Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association

The Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association introduced its outstanding team of legal and financial advisors to residents on Saturday afternoon, March 13th.  With an overflow crowd jammed into the 1,100-seat auditorium of Baruch College despite wild rain and dangerously high winds, the audience heard solid presentations of the complicated issues involved in reaching the Association’s goal of taking control of the property while providing the most options for residents.

Attorneys from the legal firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison put into layman’s language the dizzying layers of debt structure and how they may play out.  The financial brains at Moelis & Company explained their role and said they will hold informational seminars for residents as the restructuring plan proceeds.

Speakers for both organizations were firm one point — the absolute necessity for tenants to stick together and act as a single, united force in order to achieve success.  In response, hundreds of attendees handed in their signed Unity Pledges as they left.  (This is a good time to remind you to sign and mail in your Unity Pledge if you haven’t already done so.)

Promising greater transparency in Tenants Association activities, executive vice president Susan Steinberg announced that plans for a Board of Directors election will be held in early summer..  The TA will circulate full information on the nominating process as soon as plans are completed.
In another first, the TA is forming four committees to serve in an advisory capacity on legal, real estate and finance, organizing and property maintenance.  Residents with special expertise in any of these areas are asked to submit their names as volunteers.

On the legislative front, Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh announced that he is introducing legislation to extend rent stabilization this year rather than in 2011, when the law is set to expire.

State Senator Tom Duane will be introducing similar legislation although, as Kavanagh noted, any action in the Senate is uncertain.

Adam Rose of Rose and Associates, which has just taken over as an interim consultant on management of the property, promised immediate attention to the washing machine fiasco, which should bring joy to many tenants.  He also promised a beefed up security staff and, while stating that no re-landscaping was in view, said his team could “lop down” the Tishman Speyer plantings that are safety threats.