Your rent is too high.Only the rich and famous could afford to pay to live in a jail setting...

The Public Advocate for the City of New York, which sits on the board of the New York City Employee's Retirement System (NYCERS), recently wrote a letter to MetLife with a series of questions and concerns they have. The NYCERS collectively holds over 1.6 million shares of MetLife. The questions pertain to the bad publicity MetLife has been receiving in the NY media over the photo Key Cards they are attempting to force PCV Tenants to use. They also want to know how much money MetLife is wasting in Legal fees figting for this system as well as how much money MetLife is wasting to run and install this system. The questions are as follows:

-Will MetLife record information obtained from tenant keycards?

-Will the information be stored, and if so, for how long, and how will it be used?

-What clear guidelines does MetLife have planned to prevent the misuse of personal information obtained from tenant keycards? What monetary claims will tenants be able to make if the information is misused?

-Will the keycard policy have any appreciable impact on performance and share holder value?

-What will be the cost of implementing the keycard-based system and what will be the monetary benefit to our company?

-What was the role of our company's board of directors in deciding to adopt a policy that alienates tenants?

-What has been the reaction of market-value tenants to the policy? Have rentals of market-value units been affected?

-Have any tenants cancelled MetLife policies or terminated business with our company? What is the expected cost of the negative publicity related to the keycard policy?

-Is it your understanding that tenant groups may seek legal recourse? What is the potential impact of such legal action to our bottom line?

I take it back....it's no longer hard to say that MetLife is behaving like a dictator and that it feels like I'm living in Nazi Germany. Last night, MetLife's security force ILLEGALLY removed rent strike ballots from under tenants doors in Peter Cooper Village. If that doesn't sound like Hitler's Germany, I don't know what does. They deserve the absolute most severe punishment that the law allow.

Here is the link to the local board in the community affected:

http://www.stpcvta.org/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=2

MT, I understand now that you are referring to tenants'who illegally sublet their apartments. Tenants have a right to sublet legally for two years in every four year period. If they don't do it legally, MetLife has every right to toss them out. I'm for that, but I live on a floor where MetLife discovered that there was an illegal sublet and they evicted the person. Clearly, they have ways of finding these things out. There is no need for the Draconian measures that MetLife is trying to impose on every tenant....including the thousands and thousands of law abiding ones who live here. Maybe you would be singing a different tune if this were happening to you. THIS ISSUE HERE IS ABOUT PRIVACY. PERIOD. The last time I looked (though it's getting harder and harder to tell), this isn't Nazi Germany or a totalitarian state.

I don't understand MT's posting. What do you mean when you say "Since when is the right to preserve illegal activities the basis for a rent strike?" What illegal activities are you alleging that the tenants are engaging in? It's the landlord, Met Life, who will be engaging in an illegal activity under the terms of tenants'leases and under the rent stabilization laws if, as threatened, they remove the entry door cylinders that tenants now use for entry via their metal keys on March 30.

My opposition to the key card system has nothing to do with protecting illegal sublets -- although, in an effort to NOT call attention to themselves they are often extremely good and quiet neighbors. If management wants to root them out, let them find some other means. Lord knows they have enough attorneys at their beck and call to handle the job.

There are two problems here. One is the hundreds of apartments that have been leased to NYU resulting in an apartment complex that resembles a dormitory. They are often noisy and inconsiderate and since mom and dad are paying the rent, they really just don't care. This key-card system may have more to do with the terms of the agreement with NYU than with protecting tenants in place.

The other issue is that there has been a marked decrease in the number of security officers in the complex. Years ago you would see them strolling through the complex. Later they took to a mobile patrol whizzing around in SVU's. Now there are security booths with monitors displaying whatever the various security cameras are aimed at. That means most of the security force are at fixed posts rather than serving as a visible deterrant to any criminal activity or negative quality of life behavior (like the drunk students coming home in the weeeeee hours of the morning.) This has much more to do with more equipment and less personnel meaning lower cost in terms of salaries, benefits, etc.

I think one important thing to note is that ST/PCV started as a Mitchell Lama project for war veterans and blue collar workers. Residents are still living in Stuy Town/PCV since that time and are rent controlled/rent stabilized. These elderly residents make up a naturally occurring retirement community (NORC) which management is trying to oust because of the low rent the rent controlled/rent stabilized tenants pay although MetLife may try to deny it.

