single-family homeowner. While
board members will be more involved than other residents in helping to ensure
proper maintenance of their community’s infrastructure, every resident of a co-op or condo community shares partial
ownership of the community’s common property—and that should translate into awareness of the community’s common needs.
Read More
Prioritizing Projects to Avoid Trouble Later
With the economy still in the weeds and building administrators looking for
creative ways to save money and build up their bottom line, it’s no surprise to hear that co-ops and condos are taking a hard look at their
maintenance and building improvement wish lists and making some tough
decisions. They’re reassessing which projects they can afford to undertake and which ones they
need to put off until later.
Read More
