2006 Sep
Focus on... Energy Conservation

When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office in January of 2002, he inherited a city still reeling from the September 11th terror attacks—and had to fill the not-insignificant shoes of outgoing mayor Rudy Giuliani. Since then, Mayor Bloom…

It’s never easy to get people to do what’s good for them. No one wants to exercise or take cough syrup or lay off the T-bone steaks, even if they know life will be better when they do. For years, it’s been the same way with energy conser…

You don’t need to go too far back to be reminded about energy conservation. Remember the stifling triple-digit heat in August? The power outages in Queens due to the strain on the distribution grids? And the annual call by public officia…

While there are a number of issues that make it to the top of the list of building managers’ and board members’ fiscal worries each year, the standout issue in recent years is energy costs. In light of rising fuel prices and increased de…

Think about this the next time you throw that banana peel, plastic packaging and junk mail away: residents of New York City and its surrounding boroughs are responsible for generating 12,000 tons (that’s right…tons!) of garbage each day. Pi…

Purchasing a building’s heating oil is one of the most important decisions a board has to make. And in this era of ever-rising fuel costs, it’s also one of the most frustrating. When deciding how to pay for their buildings’ heating oil, …

Seasonal spikes in the prices of fuel, oil and gas rising, higher costs of electricity, the need to bring those energy bills down—your condo or co-op will likely feel all of these, especially if it has older boilers, appliances, and so f…

Where would we be without our personal computers? From news to e-mail to online shopping and financial management, they’ve brought so much convenience to our lives. Along with their associate devices such as printers and monitors, PCs ha…

When people think of New York City, they tend to think of things like Times Square, The Empire State Building, and Broadway—sparkly icons of the Big Apple. What most people don’t think of when they think of the city is green spaces. Sure…

Located on the luxurious Upper West Side along breathtaking Central Park West, the San Remo is one of the premier luxury apartment buildings in New York City. The first to incorporate the twin tower concept, this building’s addition to New …

Energy usage and cost savings are on everybody’s mind these days— especially those of us in charge of running our buildings, keeping them both comfortable and financially solvent. Each building community is unique, and boards and manager…

Q We moved into our Chelsea co-op last spring, and when the heating was turned on in the fall, we learned that the west wall fin tube radiation wasn’t working. This means that we have no heat in the bedroom and partial heat in the livin…

Q Our 20-floor co-op consists of two small buildings. The building went co-op in 1982 and the sponsor/owner converted from oil to gas, removed the boiler at his expense, and converted the basement space into a 1,200-square-foot-duplex …

Q Several others and I are shareholders in a co-op on the East Side of Manhattan. Our board and management company are putting through Local Law 11. This is not a problem. However, they have refused for any of the shareholders to see th…

Q I have a question about a condo owner’s right to smoke in their apartment. Having secondhand smoke infiltrate our units troubles many of my fellow condo owners—including myself. Our property manager suggests that we approach the offend…