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No More Cursing the Dark
By
MOTOKO RICH New
York Times, August 21, 2003
LIGHT OASIS Penn South, in Chelsea, uses its own power plant, blackout or no. THE 36-unit Art Deco building at 895 Park Avenue has everything you would expect in a luxury co-op: 24-hour concierge, manned elevators, a wine cellar, squash courts and a gym. In a few months it can boast another amenity: a backup power generator. "When you consider what they are paying for maintenance and that kind of living, they expect not to be inconvenienced," said Joseph Walsh, an agent at Gumley Haft, which manages 895 Park Avenue, where tenants pay fees starting at $5,000 per month. Many residents, worried about elderly and disabled neighbors, initially considered a generator after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Across the region affected by last week's big blackout, co-op boards, homeowners and landlords were contemplating whether backup juice was the next must-have comfort. At home improvement chains like the Home Depot and Lowe's, stores reported sales of thousands of portable generators. On Long Island, Gerard Turza, owner of GT Power Systems, a seller of generators, said his phones hadn't stopped ringing since Thursday night. Kohler Power Systems, a maker of high-end generators, plans to double its production of residential systems over the next 90 days, said Mark Repp, the director of marketing.
It's not surprising that in the immediate aftermath of a blackout affecting tens of millions of people, homeowners would demand emergency power supplies. But this recent power loss may have marked a turning point that could make generators, like home computers, alarm systems and garage door openers before them, into commonplace home appliances. Over the last few years, homeowners have been subjected to a string of threats — perceived and real — to their electric supply. Starting in 1999, some of the more vigilant (or paranoid) bought generators to ride out the Y2K computer bug. After last winter's snow and cold, homeowners installed backups to keep refrigerators and lights humming during storm blackouts. Then the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks introduced the possibility that malefactors would tamper with the nation's fundamental infrastructure. Add to that a lifestyle of increasing dependence on electronic devices, and you have a population determined not to lose power. "We live in an electronic world," said Craig Menear, senior vice president for merchandising of construction products at the Home Depot. "More and more people will start to look at a generator as not a `nice to have,' but as a `I really would like to have one in my home.' " Mike Janz, vice president and partner at Gen Power Products Inc., a generator distributor outside Detroit, said sales of residential generators have grown about 40 percent since 2000. Another factor driving sales, he said, is an aging baby boomer population that may demand continuous electricity to operate health care equipment at home. Still, most homes suffered through last week's blackout in the dark. And those with generators created a starkly visible caste system of electric haves and have-nots. Perhaps the most striking contrast was in Chelsea, where the 2,820-unit Penn South co-op was an oasis of blazing lights and air-conditioning, energized by an independent plant built in 1986 that removed the building from the nation's power grid. Walter Mankoff, a 73-year-old retired union research director, was waiting in his doctor's office for a routine appointment when the lights went out. Heading to his two-bedroom apartment at Penn South, a middle-income complex, he announced to his fellow patients, in a stage whisper, "I'm going home to cool off." In nearby buildings, there was "definitely generator envy," said Jim O'Connor, executive vice president of Residential Management Group, a unit of Prudential Douglas Elliman that manages apartment buildings around the city. Mr. O'Connor lives in London Terrace, another large complex of buildings across the street from Penn South. Some Penn South residents felt guilty. Deborah Harada, a 48-year-old executive assistant, did not suffer many of the inconveniences endured by her coworkers and friends. "I was a little uneasy about enjoying it," said Ms. Harada. Many residents appeared to revel in their good fortune. "It was sort of appalling to me," Ms. Harada said. "Everyone was doing their laundry. There was the mayor and governor asking us to conserve, and the air-conditioning was on in the lobby the whole time." On Friday, Ms. Harada invited a friend over to take a shower. In some suburban communities, those with backup power used it as an excuse to throw a "generator party." Sean Patrick, a public relations executive who lives in a suburb of Detroit with his wife and three sons, fired up a portable generator and invited two other families to grill hamburgers and hot dogs in his backyard. "It was an adventure," Mr. Patrick said. "When you have the tools, an adventure is fun." The blackout made converts of some homeowners. When Norbert Weissberg, a 69-year-old private investor, bought a five-bedroom house in East Hampton with his