City Living: Stuyvesant Town

An East Side oasis slowly sees change

By Patrick Verel | Special to amNew York

November 2, 2006

A visit to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village is like stepping back in time. Mere blocks away from the percolating hipness of the East Village and the roar of the FDR is an oasis as quiet as the deepest reaches of Central Park.

On a sunny weekend afternoon, it's hard to say whether there are more children running around the numerous playgrounds, or gray and black squirrels bellying up for a snack (Dogs are forbidden there).

Strolling along winding paths under gently swaying London Plane trees that rise up to greet the 110 brick buildings is like walking through a park that happens to be home to 25,000 people.

Stuy Town, as residents call it, and Peter Cooper Village were built in the 1940s by Metropolitan Life to provide housing for returning World War II veterans, and have since provided a refuge from high housing costs to generations of teachers, firefighters, cops and other civil servants.

New Amsterdam director-general Peter Stuyvesant once owned farmland there, but when the complex was first proposed, it was known as the Gashouse District. Leaky gas tanks and the presence of the infamous Gas House Gang lent it an air of undesirability, and helped the city push for the eviction of 11,000 residents from an 18-block area.

As dramatic as the creation of complex was, the time since has seen little change. Like many residents, Al Doyle, president of the Peter Cooper/Stuyvesant Town tenants association, traces his involvement with the area to the beginning.

His parents were part of the first wave of tenants to move in, and he was actually born in the apartment he then grew up in. The draws are the same now as they were in 1948.

"It's convenient, it's safe, it's clean, and it's affordable," he said. "My earliest recollection of the area was the buildings were not locked. They didn't have an intercom system; that was instituted in the late '60s. The only changes have been the replacement of the electrical systems, the roofs, the windows, but those really aren't changes, those are just replacements."

What has changed is the abolishment of the waiting list for rent-stabilized apartments and the conversion of vacant apartments into luxury, market rate units.

Currently, almost a quarter of the 11,232 units are rented at market rates -- $2,725 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in Stuy Town compared to $1,100 a month on average for a rent-stabilized apartment.

Both Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village were sold last month to real estate developer Tishman Speyer and Black Rock Properties for $5.4 billion.

Although no new plans for the property have been put forth (the owners declined to comment for this story), Doyle said he fears the character of the area will vanish as more market rate tenants move in.

"The problem with the market rate tenants is they have no protections," Doyle said. "If MetLife, or the new owner decides they can get a lot more for the place at the end of the lease, they can. So you have people who are here for a year or two and then they're forced out. Part of the charm of this community is people have been around; you have two generations of residents and sometimes three. With the demands of the market, that'll no longer be the case."

Real estate

Current rents in Stuyvesant Town
-One-bedroom apartments: $2,725 a month
-Two-bedroom apartments: $3,495 a month
-Three-bedroom apartments: $4,850 a month

Current rents in Peter Cooper Village
-One-bedroom apartments: $3,050 a month