NYPOST Exclusive Gets the Heat Turned On in a Harlem Building

 

The city installed a temporary boiler at a Harlem building cited in a Post
exclusive. [photo: Matthew McDermott]

Heat’s on in one Harlem building — but why did it take a Post story to get done?

NYPOST Editorial Board, November 19, 2020

Oh yeah, congrats to the NYPOST! The media is powerful and should understand the consequences of lying or cheating the public out of getting the facts.

  Betsy Combier

betsy.combier@gmail.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ Blog

Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice

Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials  

Thanks to The Post’s reporting, tenants of a six-story apartment building in Harlem can add hot water to their list of things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Three days after our reporters exposed a landlord for letting his tenants go weeks without heat or hot water, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development came through with an emergency boiler just in time for the holidays.

The busted boiler at 2035 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard had been problematic for years, but landlord Emmanuel Ku ignored all complaints, which seems to be his pattern: HPD has found 1,989 violations in 10 of Ku’s buildings over the years, with 466 of the problems still unfixed.

In this case, it ordered fixes made last week — but it wasn’t until The Post made the problem public that HPD delivered its own emergency solution.

We’re glad this building’s residents no longer lack hot water and heat as new pandemic restrictions kick in, but we have to wonder how many other New Yorkers aren’t getting such swift action because their plight hasn’t made the papers.

The Post is committed to offering reliable local reporting. We wish city government were as committed to getting its job done.