4 JUNE 6, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Landlord in hot water with tenants
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Why can’t they keep the hot
water running?
That’s what residents of
one Ridgewood building are asking
their landlord after enduring a
three-day water outage that began on
Memorial Day weekend and ended
on May 29 — only to lose service
once again hours later.
It’s the latest in a series of
controversies involving the
landlord, Silvershore Properties.
The flow of hot water has reportedly
been spotty throughout May at 1708
Summerfield St., which was the
site of a rally earlier this month in
which tenants complained about
poor living conditions in the
apartment building.
Sully Estevez says this experience
with losing heat and hot water is not
uncommon in Silvershore’s building,
and these two amenities have a
tendency to vanish about every
two weeks.
Estevez attributes this to the boiler
not having enough oil to last long
and winters can be a hardship with
a two-year-old son.
“The landlord has a bad habit of
not filling up the boiler’s oil, so what
happens is they put very little and
every so often we’re out of hot water
for two to three to four days,” Estevez
said. “It’s really bad, especially in
the winter time… I have toddler and
also have a newborn now, my son is
asthmatic. On a couple of occasions
my son has gotten sick because of the
lack of heat.”
Although June is approaching,
Estevez looks back on the winters
where she was forced to confine
herself and her kids to a bedroom
with space heaters for warmth.
Her youngest child is two weeks
old and her family has lived there for
four years.
Silvershore’s response to the calls
of the Ridgewood Tenants Union
(RTU) over social media to provide
consistent heat for their residents
was terse.
“The hot water is working,”
Kenneth Fisher, an attorney with
Silvershore, told QNS in an email at
almost 10 p.m. on May 29 after the
outage that started on May 26.
Estevez, however, said on
May 30 that the hot water was
out again as FDNY firefighters
investigated a situation on the roof of
the building.
There were 13 total complaints
on the city Department of Housing
Preservation and Development
A march organized by Ridgewood Tenants Union against Silvershore
Properties in April. Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
website that specified lack of
hot water throughout the month,
many entries specifying the
entire building.
In April, the Summerfield Street
building had already racked up over
65 complaints for 2019 alone with the
majority of them pertaining to heat
and hot water.
Silvershore Properties made
the city Public Advocate’s 100
Worst Landlord list in 2017, which
Fisher told QNS in April was due
to the fact that the majority of their
portfolio was acquired in poor
condition in 2016. They have not
made the list since.
The outcry from residents at the
rally was not limited to heat and
hot water.
Gloria Nieves has said Silvershore
continues to jack up the rent while
skimping on basic services like
bring the garbage to the street or
snow removal. She also said that
when Silvershore wishes to enter
an apartment, they often do so
without warning.
Other HPD complaints pertained
to malfunctioning intercoms.
Miller salutes volunteer
Assemblyman Mike Miller off ered special congratulations to Frank
Tranchina, a long-time resident of Glendale who helped keep things
cool and patriotic during last week’s Ridgewood-Glendale Memorial
Day Parade. Several years ago, according to Miller, Frank reached out
to the assemblyman asking if he could set up a table by his house on
the corner of 67th Place and Myrtle Avenue in Glendale for the parade
to hand out water and fl ags to those marching. He has volunteered his
time at every parade since he fi rst reached out to Miller’s offi ce.
Photo courtesy of Assemblyman Mike Miller
MYRTLE AVENUE
BUSINESS
IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Look for the Myrtle Avenue BID
Summer Coupon Spectacular Street Map
Our Brand New Format
30,000 pieces delivered on 6/13/19 via
· Direct Mail to BID Lucky Shoppers
· Door to Door Distribution in plastic bag to Greater Ridgewood area and parts of Brooklyn
· Hand delivered to businesses, banks, civic organizations, etc.
July 4-7
FATHER'S DAY SALE
June 13-16
Ridgewood Youth Market
Farm Market*
Every Saturday
from July 13 to Nov 23
8 am to 4 pm
Make Music
New York
June 21st, 12-8 pm
at 71st Avenue Plaza
(just off Myrtle & Forest Aves)
*In cooperation with Grow NYC, Make the Road, the Myrtle Avenue Business
Improvement District and the Ridgewood Local Development Corporation
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
