18 APRIL 20 - APRIL 26, 2018 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
Bay Ridge apartment dwellers want answers
after being without cooking gas for months
BY JAIME DEJESUS
JDEJESUS@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Gas act!
Residents of Bay Ridge
apartment and co-op buildings
who have been without cooking
and laundry dryer gas for months
are begging for answers and better
communication.
Several tenants of 7420 Ridge
Boulevard — owned by Ridge Leasing
Limited and managed by Kings &
Queens Residential LLC — lost their
cooking gas this past February and
it has been a difficult ordeal for them
since.
"On February 18, the gas just went
out,” said tenant Nancy Daly, who
has lived in the building for 37 years.
"There are so many stories and the
building is not very helpful in giving
any information."
Daly, a senior citizen, says that
the lack of gas has compromised
her health. “I am a diabetic so I have
a special diet,” she said. “I live by
myself. There are a couple of other
seniors that have the same problem
and there are some babies here, too.
Bay Ridge has all types of restaurants
but there's only a certain amount of
money. One of the tenants has two
kids and told me how difficult it is. I
haven’t had a good cooked meal in a
while unless we go out."
Tenants complain that the story
they've been given has morphed
over time.
"The insincerity of it all and lack
of transparency from the management
to let us know exactly what is
happening is the worst,” said resident
Wilma Gutierrez. “There’s a lack of
truth. They said it was a city issue but
it was a building issue all along. We
have all been just speculating. I just
wish we knew how long it would be.
The lack of knowledge is awful.”
Gutierrez stressed that the confusion
stems from no one taking
responsibility for the lack of gas.
Frustrated, she called 311 and an
emergency inspector came out to investigate.
"He said that they were unaware
that there was any issue with
the city at all," Gutierrez recounted.
"It was the building. The building
did finally issue a notice to say there
was a gas issue and they were going
to get a permit to fix it in February.
It's been two months to the day. It's
been insane."
Building representatives eventually
responded to the situation
by giving each affected tenant a
hot plate.
"They basically waited until the
last minute to give tenants any
kind of notice," added another
tenant who requested anonymity.
"Their solution after months of no
gas is give hot plates. Really? In a
building that’s almost 100 years old,
you’re going to overload an already
messed-up electrical system with hot
plates. That’s real smart. The Fire
Department should know about that."
"Some people didn’t want to take
the hot plates because it takes up
too much electricity," added Daly. "I
used it once but the plug got so hot, I
was afraid."
"That hardly covers the issue especially
for those tenants who have
little children who are dependent on
meals at home so that’s a big issue,"
added Gutierrez.
Councilmember Justin Brannan
got involved after a number of residents
reached out to his office.
“What the residents have been
going through is outrageous," he
said. "Not only have they been
without cooking gas and laundry
facilities for months, they have no
idea when their landlord is going
to finish repairs. My office has been
closely monitoring the situation and
has been mediating between the
landlord and renters. I hope the gas
is restored soon and, once it is, the
renters are fairly compensated for
their troubles.”
The alleged insincerity of the
landlords has been the toughest part,
tenants say.
“We didn’t have any notice prior to
it," said Gutierrez. "We came home
from a trip and found out it was gone."
In addition, a co-op at 7901 Fourth
Avenue has also lost gas, although it
appears to be unrelated and gas for
that building's laundry dryers has
already been restored.
"There are two problems," said
Chris McCreight, Brannan's chief of
staff, who has visited some of the affected
tenants. "One is that it’s taking
way too long, especially on the rental
side, because they are dragging their
feet a bit. We want them to communicate
better with the shareholders and
the renters, especially the renters.
They all claim to have no idea what is
going on there. They base everything
on hearsay. When they see someone
in the building, they go up and ask
them and it gets passed around from
resident to resident. That’s not a good
way to communicate with tenants."
Reps for the rental building have
been especially difficult to deal with,
added McCreight.
"They're hard to get a hold of," he
said. "We've spoken to some folks
there but they haven’t been very
communicative with us. They don’t
respond unless we go after them and
call them like 20 times."
Although the co-op seems to be
more communicative, there still
seems to be no end in sight.
"The problem is that for both
buildings, they're no closer to having
cooking gas which has been going
on since January
for the co-op,"
McCreight said.
"It doesn’t seem
like there is any
end in sight for
either of them.
Both of them
have separately
told us for a
variety of reasons
that this is
going to take a
lot longer than
they wanted
and originally
thought."
According to tenants at 7420 Ridge,
Wexler Plumbing and Heating has
been working on the building since
Monday, April 16.
"The owners said that they have to
go and replace an entire section of
a four-section building that hasn’t
had gas," contended the anonymous
tenant. "So, are they going to be doing
every single section one by one?
Because I can’t live without gas for
three months. Not having a laundry
room is bad enough. I’m going broke
sending my laundry out, but not
being able to cook properly, it’s not
going to cut it."
Contacted for comment, a spokesperson
for Kings & Queens Management
told this paper, "We have
been working with National Grid
to restore cooking gas and laundry
service to all affected units. The
safety and comfort of our residents
is our top priority, which is why we
have decided to make significant investments
in new piping throughout
the affected areas. We appreciate our
residents' patience as we make these
improvements.”
By press time, officials from the coop
could not be reached for comment.
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photos by
Jaime DeJesus
7901 Fourth Avenue.
7420 Ridge Boulevard.
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