
David Tennenbaum owns three adjacent buildings on East 138th St in the Bronx. (Credit: Christopher Yowan)
Battles between landlords and tenants in New York City are tales as old as the city itself.
But some tenant-landlord relationships are more fraught than others. David Tennenbaum is #6 on this year’s “Worst Landlords” list released by the Public Advocate’s office.
The list is built based on open violations that are published by the city’s Housing and Preservation Department. Tennenbaum owns four buildings on the same block in the South Bronx. There are 557 open violations between these four buildings and residents say it can take years to get management to respond to dire conditions.
Christopher Yowan went to one of these buildings to learn more about what it’s like to live in a building owned by one of the city’s “worst” landlords.
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About the author(s)
Christopher Yowan is a New York-based freelance journalist and an M.S. Candidate at the Columbia Journalism School. He covers education, health and housing.