Our slumlords, er, landlords, have finally started to make some necessary repairs around our building, by fixing some of the worst offending stairs in our staircase.
The stairs that were replaced were spongy, creaking, not attached to the walls, or all three. The two steps above the last fixed step in the picture are barely holding on, what with the nails no longer attached to the base of the railing side.
We're lucky to be on the first floor, so routinely coming and going along the stairs is kept to never. Sometimes we'll take guests to the roof, but since we've had less than six guest-trips to our apartment, it hasn't really been an issue.
We've complained many times to our landlords about a great many things...the stairs are a dangerous nuisance; the magnetic door-lock is easily breached; the mail-person has no access to the mailboxes and slides the mail under the door; hoodlums hang out in the foyer smoking pot (this was fixed by our super, a nice Latino gent who put a lock on the inside door (it was broken twice in the first night, but not since)); the magnetic lock has now been broken for two and a half weeks, with assurances that it'll be fixed coming third-hand.
We put an extra lock on our door before we took off for points south and west back in March, and charged it to our landlord, and got lectured by them for not simply calling them, because they can get a better deal from one of their own guys. Well, I lectured back, the phone number I have barely ever even gets to a voicemail, let alone a person, and even when I get a chance to leave a message, I have never had a single call returned. What makes me think, I told him, that if I called that any possible good would come from it. Your man probably would do it cheaper, but I'm not waiting in an unsafe situation for three months to go by before your guy will come over.
Our landlords don't know what a phone is unless the rent is late, or we're bringing heat on them by calling the authorities, which we've done a few times (no heat; no hot water; no mail; broken door), and they might call Corrie, or come over in person...
Can't you get the feds involved for the lack of mail?? I know like your landlords need another hassle. But then again, weren't they remodeling the building when you moved in? Pretty shoddy work if those stairs are falling apart already...
ReplyDeleteOh, they didn't remodel anything, other than put some crappy cabinets in with a new oven/stove and fridge...those stairs haven't been fixed since they were built in 1913...maybe they were painted in the fifties, before this neighborhood became a worthless vortex in the eyes of mortgage lenders, bankers, the police, and the white power structure that tells the lenders, bankers, and police what to do...
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