Broken elevators inside a Highbridge building is making life difficult for residents.<\/p>\n
An 86-year-old resident tells News 12 he\u2019s been forced to climb five flights of stairs every day for months because the elevator in his building has been out of service since November.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take my time coming up \u2018cause I ain\u2019t gonna have no heart attack,\u201d Joe Middleton said, describing the 15-minute trip up roughly 75 steps to his apartment at 1350 Shakespeare Ave.<\/p>\n
Middleton said what should take seconds by elevator has become a daily physical challenge \u2014 one he fears could turn dangerous.<\/p>\n
A Department of Buildings permit posted at the site shows the elevator requires a door sensor upgrade to meet code. That permit expired in March, and tenants say the issue has not been addressed since.<\/p>\n
Residents say their landlord, JITA Reality Corp., has stopped responding to calls about the ongoing problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sick of this. I pay this man rent every month \u2014 why is the elevator not fixed?\u201d said 83-year-old tenant Ethel Stukes. \u201cHe stopped answering his phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
City records show the building has 16 active violations, including issues related to the elevator, totaling about $27,000 in penalties.<\/p>\n
News 12 attempted to contact building management alongside tenants, but calls went straight to voicemail.<\/p>\n
For some residents, the broken elevator is more than an inconvenience \u2014 it\u2019s a barrier to basic needs. A home health aide for 79-year-old Ana Ravelo, who has Alzheimer\u2019s disease, said the situation has effectively confined her client indoors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing I can do is just take her to the hallway and come back,\u201d the aide said.<\/p>\n
Despite the hardship, Middleton said he continues to push through the pain to maintain his routine.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to do something to stay young,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
News 12 has reached out to the Department of Buildings and is continuing to seek answers from management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broken elevators inside a Highbridge building is making life difficult for residents. An 86-year-old resident tells News 12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-213595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}