132 Brooklyn Buildings Have Four Months to Improve

The Department of Housing preservation compiled a list of 200 buildings in the city with numerous outstanding violations and has given them four months to make the majority of the repairs. While the Astral is not mentioned in the NYT article, I would be surprised if it's not on the list. With 120 units, many of which are infested with bedbugs and have leaky ceilings (and probably mold), I imagine it has to be at the top of the HDP's list. If not, it should be.

Life in the Astral

I live in The Astral, a landmarked building in Greenpoint. From the outside it is beautiful. From the inside, it is a death trap. My lease is up in a month; I've been here eleven miserable months. Since I moved in, my bathroom has flooded multiple times through the ceiling and I've been fighting an uphill battle to keep the building's bedbugs from closing in on me. To keep this post short, I'll give you just a brief overview of the past few months.

June 15-ish: I ask the super to replace my bathroom floor which has been coming up in pieces, and to remove the mold -- both results of the constant flooding. He says he'll do it while I'm in New Hampshire.

August 21: I return from New Hampshire to a still moldy, flooded bathroom.

August 27, 2007: When walking out of my apartment to take some trash to the street, I slip and fall on the wet stairs. I fall straight onto my back, and cannot move. Instead of helping me up, the man who had been cleaning the floor grabs his mop to sop up the rest of the water. There were no signs warning me of wet stairs. After about a minute and a half of crying, immobile (while being mopped around), I crawl back to my apartment and get myself halfway onto my bed, where I wait for friends to come help me.

September 15-ish: I ask the super to please fix the bathroom, and tell him that water is pouring out of the ceiling "right now." He says he's busy fixing the pipes and when that's all done, he will fix my bathroom.

September 20th-ish (a weekday, mid-afternoon): I look out my kitchen window into the building's "courtyard" and see the super accompanying a young woman dressed in stilettos and a bathrobe to the "work" shed. He is carrying a camera.

September 25: I return from a night out to find a giant cockroach in the entry way to the building. I find a man on the street to kill it for me before I can go in (yes, I'm a girl).

September 26: My bathroom floods again. Super says he'll send someone in ten minutes. Thirty minutes pass and I have to leave. I come home and nothing is fixed.

Bathroom mid-flood:


September 28: My friend leaves my place and says she saw a dog pissing on the dead cockroach... that's still there (see September 25).

September 30: As I'm walking home with boxes a local business owner asks me what's up. "I'm finally leaving the Atral," I say. "My apartment is falling down around me and the super won't fix it."

"Maybe if you pose for him he will," jokes the man. I ask him what he knows. Apparently the super runs an amateur pornography photo business. Apparently he also does this during business hours, when he could be fixing my bathroom (see September 20-ish). Eh?

The mold in the bathroom is growing out of control and is impossible to clean. In the evening, a mushroom begins to grow from the ceiling.


October 1: I'm in the bathroom brushing and flossing and get very dizzy. My throat has been burning for hours. I remember I'm allergic to mold. I remember that I often wake up with a headache. This is most likely toxic mold.

I won't bother to mention the bedbugs. Not even that one I caught biting me last night. In addition to moving costs, I now have to buy a new bed. Among other things.

I've given my notice, and am refusing to pay rent for October. What are the next steps I should take? Help!?

Bonus Picture: The Crack in my Kitchen Wall (Behind that wall is the bathroom. Days ago, it was hairline.. or so I thought.):

Bedbugs: I Got Them From a Toilet Seat, I Swear

Fuck. I have bedbugs. While I doubt they've made it to my room yet (I have no bites), my roommate has had a steady stream of 7-12 bites (that she's convinced are bedbug bites) for the past month or so. Yesterday, she found what she thought was a baby bedbug on the shower curtain.

I spent the morning in Inspector Gadget mode, using magnifying glasses and flashlights to inspect every nook and cranny in my room, ready to attack with a product called "Kills Bedbugs." Luckily, nothing... yet.

I spent the remainder of my day on the phone trying to get someone at my management company to understand the urgency of this situation. "Don't worry, I have it under control," said the woman who minutes before told me she'd call an exterminator on Monday. Monday?!?

Then I tried calling 311 and after a series of transfers, I finally made it to the housing court of Kings County, where a woman told me they won't tell me my tenant rights over the phone. "We only give legal advice in person."

I called the management company back. Still "under control." What's been done? "I'll call the super." Great.

The worst part? The guy who lived in my apartment before me--who I happen to know--never told me he'd had bedbugs. Three fucking times. When we went to look at the place we specifically asked if they had bug problems. "Nope."

Here's how my conversation went down with him today:

me: quick question... did you guys ever have a bed bug problem?
him: oh yeah
I'm pretty sure that they come in through the front window
people drop bedbug infested matresses [sic] out there all the time
they are horrendous little fuckers
me: seriously, you guys had bed bugs?
him: 3 separate times
me: wow, i wish i would have known that
him: we got rid of them each time
shit, they're everywhere in the hood [greenpoint]
it's impossible to avoid them anymore
...
me: i have to admit, had i known you guys had had a problem, i wouldn't have taken this apartment
him: well...
it's not a problem in the apartment
it's a problem in the neighborhood
I guess I figured it was everywhere by now

Obviously, I'm disturbed on many levels. And obviously, I was way too nice to "him."

UPDATE: False alarm! Whew. We did a thorough investigation and extermination, and have been doing regular maintenance exterminations. I have yet to get a bite or see one. I'm not letting those fuckers in here. Ever.