So Do We Have The Best Landlords?

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s latest initiative, a compilation of New York City’s worst landlords, is burdened by one conspicuous yet unmentioned fact: the vast majority of slum lords operate along the Brooklyn-Queens and Bronx-Manhattan borders.

It was the first thing that caught my attention when I brought up the map of offending landlords created by his office. Manhattan and Staten Island remain, for the most part, clear. And so do the outer areas of the outerboroughs. But clusters of pink tabs congregate like a herpes outbreak around those sticky parts rubbing against their neighbors.

Sheepshead Bay, for its part, is totally in the clear. In fact, the only pin in all of Southern Brooklyn is in Coney Island, at 2766 West 15 Street. It’s a building owned by Henry Wright, a 70-infraction piker when compared to the city’s top slumlord, who has 1049 infractions.

Brooklyn is home to the most troubled buildings, though. We’ve got 96 out of 164 citywide. But, again, they’re almost universally located in the north of the borough.

So what’s with that? Why are they in such cruddy shape? And, in your experience, how do Sheepshead Bay’s landlords fare?