By Mary Reinholz
As a Con Edison cooking-gas outage continued for a fourth month on a landmarked block near Union Square, six rent-regulated tenants living in two 19th-century buildings on E. 17th St. sought rent reductions on Valentine’s Day in the city’s Housing Court. Isabel Novoa, the leader of a newly reorganized neighborhood group called TRESSA (The Residents of East Seventh Street Association), filed papers at 111 Centre St. on Feb. 14 and said a judge set a date of March 11 to hear the case.
Novoa, a market-rent tenant who lives in one of the gas-deprived 17th St. buildings with her 17-year-old son, noted she and other tenants in TRESSA hope to receive 20 percent in monthly reimbursement for costs incurred by the outage from 1804 Washington Ave. Corp. This is an entity she believes is a holding company for landlord Noah Osnos and family members; the company’s address is 110 E. 17th St., the same address as Osnos’ on-site agent, Rick Elezi, who heads R.E.M. Management.
Elezi, who said the end of the outage is now in sight, has been talking to tenants and offering them 10 percent monthly rent reductions for loss of gas. He dismissed TRESSA as a group that has no identifiable members and “no address,” a charge Novoa strongly disputes. She said that TRESSA has an e-mail address and about 20 members, but acknowledged many won’t reveal their names in print because they fear non-renewal of their leases or rent hikes. Novoa wants the rent reduction case “on the record,” even if a judge awards 10 percent because, she said, it concerns “life-safety issues.”
The outage occurred Oct. 19 when Con Ed damaged a main gas line for the E. 17th St. block while attempting to disconnect a line to a building under renovation on the block, said Alfonso Quiroza, a spokesperson for the utility company. The disruption affected a row of vintage brownstones on the south side of the street, stretching from Irving Place in Gramercy to Park Avenue South.
Service has been restored on at least one building and several apartments in others, including a unit occupied by this reporter. But an estimated four buildings remain without service for tenants, among them a 79-year-old woman who has lived in her rent-controlled walk-up for more than 40 years. She said she is making do with a hot plate, “but I can only cook one meal at a time,” and noted that it’s “expensive” using frozen foods in her microwave. As for Novoa, she said her own electricity bill has doubled and she “can’t afford to eat out.”
Elezi said work on all the buildings affected by the outage has been completed “quite a while ago,” including piping work and asbestos removal. He noted that a division of the city’s Department of Buildings approved paperwork last week on the completed jobs submitted by his Manhattan contractor, A. Steinem Plumbing & Heating, a signal that the outage may soon end. Elezi said he expects city inspectors to check the buildings this week “one by one” for integrity and stress, and if D.O.B. signs off, then Con Edison will restore service. “We’re almost there,” he said.
Jennifer Gilbert, a D.O.B. spokesperson, confirmed that a “corrected application” for “all the work” by Steinem had been approved Feb. 14 after the city agency rejected the contractor’s application late in January, citing safety concerns and other issues.