wife, Judith, last year, they thought they would have no use for the 9-by-5-foot generator sitting behind the tennis court. After failing to sell "the monster," as they called it, they tried to give it away. When a maintenance man offered to sell them a $600-a-year contract, they turned him down. Luckily, the generator worked on Thursday night. The couple cooked dinner on their electric stove and read in their fully lighted living room. Now, said Mr. Weissberg, the generator is "our favorite machine." On Friday, he called the maintenance firm to secure a contract. Some homeowners suffered the heartache of generators that didn't work. "I know of someone who had a $16,000 generator put in just a few years ago," said Diane Saatchi, president of Dayton-Halstead, a real estate firm in the Hamptons. "When they went to use it this week, it wasn't working." Stuart Epstein, owner of Devlin McNiff, a real estate firm in East Hampton, said he got calls on Thursday and Friday from "tenants in expensive rentals" who "were outraged that they didn't have power." He said he expected more homeowners to install generators. In Manhattan, brokers who specialize in selling luxury apartments said new developments should offer the perk of lights, elevators and water even if the rest of the world languishes in the dark. "I absolutely think that if you're going to build a tower you have the responsibility to have at least one elevator operative under any circumstances," said Vals Osborne, a broker with Stribling & Associates. "People are paying a fortune for these apartments." Stefan Rossi, director of operations at the Trump Organization, said five of its luxury buildings had enough backup generator power to operate one elevator, emergency lights in the hallways and the water pumps. Many Manhattan high-rise residents were not only in the dark but without water, too. The developers of the condominium apartments at AOL Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, where a penthouse recently sold for more than $40 million, said backup generators would operate three elevators, the apartment intercom system and lights in the corridors. Because apartments start 24 stories above ground in one tower and 37 stories above ground in another, "we felt that it's important that the elevators be connected at all times," said Bruce Warwick, president of Columbus Center LLC, the project developer. Similarly, a spokesman for Vornado Realty Trust, which is developing 105 luxury apartments starting on the 32nd floor atop the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P., said it would install a backup generator that would operate an elevator, water pumps and hallway lights during any electrical failure. The New York City building code generally requires emergency backup power in office buildings and hotels that were built after 1968. Any apartment building erected after that year is required only to supply battery-powered emergency lights in hallways and stairwells. Many of those expired before dark last week. A spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings said the agency was considering whether it should require such lighting in all buildings. Last week, thousands of residents climbed the stairs with only the light of their cellphones to guide them. Installing generators in existing buildings could be prohibitively expensive. Michael Duryea, associate director of management at Brown Harris Stevens, a real estate firm that manages 150 mostly high-end buildings around the city, said it could cost about $400,000 to install a generator, and then another $30,000 a year to maintain it. Another problem is where to put the multiton machines, along with where to store the fuel needed to operate them. Joel Hirschtritt, co-op board president at 1185 Park Avenue, a 176-unit prewar luxury co-op building on the Upper East Side that went without power for more than 24 hours last week, said generators were not "a luxury that people would expect." "I don't know that it's economically feasible," he said. In older co-ops, many tenants are elderly residents who live on fixed incomes. "Elderly people in these luxury co-op buildings had a miserable time," said Daniela Kunen, a broker in Douglas Elliman's Upper East Side office. But many of them could not afford an increase in their annual maintenance payments. Some smaller buildings were considering cheaper alternatives. Charlie Saunders, treasurer of the board at 1945 Seventh Avenue, a 10-unit gray stone apartment building in Harlem, said a portable generator could provide power for temporary lighting and the building's heating system should a blackout occur during the winter. Then there are those who found better solutions to survive a blackout. Chuck Doersam, a 46-year-old contractor who lives on Fire Island, said he has weathered several storms and hurricanes with his portable generator. But last Thursday, it was buried in a tool shed. So Mr. Doersam made other plans: he went fishing. He left with three pals at midnight. When they returned at 8 the next night with 150 pounds of bluefin, albacore and mahi-mahi, the power had returned. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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