Freedom Place South between 61st and 60th streets. The entrance to 21 West End Avenue is to the left (Google Maps).
An upscale rental building in Lincoln Square is being accused of illegally staking an ownership claim to a public street and towing cars it deems in violation. It even reportedly slaps large stickers on the vehicle’s windows warning car owners they’re parked in a “private parking area” and that their license number has been recorded, the New York Post first reported.
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One purported violator is Melinda Scott, an attorney who filed a lawsuit on her own behalf against 21 West End Avenue Apartments after her 2018 Audi Q7 was towed from Freedom Place South between West 61st and West 60th streets on New Year’s Eve. When she realized her car was not where she left it, she “entered 21 West End Apartments to inquire about the Vehicle and was given verbal notice by Defendant’s front door staff that Plaintiff’s Vehicle had been taken by Ben & Nino Auto Repair at the direction of 21 West End Apartments because they unofficially reserved all the parking spaces on Freedom Place South between West 61st Street and West 60th Street for their staff, thereby preventing any other vehicle from parking on the street,” according to the suit.
Scott argues that the protocol to legally tow in New York City “involves contacting the local precinct to get them to issue a summons which would authorize the towing company to then tow the Vehicle, then the tow company must provide the precinct with a written receipt noting the name of the tow company, the date and time of the tow and the location to where the Vehicle was towed within 30 minutes of the towing.”
The relevant precinct in this matter is the 20th, which, according to Scott’s complaint, did not issue a summons and did not receive a written receipt from any tow company that her vehicle was towed.
She further alleges that the street from which her Audi was towed is public, and that the defendants – which also include Dermot Company, which manages the building, along with towing company Ben & Nino Auto Repair – had no legal right to remove her vehicle from it.
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She does concede that there is a sign posted with the “intent of and for the purpose of preventing any other vehicle from parking on the street.” However, Scott alleges that this sign, which is affixed by zip tie and nails to a tree, falls substantially short of the necessary legalities for defendants to stake a legal right to tow.
Exhibit A in Scott’s lawsuit – “a New York City Department of Transportation map, which shows Freedom Place South as a public street, open to public motor vehicle traffic.”
Exhibit C in Scott’s lawsuit — “Paper sign posted to reserve parking space.”
Scott’s vehicle allegedly sits in Coney Island, but she doesn’t know exactly where. The cost to find it and get it back will be $606, according to the Post.
Consequently, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants have failed to comply with the New York City Department of Transportation Traffic Rules and did so by “willfully and intentionally post[ing] counterfeit unauthorized signs on a public street in an attempt to reserve on street parking and to prevent any other vehicle from parking on the street through the placing of the unauthorized sign in the roadway.”
It further alleges that they’ve committed the tort of conversion by taking her vehicle and “extorting payment for the return of the property,” inflicted emotional distress on Scott, and are in criminal possession of stolen property.
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Scott is seeking the immediate return of her Audi. If not returned, she is seeking $50,000 or the value of the vehicle including interest, penalties, and liquidated damages. She also wants the court to order the defendants to remove the signs, pay for the cost of a daily replacement vehicle, award an underdetermined monetary value for the infliction of emotional distress, and to cease and desist from declaring the street as its private property.
“They are terrorizing their neighbors, intermittently towing cars to Coney Island, where the neighbors are extorted excessively high rates to retrieve their cars and aggressively arguing with neighbors over parking spaces on the street,” Scott wrote in an email to ILTUWS. “After I filed my lawsuit, they began to put notices that they plan to boot their neighbors on [sic] cars.”
She also says 21 West End Avenue Apartments is claiming ownership of 60th Street between West End Avenue and Freedom Place South, and tells us this is not just a single-building issue.
“33 West End Avenue Apartments, the building across from PS/IS 191 – The Riverside School for Makers and Artists, is also claiming to own West 61st Street between West End Avenue and Freedom Place South,” Scott added in her email. “33 West End Avenue Apartments has posted signs claiming that West 61st Street is a private parking lot for their use only. They also tow cars to Coney Island, using the same unscrupulous towing company that has multiple complaints for illegally towing cars.”
We’ve reached out to 21 West End Avenue for comment.
Glad someone is taking this BS on, as it has happened at numerous buildings throughout the neighborhood over the years, if not quite as drastic. Ironically. while 21 West End claims ownership of Freedom Place, a van in which someone appears to be living has remained on West 60th between WEA and Freedom Place (re name: really?) since the summer. Appeals to 311 have resulted in no change. So I guess they only care about the *front* of their luxury space station?
