Eddie

Eddie

Take care.

Blessings and Peace to you all who were looking out for my interest.

Marian Tortorella

Blessings and Happy New Year

Marian Tortorella

I’ve been really upset being here in all of the chaos of inspectors, 2 to 3 a day, workers, noise, press, and legal stuff.

Back to give you some updates on the building:

We’ve all had electric lines and heaters installed at 598 6th St. , although it is against the building code. Mine came today. The day we all had lines put in last Wednesday mine supposedly was broke. A tenant offed his heater for me and he said no “she deserves this.” He also answered this tenants phone as I was calling to inquire after waitin 7 hours at home for the heater.
First someone picked up and quickly hung the phone up. The second try, Livanos said, “Oh this is Peter, you must have the wrong #, do you want a pizza?” and hung up. On the 3rd try I asked for the tenant, he didn’t call for him, and when I asked where my heater was he told me “there is no heater and that we only get pizza there, Good-by.”
Later I discovered this tenant never knew his phone rang and that he was with the electricians dealing with a problem in a different room.

By law we are supposed to have central heating and we are still batteling it out in court. This heater I find is really not sufficient (it’s been on for a few hours and I am shivering at my computer.) I have to keep my oven on or I really freeze. Not very good if i want to venture away during the holidays. Merry Christmas to you too, Mr. Livanos. I doubt Santa will drop by 598 6th Street this year since the chimney has been taken down.

Yesterday was a nightmare. A huge Kerosene Heater was being used by the workers in the empty apartments while they were working. I began to feel kind of queezy, like standing in Port Authority with 20 buses idling in a tunnel. My kitty was acting really strange for 2 days and kept jumping on the fridge trying to hide. (not normal for her)

I got a good glimpse of the flames shooting out of this thing about a foot from my bedroom wall, facing a pile of plastic tubing in the apt. next door to mine . The door was kept open so you can see it from the public hall.

I asked Mr. Livanos to shut the machine, it was not legal, and that it was making me sick. I felt like I was going to pass out from the fumes at this point and really sick to my stomach. He refused, and said I should go to the hospital if I am sick.

I called 911 to report the machine to the Fire Department. The police arrived first and then the Firemen. The police just politely asked him the shut the machine for the night. The Fire Department on the other hand was not so easy on him. Livanos was kind of flabergasted and said “can’t I use it?” He was told flatly by the fire cheif, “No! Not in a multiple dwelling.” Duhhh….Doesn’t he know how toxic they are without venting? I guess he really doesn’t care who’s health and life he puts in danger.

This morning while the court inspector was here, he knocked on my door, forced his way in and refused to leave, expecting me to sign a piece of paper allowing him access to my apartment starting today between 9 and 5 for 3 consecutive days to install a heater that takes 1/2 hour and to clean mold on a wall that I could do with bleach for an hour. I had to call the police to get him to leave.

He finally gave me the heater between 4 and 5 today. He refused to let me photograph the job in my own home then proceeded to photograph me in my home and my things with his cell phone. What do you do about a man like this?

He has no boundries and will stop at nothing. I suppose at some point if he doesn’t learn to stop, eventually he will crash into a place he doesn’t expect. Perhaps jail.

Marian Tortorella

Wanted to fill you in on what happened in court today with Livanos. It was almost strangely comical when Mr. Livanos insisted that he had permission from HPD to give us all electric heaters and installing some kind of wiring in our apartments. Our lawyer, Nicole Salk pointed out to the judge it was against code and produced a recent HPD violation sent to Livanos stipulating that we were to be provided with central heating or an approved gas heating system installed within 24 hours. His attorney, Thompson was stating that he could not install central heating as long as we “occupy our apartments”. That it would take 3 months to install a systerm. Basicly we are in his way, and preventing him from doing his construction so that he can make his big buck and we should have to temporarily vacate. Nicole Salk said flatly no, not an option, because there is no guarantee we will get our apartments back once we vacate. A corporation which “Rahi Associates” is, run by Livanos, who owns the building can disappear very easily and a new owner does not have to honor our agreement. Also we may not get it back as it was, or he can get it destabilized by modernizing it even if we don’t want him to.

The judge asked to see the approval to install electric heaters by HPD from Thompson and she claims Livanos has left it at home. The judge requests that he have it faxed to her so Mr. Livanos calls his wife on his cell phone (don’t you just love modern technology) and requests she send the HPD letter over to the courthouse. About 10 minutes later the fax arrives. Duhhhh. It is an HPD notice of violation telling him to give us an approved central heating system or gas system.

What is was boiled down to was we were adjourned until tomorrow in room 409, at 141 Livingston Street so that Mr. Livanos can produce an electrician that can explain to the judge how his electrical heating system will work. We are opposed to an electrical system. We want our pipes put back he claims were broken, that he actually sawed off and dropped on my ceiling all summer long. We also are requesting the chimney rebuilt that he had knocked down.

Mr. Livanos flatly lied to the judge told and told her the chimney fell down by itself or something like that. 2 of us were there the day it went down and both video taped and photographed the chimney being knocked down. A DOB inspector came by because one of the bricks broke a tenants window, who recorded video of the falling bricks. The inspector once again said he was issuing a Stop Work Order. They never stopped working and the DOB the next day said that the inspector found “nothing going on.”

What amazes me is how Mr. Livanos has the gall and gets away with letting the hot water stay on for months with that same system when the chimney was chock full of debris, fallen bricks and not functional. Is it surprising Keyspan had to shut the furnace for hot water because of Carbon monoxide?

Mr. Livanos told the judge “he shut it down himself because it was broken.” He told that to Eyewitness News also and they never aired our interviews. No, it was shut down because I felt nauseous my first night sleeping home after being away from this construction zone for 6 weeks. I called Keyspan feeling sick, smelled fumes and they came an hour later on the 30th of November. My stove was OK, but after Keyspan came up from checking the gas line downstairs he said I was sick from a combination of the furnace fumes in the boiler room and there was 500 or 550 PPM’s of Carbon Monoxide so he shut the furnace and was writing a violation. We did get some of that info to the judge but nothing was said about it.

Well, tomorrow is another day and I’m signing off. It’s wake up to an alarm of pounding, machines buzzing and humming, workers shouting, heavy objects falling on your ceiling and sawing beginning at 7:00 AM till 5 PM. I also should go to the courthouse to see what happens, although to be honest I’d rather just stay in bed with earplugs and try to sleep it off.

Marian Tortorella

Well Ms. Thompson nothing so far is put in writing, except for an emergency bogus vacate order, phony leases given without a rider attached, requests for a new deposit,
when some of us have deposits for more than 30 years, and you’ve done everything you could to make this building unsafe.

Most recently the roof has been removed and not replaced, so the building is being exposed to the outside elements. It was raining in the public hall last week during the storm. None of the agencies are doing anything about this either. They were notified.

If the building collapses and I should die in it, and we are not liable, well it won’t matter to me to collect any money, I won’t be here, but surely Mr. Livanos will go to jail. I can assure you that.

I don’t think that this city is that far gone to allow things like that to take place. At least I hope not.

This place would be a great reality TV show. Right now really loud banging is going on on the roof. It is Sunday and the whole building is shaking. They are probably going to try to collapse the building to prove their point. That is my guess.

Marian Tortorella