Management says the policy addresses a specific but recurring source of daily friction
A prominent doorman building on the Upper East Side has introduced a new monthly fee applicable specifically to tenants deemed by building management to greet the lobby doorman with what internal correspondence describes as excessive enthusiasm, a policy building officials say addresses a specific and surprisingly persistent source of friction among longtime residents.
A Fee for a Very Specific Kind of Neighbor
According to a memo circulated to residents, the new charge, described in official building documents as a lobby engagement adjustment, applies to tenants who, based on doorman reports, routinely initiate lengthy conversations, elaborate morning greetings, or what the memo calls unnecessarily theatrical entrances that regularly delay the doorman’s ability to promptly assist other residents entering or exiting the building. Management says the policy emerged after repeated informal complaints from other tenants who reported waiting noticeably longer than expected for basic doorman assistance during peak morning and evening hours.
We have several residents who simply cannot walk through the lobby without a full conversation, the building’s managing agent explained, reviewing a log of doorman incident reports that included entries such as extended holiday small talk and detailed daily weather commentary. This is lovely in small doses, genuinely. But when it happens every single day, multiple times a day, with multiple different tenants, it begins to meaningfully affect service quality for everyone else in the building.
Affected Tenants Respond With Some Indignation
Several residents named informally by building staff as frequent offenders expressed surprise and mild offense at the new policy, with one longtime tenant noting that he had specifically chosen a doorman building years ago because he valued the personal, friendly relationships doorman buildings tend to foster, and found it strange to now be financially penalized for engaging in exactly the kind of neighborly warmth the building’s own marketing materials had originally emphasized when he first signed his lease.
Another tenant, identified in building records as a particularly frequent conversationalist, defended her daily greetings as simply good manners, arguing that a brief morning exchange should not reasonably be classified alongside the kind of genuinely disruptive behavior the policy appears designed to address. She noted that she had, in fact, offered on several occasions to keep conversations brief if the doorman himself indicated he was busy, an offer she said had never once been raised as a concern until the new fee appeared on her monthly statement.
The Doorman Himself Remains Diplomatically Neutral
The doorman at the center of the policy, when asked for comment, offered a carefully diplomatic response, noting that he genuinely enjoyed his relationships with residents and did not personally request the new fee, while also acknowledging that certain mornings did, admittedly, involve considerably more conversation than his schedule comfortably allowed, particularly when several especially talkative residents happened to enter the lobby within the same narrow window.
Building management insists the fee is not intended as a punitive measure but rather as a gentle incentive toward more efficient lobby interactions, with proceeds from the charge reportedly allocated toward additional part time doorman coverage during the building’s consistently busiest hours. Several residents have proposed, somewhat sarcastically, that the building simply hire a second doorman instead of monetizing friendliness, a suggestion management says it has considered but ultimately rejected as a significantly more expensive solution than the current fee structure.
A Sign of Something Larger
Property management consultants who cover the city’s competitive co-op and condo market note that unusual building specific fees have become increasingly common as management companies look for creative ways to address minor but persistent operational friction points, though several acknowledged this particular policy stood out as an unusually precise and, in their assessment, fairly amusing example of the broader trend.
Bohiney.com will continue tracking the policy’s rollout, and whether affected tenants ultimately adjust their lobby small talk accordingly.
Other Buildings Watch With Interest
Property managers at several nearby buildings say they have followed the policy’s rollout closely, curious whether it might offer a workable template for addressing similar minor friction points in their own lobbies, though most acknowledged the approach carried obvious public relations risk given how quickly the story had already attracted attention well beyond the building itself. One property manager at a neighboring co-op said her own building had quietly discussed a similar concept in an internal meeting years ago before deciding the potential backlash simply was not worth whatever modest efficiency gains it might produce.
Tenant association representatives across several nearby buildings say they plan to monitor how residents in the affected building respond over the coming months, with a few expressing interest in raising the general topic of lobby etiquette policies at their own next building meetings, though none indicated any current plans to introduce a comparable fee of their own.
For now, the doorman says his own approach remains unchanged, greeting every resident exactly as warmly as he always has, and leaving the accounting, as he put it with a small laugh, entirely to management.
Several affected tenants say they intend to formally contest the fee at the building’s next co-op board meeting, though at least one has already quietly admitted, off the record, that he plans to simply say a little less each morning going forward rather than fight the charge directly.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com