The building’s owner DTH Capital says Con Edison is the culprit, but a spokesperson for the company told the Times there was “no indication” that the malfunction has nothing to do with its service or equipment. The problems are so bad that the building had to hire an elevator mechanic to be on call 24 hours in order to replace the system's operating boards, which DTH attempted unsuccessfully to buy in bulk.

Tenants in the 57-story tower at 20 Exchange Place are getting by buying two weeks of groceries at a time. Some have been given new apartments elsewhere in the area or have signed non-disclosure agreements with the owners. Others are afraid to talk on the record, while still more either broke their leases or else wound up climbing a mountain of lament — including a 28-year-old nurse who thought she scored a deal during the Covid boom (“I’m a young, in-shape person, so I can do it. But it’s miserable.”)

“It’s a privilege that we are able to afford to live here, but we did not sign up to live in gilded cages,” one such denizen told the Times. “And coming off the heels of two years of a pandemic situation where we felt trapped, it all feels so much more acute.”