News Of The Neighborhoods
COMPILED BY LIZ GOFF

No. 7 Line Is Growing

Straphangers on the No. 7 subway line will soon get more elbow room and will face shorter waits for trains, said a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).

MTA officials said beginning in December the agency will run 10 additional round trip trains on weekdays on the Manhattan-bound line. The additional trains will cost $25 million annually. The MTA is forced to increase service on the No. 7 line because of soaring ridership, which has increased 26 per cent over the past decade.

Tenant Anti-Harassment Act Approved While Ridgewood Residents Evicted by DOB

City apartment dwellers could soon have a new weapon to battle landlords who try to evict them from rent-stabilized units in order to charge market-value rent for the apartments. Under the current law, tenants cannot directly sue landlords for harassment. Instead, they must file complaints through city or state agencies, many of which rule in favor of the landlords.

A new "Tenant Anti-Harassment Act" measure being considered by the City Council would change the process, giving tenants the right to sue landlords in Housing Court. The anti-harassment act carries fines of $1,000 to $5,000 for landlords who try to chase rent-stabilized tenants and gives judges more room for alternative action.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, "The vast majority of landlords are good business people. But there are bad apples out there who are responding to gentrification by deliberately and willingly engage in campaigns of tenant harassment."

A spokesperson for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the administration will work with the city council on the measure.

For example, on October 19 renters in Ridgewood charged the building owner for failing to properly convert apartments in the building at 17-17 Troutman St., and for failing to warn them that city inspectors were about to give them the boot.

Inspectors from the Department of Buildings (DOB) who arrived at the site to roust approximately 70 tenants on Friday morning said the landlord of the three-story building had illegally converted the two upper floors. The building, which houses a manufacturing firm on the first floor, lacks fire sprinklers and a secondary exit, said a DOB spokesperson. Inspectors also found a laundry list of city code violations and other safety issues at the site including a roof that is collapsing in several places. Loft units on the two top floors of the building were rented to young artists and professionals for rents of $1,200 to $3,500 a month, said the evicted tenants.

A DOB spokesperson said the tenants will not be allowed back into their apartments until the building owner makes necessary repairs that meet with city codes.

Residents said that probably means they will never be allowed back into their apartments, and will never be able to get their property. "The landlord never told anyone about any of this," said one resident. "If he had given us some warning we could have moved our things to another apartment or a storage unit. Now we have to leave our furniture and a lot of other things behind. We will never be able to live here again," she said. "The city told us we would have to sue the owner for our things."

Police escorted tenants to their apartments to let them gather some of their belongings.

SJU Goes Hollywood

St. John's University (SJU), 8000 Utopia Pkwy. in Jamaica Estates is joining with the New York Film Academy, where actors, screenwriters and producers go to learn the tricks of the trade.

Qualified students who have taken one year of film-making at the Film Academy may now transfer to the St. John's Television and Film Studies program to prepare for a bachelor's degree.