
Saving Stuyvesant Town
How One Community Defeated the Worst Real Estate Deal in History
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Daniel Garodnick
About this listen
From city streets to City Hall and to Midtown corporate offices, Saving Stuyvesant Town is the incredible true story of how one middle-class community defeated the largest residential real estate deal in American history.
Lifetime Stuy Town resident and former city councilman Dan Garodnick recounts how his neighbors stood up to mammoth real estate interests and successfully fought to save their homes, delivering New York City's biggest-ever affordable housing preservation win.
In 2006, Garodnick found himself engaged in an unexpected battle. Stuyvesant Town was built for World War II veterans by MetLife, in partnership with the City. Two generations removed, MetLife announced that it would sell Stuy Town to the highest bidder. Garodnick and his neighbors sprang into action. Battle lines formed with real estate titans like Tishman Speyer and BlackRock facing an organized coalition of residents, who made a competing bid to buy the property themselves. Tripped up by an overleveraged deal, the collapse of the American housing market, and a novel lawsuit brought by tenants, the real estate interests collapsed, and the tenants stood ready to take charge and shape the future of their community. The result was a once-in-a-generation win for tenants and an extraordinary outcome for middle-class New Yorkers.
Garodnick's colorful and heartfelt account of this crucial moment in New York City history shows how creative problem solving, determination, and brute-force politics can be marshalled for the public good. The nine-year struggle to save Stuyvesant Town by these residents is an inspiration to everyone who is committed to ensuring that New York remains a livable, affordable, and economically diverse city.
©2021 Daniel R. Garodnick (P)2021 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Billionaires' Row
- Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers
- By: Katherine Clarke
- Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To look south and skyward from Central Park these days is to gaze upon a physical manifestation of tens of billions of dollars in global wealth: a series of soaring spires stretching from Park Avenue to Broadway. Known as Billionaires’ Row, this set of slender high-rise residences has transformed the skyline of New York City, thanks to developer-friendly policies and a seemingly endless gush of cash from tech, finance, and foreign oligarchs. And chances are most of us will never be invited to step inside.
-
-
Fantastic read/listen
- By Anonymous User on 03-15-25
By: Katherine Clarke
-
Other People's Money
- Inside the Housing Crisis and the Demise of the Greatest Real Estate Deal Ever Made
- By: Charles V. Bagli
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In just over three years, real estate giant Tishman Speyer and its partner, BlackRock, lost billions of investors' dollars on a single deal. In Other People's Money, Charles V. Bagli, the New York Times reporter who first broke the story of the sale of Stuyvesant Town - Peter Cooper Village takes listeners inside the most spectacular failure in real estate history, using this single deal as a lens to see how and why the real estate crisis happened.
-
-
Solid
- By BryanW on 05-22-24
By: Charles V. Bagli
-
Raising the Bar
- The Life and Work of Gerald D. Hines
- By: Mark Seal
- Narrated by: Jonathan Smallwood
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gerald D. Hines stands at the top of the international real estate investment and development world. A Purdue graduate with a degree in engineering, Hines may have arrived in Houston in 1948 for a nine-to-five job at a heating and air conditioning company, but before long he was making the deals that would transform Houston’s skyline. Later, with his revolutionary idea that great architecture was good business, he was reshaping the skylines of the world.
-
-
Absolutely Incredible!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-29-22
By: Mark Seal
-
Trump: The Art of the Deal
- By: Donald J. Trump, Tony Schwartz
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Donald J. Trump
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is Trump in action—how he runs his organization and how he runs his life—as he meets the people he needs to meet, chats with family and friends, clashes with enemies, and challenges conventional thinking. But even a maverick plays by rules, and Trump has formulated time-tested guidelines for success. He isolates the common elements in his greatest accomplishments; he shatters myths; he names names, spells out the zeros, and fully reveals the deal-maker's art. And throughout, Trump talks—really talks—about how he does it.
-
-
The Man Who Would be President
- By Jose on 03-20-17
By: Donald J. Trump, and others
-
Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?
- How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire
- By: Reginald F. Lewis, Blair S. Walker
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Christina Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When six-year-old Reginald Lewis overheard his grandparents discussing employment discrimination against African Americans, he asked, “Why should white guys have all the fun?" This self-assured child would grow up to become the CEO of Beatrice International and one of the most successful entrepreneurs ever. At the time of his death in 1993, his personal fortune was estimated in excess of $400 million and his vast commercial empire spanned four continents.
-
-
Outstanding- inspiring and instructional
- By Gavin S on 09-15-20
By: Reginald F. Lewis, and others
-
What It Takes
- Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence
- By: Stephen A. Schwarzman
- Narrated by: Stephen A. Schwarzman, Drew Birdseye
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Blackstone chairman, CEO, and co-founder Stephen A. Schwarzman, a long-awaited book that uses impactful episodes from Schwarzman's life to show listeners how to build, transform, and lead thriving organizations. Whether you are a student, entrepreneur, philanthropist, executive, or simply someone looking for ways to maximize your potential, the same lessons apply.
