{"id":335067,"date":"2026-09-01T17:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/335067\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T17:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:48:16","slug":"the-nyc-laundromat-below-me-is-runing-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/335067\/","title":{"rendered":"The NYC laundromat below me is runing my life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last fall, when Dorian Solomon viewed the East Harlem<\/a> studio apartment she now calls home, construction kept her from noticing the commotion from the Miss Bubble laundromat on the ground floor, directly below.<\/p>\n

Since moving in, however, the disruption from the laundromat has been tormenting her with noise, vibration and fumes during all waking hours, while a boiler ticks noisily around the clock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like a zombie,\u201d Solomon told The Post. \u201cIn a small studio, there is nowhere to escape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The low-frequency vibration is a \u201cheavy hum that resonates in your chest and penetrates right through earplugs and white noise,\u201d said Solomon, 42, whose $2,550 monthly rent at the East 118th Street building is paid by a city housing assistance program. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Tenant Dorian Solomon alleges that consistent fumes and vibrations from the ground-floor commercial laundromat have severely impacted her quality of life. Olga Ginzburg for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI walk outside for hours daily simply to escape,\u201d she said. \u201cI am exhausted, distressed and emotionally drained.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miss Bubble<\/a>, sometimes labeled Ms. Bubble, has 32 branches in Manhattan and Brooklyn, with a website calling it \u201cNew York\u2019s best laundry service,\u201d stating that \u201call of our work is done on our premises \u2014 we don\u2019t use off-site services. This way we can manage and oversee every aspect of our cleaning process ensuring best practices for you and for us all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solomon wonders why commercial laundromats<\/a> are even allowed inside residential buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cBehind that business listing is a tenant living with constant vibration, combustion fumes and chronic health symptoms, and a city enforcement system where every agency treats the problem as someone else\u2019s job,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last spring, Solomon sued the landlord, Akari Equities, to obtain repairs. The landlord\u2019s lawyer, Eric Kahan, wrote in court documents that the landlord \u201cnever failed or refused to correct any violations in the subject premises,\u201d but is also \u201cwilling and ready\u201d to correct any that do exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And if the city\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation and Development did issue any violations, the landlord \u201cdoes not concede or agree that any report or violations as written or issued by HPD are accurate or that same constitute violations of law,\u201d Kahan wrote.<\/p>\n

He also wrote that no other residents of the 20-unit building have complained, and that Solomon didn\u2019t grant access \u201cto inspect the alleged conditions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solomon has resided in the building since last year. Olga Ginzburg for NY Post<\/p>\n

Solomon, who was unable to obtain legal aid, withdrew the lawsuit because the issues she broached are not generally enforced through housing court, which deals primarily with maintenance concerns such as leaks, lead paint and lack of heat.<\/p>\n

Kahan didn\u2019t return requests for comment, nor did a Miss Bubble representative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Desperate for relief, Solomon then spent months scrutinizing city records and attempting to navigate an uncaring bureaucracy. She has contacted multiple city agencies and officials, the main result being inspections marked \u201cresolved\u201d that resolve nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is a livable home,\u201d she told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Records from the Department of Buildings show that the certificate of occupancy allows for a tenant laundry room, which doesn\u2019t currently exist, plus an eating and drinking establishment on the ground floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, according to a DOB spokesman, the property has a \u201cletter of no objection\u201d that allows for the space to be legally converted into a laundromat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At one point, a building inspector did issue a violation for the laundromat, but \u201cthe summons issued by the inspectors was reviewed by DOB attorneys, who determined that it was issued in error,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n

Solomon complained to the DOB that \u201cthe laundromat is making the building shake,\u201d but the DOB claims otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have inspected this\u00a0property multiple times in response to the constituent\u2019s complaints and have not observed the shaking or vibration of the building \u2026 nor issued any enforcement actions for alleged unpermitted or illegal occupancy,\u201d the spokesman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city Department of Buildings says it inspected the building multiple times and found no evidence of vibrations. Olga Ginzburg for NY Post<\/p>\n

Though the 2023 building code has certain sound transmission standards for structure-borne noise, including an \u201cimpact insulation rating\u201d for dwelling units sharing a floor or ceiling with a mechanical equipment space, \u201cthese modern code requirements are not retroactive,\u201d and existing buildings need not comply, the spokesman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several\u00a0other complaints<\/a>\u00a0about Miss Bubble were received before Solomon moved in. One neighbor complained about the laundromat ventilation \u201cblowing toxic dust into my apartment \u2026 it is effecting [sic] my health.\u201d Another complained of \u201cair quality \u2026 so bad that it is affecting my love one causing asthma and other health issue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fumes persist, said Solomon, who was frustrated by the Department of Environmental Protection\u2019s response to her complaints about noise and air quality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month, the DEP conducted an inspection, and \u201cthe complainant did not answer the door, so the inspector left a voicemail,\u201d according to a DEP spokesman.<\/p>\n

But nobody buzzed, Solomon said. \u201cI got a call from an unknown number and missed it. They left a voicemail, but there was no number for me to call back.\u201d The morning of the inspection was uncharacteristically quiet, she said, likely because management had been notified in advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No other residents of the 20-unit building have complained, according to the landlord\u2019s attorney. Olga Ginzburg for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI came out of the shelter system through a city housing assistance program, and this apartment was supposed to be stable housing,\u201d Solomon said. Her miserable situation shows \u201ca systemic tenant protection failure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s true, said\u00a0Andrew Scherer<\/a>, a professor at New York Law School and an expert in landlord-tenant law. \u201cThe system is wholly inadequate,\u201d he told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t made decent, affordable housing a reality for everybody. If the building doesn\u2019t violate any codes, the city agencies almost never do anything affirmative or proactive. There is no routine enforcement or inspections. It\u2019s all complaint-driven.\u201d<\/p>\n

The housing-court approach \u2014 going to court with a common-law nuisance or warranty-of-habitability case \u2014 is tough for someone with few resources and the inability to pay a lawyer, Scherer said. Free legal services prioritize people facing eviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so much that there\u2019s nothing that can be done,\u201d Scherer told The Post. \u201cIt\u2019s that there aren\u2019t the resources to actually do it. Potential solutions would take significant effort on the part of this tenant. The system doesn\u2019t have any automatic resolution to things like this, which is very unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomon has filed complaints with the city\u2019s 311 system. Courtesy of Dorian Solomon<\/p>\n

A person can keep complaining, but \u201cnothing is a sure shot,\u201d Scherer said. In some cases tenants join forces, but Solomon believes the neighbors are afraid to complain too vociferously.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor\u00a0Mamdani says<\/a>\u00a0\u2018government only works when it answers to the people it serves,\u2019\u201d Solomon said. \u201cI spent months asking his agencies why their own records contradicted one another. I couldn\u2019t get answers. So by the mayor\u2019s own standard, who was government answering to?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s housing spokesman didn\u2019t return requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solomon\u2019s landlord has offered a penalty-free lease break, she said, and she would be glad to move, but it\u2019s tough to find apartments that accept rental assistance and are in acceptable condition. <\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot resolve a health crisis by relocating into another one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last fall, when Dorian Solomon viewed the East Harlem studio apartment she now calls home, construction kept her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1489,6808,20313,2850,9,56,63,65,64,1491,3006],"class_list":["post-335067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-commercial-real-estate","tag-east-harlem","tag-laundry","tag-lawsuits","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335067","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=335067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}