QUEENS

... more on tax-fairness legislation introduced in Albany; whether no-smoking buildings affects apartment prices; a lobby renovation done right; and The Sheffield pools its resources. And for co-op and condo boards, an expert answer on who's responsible with bathtubs leak.

It's a nice place to visit. It's even nicer to live there. Silver Towers, in Kew Gardens, Queens, is a combination of 377 cooperative apartments, 40 condominium units containing lawyers' and doctors' offices, several commercial stores and a three-level garage. Because of the mixture of co-op housing and condo retail space, the property is known as a cond-op.

"Noise complaints are the bane of our existence," says Maryann Caputo, president of Tribor Management, which manages some three dozen co-ops and condos, mostly in Queens. "I'd rather have any problem other than a noise complaint."

They may be intractable, but noise complaints between neighbors are not insoluble — provided condo and co-op boards understand the nature of the quagmire they're getting into. And how to get out of it.

I took the criticisms to heart — and not just because I was president. I have lived in this cooperative for much of my life: After World War II, my father settled here in what was then known as the United Veterans Mutual Housing Company, run by New York State; it went private in 1990. Although I moved out when I was 17, I returned to live here some years later. After a successful career running a music / entertainment business, owning a video-production company and serving as a board member elsewhere, at the Floral Park co-op North Shore Towers, I think I know how to work with people and get things done.

At 249-37 61st Ave. and 252-65 63rd Ave., two garden apartment buildings in the sprawling 69-building, 1,398-unit Deepdale Gardens co-op in Northeast Queens, green space is abundant. Storage space, on the other hand – that recently got a boost in the form of 14 new steel lockers.

I’m a retired banker who worked at one company for 41 years. Clearview Gardens is a 1,788-unit garden apartment co-op complex located in northeastern Queens, situated over 88 acres. I was there before I was married and now I live here with my wife, son, and daughter. Altogether that spans 30-plus years.

Whither S4283?