It’s time to move on:

By 2001 my rent at the Doric Apartments Co-Op in Union City had tripled. I will explain about the rent increase later. Martha’s mom was dying of cancer so we moved her into our 1 bedroom apartment and gave her the bedroom. She didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in a single bed in the living room of her son’s four bedroom house that he shared with one other person, his wife. When her mom moved in with us, Martha and I slept on the sofa with our two cats, Bert and Ernie . Ida’s last year was spent traveling to Argentina with Martha visiting family and friends. In the spring of 2001 we took Ida on her first visit to Atlantic City. Ida died a few months before we moved to the Galaxy. The last thing she said to me before she died in Christ Hospital was; "Promise me you will take care of Martha and the children". I have kept my word and will continue for the rest of my life because that is what "honorable" people do when they give their word. A man that doesn't keep his word is not a man and not worth the boat he sails in. I dedicate this chapter to Martha’s wonderful mom, Ida DiGiovanni. We miss you Momma!

Our 9-11 Story:

On the night of 09-11-01, Federal Agents were swarming around the Doric garage roof when we returned from work. Earlier that morning, men had been on top of their moving truck on the garage roof, cheering and filming as the first plane crashed into the Trade Center. Our neighbor noticed them and called the police. They were captured later on the Turnpike. That evening at 1am Martha and I were awakened by five Federal Agents carrying what looked like small machine guns, drawn. They were searching for someone they believed to be an accomplice of the terrorists. They entered our apartment and walked over to the dining room table. You had to be there to appreciate the look on the Agents faces as they stood around our dinning room table occupied by our house “guests”, three fully dressed mannequins. Sasha was wearing tribal clothing and a Rastafarian wig. Stanley was wearing an old suit, Yankee hat and holding a can of beer. And Mr. Eeeeshk, our gargoyle, was typing a letter on our old Royal and wearing headphones and sunglasses. They showed me mug shots of suspects they believed were hiding in the Doric. A few days later we were approached by a producer of the TV show 20/20 who was doing a story about the men on the garage roof. We explained what happened and he filmed Martha and we gave him some photos Martha had taken of the FBI agents on the garage roof. The segment aired a few months later. The owner of the moving company disappeared a few days after 9-11. The men on the garage roof were detained and then deported back to Israel. They were suspected of having knowledge of the attacks prior to 9-11. The producer followed the men to Israel and discovered some of them were members of the Israeli Mossad.

TheRadioChick 92.3 FM Talks About This Website On August 23, 2006:

Another strange thing was happening at the Doric on the same day. Four “Arab” looking men who shared an apartment on the 9th floor suddenly disappeared the day before 9-11. They left the door to their apartment wide open and never returned. Outside their apartment was a drawing of two towers on the wall next to the elevator. Under the drawing of the towers were the words; “Where are they now”. The drawing had been there for weeks and was noticed but before 9-11 it didn’t mean anything. We showed the drawing to the producer from 20/20 but it was not covered in the story.

They cut out the footage of Martha but used her photos. The producer sent us a VHS of the show and we still keep in touch with him by email. He has even expressed interest in doing a segment on my story about the Galaxy. This picture was taken on top of the World Trade Center in the '70's with my mom and nephew Dallas who is now an attorney in New York.

Goodbye Doric, Hello Galaxy:

A few months after 9-11, Martha’s mom passed on. Because she was such a wonderful person and we missed her so much, we couldn’t stand being in the apartment anymore without her. Fond memories of her in that apartment were haunting us. We decided to move out of the Doric and buy an apartment. We went to a Fort Lee real estate agent and expressed our interest in the Galaxy. I’ll never forget what she said: “Why would you want to go there? I don’t take any of my clients to the Galaxy. I have heard some scary stories about that place”. She did not offer any explanation for her comments. She took us to Fort Lee and Englewood apartments but we were set on the Galaxy. We didn’t pay attention to her warnings and decided to use a different agent. The second we walked into 24E Tower 3 in the Galaxy we were sold. We made an offer 10 minutes later. We purchased our apartment for $385,000. We put down $205,000 as our down payment and spent another $10,000 on moving, security deposits and legal fees. We moved into the Galaxy on November 15th, 2002. We sold our apartment on December 19, 2005 for $707,000.

The Doric “Life Lesson”:

I mentioned in Chapter 1 that I lived in a rent-controlled apartment before I moved to the Galaxy. The reason I was only paying about $500 a month for my 1000 sq. ft. 1 bedroom apartment with a terrace and full view of Manhattan was because Union City had halted all rent increases at the Doric. For many years they had been issued violations due to neglect in maintaining the building by the Board and Sponsor. The elevators were always broken, the garage was about to collapse, the lobby needed renovation, the rugs were dirty and ripped, and there were many water leaks and numerous fire safety violations.

By the late 1990’s the Association was broke. Many owners and the Sponsor had stopped paying maintenance. The Association Attorney, the Board and the Sponsor came up with a plan to fix all their problems. They decided to file for bankruptcy, assess the owners and take out a loan to fix the garage, the façade and other problems. Owners were sent legal documents and the assessment terms by mail to their last known address. They had 30 days to come up with the assessment, ranging from 20 to 30 thousand each depending on the amount of shares owned. If you didn’t pay, you lost your apartment to the Sponsor.

Many people claimed they never received any documents in the mail but their only recourse was to hire an attorney and challenge the bankruptcy. Many defaulted; one or two fought and won but were faced with attorney fees. My owner defaulted and the Sponsor took over my apartment. The Bankruptcy terms didn’t give me the opportunity or first right to buy my defaulted apartment. After the building was fixed, the Sponsor raised my rent 300 percent, the fair market value. The Sponsor picked up many apartments in that deal for about $20,000 each. He renovated and flipped them for $100,000 to $300,000. The residents of the Doric, which has about 500 apartments, were forced to find street parking while the garage was closed for one year during renovations. I stopped by the Doric recently to say hello to the doorman. He told me the façade needs to be redone, again, only 6 years later. The Board of Directors who were running the Doric when I left had all been forcefully removed by the owners.

You can imagine our concern when we learned, a few months after buying our apartment, what the Board of Directors at the Galaxy was planning. The Board decided to take out a 12.5 million dollar loan, later to become 18.5 million, without the vote of the owners. Why? In order to fix the Galaxy which, as alleged by the current Board members, had been neglected for 20 years by prior Board members. Yet, some of these prior Board members were current Board members and some of their strongest supporters were also prior Board members.

Coming next: Our concern, could this be “Deja Vu” all over again?

MIKE DELUCA