I’ve been reading the Gothamist since my arrival in NY, and for the most part, I’ve appreciated the manner in which it addresses issues affecting New Yorkers. However, now that I am the subject of its gaze, I’m upset about the way my story has been represented, and that the Gothamist has labeled me as a “pariah,” “outcast,” and “New York’s favorite bed bug poster boy.” I think that kind of language is diminutive, has exacerbated the harm I've experienced over this situation and dilutes what I’ve accomplished. I feel like the Gothamist has portrayed me as an idiot who has sabotaged himself by opening his mouth.

I generally keep to myself, and prefer not to be an exhibitionist about the difficulties I encounter. However, there is a great line in the movie Desperado that is apt, “all that evil needs to exist, is for good people to do nothing.” Unlike many New Yorkers who suffer bedbugs in silence and keep quiet -- including every one of my neighbors in my building, where bedbugs have had free reign for years -- I chose not to sit quietly and take it.

When bedbugs were driven into my apartment -- after a failed tenant-initiated attempt at extermination in the apartment above mine -- I contacted the landlord immediately and requested extermination treatment. The landlord refused to address the problem, blamed me, and told me I had to solve it myself. I educated myself on bb entomology, spoke with several exterminators, checked their references, and hired someone who had the experience to handle the problem. Additionally, I negotiated a longer warranty than other companies were offering, and negotiated a discount price if I could convince the landlord to treat the entire building as is required for bb infestations.

After several treatments spanning a few months (at my own expense), the bb activity did not cease. During this time, I also learned that my 8-unit building has had 14 infestations over the past few years, that the building has never been treated as a whole at the same time, and that the other tenants never reported the violations to the city. Perhaps if the other tenants had spoken up before I moved in, this experience could have been averted. I wrote my landlord informing them I would be deducting my extermination costs, prep costs, and money for the furniture I discarded. More importantly, I insisted that the entire building be treated, or that we would address the issue in court.

Shortly after, my landlord initiated a non-payment case in housing court (for the costs I withheld) with language in the complaint “praying for a final judgment of eviction.” So I fought them. I represented myself pro-se, but spoke with several attorneys prior, and had an attorney file an answer for me. Every attorney I contacted informed me the best I could expect was a 50% rent abatement. I studied NY case law on bedbugs and found that there was no precedent for anything greater. Despite this, I prepared my case, fought it myself, and the judge awarded a100% abatement with the stipulation that I move at the end of the month. One of the attorneys I initially contacted told me what I accomplished was tremendous and unimaginable.

Despite this unprecedented “win” it was nothing more than a Pyrrhic Victory. At the end of the day, after deducting extermination costs, after discarding all of my furniture, being stigmatized by landlords, having my name added to a tenant-screening list (a result of my visit to housing court), having been kept awake for months while being bitten, my losses were much greater than my ‘win.’

When the DN and NYT expressed interest in covering my story, I wanted the legal aspect of bedbugs threshed out; I thought its inadequacy to protect New Yorkers needed to be addressed as part of my civic duty. The headline I proposed to the writers of the stories, was, “Bedbgugs and Housing Court: if you win, you lose.” Even if someone stands up for themselves, uses the law to fight, creates a tremendous and unprecedented “win” in housing court, one still has the potential to lose everything. I wanted the NYT and DN to note that one cannot collect for damaged or discarded property in housing court. I wanted people to understand that most don’t receive abatement like the one I created for myself. I wanted to have the new bedbug disclosure law scrutinized for its lack of efficacy – the law requires disclosure of infestations in buildings going back one year, but bedbugs can hide without feeding for 18 months, and a year is not a large enough window. I wanted to stimulate a discussion about tenant screening blacklists – everyone who goes to housing court ends up on these lists, irrespective of the final outcome.

The Gothamist is correct. Sharing my story was unwise, as I am having a hard time finding a landlord who will take me. However, at least I can look myself in the mirror, and know I stood up for what I believe in. I spoke up while my neighbors sat silent, and I suffered from their failure to act in the past. It would be easier to be quiet and keep one’s mouth shut, but as I have learned from personal experience, if people sit quietly about this problem, it will not magically go away.

Finally, I request you remove the tag ‘pariah’ from the stories you have posted about me, and suggest that if you wish to continue covering NY stories with journalistic integrity, that you should actually talk to the subjects you write about before slapping labels on them and judging them.

- Jeremy Sparig

Hey, thanks for your perspective on the situation. We've removed the "pariah" tag and added a link to your comment in the post.

On the bright side, at least she misspelled your name in that tag.

But yeah, the bed bug beat on Gothamist is apparently handled by John and Jaya. So sarcasm is the watchword; journalism is not.

I, for one, am glad that you chose to bring light to the horrible bed bug situation in this city. Too many people suffer in silence and it only exacerbates the problem. Thank you for your courageous fight.

I blame Bloomberg and his administration for continuing to ignore this problem. Bed bugs are NYC's #1 health crisis at the moment but the city is not responding to it and it's getting worse and worse by the day.

It's not really a health crisis because they are not known to spread disease or cause harm outside of annoying bites.

It's also funny that you say Jeremy chose to bring to light his bed bug sitution because they hate light. They are nocturnal creatures; true vampires. This is why you shouldn't hate on people who have them in their residence. There's an extremely small chance that they would be travelling on those people, especially during the day.

Finally, I request you remove the tag ‘pariah’ from the stories you have posted about me, and suggest that if you wish to continue covering NY stories with journalistic integrity,

Whoa, Jeremy. That's rather comical -- "journalistic integrity" is not what Gothamist is about. This is an entertainment blog, not a news site.

Sorry about your problems.

Honestly, I can't read a story about bed bugs without itching. I'm terrified of getting them. I had a few friends over earlier this summer, and one of them brought along a pal -- who then shared with everyone that exterminators were in her home THAT DAY because they had such a bad bedbug problems. When I asked her 'um, might you have any on you right now??" she acted as if I was an idiot. Inside my head, I was screaming 'why are you in my kitchen????' and kept staring at the cuffs in her pants which i was sure were filled with bugs. But I'm too WASP to say that to her directly, since I didn't know her, so instead I suddenly announced -' let's all go to the roof deck!' to get her out of my house.