[RBG]

is showing apartments in a building on St. Johns place that is infested with bedbugs? She's not telling unsuspecting renters why the apartments are vacant although the mattresses, bedding, futon, and furniture outside of the building should be a dead giveaway. Buyer beware.

[Niner]

St. Johns is a long street, with quite a few buildings. Which one is it? So we all know to stay away.....

Oh ... and thats shitty not to tell prospective renters about the issue.

[Alex]

put this on http://aptdb.org

[RBG]

I've been watching this go down for days and don't want to piss anyone off. but my conscience got the best of me. After seeing unsuspecting tenants moving out today, I felt I had to say something. The bldg is obvious to anyone who walks by. its on st. j between underhill and washington....you can't miss the bedding.

[Niner]

I'm going to guess this is closer to Washington, as I didnt notice anything on my way out today. And I would have, as I make a point to walk out and around bedding on the street. / irrational fear /

[naugastyle]

Hmm...but I walk by Washington on my way to the subway and didn't notice either. Maybe on the other side of the street.

[jocelyn]

[RBG]

scaffolding...closer to Underhill...

[brooklynboy311]

Infested. Bad landlords---Slumlords, No Help.

349 and 347!!!! ST JOHNS PL

[jarvis]

Hmm.. re the blind item. If it's the broker i think you are talking about, she has done this before. Works out, right? Just keeping getting the commission on every new tenant who moves in and right out again. I won't mention any names here in case I'm wrong.

[brownie]

Are you serious -- there is a pattern? People move in and then out & she keeps renting?

[brownie]

I live on E.P. -- do you think they could make there way over here? Are they exterminating?

[GOD]

[brooklynleather]

My friend got screwed by that bedbug debacle, I felt horrible.

There is some building on St. John's and New York Ave with TONS of open violations that many different brokers are showing but I don't think it is bedbgs...but when the city lists "vermin/mice/roaches" I wonder if vermin is a catch-all including bedbugs?

[RBG]

Sadly, a moving truck was outside 349 St. Johns this weekend. If you walk past the building, you'll see a ton of furniture with the word "bedbugs" spraypainted in red paint. I think these are the third tenants to move out in a month. The unidentified real estate broker (guess who?) continues to knowingly re-rent apartments in the infested building.
The word on the street is that old-time tenants in the building are very angry. For years, they lived in the apartments (albeit with drug dealers, noise, etc.) and didn't have bedbugs until new people moved in and started bringing in old furniture from off the street. NOW, the entire building is infested...actually two buildings. Ironically, the new people have the resources to move out while the old timers must stay in the newly infested apartments and wait for a slow-moving management company to do something. Its an awful situation for all involved...old timers and new. My source tells me the person moving out told him there were "swarms" of bedbugs in the building and had the bites on her legs to prove it.

[brownie]

AAAArgh. I hope they don't walk down the street. I hope someone has called 311.

[joncane]

[RBG]

I don't want to identify the broker because I don't want to be sued for libel. She's notorious on this board. just avoid the building...349 St. Johns place...also avoid the building attached to it. they're both infested...

[Candicissima]

I just moved off the block (from a building pretty near 349) and I feel really bad for the residents there. It's bad enough that they were building another floor on the roof for the better part of a year, but now bedbugs too? It's a shame.

[GOD]

[RBG]

Here's the clincher---the owner of building is constructing two penthouse apartments on the top of the existing building. From what I've been told, the apartments have beautiful Manhattan views and will have all the trimmings---stainless steel appliances, marble, etc. The penthouses are clearly visible from the street---this explains the scaffolding that covers 347 and 349 St. Johns place. I can't imagine the penthouses are for people who already live there, but for unsuspecting people who have the money to pay for newly constructed penthouses. The mattresses, couches, etc. were taken away by the Sanitation men yesterday...There are currently 147 violations pending against this building...Go to the following link for more info on this building:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/home/home.shtml

I do not live in this building, but feel badly for the old timers and new people who live in this building. From what I've heard, the landlord is allowing the entire building to become infested so everyone will move out---this is his way of getting out people who are rent stablized, section 8, etc...at the same time, new people are moving in and renting infested apartments. This is a terrible situation for everyone involved...

WORD TO THE WISE: Do not pick up furniture off the street. This includes wooden cabinets, tables, bookshelves, etc. Infested furntiture is one of the reasons the bugs are spreading so fast. Also refrain from buying cheap mattresses/boxsprings. A $50 bed purchased from a cheap furniture story has probably be re-furbished and re-covered. Many of these mattresses are not NEW. This is another reason we are seeing so many infestations in NYC...

just be careful...and tell everyone you know NOT to rent at 349 Saint Johns place.

[kat283]

I actually live in the building and our apartment remains bedbug free. Apparently it is the 3rd floor that is infested. We've tried sealing all the holes and cracks in the walls to keep them out but we plan to move when our lease is up. The landlord is an asshole and represents the worse of what can happen when rich people move into a neighborhood. Wish us luck!

[arches]

[kat283]

[GOD]

[Lo Kee]

[littlekates]

i see the red spray painted furniture when i walk home every night - it definitely seems like its becoming all too frequent. i'm in 359 - while i'm releived it's not my building, i still feel awful that people are suffering from this. the landlord should absolutely be exposed to prevent this from continuing to happen AND to serve as a warning to any nearby landlords that might get the same idea. it's unacceptable.

god i hope they dont spread to my building, i'm terrified....
_________________
-k-

[RBG]

Just last week, I saw a few people moving in front of the building. I asked them if they were moving in or out. The guy in the van said his friend was "moving in." So I politely said, "That building is infested with bedbugs...do you know that?" And he said, "Yes. My friend just found out. She's calling the landlord now to have the place fumigated." What a shame. I'm almost 100% positive that the broker in question rented this place. Just yesterday, I saw her walking past the building with a prospective tenant. While they didn't go inside the building, she pointed toward it, made a comment, and the tenant shook his head, smiled, and said something like, "well, the construction is a good sign."

