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A-Rod a Tightwad?

Posted Dec 7th 2007 11:47AM by TMZ Staff

The only thing baseball hunk Alex Rodriguez likes less than signing autographs for fans is spending his Yankee millions to fix up the apartment buildings he owns in Tampa, Fla. Foul ball!

Residents of the Newport Riverside complex -- one of 16 properties the slugger owns nationwide -- complain of cardboard taped over broken windows, roaches and shoddy plumbing. Home rundown!

"My mom ... thinks I live in the projects," one tenant tells The New York Times. "She's scared to come over here."

What would Mr. Furley say?

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1. FIRST

Posted at 4:22PM on Dec 7th 2007 by VINNIEGAMBINI

2. STUPID NASTY TENANTS SHOULD TAKE CARE OF THEIR PLACE WHERE THEY LIVE, IF THE HAVE ROACHES, IT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE DIRTY!!! AND WHY WOULD IT BE A-RODS FAULT IF THEY HAVE THEIR WINDOWS BROKEN? TAKE CARE OF YOUR PLACE PEOPLE...DONT BLAME PEOPLE FOR YOUR NASTY LIVING!!!

Posted at 4:40PM on Dec 7th 2007 by LIZZIE

3. A-Rod is absolutely not directly responsible for the condition of this property. Unfortunately the people his business managers hired to run the properties are not doing THEIR job. Please people - between playing baseball, training, publicity, charity work, Vegas, and family time ya know A-Rod takes that special trip to Tampa to personally hire the property manager for Newport Riverside complex. Riiiiiight.

Posted at 5:25PM on Dec 7th 2007 by Tiffany

4. Clean up after yourself you filthy slimebags.

Posted at 5:34PM on Dec 7th 2007 by FlBiker

5. Not sure who is worse; Ms. Roberts for writing it, TMZ for reporting it as if it is fact or me for reading it.

Ms. Roberst has none of her facts straight about A-Rod's charitable contributions. No mention of the money he has given to the Childrens AId SOciety, Unicef, Boys and Girls Club of Miami or Junior League of Miami for a battered womens shelter.

As for A-Rod not signing autographs, I didn't see anyone approach him for one and he refused.

Posted at 5:44PM on Dec 7th 2007 by GetReal

6. The manager of this apartments in the Tampa are is his brother in law. He will become the fall guy, but A-rod is ultimately responsible. Slum Lord?

Posted at 5:46PM on Dec 7th 2007 by Base Ball Fan

7. Why should A-Rod be responsible for tenants being so irresponsible to break windows and live in slovenly conditions that cause roaches. Lazy jerks need to clean up after themselves and take better care of the apts. The plumbing may be his responsibility.... the other stuff is caused by lazy dirty tenants.

Posted at 5:54PM on Dec 7th 2007 by Nani

8. tmz, what you cannot do a little research ? wheres the broken window? can't find it? just because someone says something it's true? like Harvey leivns is dating bobby trendy ? i saw them making out in a ally, while looking at a Chippendale calendar, why don't your report that? i'm wondering why i even look at this sight anymore, your the same as prez hilton now

Posted at 12:04PM on Dec 8th 2007 by tired of cry baby\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

9. oh please leaving him alone, i'm sure he got people that handle the
stuff, we all know he is not the one to blame, PEOPLE CLEAN AFTER
YOUR SELF.........i can not believe that some people would even think
about blaming this on him, there is alot people with alot of free time
thinking what would be the next thing that Arod should be
on?........Is like derek and the taxes....he got people to work on
that........what? do you think that Derek is going to do all that
byhimself? or Alex cheking those apartments himself?.....they hired
people for that and they are not doing their job....but...... IS ALEX
RODRIGUEZ AND DEREK JETER.....LET'S MAKE IT A BIG DEAL OF IT.......LEAVE
THEM ALONE!!!!! and SHAME ON TMZ FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS .......GO AND CHECKED ON BRITNEY AND PARIS AND LEAVE THE YANKEES ALONE!!!

Posted at 7:18PM on Dec 7th 2007 by laura

10. While I agree that he is not directly responsible for the conditions there, it is his property and legally he is. I doubt that all of the tenants are nasty. It only takes a few and those few can have the place crawling with roaches and other vermin in no time. Then it becomes the landlord's responsibility to the OTHER tenants to fix the broken windows, arrange for pest control and definitely to make sure the plumbing and other structural problems are seen to. If he has a management company in charge of these things, then he needs to fire them and get people in there who can effectively manage the place (i.e. pay the $$ to have the place taken care of.)

I live in a nice apartment complex (no slum lords and very responsive maintenance staff) and a nasty couple moved in next door last year. Within weeks I started seeing "uninvited guests." The management dealt with the problem in my place as best they could, but that doesn't solve the nasty neighbor problem. Thankfully, people who keep nasty homes usually don't pay their rent either, so they were evicted and all of my problems went away.

Posted at 10:16PM on Dec 7th 2007 by The good neighbor

11. A-Rod is a rod

Posted at 10:33PM on Dec 7th 2007 by Logo Designers

12. Gay-Rod is a slum lord. I'm not surprised.

Posted at 1:02AM on Dec 8th 2007 by the lost

13. My daughter who attends USF in Florida lives in one of his complexes. She also has had many problems, roaches being one of them, Roaches are a big problem in Florida ...especially in the summer. It has nothing to do with the tenants cleanliness. My daughters fridge has not worked correctly since moving in( unusuable , been there 7 months) , and depsite numerous written notices to fix....nothing. The grounds are well taken care of but not the apartments. As for A-Rod, dont think this is entirely his problem The management there is terrible, so we mainly blame them. My daughter will be moving at end of lease because of inept managment.and their inablility to fix anything. If someone doesnt get on this soon...A-Rods investments will go down drain.

Posted at 1:31AM on Dec 8th 2007 by karen

14. I used to live at Newport Riverside. I lived there almost 8 years. It's about time that this story got out.

Things were not perfect prior to Rodriguez's ownership, but disintegrated upon Riverbook's change to Newport Riverside. I personally didn't have a roach problem; but what I did have was an air conditioning unit with a rotted-out air handler. It took months - not weeks, months - and threatening legal action to finally get it fixed. In July. In Florida.

The apartments have been through several managers. No one stays long enough to get anything done. I never saw the likes of Rodriguez. I'm sure his air conditioning was never broken.

I moved out after Newport Riverside wanted to raise my rent $130 per month for a one-bedroom. I bought a house. I'm well shut of the place, but there's definitely a story here if TMZ wants to interview current residents.

Posted at 7:34AM on Dec 8th 2007 by I WAS THERE