Ah, ice cream during the summer. Nothing can beat the sweet frozen treat, so you've got to give props to landlord Raphael Toledano for offering some for free to residents of some of the East Village properties that he owns on Thursday afternoon. As long as you just disregard the part where a bunch of those residents don't have gas service and are very upset about that, Toledano seems like an excellent landlord!
Toldeano was previously seen in these parts failing to win the hearts of residents of 444 East 13th Street with apology fruit baskets in place of gas service. This time, he thought an "ice cream social" with free ice cream from a Ben & Jerry's truck would get some goodwill from residents of the buildings he owns. But since people who live at 325 East 12th Street haven't had gas service for almost three months now, it turns out they would still rather have that restored, instead of treats. Residents of 325 12th Street picketed the ice cream truck, according to The Real Deal, while shouting "Ice cream, you scream we all scream for cooking gas!" until the driver of the truck high-tailed it after a few minutes of screaming.
The Real Deal pointed out that the ice cream giveaway was originally supposed to be on 12th Street, but had been moved to 5th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. According to an email describing the incident, the giveaway was originally going to take place directly in front of the currently gas-less building. The email also said that a Ben & Jerry's rep told the protestors that the company wasn't aware of an agreement with Toledano to provide ice cream for him to give away, and that the spokesperson went as far as saying "I wish I could be there demonstrating with you."
A spokesperson for Brookhill Properties told The Real Deal that the lack of gas service had to "be addressed by Con Edison and city officials." Con Ed disputed that in their own statement, saying that they couldn't turn the gas back on before repairs were made to the building by Toledano.
The free ice cream is similar to Akelius Residential Property's attempt to paper over the neglect of rent stabilized tenants' apartments by having a totally rad pizza party. Maybe one day landlords will learn the difference between food and shelter.