-
-
A very boring self congratulatory victory lap
- By ---- on 10-26-19
-
Billionaires' Row
- Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers
- By: Katherine Clarke
- Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To look south and skyward from Central Park these days is to gaze upon a physical manifestation of tens of billions of dollars in global wealth: a series of soaring spires stretching from Park Avenue to Broadway. Known as Billionaires’ Row, this set of slender high-rise residences has transformed the skyline of New York City, thanks to developer-friendly policies and a seemingly endless gush of cash from tech, finance, and foreign oligarchs. And chances are most of us will never be invited to step inside.
-
-
Fantastic read/listen
- By Anonymous User on 03-15-25
By: Katherine Clarke
-
Other People's Money
- Inside the Housing Crisis and the Demise of the Greatest Real Estate Deal Ever Made
- By: Charles V. Bagli
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In just over three years, real estate giant Tishman Speyer and its partner, BlackRock, lost billions of investors' dollars on a single deal. In Other People's Money, Charles V. Bagli, the New York Times reporter who first broke the story of the sale of Stuyvesant Town - Peter Cooper Village takes listeners inside the most spectacular failure in real estate history, using this single deal as a lens to see how and why the real estate crisis happened.
-
-
Solid
- By BryanW on 05-22-24
By: Charles V. Bagli
-
Raising the Bar
- The Life and Work of Gerald D. Hines
- By: Mark Seal
- Narrated by: Jonathan Smallwood
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gerald D. Hines stands at the top of the international real estate investment and development world. A Purdue graduate with a degree in engineering, Hines may have arrived in Houston in 1948 for a nine-to-five job at a heating and air conditioning company, but before long he was making the deals that would transform Houston’s skyline. Later, with his revolutionary idea that great architecture was good business, he was reshaping the skylines of the world.
-
-
Absolutely Incredible!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-29-22
By: Mark Seal
-
Trump: The Art of the Deal
- By: Donald J. Trump, Tony Schwartz
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Donald J. Trump
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is Trump in action—how he runs his organization and how he runs his life—as he meets the people he needs to meet, chats with family and friends, clashes with enemies, and challenges conventional thinking. But even a maverick plays by rules, and Trump has formulated time-tested guidelines for success. He isolates the common elements in his greatest accomplishments; he shatters myths; he names names, spells out the zeros, and fully reveals the deal-maker's art. And throughout, Trump talks—really talks—about how he does it.
-
-
The Man Who Would be President
- By Jose on 03-20-17
By: Donald J. Trump, and others
-
Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?
- How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire
- By: Reginald F. Lewis, Blair S. Walker
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Christina Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When six-year-old Reginald Lewis overheard his grandparents discussing employment discrimination against African Americans, he asked, “Why should white guys have all the fun?" This self-assured child would grow up to become the CEO of Beatrice International and one of the most successful entrepreneurs ever. At the time of his death in 1993, his personal fortune was estimated in excess of $400 million and his vast commercial empire spanned four continents.
-
-
Outstanding- inspiring and instructional
- By Gavin S on 09-15-20
By: Reginald F. Lewis, and others
-
What It Takes
- Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence
- By: Stephen A. Schwarzman
- Narrated by: Stephen A. Schwarzman, Drew Birdseye
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Blackstone chairman, CEO, and co-founder Stephen A. Schwarzman, a long-awaited book that uses impactful episodes from Schwarzman's life to show listeners how to build, transform, and lead thriving organizations. Whether you are a student, entrepreneur, philanthropist, executive, or simply someone looking for ways to maximize your potential, the same lessons apply.
-
-
A very boring self congratulatory victory lap
- By ---- on 10-26-19
-
Too Big to Fail
- The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves
- By: Andrew Ross Sorkin
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 21 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A real-life thriller about the most tumultuous period in America's financial history by an acclaimed New York Times reporter. Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true, behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami.
-
-
Best Book About Meltdown
- By Chuck on 12-08-09
-
Am I Being Too Subtle?
- The Adventures of a Business Maverick
- By: Sam Zell
- Narrated by: Sam Zell
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Self-made billionaire Sam Zell consistently sees what others don't. From finding a market for overpriced Playboy magazines among his junior high classmates, to buying real estate on the cheap after a market crash, to investing in often unglamorous industries with long-term value, Zell acts boldly on supply and demand trends to grab the first-mover advantage. And he can find opportunity virtually anywhere - from an arcane piece of legislation to a desert meeting in Abu Dhabi.
-
-
Excellent story, but ....
- By David K. Robbins on 08-06-17
By: Sam Zell
-
No Red Lights
- Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital, and Never Driving Alone
- By: Alan J. Patricof
- Narrated by: Alan Patricof
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The early years of venture capital were a far cry from today’s very public dealings. Alan Patricof, one of the pioneers of the venture arena, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the past 50 years of the industry. From buying stock in Apple when its market valuation was only $60 million to founding New York Magazine to investing in AOL, Audible, and more recently, Axios, his discerning approach to finding companies is almost peerless.
