During his 15 years in the South Bronx, Nilo Montalvo says, he has lived in a neighborhood behind bars: vertical rods, child guards, wrought-iron fencing — all wedged into the windows of ground-floor apartments, like his, in a housing project on East 144th Street. “You feel like you’re in prison,” Mr. Montalvo, 64, said.Recently, though, he has started to notice a change. Some of the steel is gone. Tenants cook with their windows open and unguarded. They read at their computers, near enough for passers-by to touch.Across neighborhoods long fortified against their own gritty reputations, steel and iron window guards, those often unsightly symbols of the bad old days, have slowly been receding from the city. Once a reliable visual marker of neighborhood borders — no guards, some surmised, implied there was no need for guards — many bars have been casualties of an aesthetics-driven calculation, as families brush aside what they view as outdated home safety concerns.Joanne Vega, 48, said her family’s longtime home, a ground-floor apartment on Maujer Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, always had window bars in her youth.

Recently, though, the steel was removed, Ms. Vega said. “My sister has a German shepherd,” she reasoned.how much does new air conditioning unit costTo be sure, window bars remain a presence along the ground floors of many apartment buildings and single-family homes throughout New York City. ac unit for large roomAnd the death on Monday morning of a police officer during a home robbery in Brooklyn — the Police Department said the robbers forced their way into a basement apartment — highlights how fragile a sense of hard-won calm can be.window ac unit for car Mr. Montalvo, in fact, has not completely removed his steel apparatus, though he has allowed himself enough space to see straight out, making break-ins possible for only the skinniest of criminals.“

I haven’t heard of a burglary in this area in 5, 10 years,” Mr. Montalvo said. “Just stabbings and muggings.”Others may have kept the guards around for their alternative uses. Some are decorative, with floral ornaments shaped in the metal. In the Mott Haven area of the South Bronx, many residents hang signs, Christmas decorations and occasionally damp laundry from the bars. When guards are more pliable, like the chain-link variety, some visitors use the barricade as a makeshift doorbell, rattling the metal from the sidewalk as they approach the building’s front entrance.In places, a middle ground can be seen: leaving a substitute blockade — a child safety guard, an air-conditioning unit, even an insect screen — in the window as a sort of buffer.Paul Gunther, president of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, said the practice of protective window guards dated at least to the Roman Empire. When he moved to New York in 1978, Mr. Gunther said, he bought an accordion-style window gate for his home on West 80th Street.

“My first purchase, before even a mattress, was these hideous window gates,” he said. “But boy, did they make me happy.”Michael Henry Adams, a Harlem historian, said images of the city’s past depicted window bars as a great equalizer. “Whether it’s speculative row houses or individual mansions, invariably on the ground floor, they all have bars,” he said. Sometimes the bars came too late, as on Christmas Day in 1906, when a woman discovered that an intruder had shattered the glass ornaments of her “pet poodle’s Christmas tree” after entering a building on Claremont Avenue in Morningside Heights, according to an account in The New York Times. Two days later, all lower-floor apartments in the building had window guards, and two extra watchmen had been hired.In other cases, bars proved to be only a mild impediment. To gain entry to a clothing factory on Prospect Avenue in 1921, a team of Brooklyn burglars pushed a child between two steel bars protecting a back window.

They made off with 52 coats.During the crime-ridden 1970s, the police offered a free service: Officers would travel to homes in the five boroughs, on request, and provide tips on how to improve security. Window bars were among the suggestions. To this day, some residents seem to react directly to an area’s reputation as they decide on whether to buy bars.Michael DiServio, 62, said he had never installed guards on the ground floor of his two-story home in Williamsburg, though he did suffer a recent theft when a wooden Betty Boop Christmas ornament disappeared from in front of the house. His five-pound dog, a Pomeranian named Jeter, supplies “a good alarm” with his bark, Mr. DiServio said. He also keeps a small cactus visible in his street-level window, unguarded behind an unlocked gate. “It’s a deterrent,” he said.But some residents still refuse to take chances. Henry Rodriguez, 35, a glass repair and installation worker in Brooklyn, said he had recently suggested that a client, living only a few blocks from Mr. DiServio, remove the guards facing her backyard, since no one could gain access to the area anyway.

