It’s happened twice recently. In the summer of 1994, 72 New York property managers were convicted of taking kickbacks from contractors and extorting payoffs. This resulted in a $4 million restitution fund. Then, just last summer, 21 corpora…
You are about to read tales of greed and corruption, costly incompetence and outright thievery. There is even a little sex and gambling thrown into the mix. Stories from television soap operas? No, these are the days of our lives in the New…
Early in the 20th Century, and until the 1950s, the oil industry as we know it today did not exist. Homes were heated with coal, and some readers who wish to date themselves may still remember cleaning the ashes and soot out of a furnace or…
Not entirely satisfied with the performance of your management company? Chances are your board hasn’t sought a new agent because they were frightened of the transition. Such is the case with many of the buildings that have interviewed Ronni…
Vincent DiCeglio worked for the Long Island Lighting (LILCO) company for 24 years as a customer service representative. During that period, he discovered numerous errors on clients’ bills, and felt that consumers could use an outside advoca…
T he Cooperator’s readers follow the news. Therefore, I need not say too much about the fact that despite petroleum quotas by the Saudis and President Clinton’s attempt to build up a heating oil reserve for our region, the predictions say t…
The phrases have grown familiar to all of us. Global warming. Ozone depletion. Greenhouse effect. As recycling, composting and other eco-friendly activities become more common, the time seems right to start asking what else can be done to k…
It seems as if many of us have been here before. In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, fuel prices escalated faster than any professional forecasters in the field thought were imaginable, with heating oil soaring faster than gas, electricity, o…
With electric de-regulation well underway in New York City, increased focus is shifting toward how well the competitive system is serving customers. The phased-in process, which began in 1998, has gradually allowed customers to get their el…