Day: July 16, 2026

The iconic brick Riverside Apartments in Brooklyn Heights were built in by philanthropist Alfred T. White in 1890 as a model of tenement reform. 

At the time, the tenements many working-class people called home were crowded, dark and dangerous. White’s buildings were comfortable and safe; the apartments, while small, had multiple bedrooms, unlike the single-room dwellings in most tenements. Most importantly, they were affordable for workers.

Now, residents at Riverside say the buildings have fallen into disrepair, and that their landlord – the infamous Joel Wiener of the Pinnacle Group — is trying to raise rents and push them out of one of few rent-stabilized complexes left in the neighborhood.

Riverside residents face crumbling buildings, rent increases

At a July 15 rally, tenants described issues from crumbling staircases and leaky ceilings to infestations of rodents and mites. One resident recently learned the landlord is behind on Con Edison bills, and that power will be shut off in common areas later this month — though they noted that many of the lights in the shared stairwells don’t work anyway. 

“The landlord has consistently harassed tenants and reduced essential services, leading to the building’s neglectful decay,” said tenant Hew Evans.

Leaks in Jean Campbell’s apartment have caused the walls and ceilings to crumble, she said. Campbell, who has lived in the building since 1973, at one point rigged up a plastic tarp to catch falling chunks of plaster. She described staying up all night during a particularly bad storm to empty the bucket she used to catch rainwater pouring in through a leaky front window.

Campbell was among the residents who formed the Riverside Tenant Association. In 1992, the building’s previous owner illegally paved over the center courtyard to turn it into a parking lot. In 2000, after years of efforts from the TA, the state ordered the landlord to remedy the issue and said rents would be frozen until the courtyard was fixed. 

Records show that Pinnacle purchased Riverside in 2002 for just over $9 million. In 2024, the company restored the courtyard and successfully petitioned the state’s Department of Homes and Community Renewal to lift the rent freeze.

The agency’s decision allowed Pinnacle to raise rents and to demand back rent from tenants whose payments had been frozen for decades. Suddenly, tenants said, they were facing rent increases of up to 100-400%, plus back rent. Pinnacle has since taken 22 residents to housing court for nonpayment of rent, and is suing them for up to $30,000 each, said Council Member Lincoln Restler. 

“Pinnacle does not get to profit from decades of neglect,” Campbell said. “We want safe housing and fair rents, not evictions. This is a rent stabilized building, which makes their conduct even harder to justify. 30 years of neglect is not to be rewarded with a rent increase.” 

Riverside Apartments spans several addresses on Columbia Place and Joralemon Street, which can make tracking violations and remedies difficult, Restler said. 

City records show that one building, 10 Columbia Place, has 67 open violations from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, including dozens from this year alone. In July, the building was cited for broken bathroom faucets, a defective self-closing fire door, missing or broken smoke detectors, and infestations of mice and roaches.

During a visit on July 15, Brooklyn Paper observed broken light fixtures, water damage and worn-down stairs in the building’s shared hallways and stairwells. 

In one unit — whose tenants asked not to be named for fear of retaliation — floors and walls were visibly damaged, and the bathtub had been worn down in places to the black cast-iron. Residents said rodents enter the apartment from under the stove and said the radiator both steams and smokes during the winter months.

Farhia Hagi moved to Riverside with her now 14-year-old daughter during the pandemic, she said. At the time, finding a rent-stabilized unit was a relief.

But she and other residents regularly deal with issues like brown water in the tub and shower. Her daughter has gotten so used to seeing mice that she’s begun to name them, Hagi said. 

“She shouldn’t have to get used to having mice in the house,” Hagi said. “A solution I was given: get a cat. Get a cat. So now I have to get a new mouth to feed.”

The mice and rats bring mites, tenants said. Evans, who has lived at Riverside since 2024, noticed the bugs in his apartment in late April. 

“Outside of a rodent’s nest, these mites will infest any fabric surface: your clothes, your furniture, your bedding, your toys, and the mites can only be removed by professional extermination because it requires the removal of both the insect and the host rodent,” he said. 

Their bites start itchy and become painful, pus-filled welts, he said. When he called building management, they first claimed the bugs did not exist. When an exterminator finally arrived, they performed the wrong treatment, which was ineffective against the mites. 

Months later, the issue has continued despite orders from HPD. Since April, Evans said he has spent more than $1,000 on hotel stays, laundry, medical care and pet boarding as a result of the mites. 

At least one resident — who sent a letter to be read at the rally, but did not want to be named — moved out because of the mites, after spending $4,000 on treatments, laundry and hotels. 

The Department of Buildings has also issued violations for various buildings at Riverside. In 2023, Pinnacle — operating as Joralemon Realty NY LLC — was fined for “failure to maintain building in code compliant manner,” at 30 Columbia Place. The fine is still outstanding, records show. 

Two years later, the company received a $5,000 fine for failure to maintain building walls at 24 Joralemon St. DOB records show that inspectors found severe damage to the brickwork and noted that the metal balconies were severely corroded and at risk of falling onto the sidewalk.

Pinnacle files to convert to condos

Last year, Pinnacle filed a preliminary plan to convert Riverside Apartments into condominiums. While the plan is for a “non-eviction” conversion, residents and politicians warned that the move is likely another way to force tenants out.

Most tenants can’t afford to buy their unit as a condo, Evans said, and would remain in their stabilized units “as is our right.”

