YankeeFan posted a couple of local articles telling the story of a woman who has lived in her Park Slope apartment for 50 years and pays the highly enviable rent of $147.08. Naturally she’s been reluctant to accept a buyout to leave from Berkeley Carroll School who owns her home and wishes to use the space for classroom expansion. Reactions on the boards have been mixed. Many like new2hood take little pity on a woman who has had it easy for so long:
“I feel as if this woman is parroting some sob story her lawyer fed her to make this a PR story. I understand she doesn’t “want” to move, but she’s paying an absurd amount of rent and has been given several opportunities to leave with $$ in her pocket, which, combined with $$ she should have saved paying such a small rent, would allow her to avoid financial hardship.”
While others like LongTimeSloper see things differently:
“I don’t care what paltry sum she gave BC all these years-it was a rent controlled apartment and I assume she had a lease. I don’t see why everyone thinks that just because she doesn’t own it and had a good deal all these years, she should just walk away! I mean, she was a tenant, she did her end of the bargain by paying the rent and she is by no means obligated to just take the buy out offered if she doesn’t want to.
Every one here seems to think that oh well, she had a good run, leave now because the landlord tells you to leave. But, I see it as she also has rights as a tenant-no matter what she has been paying all these years!”
Read the rest of the discussion here: Park Slope Message Board – Eviction threat after 50 years in Park Slope is ‘like a deat :: Brooklynian.com