Posted on 12/29/2008 9:19:35 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
Editta Sherman has celebrated more than half a century's worth of new years in her palatial studio apartment above New York's Carnegie Hall. But it's unlikely the celebrated portrait photographer will be raising her glass there next year.
Known as the Duchess of Carnegie, the 96-year-old came home a few days ago to find an eviction notice on her door.
"I thought, oh, what is this? Are you kidding me that they are really going to send a woman like me down the street just like that? Have me scurry away without a fight," she said, delivering a whooping cackle, punctuated with a grandmother's tsk tsk.
"Oh, no, that's not what I am going to do. They'll have to take me out of here with their bare hands."
The city of New York wants to renovate the space above Carnegie Hall, where Marlon Brando once lived and where Sherman and five other renters, including iconic New York Times' photographer Bill Cunningham, have enjoyed rent-stabilized bliss since Frank Sinatra cut his first demo.
Sherman pays $650 a month for her studio, a drool-inducing space basked in natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows. An enormous skylight hangs over bold, black-and-white tiled floors; a cast-iron circular staircase leads to a loft stuffed with props.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
LOL!
What they should do is give the greedy bitch a $10M annuity that goes away when she dies. That ought to be worth only a couple hundred $K.
Editta does NOT own the place.
Do you think OWNERS should have NO rights to their own place or that TENANTS’ rights trump right of the owners?
Not to mention, as I posted in an earlier post they are offering to pay for her move, offering her an equivalent apartment and to pay the difference in rent on the new apartment.
$650/mo in Manhattan because she’s hanging in there? Hah! I bet she’s really a 50-year-old queen who stole the identity of a 76-year-old woman, 20 years ago, so he could get that cheap rent.
Yeah call me cynical but it’s NYC. Poodle eat shih-tzu.
She didn’t write New York’s tenancy laws, either. The OWNER, the City of New York, passed the laws. If they’re having to offer hugh bribes to get tenants out, then they can’t simply fail to renew the lease, as a landlord could in a civilized place, and it’s 100% their own fault.
I’m suppose to care about that slime-mold Sandy Weill and his son-in-law? Phoop on ‘em. I like the 96-year-old bat better.
I’m not. Crooks or not, it’s not her place. How about if you owned the place, what would you think? I would say the same. Move her out!
See my #25. The City of New York owns it, and now they’re hoist with their own “rent-stabilization” petard. Poetic justice.
Carnegie Hall will pay the difference for the rest of all the tenants lives.
Pretty darn good deal.
I would take it. New York living for $650/month? Stop complaining and take their offer.
Of all the responses I read yours was more on the mark and more poignant than the others; loved it.
And if so .. is she really breaking any law?
yeah, but that means the city taxpayers own it. I know they’re crooks there, but still........
Without rent-control...over half of the city’s residents would have to leave the city...course, I don’t see this as a negative thing. It would bring the whole question of a “fair” salary up to the top. Based on my limited time in downtown NY City...I’d say a guy needs to make $80k minimum to really do ok...but the absolute minimum ought to be $50k as poverty level.
You've never been a landlord, have you?
Not quite. NYC rent control was initially established for the benefit of our armed forces returning from service after World War II, who would not otherwise be able to afford market rates set by supply and demand. IIRC, rent control was not supposed to be a permanent fixture, but eventually, it was discoverd by the left and the rest is history.
IMHO, rent control and rent stabilization is the ultimate violation of the "takings clause" set forth in the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution because basically allows the government to take residential real property for the public good without just compensation.
And Editta Whatsis is one of them. Why shouldn't she live in her own place? (j/k) My sympathy for city taxpayers is limited (myself included) because they voted in the city government. Don't like the laws, then vote the b*stards out. Where I live, we wipe out our Town Council and County Commissioners every four years.
She's 96. By the time the Weill son-in-law has doubled his tax-paid "design" fee, she'll have died.
They have offered her escorted home finding visits nearby of 'equivalent' stature, offered to pay her the difference in rent costs, and this b!tch has the nerve to act like this entire floor is 'hers'. The world doesn't need airhead elites like this. I really could care less if she ended up on the street pushing a stolen grocery cart. (along with her son-in-law who apparently was 'hired' to help redesign the upper floors. This is the kind of privileged abuse that the French peasants revolted against circa 1799.
“If they’re having to offer hugh bribes to get tenants out, then they can’t simply fail to renew the lease”
You are apparently not familiar with rent control laws. The landlord is NOT allowed to “just not renew” the lease. The landlord is only allowed to evict tenants, if they don’t pay the rent or have to do major renovation and the law requires that the owner pay astronomical sums to the tenants, if they are evicting them to renovate the apartment.
I don’t know the specifics of the rent control law in NY, but the above is how rent control laws operate in general.
Also — I bet the market rent for her studio is probably several thousand dollars, and the city is not allowing the owner to raise the rent.
You’re both right. Except that it was Citigroup and not just Citibank.
CNN Poll on main page.....not even any good options:
What should the city of New York do about the 96-year-old Duchess of Carnegie?
Let her stay 67% 16274
Evict her; pay the difference 24% 5795
Give her $10 million 9% 2216
Total Votes: 24285
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