Re the friendly stoner living in the black van on the corner of W 60th St and WEA apparently sporadically: Be nice! The poor guy is “living in a van down by the river.” https://youtu.be/Xv2VIEY9-A8 I am sure all of the kids at Collegiate love him.
I’m a bleeding heart from way back, and I’m still wondering what Giuliani did with all the un-housed people who suddenly disappeared from NYC on his watch. That said, if someone is living in a vehicle, don’t they deserve the help they need, especially if, as is evident from its markings, he’s a veteran? I’m surprised the residents of this glorious building didn’t have that van towed six months ago.
Actually, I’ve seen management of my building trying to get this van towed MANY times. They can’t get it towed because they man has it chained to a bike and the NYPD was there with them and they were no help whatsoever. So continue speaking about what you know nothing about, “G Bailey”
“Martha! Come quick, we finally got one!”
I figured that someone from 21 would eventually take the bait. Welcome to the party. So okay, you couldn’t get him towed. I’ll ask the same questions I posed before. What did you do about a man living in a van on your curb? Does he need help? What’s the situation? Or is it too messy for you? For the record, I tried, but 311 could do nothing in the end.
Congratulations on your successful virtue signaling. The van’s resident is not there all of the time. When he is there, he is often sitting on the bench smoking on a bong in proximity to three schools and a popular playground. What would you suggest the building do about this if calls to 311 and the police seem to be incapable of doing anything about it?
Likewise, congrats on replacing cogent thoughts with woke catch phrases. C’mon. Do better.
What should you do? I don’t know. If you have a mechanism in place that got a woman’s $50,000 Audi towed., I’d think a motorcycle attached to a van would be pretty easy, no? Again, I’m advocating for greater action than just showing someone the road in this case.
The van is gone. The motorcycle remains chained to the bike rack. Anyone know if it was towed or did the guy just leave his bike behind?
Actually a tragic history behind the street name. Give it a Google. There is also a plaque on the northern leg of the street near 70th st.
Thank you for this. I’m actually posting the link here for all to see. It’s just too bad that they didn’t just name it Freedom Riders Place … that would have made it stand out among the other Freedom streets in the city and perhaps provoked more interest in what was indeed a tragedy.
https://untappedcities.com/2019/08/14/behind-trump-place-three-civil-rights-heroes-are-honored-on-freedom-place/
Interesting. Dermot made our apartment’s private interior courtyard into public space. They have, for the past 2 summers, allowed a restaurant to take over our courtyard during the summer months, in violation to the building’s CoO.
Drop balloons filled with toilet water on the diners. Ends it.
I hope she wins and a sympathetic judge slaps a substantial penalty on the management and owners of these buildings. These creeps need to start recognizing all their money doesn’t give them the right to buy what’s not for sale.
A similar situation happened several years ago when I complained to our city council rep about the unsafe traffic conditions along Freedom place. No traffic lights on a very busy street, no police enforcement of stop signs and pedestrian yield, etc. I was told the city had no authority to do anything about the unsafe conditions along the entire street since the city did not have control over Freedom place, the apartment buildings did. I thought that response was nonsensical but I didn’t pursue it further. Of course since then the traffic has only gotten worse with time. Someone needs to look into both issues.
There are stop signs where traffic signals are needed, for starters. The whole pseudo city-within-a-city thing there is messy. It’s a neighborhood that wants to live somewhere else.
Agreed, but what good are stop signs when they are unenforceable?
I’m agreeing with you LOL. They need stop lights cars blow through the West 60th and Freedom intersection regularly.
She should go to the precinct and file a claim of auto theft.
Or maybe she shouldn’t park where there are NO PARKING signs posted?????
Boo this commenter! BOOOOOOO
THIS!!!!!!!!!!!
If there are no parking signs on a PUBLIC street, then it is parking. They towed my car and they are in for a rude awakening. The company that towed the car, Limited Edition, is not even a registered company with the city. There is no record of the company, (Business number: 920758905), not even a simple Google search. They called late at night basically trying to extort me to pay to retrieve the car all the way in the Bronx.
As explained in several of the other posts it is NOT a “public street”. The city has some sort of agreement with the buildings along that and other streets for some limited jurisdiction. I recommend talking to your council person.
Well, if the buildings along “Freedom” Place are claiming its a private street, then they can pay for private repair and private snow/ice removal.
Maybe somebody (i.e. E. L. Danvers – ILUWS apparently does not provide the ability to send a direct message to the author(?)) should look further into the agreement between the city and the apartment owners. It might shed some light on the confusion and the responsibilities of all parties involved that this mess has created.
