Sometimes it\u2019s better to take the stairs!<\/p>\n
Residents at a Queens rental complex say elevators have been a scary, noisy mess for a decade \u2014 with locals trapped inside three times just last month.<\/p>\n
The pair of rent-stabilized, affordable buildings at Hunter\u2019s Point South in Long Island City have just nine breakdown-prone elevators<\/a> for nearly 1,000 apartments \u2014 sometimes with no air conditioning or a working intercom, locals claimed.<\/p>\n Matt Aaron, the head of the tenant association, stands in one of the Hunter\u2019s Point South building elevators. Marie Pohl\/NY Post<\/p>\n Getting stuck in the elevator has become so common it\u2019s become \u201ca rite of passage,\u201d said Matt Aaron, a tenant association leader who has lived in the complex since 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re stuck, too bad,\u201d said Aaron, 37, adding that the call button for help to the front desk doesn\u2019t always work when residents find themselves in a jam.<\/p>\n \u201cThe management said they are monitoring the cameras \u2026 but the front desk staff has to attend to other duties,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen there is a problem, they don\u2019t take us seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Aaron claims that it has become a \u201crite of passage\u201d to get stuck in the elevators, which frequently break down. Marie Pohl\/NY Post<\/p>\n Two of the nine long-plagued elevators finally received an upgrade last month after a cable snapped and trapped a woman and child between floors in 2024<\/a> \u2014 but even the upgraded cars have since trapped other victims, tenants said.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of the elevator buttons worked,\u201d said one resident, who said she was trapped in an upgraded elevator on June 14.<\/p>\n She was able to use the call button to call the front desk \u2014 which allegedly alerted the elevator company<\/a> before the FDNY.<\/p>\n Tenants claim they are still encountering issues, even after two of the nine elevators were upgraded. Marie Pohl\/NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cEventually they got no response from the elevator company \u2014 makes sense, it was 11 p.m. \u2014 so they called the FDNY, and they broke me out a few minutes later,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Several residents lamented to The Post about recurring outages, leaving some lifts to only stop at certain floors. They are routinely out of service altogether, residents said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the elevators, for a good couple weeks, was literally dropping, like a bungee cord,\u201d resident Chris Szeles said.<\/p>\n Szeles, 56, said she was stuck for more than an hour when the problems began 10 years ago \u2014 and now she and her husband try to avoid taking the elevators.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband takes the stairs when he can now, 29 flights,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019ll be 60 next month. I have a bad knee.\u201d<\/p>\n A request for comment from the building\u2019s management, Related Companies, was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n A previous tenant of the building, who moved out in 2015, said her apartment shared a wall with the elevator \u2014 and that she was kept awake by vibrations and the sound of \u201cclinking, clanking, screws turning.\u201d<\/p>\n