Cousin ♥ NY Landlord

by Dollars and Sense

We received a long and interesting comment about our recent post, Scenes from the Class Struggle in the East Village, from a close relative of the landlord who is trying to turn the five-story tenement he owns into an 11,000-square-foot mansion. We initially posted the comment in full, but our, um, legal department is worried about libel issues. So here is the comment, with the potentially libelous bits taken out:

New York landlord Alistair Economakis's fight to rid the five-story tenement on 47 East Third Street of its tenants has disturbed me, but it hasn't surprised me. That's because I have known Alistair's family for many years now. You see, I have the misfortune of being his first—and eldest—cousin.

Alistair was always ♥♥♥♥. I remember once, in some village in southern Greece, he stuck his five-year-old head out of his father's—my uncle's—car, and, encouraged by his guffawing dad, ♥♥♥♥♥♥. I nearly slapped my little cousin's face for that. I regret now I didn't.

The apple doesn't usually fall far from the tree. My uncle Alexander (Alistair's father) is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Back in 2005, when I first learned of the scandal brewing in New York around the Economakis name, I asked my uncle if it was true Alistair was trying to evict people from the building in the East Village. His answer, word-for-word, was: "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥"

Shocked? You shouldn't be. It's almost impossible to be filthy rich and not be a rotten scoundrel inside. After all, behind most great fortunes lies a crime. But Alistair and his wife Catherine Economakis (who is ♥♥♥♥♥♥) will reap what they've sown. Their crime will come back—again and again, for as long as they live—to haunt them. Of this I haven't the slightest doubt.

My cousin, who grew up in Greece and England, wraps himself in the American flag and evokes the U.S. Constitution to "justify" his family's need to live in 60 rooms, in a 11,000-square-foot home. I've read the popular outcry, the indignant outrage. Yet what do people expect from the likes of my cousin and his wife? Crying "shame!" or noting the irony in the fact that Alistair's mother-in-law is a Columbia University dean who teaches urban studies, of all things [as reported here and elsewhere], is an exercise in futility. I can assure you they aren't at all fazed by such criticism.

So many good people bemoan the legal ruling allowing the eviction to take place. This is naïve. Who makes the laws, after all? The government does. And what is the government but the representative of a country's ruling class? What do low-income tenants expect from the enemy, after all?

Yet what goes around tends to come around. You can spit on the collective—as Alistair and Cathy Economakis have done, but it's quite another thing when the collective turns around and spits on you!

Low income tenants of New York! Run the Economakises—and all human lice like them—out of town! Turn their "American dream"—a dream at your expense—into a real nightmare! Give them no quarter! Make it physically and psychologically impossible for them to evict you! Send THEM packing!

Evel G. Economakis,
Athens, Greece

Labels: affordable housing, Alistair Economakis, rent control

 

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6/27/2008 12:27:00 PM