I saw it firsthand yesterday. Walking into a building with a friend and community activist of the area that is owned by the Pinnacle Group LLC, I saw the conditions that tenants are living in within the Morrison-Soundview Avenues area of the Bronx. The Pinnalce Group owns an entire strip of buildings not far from the 6 subway train stop. What is being done to the tenants of these buildings must end. The former Attorney General seems to have been investigating and I hope that investigation will continue under the new Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

I was able to find this article in the Daily News by Juan Gonzalez talking about Pinnacle.

Yesterday morning, the Mirabal Sisters Center, a West Harlem community group, gave Spitzer more reasons to get involved: a petition signed by more than 2,000 upper Manhattan residents claiming that Pinnacle is systematically forcing out longtime tenants and then illegally driving up rents to newcomers.

Not only is there an issue with them driving up rents and forcing longtime tenants out, there is also the issue of the conditions some of the apartments are in. Why are people made to live in apartments with collapsing ceilings? A woman with two children and one on the way showed me her ceiling. She told me that the ceiling in her bathroom had fallen on her. She’s afraid that it will fall on one of her children. She’s complained to the right people, but nothing is being done. Justice is needed.

I grew up in the Bronx two blocks from 241st White Plains Road on 243rd street. Even though I now live in the suburbs of Westchester County; I cannot forget what’s its like and where I came from. To do that would be wrong. I remember my mother chasing prostitutes and people addicted to drugs out of the building lobby. I remember how hot the entire building would get, it did not seem they could control the heating system! I remember having a door that was so weak and rotten that you could kick it in. There were times when the boiler broke down and there would be no hot water. It happened more than I’d liked it to have.

I did not live in some of the housing projects like some of my schoolmates did back then, but the conditions none the less are things you cannot forget because they should not occur. The way I live now is the way everyone should be able to live. In a clean and safe neighborhood and in a good functioning apartment unit or house. So when I saw the conditions of the apartments and even the trash in the courtyard it got me angry.

What exactly are these builders trying to do to NYC? Matter of fact what are they trying to do to the entire state? Whether it’s NYC or in Westchester County it seems all they want to build is luxury apartments. Where are all the middle class and working poor people going to go? They can’t afford to buy houses or pay their rent anymore. They will either end up homeless or having to leave the state entirely. Back in 1997, our rent for an apartment in the Bronx was $414 a month. If we were still there, even though Pinnacle did not own that building; I bet there would have been an effort to force us out too.

Is this what you would call gentrification? Are the builders of NYC trying to gentrify the entire city? Is it because a new stadium is being built and they want to attract more tourism? I’ll never understand this classist and racist thinking that in order for an area to be “decent” you have to kick the poor (no matter their color) and the minorities out of it. This is what they’re doing to Harlem right now.

It seems that only people who work for Goldman Sachs and get insane bonuses are going to be able to live in this state….this really pains me. There always seems to be too much that you have to fight back against, the odds are always stacked against the best of people. Not everyone who lives in a low income area or is in the low income class is a criminal. They are decent peace loving people who deserve better. All any of them want is peace and happiness for them and their children. Yet, I can truly understand why people give up sometimes. But with all that is going wrong if you give up I still feel you are resigning yourself to hopelessness. At least if you fight back change is still possible. It’s not a billion dollars but that’s all we have.

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