Metro

Tony vs. stoney at ‘high’ rise

Class warfare has broken out at a swanky Midtown apartment complex, where high-end renters are tussling with their lower-income neighbors over pot use and messy hallways.

Some of the well-to-do residents at tony 1 Columbus Place are blaming their less-fortunate neighbors — who live in the affordable-housing section in the concierge building — for the pot smoke that wafts through their vents and the cigarette butts that litter their halls.

The richer residents, who pay up to nearly $7,000 a month in rent, say the pungent pot odor and litter had gotten so bad that the building’s management had to send security teams to patrol the hallways.

“Pot was coming through the vents,” according to a resident in the south tower of the double-high-rise complex near Columbus Circle. “It stopped for a little bit when they were using security, but as soon as they left, it started up again.”

The landlord even tacked a stern warning in the elevators threatening to evict any tenant caught with pot, another resident said.

“I don’t expect illegal things to be happening in this building,” said the resident, Lidia Fluhme, 31, who pays nearly $5,300 for a two-bedroom unit in the building, which boasts a gym and roof terrace.

“We feel that it’s unfair that we have people living in the same building on the same floor and they pay a fraction of what we do. If you need special housing, there are so many places other than a block away from Central Park.”

Nearly 150 of the building’s 700 units are set aside for low-income housing under the state’s 80/20 initiative.

The program allows the developer to use tax-exempt bonds for construction, thus greatly reducing costs, as long as it sets aside 20 percent of the housing for tenants earning no more than 50 percent of an area’s median income.

The median household income for Columbus Circle is about $93,000.

That means to qualify for a low-income slot at 1 Columbus Place, tenants would have to make no more than $46,000.