Word: doormen
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Needing some symbol of their status, the residents of Park Avenue have commissioned a largely symbolic guard. The Vatican has the Swiss Guard; Park Avenue has its doormen...
...ostensible security measure, the doormen control all the elevators in the building. In theory, a doorman will recognize a tenant and send him to the appropriate floor once he shows up on the elevator camera. Thus, any criminals wily enough to get by us diligent doormen would still be unable to get up to an apartment. In practice, doormen often daydream and forget who has just returned. While I generally can keep track of everyone on the weekends (when there is only a trickle of people entering or leaving at any time), I can get lost in the incessant comings...
Likewise, it would be all too pedestrian to have mailboxes cluttering the ostentatious entrance to the building. Without such mailboxes, the post office is under no obligation to sort the mail. Each day, the mail for ninety families arrives to be sorted and delivered by the doormen on duty, cluttering the lobby while it is sorted and tying up the elevators while it is delivered...
Even with these difficulties, it is easier to get mail up to apartments than it is to get guests up to their hosts. On Park Avenue, a ubiquitous reminder of class is the sign in every lobby that informs, "All visitors must be announced." We doormen are to herald the arrival of all guests at their host's court. Normally, this is a pro forma procedure. The host knows someone is coming, awaits that person, receives a call from us when the guest arrives and instructs us to send him up. This system prevents uninvited visitors. But for every Jehovah...
...wouldn't help for the rejected buyer to prove again that he can easily afford the monthly maintenance each resident pays to cover expenses like doormen's salaries and interest on the building's mortgage. Speaking of a building whose apartments carry a monthly maintenance of $12,000, one broker interviewed by Ms. Yazigi said, "Look, anyone can afford the maintenance. It's not about that...