PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Tracey Tenants Raise Issues With Management
1st Meeting Since Elevator Saga

By HEATHER HADDON

Tracey Towers tenants fired off a fusillade of complaints to a management representative last week during their first meeting since the buildings’ dangerous conditions received international attention.

“We tried to be very understanding, but this is an unsafe environment,” said D’Ann St. Paul, a longtime tenant, in a packed community room. “We need someone active enough to take an interest in Tracey.”

That became obvious when Ming Kuang Chen, a Chinese restaurant delivery man, was stuck in one of Tracey’s elevators for almost four days last month. (Chen was seen back at work last week, pedaling his delivery bicycle back to the Happy Dragon on Jerome from the direction of Tracey.)

Residents of the Mosholu Parkway development said the incident only highlighted for the outside world the problems they’ve experienced for years. “This is not about Chinese food tonight,” said Diana Walters, president of Tracey’s Tenants Council. “It’s about Tracey Towers’ needs.”

The representative from R-Y Management, which oversees Tracey, seemed open to addressing concerns. “This building has problems,” said Daniel Durante, R-Y’s manager of Bronx properties. “I’m going to do what I can on a daily basis.”

Durante, who has worked at R-Y for a year-and-a-half, started working with the tenants’ council last fall to develop 25 short- and long-term improvement goals. These include additional cleaning in the hallways, stairwells, and outside the building. Durante reported that progress has been made in these areas.

But he conceded that momentum has been hampered by a lack of motivation among maintenance staff. “We found that there was a certain amount of complacency that had settled in,” he said. “There are some things [maintenance] needs to be able to perform at an optimum level.”

Durante did not elaborate what those things are, but said he’s looking to replace some employees. He has also met with the maintenance workers’ union about performance issues and getting more coverage on nights and weekends.

Mona Misra, who called maintenance daily for weeks to get a leak fixed in her apartment, wants more guarantees. “They have to be courteous to us,” Misra pleaded.

Durante acknowledged that the complaint process was flawed, and intends to put tracking numbers on work orders. Tenants whose jobs are not completed can then call R-Y to complain.

Durante said he also met with Copstat, the company that provides Tracey’s security, but didn’t seem very optimistic about squeezing better performance out of them. Tracey’s security is reportedly paid not much above the minimum wage, but Durante wouldn’t comment on whether that might deter staff motivation. However, the Tenants Council now has input into the hiring and firing of security staff.

Bigger capital improvements for the buildings, such as the elevators and boilers, will not move as quickly as tenants hope. The elevators are now being replaced, but work won’t conclude until 2007 if they are replaced one-by-one, as is R-Y’s intention.

“I’m going to be dead and gone by the time they are finished,” said Jean Hill, a tenant. The city told the Norwood News last month that the elevators would be done in about a year.

Tracey’s boilers, like the elevators, came with the building and desperately need to be replaced. “There are parts with a 10-year life span that have been in there for 20 years now,” Durante said. “[Engineers] don’t know why they are still working.”

Tracey was plagued by shortages of heat and hot water this winter, and Durante said the boiler system will be shored up before fall. Due to financial constraints, a full rehab won’t be possible until next year.

Tenants and Durante repeatedly locked horns over why capital improvements must wait. Beginning last February, R-Y successfully secured a rent increase that will total 29 percent over three years. The hike allowed R-Y to finance a $2 million loan for rehabbing the elevators, along with Tracey’s leaking roof and chipped façade. R-Y is looking for assistance from government weatherization programs for the heating system.

Durante reiterated that there is no reserve money. “It’s not like management is hiding millions of dollars,” he said. “That would be criminal.”

Tenants remained skeptical. “They weren’t doing repairs when they were getting rent increases,” said Sam Gillian, a longtime tenant. Rents rose periodically until tenants sued R-Y in 1991, refusing to pay more rent until repairs were made, according to Gillian.

Durante disagreed. “It’s not like work hasn’t taken place,” he said after the meeting. “If not, why would there be tenants who have been here 30 years?”

Some tenants didn’t seem satisfied with his promises. “Don’t tell me any more stories,” Hill said. “You got a 29 percent rent increase a year ago. We want results.”

Durante said he would bring a breakdown of Tracey’s finances for next month’s tenant meeting. Though he took a bit of a battering during the course of the evening, he tried to remain positive.

“I’m on your side,” Durante said in exasperation at one point. “I don’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘How can I do disservice to Tracey Towers.’”

Back to News Index Page