Stuyvesant Town Tells Residents to Take Down Black Lives Matter Signs
After taking down a sign in common outdoor space, the major apartment complex asked residents to post their “thoughts or opinions” on social media instead.
StuyTown, a massive apartment complex on Manhattan’s east side, emailed its residents on Thursday asking them to take down existing Black Lives Matter signage and requesting they refrain from putting any further “messaging” in their windows.
Screenshots of the email, obtained by The Interlude, also informed residents that a Black Lives Matter sign was removed from “the oval,” a green space in the middle of the complex shared by its roughly 30,000 residents. “We understand our City is experiencing a trying time, and we also anticipate an emotional political cycle leading up to November,” the paragraph followed. “But the windows are to be kept clear of any messaging. Please take to other channels, such as social media, to express your thoughts or opinions.”
Screenshot of email obtained by The Interlude.
While management took issue with Black Lives Matter signs, one resident said they were openly supportive of signs thanking frontline healthcare workers. “I was so incredibly disappointed to see that a ‘leadership’ team that was openly supportive of signage for our healthcare workers would feel differently about signage in support of its black residents and employees,” resident Megan Carrier told The Interlude in a Twitter message. “Their decision of when to enforce their rules (and when not to) makes it seem like their limited actions regarding the Black Lives Matter movement have been merely performative.”
There is some evidence that there have been disputes about Black Lives Matter protests between the community’s residents. According to a recent StuyTown blog post, a public safety officer had to break up a fight between residents — one supported Black Lives Matter, and the other was pro-police.
Other landlords in the city have demanded residents remove Black Lives Matter signs and other messaging challenging the police from windows. One attorney told Gothamist that while signs in windows may not be “substantial” enough to constitute a legitimate breach of lease claim, banners and materials hung on the outside of the building may meet the threshold. While the first amendment generally protects freedom of expression, free speech may not apply when contractual agreements restrict it. In a 2016 report by The New York Times, Christopher Dunn, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that renters lack protections for speech if window displays are restricted in the lease. David Frazer told the Times that tenants in rent-controlled units have more protections.
New York City Council Member Keith Powers, who lives in StuyTown and represents the neighborhood, wrote a letter Friday to the complex’s management asking for the policy to be reconsidered.
“Black Lives Matter is not a political statement,” the letter read in part. “It’s an expression of basic human dignity for all.”
StuyTown is owned by The Blackstone Group and Ivanhoé Cambridge. According to a 2019 article by 6sqft, Blackstone was “one of several firms who spent at least $750,000 to lobby against the tenant-friendly law changes in Albany” and kept its rent-stabilized apartments in StuyTown empty after state laws blocked the company from raising rent for renovating.
Blackstone did not immediately respond to The Interlude’s email seeking comment.
Update: July 10, 2020. Hours after this story was published, StuyTown temporarily reversed its policy on window signage, according to emails obtained by The Interlude. “We have heard from you that this is a unique moment in our community, city and country,” it read in part. “We remain a community that supports diversity and inclusion of all people and ideas, and we respectfully request that any signage you display reflects those values.”
A spokesperson for Ivanhoé Cambridge told The Interlude that the company supports StuyTown’s policy reversal.
