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An Upper West Side tenant at the center of a years-long battle with former New York Giants star Chris Canty is now turning to the public for help.
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Stuart Kalmenson, a 59-year-old data analyst and the last remaining tenant at 33 West 89th Street, has launched a GoFundMe campaign in an effort to continue his legal fight against what he describes as “unlawful” redevelopment efforts by Canty, who purchased the building for $5.2 million in 2020.“I am trying to save a building with nine rent-stabilized apartments on the Upper West Side of New York City from being unlawfully re-developed into a luxury single family townhouse,” Kalmenson writes in the campaign’s description. “We are the last remaining tenants, and need help so that I can continue my legal efforts and avoid eviction.”
As ILTUWS previously reported, Kalmenson has accused Canty of waging a campaign of harassment to force him out of the five-story townhouse, which the Super Bowl champion-turned-ESPN host reportedly plans to convert into a private home. Kalmenson claims he has lived without heat, hot water, or gas for over two years, relying on a space heater and bathtub to get by. He’s also alleged that construction crews began gutting the building around him and his dog in 2021, while mice chewed through his floorboards and parts of his apartment became uninhabitable.
Canty has denied wrongdoing, and through his attorney has dismissed Kalmenson’s allegations as baseless. But city records appear to support the tenant’s claims: Canty has been cited with over 400 violations by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and has been sued twice by the agency, resulting in $8,000 in settlements. He was also fined $20,000 by the Department of Buildings for falsely claiming the property was vacant and failing to implement a tenant protection plan.
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Kalmenson says the building was once a nine-unit rent-stabilized property, and that prior owners illegally operated it as a co-op. Canty has argued that the building is still a co-op and not subject to rent stabilization laws. The two parties have been locked in eviction litigation since July 2020.In a separate legal matter, Canty has been sued by city and state officials for allegedly failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes tied to the property.
Kalmenson’s campaign, titled “Save Affordable Housing in New York City!!!”, urges supporters to view his case as part of a broader fight against the loss of affordable housing in Manhattan. “They have worn me down with expensive lawyers trying to evict my family,” he writes. “Help me save these nine affordable rent-stabilized apartments for normal, middle-class New Yorkers.”
Here’s the GoFundMe campaign.
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