“She told me I was crazy,” Mr. Rodriguez said.Hansel Berges, 26, said he required both window guards and a pit bull named Rex to protect his apartment near Willis Avenue in the Bronx. And he lives on the second floor. “Things happen,” he said, patting Rex’s mahogany coat.Though acknowledging the risk, some of those who go guardless said a change would amount to a sort of surrender, carried out in the absence of any tangible threat.“If I have to live with bars,” Mr. DiServio said, with Jeter yapping behind him, “I might as well commit a crime.”Living in New York City means we are paying more than our fair share of rent, but it doesn’t mean we have to pay even more money for conditions or repairs that are not our responsibility. The following is a short guide to what you should and should not pay for when you have certain apartment troubles. It’s intended for market-rate buildings, which is what most of us live in these days. Unlike in rent-stabilized or rent-controlled buildings, market-rate tenants do not have many rights besides the Warrant of Habitability and court precedents.

But there are certain things that need to come out of your landlord’s pockets, not yours. NOTE: This article is based off of my experience in government community work and should NOT be a substitution for legal advice! …have uninvited guests who are small, furry and/or invertebrate: It is the landlord’s responsibility to eradicate vermin in your apartment. Also, it is not your duty to pay for adjacent apartments that have become infested, whether the issue stems from your unit or not. Your landlord does not have to compensate you for property you had to dispose of because of the issue unless it was due to their negligence — which is something you would have to argue in court. …are sweating in your living room more than a vegan in Paula Deen’s kitchen.Landlords are not required to provide you with any sort of air-conditioning, whether it is central or via window unit unless it is specified in your lease.Landlords are required to provide heat in order to maintain specific temperatures at certain times of year.

There’s nothing in state or city law that says landlords cannot charge you for heat. Most do not, but again, take a look at your lease just to make sure. …are subject to a symphony of clacking heels and vibrating bass from above: Before going to the landlord about your neighbors, try having a conversation with them about the noise. They might be nice people who will turn the music down and be more conscious of their indoor footwear choices. If they do not make any efforts to improve the situation, speak to the landlord, as it is ultimately his/her responsibility to foster a livable environment for you in exchange for money. Many leases have a rule that’s rarely enforced requiring all tenants to cover at least 80 percent of their flooring with carpet/rugs — it’s rarely enforced, but could be in these situations. If the landlord enforces the rug rule and the noise is still unbearable, you can request installation of insulation in the ceiling. Again, it’s not your responsibility to pay if you are dealing with excessive noise.

If you really do not want to involve the landlord, but wish to consult an outside party, check out the free mediation services at the Brooklyn Mediation Center: (718) 834-6671. BUT, if you are new to Brooklyn, remember that this is NYC and some ambient noise is expected. …clogged the toilet after “your friend” flushed too many extra-long overnight super-plus pads down the toilet (or by any other means). Most of the time, your landlord will send a plumber over and you won’t have to pay. BUT, it’s conceivable that you could have to cover costs if the damage is not due to, ahem, normal use. While it’s definitely in your landlord’s best interest to make sure you’re not kickin’ it old school with your chamber pot, if the clog was due to some irregular use, you may have to incur the charges. …are able to microwave popcorn for thirty minutes without the sultry siren song of a smoke detector. Technically, the landlord can charge you up to $10 for a new device.

And you have to pay for batteries. Tenants have the right to have working smoke detectors in their apartments less than 10 feet from the rooms they sleep in. If your’s breaks, ask your landlord to replace it ASAP. They are liable for repair costs during the first year of use as long as the damage is not your fault. …have to truck your own PBR cans and unopened credit card offers to the local recycling plant Recycling is the law in NYC. Your landlord must provide a place for tenants to leave their recyclables. BUT, it is your responsibility to make sure trash is sorted correctly. …want your wall painted that dark green color you will regret when the S.A.D. kicks in come November: Landlords are not required to paint your apartment for cosmetic reasons. If there was a repair or damage to the wall caused by building/maintenance issues and not your failed attempts at shelving installation, then the landlord should paint. …think your building’s hallway would be a sweet place for your end table and extra lamps instead of the storage place that charges more than many people pay for rooms in smaller cities:

If you get lucky with an apathetic/easy-going landlord, they might let it slide, but they are under no obligation to let you keep personal items in common areas. If your stuff is blocking a fire exit, or “secondary egress” in agency speak, then your landlord could get a violation if the Fire Department makes a visit to the building. Sorry to say you’ll have to pay for some storage or cram your stuff under the bed. …think your apartment might actually be rent stabilized and you are getting a raw deal. File a request with New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal to get your rent history. If it turns out the apartment is classified as rent stabilized, you may be entitled to a refund of your overpayments. If your landlord does not respond to your issue in a timely fashion or refuses to pay for what they are supposed to pay for, call 311 to report the issue. Take it to the max and follow up with your local elected officials in the City Council, State Senate and Assembly.