BTW Jen Chung, Met Life OWNS the complex. A management company runs it.

right, thats how you, or anyone else who might want to, say, borrow your tv or your jewelry, would get in during a blackout. Conveniently enough, during a large scale power failure like the one we had, the cameras would be down too... security my ass.

meanwhile a set of good old fashioned metal keys would keep your doors locked, no need for this invasive, bureaucratic nonsense. Talk about the complex looking gloomy, a card swipe system and having to register friends and family with security would make it feel downright institutional. Yay, I want to spend $2600 a month to live in a prison complex!

i'm not saying it's secure. i'm just saying that's how you would get in during a blackout/power outtage.

tien, so where's the security in that? During a blackout how do you protect both entrances of 21 buildings? And if MetLife has it's way, that number jumps to 220 entrances when the system goes south to Stuy town.

And Oh snap, my picture is on my house keys, is that any better?

Danger! Danger! Will Robertson.

joon, as with any electronic locking system, if the power goes out, the doors unlock.

Metlie can not tell us how we will get in to the buildignduring a blackout. Or guarantee glich free entry. Tenants will no longer be able to give a spare key to a friend, and will have to pay the $25 lockout fee if they've lost/forgotten their keys. If friends or relatives come to stay, we'll have to take them to the security office to get id'd. That means giving Metlife your social security # among other things. Metlife stopped asking for $3600 shortly after 9/11. Its now $24-2800 for a 2 bedroom. Less for a 1 bedroom. Kids in PCV/Stuytown go to school on 1st avenue, at PS 40 one of the top elementary school on the city. I know several subletters who moved in for that reason. Jh must never walk inside stuy town since it is has 12 playgrounds, its own security force and a lawn 1/4 mile in diameter inside. It is consistantly rated the safest neghborhood in Manhattan. I agree the 13 story buildings look grim from the outside.

MT and King Hippo are misinformed, because the NYT article is mis-informing.

The core issue of the rent strike is about privacy and convenience.

MetLife the owner, wants us to trade in transferable metal keys for non-transferable photo identity keycards. MetLife wants us to register and obtain, like photo identity keycards for all guests, family, and caregivers.

So in other words it is no longer, Doris here is my key to get in so you can water my plants. It's now Doris, I must escort you to the Security Office, you must prove that you are Doris with two forms of ID AND Doris you must submit to a photograph for your temporary photo ID keycard, and oh and by the way Doris, they want your driver's license number or passport number on file.

Now if your landlord demanded that would'nt you be pissed?

That is what the lawful rent strike is about. The NYT's got it wrong we don't condone or protect illegal sub-lets.

How many of you would be happy knowing that the management company running your building is aware of your every coming and going?

That's what tenants here don't like. It's a privacy issue. After the way this complex has been run for the last 5-7 years, I personally also consider it a security issue.

Our once beloved (really!!!) landlord is no longer trusted by anyone and even market rate renters are coming to our tenant's association meetings. I think there is more to this than simply illegal sublets.

As far as illegal sublets go, they are few and far between. Met Life has smoked many out and few people are willing to take the risk of losing an apartment. Few are willing to take the risk now when all it takes is one cranky neighbor to make a quick anonymous call to security or the management office and game over.

My building recently switched to keycard entry, against the wishes of the tenants. We actually got a lawyer to challenge the new keycard system; we lost in court.

I'm with MT, the idea of filling a lawsuit in order to protect their right to illegally sublet seems pretty counter-intuitive.

I've got a question: Are the original leasees profiting from the sublet?

Thanks for the info, XXX. We folks in the East Village call it "the White People's Projects." I avoid walking through it if I can. The scale and the way the buildings always makes me feel unsafe. I know a family of three that sublets a big 2BR there for $1,500. $2,600 for 1BD is ridiculous.

Before renovation, Stuy Town/PCV had a 7-year waiting list. Now, there are TONS of empty apartments, despite a massive ad campaign.

No one seems to have clued management to the fact that the only thing drawing people to the complex was the reasonable rent. No one wants to live in a concrete box on Avenue C in a building that looks like a housing project with no doorman for $2600/month for a 1 bedroom (I'm not kidding, that's what they want). A fancy fridge doesn't make the 6 avenue block walk to the 6 train any easier (The L Train rarely runs properly, especially on the weekend). No one paying $3500 a month for a 2-bedroom wants to send their kid to a school on Avenue D. If they can afford private school, why not live in a better location in a doorman building? The current rent structure only makes sense if you are very dumb or someone else is paying your rent (corporate tenants).

For that kind of cash, I can live on the Upper West Side in a full service building in an area with acceptable public schools. Or, I can just buy a house in Queens. A nice house.

I know Stuy Town would love to evict all the old folks and subletters, but I am trying to think real hard on who will replace them.