I am pretty sure they do pay for that now. I live in 21 WEA for a while and have never seen city services anywhere on the block.
In addition to the audacity of claiming ownership of public streets, people should not be putting nails in street trees. The trees also belong to the public.
Crossing Riverside Blvd. and Freedom Place is very risky, as is crossing the street which is at the entrance to the West Side Highway. at the end of 72 St. People rarely stop at the stop signs anywhere along those roads.
Holy cow. This is George Santos-level BS.
Old scam carried to new levels. Too bad they won’t prosecute personally those responsible. Cpl decades ago I was riding with mechanics working for a friend of my Dad’s. We parked their van in front of an old luxury West End Ave bldg in the 90’s. It had a private sign out front on a pedestal “No Parking Drop off Zone”. Total nonsense, NYC street 1000%, nothing official except alternate street. I got out first and doorman said something like “it would be a shame if you came back here and your tires were slashed”. Then three big rough looking Dominican guys came out. One of told him “Whatever happens to out truck happens to you, I mean it.” Truck was fine when we returned.
That’s the UWS I moved to. Things just sort of worked out!
Kudos to this woman. The management company that runs this building (and any others that carry out the same acts) need to face repercussions. I had family visiting for Thanksgiving weekend and after doing extensive research to confirm that 60th between freedom place and west end was a public street for parking, my parents with a NH plate parked and 3 days later (on a Saturday) 21 west end decided to have it towed for the same reasons as listed in this article. The rest of the street was filled with cars, none of which had parking stickers, and 6 of which were also out of state vehicles (including the above mentioned van and motorcycle). Not only were we completely perplexed as to why our car, but no others, was towed, it took us hours of time and hundreds of dollars to get it back, and worst of all, the front desk and management staff at 21 West End – WHERE I LIVE – were completely useless in helping us understand why it was towed, and how to figure out where it was… useless, as they are with all other aspects of managing the “luxury” building. The same elevator has been broken since I moved in 13 months ago, the gym has equipment that has been broken without repair for 6+ months, the amenity and common space is frequently unavailable because they rent it out to corporations to host events at, etc., etc., These things happen anywhere, no doubt, but for a “LUXURY” building charging ridiculous rents and $100/person a month in amenity fees, you’d think they’d take some pride in their building, and treat their residents and neighbors with a bit more respect. Needless to say, I’m out of this building ASAP.
I would love to chat with you about your experience with the towing. Please reach out to the writer of this article to put us together.
There was coverage of this issue on Fox 5 a few weeks back. I thought they said that it was in fact a private street, but I’d be happy to hear otherwise.
I indicated in a previous post that I was told by our previous city council person, when I asked about traffic lights and enforcement on Riverside Blvd. that it was in fact a private street controlled by the buildings facing that street. I imagine the only way to find out for sure is from the city. I have asked our new council person Ms Brewer for an answer but I have yet to hear back. I also copied ILTUWS, no response from them either. It would be interesting to be told by someone who is responsible for what, as for me the traffic and safety issues crossing that street continue to get worse. If more people start asking the city it might force someone to look into it and tell everyone what is going on.
If anyone else was towed in the last year reach reply to this post or email me. I am curious to see if there is a pattern as to who is targeted.
A bit of an update. I mentioned our car was illegally towed on Monday morning. The NYPD confirmed to us in a report that it was grand larceny auto on behalf of the towing company and 21 West End. They failed to report the tow within 30 minutes to the precinct as required by law. 21 West End, in an email response to us wrote:
“We do have a business relationship with Limited Edition Towing. However, Limited Edition Towing does not have freedom as they see fit to tow away vehicles on our property. Limited Edition Towing is only authorized to remove illegally parked vehicles at our request. Further, that determination of an unauthorized vehicle would be made by property management and requested in writing to Limited Edition Towing. With regards to your vehicle, no request was made, Limited Edition Towing acted on their own and bears sole responsibility for any damages or wrong doing.”
They are basically throwing the towing company under the bus. Requests to 21 West End to get a business or license number for the towing company has been fruitless. They finally put up “private property signs” on the side of the street where they towed our car that is also very illegal and not up to NYC posting codes. This is worse than we imagined and seeking legal counsel to remedy the situation.
Suffice to say that the *management* of 21 West End Ave wins the 2022-2023 Loser Neighbor Award. Hold your fire if you live there, you don’t make the policy or carry it out, though you should be embarrassed by your landlord’s Dallas-like behavior.
I would love to chat with you about your experience with the towing. Please reach out to the writer of this article to put us together.