The tenants of Stuyvesant Town have reached an accord, the Unity Pledge their Treaty of Versailles. What's the Unity Pledge? It's the document that the tottering rental complex's Tenants Association is asking every resident to sign, permitting the TA board to negotiate a deal for the property on behalf of all tenants (you can download it right here). It's not legally binding, more a show of solidarity, and the TA's pursuit of signatures is making some Stuy Town lifers come face-to-face with the newly arrived college kids and post-grads, the oft-mentioned Stuy Town generation gap. The spirit of togetherness pervades, or maybe the old-timers are just biting their tongues. WNYC sets the scene of one Tenants Association foot soldier crossing paths with a youngin':
Touzey is eager to sign on and says he loves Stuytown. He calls it the best kept secret in Manhattan. He lives in a two-bedroom apartment with two others. A wall has been put up to create a third bedroom out of the living area. “It’s great because we all just graduated, we all went to college in Miami, and we all went to art school. This was like the most affordable thing with our waiter jobs and acting careers,” Touzey says.
The three roommates pay roughly $3,000 in monthly rent. Miller says squeezing young people into apartments was seen as an easy way for Tishman to collect higher rents. Still, she’s grateful for Touzey’s signature and moves on.
Isn't that touching? Though the two sides probably have different concepts of what a "pledge" is (aren't paddles and funnels involved?), they can still join together for a common Stuy Town goal. And what is that goal? Well, some residents believe that if they're successful in winning control of the nearly foreclosed property and the 11,000 units go co-op, prices for a two-bedroom apartment will be between $200,000 and $250,000. At least that's the hope. And in the unified Stuy Town, hope springs eternal.
· Amid Uncertainty, StuyTown Tenants Continue Efforts to Buy [WNYC]
· Stuy Town coverage [Curbed]
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