Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at the aftermath of the tragic fire at the Nob Hill housing complex in Syracuse, N.Y.
A story I published last week on Nob Hill, one of the largest apartment complexes in upstate New York, examined the dangerous conditions that arose after the property was purchased in 2018 by private equity investors.
The article focused on some of the people most closely associated with the tragedy at Nob Hill, including Patrick Nesbitt, the wealthy hotelier who led the investment group, and Augustus Grissett, a longtime tenant who died this February in a fire that started in his apartment.
With 761 apartments in four buildings spread across a 27-acre campus, Nob Hill played an outsize role in the Syracuse-area housing market. Never luxurious, it for decades offered among the nicest multifamily apartments available for middle-class professionals.
After 2018, that changed. Slowly at first, and then precipitously, Nob Hill fell apart. The complex received hundreds of code violations from the city of Syracuse for relatively minor problems, including trash in the parking lot and broken garbage disposals, and for dangerous conditions like broken elevators and fire alarms.
In court documents and testimony, the owners blamed the problems on Mayfair Management Group, one of five companies hired to oversee the property in the last six years. Mayfair’s leaders failed to notify the owners about all the code violations, Joe Labita, a business partner of two of the investors, said in court. The owners learned of Nob Hill’s problems only from reading stories in local newspapers, Labita said. They stepped in immediately, he said, investing in maintenance and eventually firing Mayfair.
That version of events was disputed in court by Francesco Mileto, an executive at Mayfair, who said he warned the owners about Nob Hill’s many problems, and requested up to $6 million to fix them. The owners refused to spend the money, he said, so Mayfair ended the contract.
“The owners blew us off,” Mileto testified.
The fatal fire started inside Grissett’s apartment in Nob Hill’s Building 3 around 4 a.m. on Feb. 28. Investigators identified multiple possible causes, but were unable to determine what had started the blaze. The fire injured two people and displaced more than 50 tenants.
For people who were evacuated during the fire, Nob Hill remains a vexing problem. The city of Syracuse has allowed tenants into Building 3 for up to 20 minutes at a time to retrieve important belongings like medications and financial records. Former residents may not move back in, or retrieve larger items like furniture, until city inspectors are confident that the building is safe.
Those who still live at Nob Hill have noticed some improvements lately. Garbage is being removed from buildings, tenants say, and laundry rooms are being mopped. The grounds, which had become covered by tall weeds and dog feces, are being maintained again.
Problems remain, though. Cockroaches roam the common areas. Some exterior locks are still broken, which tenants fear might serve as an invitation for squatters to reoccupy vacant apartments and garages.
And now tenants have a new concern: eviction. In August, Nob Hill’s managers moved to evict dozens of residents, apparently for not paying rent.
Melissa O’Hare hasn’t received an eviction notice. But if she does, she plans to fight it in court. She escaped the fire with her three children, then rented another apartment at Nob Hill. For all the problems she said she has experienced there — garbage piled in the hallway, a broken pipe that flooded apartments on her floor with raw sewage — she hopes to stay. Her youngest daughter, who is 7, needs the stability of remaining in the same school, she said.
With a little work, she added, Nob Hill still has potential.
“It could be beautiful here,” she said.
Weather
Partly sunny, with a high of 81. Chance of showers.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Sept. 7 (Labor Day).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“People are so hungry for nostalgia.” — Alex Aster, the best-selling fantasy and romance author who wrote “Barbie: Dreamscape,” a full-length Barbie novel for grown-ups. “They want to feel like they’re back in their teenage years and back in these magic worlds where there are balls and dresses,” she said.
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METROPOLITAN diary
Best advice
Dear Diary:
In the early 1970s, a year out of college, I flew into New York on a late flight.
As the 747 began its descent into J.F.K., I turned to the man next to me.
“Is New York your home?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “I’ve lived in the city all my life.”
I asked if he had any advice for a first-time visitor.
He paused and looked me over.
“Listen,” he said, “everything you have ever heard about New York City is true, the good and the bad.”
In a fatherly voice he continued: “My best advice is to stay out of Times Square after dark.”
After getting off the plane, I found an accommodation service at the airport to help me find a hotel.
“It needs to be cheap,” I emphasized to the receptionist.
She told me she had one vacancy that met my criterion. I wrote down the name and phone number.
“Do you still have a vacant room?” I asked the clerk who answered the phone. “Where is it, and how do I get there?”
“Easy,” he said. “We’re right in the middle of Times Square.”
I gulped.
“I’ve been told it’s not safe to be in Times Square late at night,” I said.
“Yeah,” the clerk said. “Look, here’s what you do. Stand up, real big and tall. Shoulders back, chin up. Put a tough swagger in your step and a smirk on your face. Anybody who sees you will think you’re the one who’s going to cause trouble.”
I hung up and looked at my reflection in the darkened window glass. I stood up, pulled my shoulders back and practiced a few tough guy faces. I checked the time.
It was after midnight.
— Thomas Darby
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. — C.M.
Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post After a Fatal Fire, a Shaky Recovery at Housing Complex appeared first on New York Times.
