Subscribe to Dollars & Sense magazine. Recent articles related to the financial crisis. Scenes from the Class Struggle in the East Village The New York Times recently ran a story about a New York landlord, Alistair Economakis, who is trying to convert the five-story East Village tenement he owns into an 11,000-square-foot mansion for himself and his family. The building formerly housed fifteen rent-stabilized apartments, whose rents ranged from $675 to $1200 per month. So far Economakis has been able to buy off six of the tenants, and has renovated and converted the spaces into a home with which he, his wife, and his two children are making do. But the remaining tenants are fighting back: At its core, the fight involves a law allowing landlords to displace rent-stabilized tenants if the landlords will use the space as their primary residence. The Economakis family has prevailed, thus far, on the principle that the law applies even to a building this large. But the tenants continue to press the notion that given the scope of the proposed home — which calls for seven bathrooms, a gym and a library — the owners are just trying to clear them out so they can sell the building off to become so many market-rate condos. As evidence that they have no such intention, the landlords emphasize how much they love the neighborhood, especially its working-class history: “Once we realized we wanted to make this building our home, nothing else compared,” said Mrs. Economakis, 36, who, along with her husband, works for her father’s company, Granite International Management, which manages about a dozen apartment buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “I love this building, and I love this neighborhood.” In Manhattan, it seems, the super-rich want have the working class and eat it too. The Times's coverage of the struggle is characteristically even-handed, depicting both landlords and tenants as in enviable positions: In a way, each faction is living a version of the New York real estate dream. Anyone might envy the Economakises, who work at a family-owned apartment-management company and lucked into buying the building for $1.3 million — what some one-bedroom condos in the area cost today. They have both the cash and the connections to create a sprawling showpiece. But there are also countless New Yorkers who would sacrifice their firstborns (or at least a beloved pet) for a charming if cramped perch like [tenant] Mr. Boyd’s in a coveted neighborhood where comparable spaces command twice or three times as much. Evidently, the Times regards affordable housing in New York as but a dream, and rent-stabilization as a luxury. Read the whole story here. For information about the tenants' struggle, visit their website. Labels: affordable housing, rent control, wealth inequality Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
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 : Friday, June 27, 2008 10:06:00 AM
We received a long and interesting comment from a close relative of the landlord. We posted it in full initially, but our 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
We received a long and interesting comment from a close relative of the landlord. We posted it in full initially, but our "legal department" is worried about libel issues. So here is the comment, with the potentially libelous bits taken out:
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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 << Home |
