Today and yesterday, we see a reoccurring struggle which has been perpetuated through almost all facets of society. The class struggle puzzled by hallucinations of hedonism, grandeur, and isolation. Man himself has become lost in this entrapment; day by day living a life in which we hope to forget all we see around us.
This commentary is on my community and the society that lays around it: Tenant reform has become intrinsically hard within my community and those around it. Poverty, drugs, and society all perpetuate to once again diminish communal fervor and zeal. This also happens on the tenantial level. I have seen renters and tenants full of rage and an almost ennui which results from a constant beaten down mentality. The beat down is gradual yet impactful.
But let us rewind… I see speak upon one building which I know of which has become just another microcosm of American capitalist society. The building has severely degraded over time, seeing this from the perspective of someone in their early adulthood, what I recognize to be the building for the majority of my cognizant life is something of a… shithole. Tenants who are older, with many many more years living in the building than I do, some with 20+ years, some with 30+, tell me the building wasn’t so “bad” before. Meaning it was still in a shitty condition, but at least it was bearable and not omnipresent. The slumlord, Moshe Piller, is known as the 4th worst landlord in nyc, with this title he owns about 70 buildings, a monopolization on buildings in which he has never stepped foot in. The building that I speak of is in horrible condition; Moshe seems to be in cahoots with the superintendent both collaborating on making the building, a hellhole. Issues occur from every edge of the building: apartment ceilings often cave in, heaters hardly work, rat & cockroach infestation due to poor sanitation, abhorrent waste management with stockpiles of garbage clogging up the trash room, inefficient and badly done paint jobs or any other type of work that gets done (since the superintendent has been there for decades, receives numerous amounts of complaints, has gotten into multiple fights, does not work on weekends, does not live in the buildings, stares down tenants who try to critique and organize against the building [the superintendent in many aspects seems to be the literal physical apparatus of the slumlord]. The landlord is known to be inadequate and inefficient in almost every way possible. Both management and the superintendent are not around during the weekends which is illegal. Meaning tenants have to fend for themselves during the weekends which will we show later how dangerous that can be. Tenants make phone calls to the office weekly, calls to 311 as well ~ both go unheard. Tenants feel these disturbances within every inch of the building. Living in their apartments… then stepping out… the perpetuation continues. Two steps the wrong way might lead you into some piss or cigarette buds. The dangers proposed from earlier have become a reality, just recently tenants had to grapple with freezing temperatures. Tenants had to spend 3 days without heat or hot water during a snowstorm(click complaint history, from 21nd-23rd, the complaints are shown).
Piss… cigarette buds… condoms… feces… these aren’t distortions coming from tenants (90% of the time). They come from another problem entirely: drug addiction and having an apartment complex being the market for drug addiction. Within the apartment complex, stems another problem. A tenant within the building is a drug dealer! This tenant will be called “X”. Now, X seems to be a provider of these various drugs which then causes endless droves of almost zombified humans coming for another hit. These zombified humans only amplify the perpetuations caused by the landlord. Now with an inefficient landlord who for example cannot fix the door to the entrance, unwanted people can enter the building with free range. These people shoot in the hallways/stairs, smoking cigs throughout the building, loiter in the stairs and lobby in parties of 3–5, stalk tenants. The drug issue within the building is noticed by the human body with each sense. Cigarettes and egregious smells can be sniffed within apartments. The drug addicted individuals often get into arguments throughout random times during the day, mostly at night after 1am, when the “creeps come out”. Children, adults, tenants, and friends see these people just endlessly meandering in the lobby waiting for the door to be opened to enter X’s home. X and the landlord have basically co-authored a magnificent work of literature on the oppression of tenants. Both in tangent sculpting heinousness.
Fordham road, the communities around it, and The Bronx face this issue on the societal level. Being the poorest borough and also the county with the worst healthcare in New York state, The Bronx is deteriorating. The Bronx, even more specifically, Fordham Rd, were even called “The epicenter of the epicenter” during the height of Covid-19 within New York City. With poverty striking, littering roaming the streets, and drugs infecting the veins of our neighbors… society has become quite saddening. Is this just an issue without a cause? Of course not, being below the poverty line makes you 2x more likely to face several mental illnesses than someone above it. With poverty comes the chance of those who may feel lonely or alienated to start drug use. These societies are not vacuums stuck within themselves, but cycles of distortions which continue to repeat through generational sadness.
When I hear The Message, by Grandmaster and the Furious Five, my stomach turns in nauseating fashion. Contextualizing and understanding that even though 40 years have passed, the same issues occur is surreal. What they faced 40 years ago, is what I face today so yes, you could say what I see throughout my building is a generalization. Something that I may be facing just myself and I am adjusting it to my world view. But… how could this issue not occur in other instances? With tentantial rights dwindling, the power being removed from the working class, societal sadness and depravity going up… how could this not occur in other stances? I write this as a way to convey my feeling outwards. Hopeless can feel surreal when alone or alienated. This is a long fight, but it is fought because it is what must be done. I will leave this off with a quote “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”- Antonio Gramsci
