In an era where landlords are illegally evicting rent-stabilized tenants in order to jack up prices, it's nice to know there are still some out there willing to resort to cheap tricks in order to woo prospective renters, as if there isn't some sort of crippling apartment shortage or something.
Landlord Joe Wasser, who you remember as the man hero who redesigned this Crown Heights lobby to resemble a Psychedelic Freedom Spaceship (Strip Club), is at it again, this time offering tenants who rent one of his Brooklyn properties a brand-new, neon fixed gear bike!
"A bike was something that's great for them to get around with," he told DNAinfo. "Everyone needs a bike in Brooklyn."
The bike is called a Thruster, and appears to be available for $99.97 at Walmart. If there is a statement to be made about gentrifying Brooklyn, it's possible that nothing makes it more pointedly than a cheap mass produced bike probably assembled by the bleeding fingers by raggedy foreign children. What would the Mast Brothers think!
Wasser used to hand out $200 IKEA and Best Buy gift cards to help ease tenants into their probably very pricey leases, but switched to the bikes for thematic continuity (Brooklyn). Regardless, potential lessees should always be skeptical of a landlord giving things away, just as children should always be skeptical of a clown offering candy from the driver's seat of a battered Kia Sedona. Oh, your toilet exploded? That's too bad. Remember that time I bought you a bicycle?
Maybe we're just cynical! (I mean, maybe.) There are plenty of tenants who not only don't feel robbed by Wasser, they're actually quite happy with their apartments. 40-year-old John Perez, who has lived in New York for 16 years, called Wasser & Co "by far the best" management company he's ever dealt with. "The bike was a bonus at the end," he said.
So far, Wasser has doled out around 60 of the neon bikes. Future tenants thinking of moving in to one of his properties should think about bartering harder: If he really loved you, wouldn't he buy you a Tesla?
