From The New York Shitty Inbox, Part III: What To Do About Illegal Hotels?

airbnb239banker1350amonthMore specifically: What do I do when I learn that a fellow tenant is renting out his/her apartment via Airbnb? E.g.; What recourse do I have when some drunken asshat breaks my front door lock at 2:00 a.m. in the morning or simply walks in and hands my husband his luggage?

A tipster writes:

Heather!

Illegal Hotels, formally known as transient occupancy units (TOU’s) are Class “A” residential units that have been converted for short-term stays of 30 days or less without adhering to the fire codes, tax laws, Certificates of Occupancy and zoning restrictions of hotel use. The illegal conversion of residential buildings into hotels presents serious problems for permanent residents, limits the supply of available housing – in particular, rent-regulated and low-income housing. By lacking the necessary fire-safety measures that legal hotels are required to have by law, which are more stringent than multiple dwelling buildings, TOU’s also present substantial safety hazards to permanent, legal residents as well as short-term guests; many are dangerous firetraps.

The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (“OSE”), headed by Kathleen McGee, pulls together the various enforcement agencies to go after TOUs when they are reported. I know people don’t believe it, but for this people need to file 311 Complaints, being sure to tell the operator that they want it to go to OSE. Kathleen has worked to get complaints that are incorrectly taken for HPD or DOB re-routed to her shop (and has been largely successful).

The District Manager or local elected officials can also forward complaints directly to Kathleen, and can even do so anonymously. It can be hard to get OSE out immediately, unless there is a present and imminent fire hazard, but they are very good at going out to problem locations (ie: repeated complaints or severe activity). They have been stepping up their enforcement recently.*

So far, there isn’t much proactive enforcement based off of sites like AirBnB, although with recent changes in the law, which raised the fines for landlords and allows tenants to be fined as well, some landlords have started to patrol the websites to catch tenants and proactively inform OSE.

*No shit.

active239banker622013hilighted

Williamsburg Photos Du Jour: Kent Avenue

pennygaff

kentave

Taken May 26, 2013.

Williamsburg Street Art Du Jour: Mixed Bag

January 2, 2013 ·
Filed under: 11211, Street Art, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn 

bedfordave1

bedfordave2

 

icyandsot

wytheave

Taken January 2, 2013.

New York Shitty Day Ender: See You Soon

December 16, 2012 ·
Filed under: 11211, The Word On The Street, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn 

Taken December 16, 2012.

New York Shitty Day Starter: From North 11 Street With Love

September 11, 2012 ·
Filed under: 11211, Street Art, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn 

Taken September 10, 2012.

New York Shitty Day Ender: Driggs Avenue

August 15, 2012 ·
Filed under: 11211, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn 

Taken August 15, 2012.

From The New York Shitty Photo Pool: Go Team!

Go team

As Scoboco has so wonderfully documented, the New York Yankees have a fan in the way of this rather dapper dog on the Lower East Side. On the other side of the river, however, the Mets have a fan of the porcine persuasion. One whose charm (and affinity for baseball) even charmed the cuddly— if in a curmudgeonly kind of way— Kevin Walsh of Forgotten New York!

Those of you who have not done so should read Kevin’s post about meeting this finely fettled fellow. You can do so by clicking here.

New York Shitty Day Ender: G Train Skiddoo

Seven Year Itch a la Jilly Ballistic (Brooklyn bound G at Metropolitan)

Seven Year Itch a la Jilly Ballistic (Brooklyn bound G at Metropolitan)

Taken by Jilly Ballistic.

  • NYS Flickr Pool

    The One CrewSnowy SeagullsWalking the Dog in the Snow
  • Ads