-
-
Good stories and great lessons
- By Gary Lauder on 11-24-24
By: Alan J. Patricof
-
Soul City
- Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia
- By: Thomas Healy
- Narrated by: Larry Herron
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Thomas Healy resurrects a forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality in this fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country”.
-
-
awesome narrator
- By Arthur F. Jackson on 06-23-21
By: Thomas Healy
-
Greedy Bastards
- One City’s Texas-Size Struggle to Avoid a Financial Crisis
- By: Sheryl Sculley
- Narrated by: Sheryl Sculley
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Greedy Bastards tells the story of Sheryl and her new team’s uphill battle to turn around San Antonio city government. She takes you behind closed doors to share the hard changes she made and the strategies she used to create mutually beneficial solutions to the city’s biggest problems. Many of the issues Sheryl found in San Antonio are present in cities across the US. Packed with wins and losses, lessons learned, and pitfalls encountered, Greedy Bastards is a guidebook for any city official tasked with turning around a struggling city.
-
-
Great story
- By Robert Sturns on 03-04-25
By: Sheryl Sculley
-
American Oligarchs
- The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power
- By: Andrea Bernstein
- Narrated by: Andrea Bernstein
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In American Oligarchs, award-winning investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein creates a vivid portrait of two emblematic American families. Their journey to the White House is a story of survival and loss, crime and betrayal, which stretches from the Gilded Age through Nazi-occupied Poland to the rising nationalism and inequality of the 21st century. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and over 100,000 pages of documents, many previously unseen or long forgotten, Bernstein traces how the families grew rich on federal programs that bolstered the middle class.
-
-
Informative, Interesting and Illuminating
- By Phyllis on 02-27-20
By: Andrea Bernstein
-
Kochland
- The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America
- By: Christopher Leonard
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 23 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just as Steve Coll told the story of globalization through ExxonMobil and Andrew Ross Sorkin told the story of Wall Street excess through Too Big to Fail, Christopher Leonard’s Kochland uses the extraordinary account of how the biggest private company in the world grew to be that big to tell the story of modern corporate America.
-
-
An anti-capitalism treatise
- By Luis on 10-01-19
-
White House, Inc.
- How Donald Trump Turned the Presidency into a Business
- By: Dan Alexander
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
White House, Inc. is a newsmaking exposé that details President Trump’s efforts to make money off of politics, taking us inside his exclusive clubs, luxury hotels, overseas partnerships, commercial properties, and personal mansions. Alexander tracks hundreds of millions of dollars flowing freely between big businesses and President Trump. He explains, in plain language, how Trump tried to translate power into profit, from the 2016 campaign to the ramp-up to the 2020 campaign.
-
-
Required reading for all Americans
- By Gregor on 10-11-20
By: Dan Alexander
-
Golden Gates
- Fighting for Housing in America
- By: Conor Dougherty
- Narrated by: Conor Dougherty
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With propulsive storytelling and ground-level reporting, New York Times journalist Conor Dougherty chronicles America’s housing crisis from its West Coast epicenter, peeling back the decades of history and economic forces that brought us here and taking listeners inside the activist movements that have risen in tandem with housing costs.
-
-
Loud, clear starts of sentences that end with mumbling a and whispers
- By eric wimberly on 02-26-20
By: Conor Dougherty
-
Broke, USA
- From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business
- By: Gary Rivlin
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For most people, the Great Crash of 2008 has meant troubling times. Not so for those in the flourishing poverty industry, for whom the economic woes spell an opportunity to expand and grow. These mercenary entrepreneurs have taken advantage of an era of deregulation to devise high-priced products to sell to the credit-hungry working poor, including the instant tax refund and the payday loan. In the process, they've created an industry larger than the casino business.
-
-
A Good Read
- By Wade T. Brooks on 06-25-12
By: Gary Rivlin
-
Overhaul
- An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry
- By: Steven Rattner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This first real look inside Team Obama mixes political warfare and big-business shakeups in equal proportions, and comes from a uniquely informed source. Steve Rattner is not just the man brought in by the president to save the auto industry, he is a former New York Times financial reporter who also earned a place among the top tier of Wall Street's most informed investment bankers and corporate experts.
-
-
Overhaul - A Memoir
- By Roy on 12-05-10
By: Steven Rattner
-
The Caesars Palace Coup
- How a Billionaire Brawl Over the Famous Casino Exposed the Power and Greed of Wall Street
- By: Max Frumes, Sujeet Indap
- Narrated by: Chris Kipiniak
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was the most brutal corporate restructuring in Wall Street history. The 2015 bankruptcy brawl for the storied casino giant, Caesars Entertainment, pitted brilliant and ruthless private equity legends against the world's most relentless hedge fund wizards.
-
-
HORRIBLE UNREADABLE BOOK.
- By howard bascom on 07-12-21
By: Max Frumes, and others
What listeners say about Saving Stuyvesant Town
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Buckley
- 03-04-25
Not Really Saved After All
So, the tenants at Stuytown Peter Cooper wanted to be able to buy their units, but were inflexible and eventually came to a point where a conversion plan was no longer feasible. Mr. Garodnick details his failure in this book, spinning it as a victory.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!