This American Life: Supers

2007_01_arts_superkeys.pg.jpg Recently This American Life host, Ira Glass, paid a visit to Peter Roach and the Upper East Side building he's a super for. Peter has sole access to a large courtyard in this building, yet for complicated reasons - never, ever uses it. This is one of the many, many examples of the odd behavior of supers that Glass uncovers in three acts.

In Act One, Jack Hitt tells the story of getting an apartment in New York in the 80s. Apparently, bribing worked well back then, especially if your super's name was Bob. In this case, having to deal with Bob might not have been worth it.

"Bob's work habits were a thing of wonder. I remember one time, Bob showed up with his assistant, a generally talented guy named Smitty. My sink was backed up and Bob started pouring this heavy black liquid from a gallon jug, in to the standing water. Smitty started backing up, and I started backing up too.
"One cup!" Smitty yelled.

"Shut up," Bob exclaimed.

He emptied the entire jug in to the sink. There were nasty rumblings, hot chemical reactions were happening somewhere inside the walls...I was very scared, and suddenly the doors below the sink blew open with an explosion, and this unspeakable oily sludge poured out across the floor.

Bob was so much more than just a bad handyman."

It goes on to tell of Bob's eccentric stories, and the tenants skeptical reactions to such stories. But in the end, the situation was more ugly than amusing - as it turned out some of his tall tales were true. To force people out of the apartment, Bob would rewire the electrical outlets to high voltage lines, to fry all of the electrical appliances. And even that isn't as bad as where this story ends up. "Bob began to brag about how important he was in his native Brazil, how he could kill a person and be immune from prosecution. Only many years later did Jack find out how dangerous Bob really was."

So, how well do you know your super?

Listen to all three acts here.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on January 19, 2007 11:15 AM

Comments [rss]

carla

I had a totally psycho super when I lived in the financial district near the WTC from 1994-1999. His name was Ernie, and he was a giant Vietnam vet always dressed head to toe in camo. Which was a good warning tip-off. He liked to scream at delivery men, threaten to kill them, and assert his authority by refusing to let anyone use "his" freight elevator. Fortunately for us, Ernie liked our dog Otto, and thus we were spared what he subjected most of the tenants to. I used to work graveyard, and as I was coming in at about 4 or 5am, I would often run into Ernie, coming home drunk as a skunk again.

wumanjoo

I'm currently in LA on vacation and caught this segment on NPR. Oddly, it made me miss NYC.

jt

Had a super lazy super in my building named Johnny. Not only was he lazy and obnoxious, but he had some sort of younger relative (nephew I think) do most of the cleaning work. This poor kid seemed retarded or something, so I guess it was a good thing his uncle was helping him out with work, but I'm not sure what the kid was being paid since he seemed to always wear the same clothes and never bathed. And was barely able to handle the work..

Johnny didn't care -- he got to be lazy and sit around and eat doing nearly nothing.

Thankfully he was somehow replaced or left and we got a new super -- a guy named Paul who was very reliable. And more recently another guy who is a dear.

Jordan

I, too, had a shady super named Joe who used to secretly hide leaking bathrooms with sheetrock and blue plastic.

One Thanksgiving weekend, having just gotten home from visiting the family in FL the day before, I was sitting in my living room and heard a tapping sound. It was the sound of water dripping from my bedroom ceiling onto a plastic dry cleaning bag.

Within a half hour the ceiling was dripping from 6 or 7 spots and was sagging from the weight of the water within. When I went to find the super, who lived down the block in a nice doorman building where he was the full-time super (he was just a part-timer in my crappy walk-up), the doorman told me he was away for the weekend and hadn't left a surrogate. The landlord is basically an answering machine in the basement.

So, I called 311, who told me the fire department should respond. When the firemen showed up, apart from sympathizing with me, they told me it's illegal to not leave a super on duty, so they shut down the water to the building to piss off the landlord.

Oh, that was after they ripped out my ceiling because it was getting ready to pop.

Good times.

Pictures, you say?

Jordan

I, too, had a shady super named Joe who used to secretly hide leaking bathrooms with sheetrock and blue plastic.

One Thanksgiving weekend, having just gotten home from visiting the family in FL the day before, I was sitting in my living room and heard a tapping sound. It was the sound of water dripping from my bedroom ceiling onto a plastic dry cleaning bag.

Within a half hour the ceiling was dripping from 6 or 7 spots and was sagging from the weight of the water within. When I went to find the super, who lived down the block in a nice doorman building where he was the full-time super (he was just a part-timer in my crappy walk-up), the doorman told me he was away for the weekend and hadn't left a surrogate. The landlord is basically an answering machine in the basement.

So, I called 311, who told me the fire department should respond. When the firemen showed up, apart from sympathizing with me, they told me it's illegal to not leave a super on duty, so they shut down the water to the building to piss off the landlord.

Oh, that was after they ripped out my ceiling because it was getting ready to pop.

Good times.

Pictures, you say?

Questions & Answers

I wish I could tell you my super was funny or great but I wouldn't know-- I've never seen him. Neither have any of the other tenants in my 5-story walk-up.

Rocknrope

This is an addictive show - download the others off Itunes if you can. The "Shouting Over The Divide" one was excellent as well.

Meghan

That was such a great podcast. I'm glad you're highlighting it. I highly reccomend this one for a long train ride - it's funny and has an unexpected twist.

whatever

I have only had great supers in my current building.

But the absolute *worst* super I ever had was also a Brazilian who was named "Joe". To fix the water leaking from the bathroom ceilings, Joe would just put up a layer of waterproof blueboard on the ceiling. It wasn't until water-soaked bathroom ceilings started collapsing that Joe's handiwork became apparent. In one apt. the bathroom ceiling had four layers of blueboard! Another time I was sitting in my living room when I heard a strange cracking sound. To my horror the entire wall in the living room had broken open almost a 1/2 inch. It seemed that work was being done on the roof and instead of funneling the debris down to a dumpster, the workers just let it pile up on the roof until the weight caused the wall to break open. There are many many more stories about this idiot, but rest assured that he is still the super at that Brooklyn co-op.

Unfortunately it's almost impossible to fire unionized supers. Thanks local 32B-32J!