[BlkAddr]

@RBG: That was a joke right? (blame "rich" people).

Bedbugs are a serious problem in NYC at the moment. All hotels (incl. very very upscale ones) have problems with bedbugs.

http://newyorkvsbedbugs.org/2008/06/26/bed-bug-math-redux/

It would not surprise me if the infestation spread in that building. The usual 249 crowd hung out at night when the first batch of furniture was put at the curb. Told the familiar faces there that it wasn't a terrific idea.

[GOD]

[carapace shell]

Anyone else hear the bit on This American Life about the bedbugs at 349 St. Johns? It aired just a few minutes ago.

[pitu]

Now, a thread on TAL's story
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44730&start=0

[commonsense]

exactly how is a realtor responsible for bed bugs? there were bed bugs in turner towers, too, yes, that fancy building with 24 hour doormen, a building people move in and out of with some regularity, a building that's had scaffolding up of and on for years... wonder who's to blame for that?

[sweet tea]

hmmmm.... is making thousands of dollars by convincing people to rent in a building you know (but they don't) that they're likely to leave very soon, giving you another chance to show and rent the same apartment and make thousands more dollars from another set of people you've convinced of the apartment's wonderful qualities immoral or only amoral?
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Bumping ancient threads with bot-like bullshit

[commonsense]

i don't knowm sweet tea. It is apparently you and others on this board who are the ultimate arbiters of morality. Please tell me what to think. Oh, and could you please also definitively inform me - and everyone else, for that matter - as to the moral guidelines around villifying a person on a blog rather than discussing a percieved problem with that person face to face? Many thanks.

[Carnivore]

[commonsense]

Ok. I get that, as far as you're concerned, it is either ammoral or immoral, and possibly both, to rent apartments in a building that has bedbugs. I'm not so sure, since I sold an apartment in a building that I knew had at least one infested unit and did not disclose that information. Am I morally culpable? I think you'd think I am, and you may be right, in which case, mea culpa. I would still, however, like to know what you think about the relative moral merits/deficiencies of "warning" people about an individual's behavior without "warning" the person you're "warning" the other people about, since the identity of this person is clearly known to you. Is your information about this person anything other than anecdotal? If you have in fact spoken to this person, in person, and know first hand that her behaviour is in fact unprofessional then good for you, your morals, in this matter at least, are all intact and I have egg on my face and a horrible case of moral ambiguity to deal with. Which is fine by me. I just wanted to ask the question. Thanks
PS I wonder if valtrex will work for this pesky moral virus I may have contracted?

[deathscythe257]

so... do you have any 2 br's i could look at?

[commonsense]

sorry deathscythe257, the only real estate to which I have access is - full disclosure - currently infested with humans.

[scarlett]

I kind of see both sides. I mean if a broker walks people into a building and has to walk by mattresses and stuff outside of that building, isn't it kind of up to the prospective tenants to take notice? I do think it's unethical to charge a fee for an apartment that is infested. Also though, many people don't understand the horror that is bed bugs until they have lived it so this broker may just think it's like roaches.

[Carnivore]

[scarlett]

Seriously. I would be soooooooooooooo pissed if I found out she knew it was infested. What a b. Bed bugs can cause you to give up all of your posessions, lose your mind and want to sleep in the park. Basically she's wishing that upon people all for a few thou?

At this point though, if I ever move again I will hire one of those bed bug sniffing beagles.

[commonsense]

how many units are in the building? Is every unit affected?

[sweet tea]

commonsense:

when i pay a broker a fee to help me find an apartment, that broker is acting as my agent and has a responsibility to give me information in good faith, and not to withhold information even if it is profitable to do so. that's what i'm paying for. the broker doesn't own the apartment; s/he can get my money perfectly fairly by showing me a different place that i end up renting. failing to disclose something like a widely-known bedbug infestation (and at least according to TAL, they're in the WALLS of that building and have been a problem for years), is failing to act in good faith as my agent, which amounts to robbery.

the end.

oh, and the broker named here -- whom i don't know but had heard plenty about before now, little of it making me doubt this story -- isn't my child, and i'm not responsible for reforming her behavior, any more than i'm responsible for talking to, i don't know, bush or spitzer or barry bonds about their misdeeds before decrying them.

that said, i of course have no way of knowing whether the broker business is true, and you'll note that i didn't post the accusation or the name. but if what is said is true, then, to address your original question, yes; i think there's wrongdoing on her part.
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Bumping ancient threads with bot-like bullshit

[commonsense]

sweet tea: I did note that you neither posted the accusation nor the name of the broker. Frankly I think it would be rather more admirable, given your convictions, for you to have done so. Which was my original point: not that you or anyone else is responsible for reforming another person's behaviour, but that we are all - or should I say that I think should all strive to be -responsible for making sure that our own behaviour is beyond reproach, which in my book means not making accusations about other individuals based on hearsay. To whit: it is documented that there are no weapons of mass destruction, that hookers were paid, and that drugs were taken, thus may we all decry, to our hearts content, and with impunity, bush, spitzer and bonds...