Brooklyn building, Uptown landlord top de Blasio’s list of city’s worst

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From left: Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, 245 Sullivan Place and 78 Post Avenue (building credits: PropertyShark)

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio released his third annual list of the city’s worst buildings and landlords meant to shame the landlords into improving conditions, according to the New York Daily News.

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The worst building is 245 Sullivan Place in Crown Heights. The 40-unit rental building has 654 open violations thanks to crumbling ceilings, exposed wiring and a lack of electricity, hot water and heat in certain apartments. It’s been owned by James Crossman since 1971, public records show, and the News reported he is now 92 and in ill health.

De Blasio named Josh Neustein the worst landlord. Neustein owns eight buildings in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx with a total of 1,187 violations. Internet searches reveal Neustein is notorious, especially in the Spanish-language press, for barely maintaining some of his Section 8 buildings, including 78 Post Avenue in Inwood, where tenants filed a lawsuit. [NYDN]