“Our buildings will most likely be controlled by a sponsor designated by Pinnacle Group, who we expect will continue to intimidate our rent-regulated residents to vacate their apartments through corrupt buyout agreements, open harassment, and intentional neglect,” he said.

Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon said tenants and politicians have been fighting Pinnacle for nearly 20 years, showing a letter her predecessor wrote to the state regarding Riverside Apartments in 2007.

“This is somebody who categorically has waged war on their tenants for decades, and now they’re trying to convert to condominiums and making believe they can just do that,” she said. “They are engaging in a well-known pattern, a longstanding pattern, common among people who are doing that sort of thing, and that is to harass people. To fail to repair, to make people want to move out.”

Pinnacle tenants across the city have long dealt with serious issues, from mold and sewage leaks to broken ceilings and windows. Earlier this year, the company sold more than 5,000 rent-stabilized units in a bankruptcy deal after racking up thousands of housing code violations. 

“What [Wiener] is doing is despicable, and I’m grateful that he’s been forced to sell two-thirds of his portfolio,” Restler added. “But this man should no longer be a landlord in New York City. He has demonstrated that he is not a good steward of our tenants, and we should force him out of every single damn piece of property that he owns.”

The fight moves to the courts

“Our attorney confirmed yesterday that the courts must now decide two things,” said TA member Kathleen. “First, whether DHCR was correct to approve that rent increase at all. And second, if the increase is not overturned, whether conditions in this building warrant rent abatements for tenants instead.”

Pinnacle argued against the restraining order, claiming in a court filing that tenants had “unlawfully refused to pay the restored rent” after DHCR lifted the freeze and stopped paying rent altogether after the company took them to housing court. 

“Any alleged harm claimed by Petitioners is self-inflicted, caused solely by their deliberate flouting of the Rent Restoration Orders and their breach of their obligation to pay their rent, as restored,” the filing reads.  

Randi Gilbert, lawyer representing Pinnacle in the case, said she and her client “do not have anything to add to what has been stated in the litigation proceedings at this time.”

Restler said he has been in touch with HPD to try to enforce more frequent and strict inspections at Riverside. He and Simon are planning to meet with DHCR in the coming weeks, they said. 

“The most important issue is this is somebody who’s trying to get out of rent stabilization by harassing people,” Simon said. “It’s just clearly illegal under many many laws, regulations, city, state, federal, absolutely illegal. So we’re not going to let this guy get away with illegal action and harass people out of their homes, so that he can make a buck.”

In the interim, some residents — and Restler — called on City Hall to help. 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited a Pinnacle-owned building in Brooklyn on his first day in office and attempted to intervene in the bankruptcy sale to ensure the units sold went to a responsible owner. Though the effort failed, the city’s involvement in the case appeared to influence the buyers’ pledge to forgive back rent and make significant repairs within months of the sale. 

“Mamdani, we need you, you talked about this … we need more,” Hagi said.

Restler said the Mamdani administration has shown a “more concerted effort” to address poor living conditions and hold landlords accountable. If necessary, the city has the ability to take Wiener to court or appoint a 7A administrator to take over the building and make repairs, he said. 

“I think we are seeing from this mayor a willingness to be more robust and aggressive in taking on bad landlords, this is a prime example of where they can show up and fight back with us to deliver much better conditions for the tenants, which we desperately need,” he said. 

As the rally wound down, one observer asked tenants if they would agree to a “modest” rent increase if Pinnacle agreed to finish all needed renovations.

“That question troubled me because why should regular people have to pay back corporations?” Hagi said. “We’re just regular people asking for something fair. We’re not asking for you to turn it into a luxury apartment,  we’re not asking for the latest and greatest. We’re asking for staircases that our elderly don’t trip on, water that our kids can bathe in. That’s it, regular.”

В субботу, возле библиотеки района Шипсхед-Бей состоится бесплатный концерт Trevor Robertson Quintet. Выступление будет посвящено предстоящему выпуску нового альбома коллектива — Bright Colors.

Концерт пройдет с 3:00 до 4:30 дня на открытой площадке перед библиотекой. Организаторы приглашают жителей всех возрастов: программа рассчитана как на поклонников современного джаза, так и на семьи с детьми.

Со сцены прозвучат оригинальные композиции из нового альбома, а также современные джазовые произведения. В составе квинтета выступят музыканты, участвовавшие в международных конкурсах и получившие признание джазовой публики.

Участники концерта

Тревор Робертсон — контрабасист, композитор и руководитель коллектива.
Соён Им — скрипачка, лауреат музыкальных конкурсов.
Хина Оикава — джазовая саксофонистка.
Чарльз Колицца — виртуозный джазовый гитарист.
Бен Фрейдкин — джазовый барабанщик.

Где и когда

Дата: суббота, 18 июля
Время: с 3:00 до 4:30 дня
Место: Sheepshead Bay Library
Адрес: 2636 East 14th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11235
Вход: бесплатный

Выступление состоится на улице перед зданием библиотеки, поэтому посетителям стоит учитывать погодные условия.

Концерт Bright Colors at the Brooklyn Public Library проводится при финансовой поддержке программы Statewide Community Regrants, Совета штата Нью-Йорк по искусству, администрации губернатора и законодательного собрания штата. Программа реализуется при участии Brooklyn Arts Council и Brooklyn Public Library.