How Pet Parrots Started a War Inside an NYC Apartment Building
Long before the complaints about shrieking parrots, many years before lawyers were hired and stern letters exchanged, and more than a decade before the Department of Justice literally turned the building into a federal case, the Rutherford, a 14-story co-op in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, was a pretty tranquil place to live.At least it seemed that way to Charlotte Kullen.In late 1999, she was 26 and had already navigated a couple of difficult landlords as a renter in the city.
When she closed on a small studio apartment on the Rutherford’s fifth floor, she felt relief.“I was like, OK, peace and quiet and no problems,” she said in a recent interview.“It’d be an investment.
And then, you know, in five years or whatever, I get married and I go have kids somewhere.In the meantime, I can paint my walls, I can decorate.”Soon after arriving, she met her next-door neighbor, Meril Lesser, who had also recently moved in and was working on a master’s degree in psychology.
The pair had plenty in common.They were both from New Jersey and roughly the same age.
Both were deeply attached to their animals.Ms.
Kullen owned a cat and eventually two papillon dogs, as well as a horse she kept in a barn in New Jersey.Ms.
Lesser lived with two parrots.The women quickly developed a friendship, one that started warmly enough.Together they went to bars and parties and sought a place in Manhattan’s social whirl, all the while trying to gain traction professionally.
Ms.Kullen was laid off from a public relations firm, then cycled through a few different jobs before founding her own P.R.
shop and working out of her apartment.Ms.
Lesser was briefly a social worker and eventually started making jewelry, which she sold through an Etsy store.Over the years, the neighbors shared meals, dating advice, pain relievers and the occasional holiday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for yo...