Northern Manhattan landlord named to de Blasio’s “Slumlord Watch List” by Daniel P. Bader The walls of Sandra Marin’s 2145 Amsterdam Ave. apartment are bowing and bending because of water that has leaked down from the hole in the roof that the landlord wouldn’t fix. There is garbage piled outside her first floor window, and a chicken coop that attracts rats. In the nearly 50 years she has lived in the building, it’s never been this bad.  Public advocate candidate Bill de Blasio, Assembly Member Adirano Espaillat and representatives of other elected officials stood with Marin in front of cameras and her building on Tue., Sept. 1 to try and shame her landlord, Danny Hakakian, by adding his name to de Blasio’s new “Slumlord Watch List.”
“This building has tremendous problems,” de Blasio said. “There’s basic health and safety problems. He’s chosen to do nothing.” The building has Class B and C housing violations, like exposed wires in apartments, no fire alarms and no locks on the front doors. Hakakian has great personal wealth, de Blasio said, yet refuses to repair the Amsterdam Avenue building between W. 167th and W. 166th Streets. All five of his buildings are on the watch list. “We want to shame these landlords into action,” de Blasio said. “If they don’t we will stay after them every week and help the tenants organize.” Espaillat said his tenant-advocacy group, Project Remain/Nos Quedamos, is meant for tenants who face similar situations as those in Marin’s building. “This neighborhood has been targeted by unscrupulous landlords,” Espaillat said. Some owners, he added, allow their buildings to deteriorate until families move out. “You can’t live in an apartment that has a huge hole in the living room, that has walls with chipping lead paint, that has life threatening conditions,” Espaillat said. The Manhattan Times is the bilingual newspaper of Washington Heights and Inwood.
|
