Let's not forget the esteemed Charles Rangel... Fast Charlie, the multimillionaire congressman on the house ways and means committee totally abused the system with two rent controlled apartments... Including Ones that he worked out off, and didn't even live in. A real man of the people. If there's a shortage of affordable housing, maybe there should be more scrutiny of the tenants too who abuse the system. But new Yorkers voted him back to the house anyway even after his duplicity came to light. Meanwhile, landlords can't even afford to make improvements or benefit from their investments with people like fast Charlie and others abusing the system..
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Shocking after four days of feature stories villifyiing NY landlirds, the NYT finally allows readers to comment on one. The rent control system is incredibly abused. Generations getting under- market housing.. Yet no discussion of this at all.... Just the cartoonist portrayal of "" corporate landlords"as evil, money grinning pigs. Where's the story of empty nesters with vacation homes in Florida maintaining their rent controlled pied et Terre so they can come see Hamilton on Broadway? It's more common than you'd think.
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Alexandra reports “blue skies with a light breeze and a high near 80,” and adds the suggestion to “grab your shades and get outside.” On this 135th anniversary of the opening of the magnificent Brooklyn Bridge, this would be a perfect day to enjoy a walk across—and the wonderful views from—what was rightly called “the eighth wonder of the world.” As David McCullough, historian and author of “The Great Bridge,” once put it: “walking out on the Brooklyn Bridge on a beautiful spring day is one of the great experiences in America, like standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon, and nobody should miss it.”
The report has missed a fact that many tenets actually are wellfarelifter. They either lied to housing authority in application or penetrated the loopholes of bureaucratic regulation to move in. Somebody even possesses more than one apartment and then profit from subleasing. They end up rob housing resources from people who really need it. Those people, who are not few, are as greedy as landlords listed in the report.
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@Wood:
What actually happens is this scenario:
X rents a multitude of regulated apartments from landlord Y and subleases his "Rooms For Rent" and crams as many illegal immigrants as possible into every apartment.
When the lease ends, X opts not to renew, however, he signs a new lease as Z and helps the landlord get his 20% vacancy increase.
The illegal subtenants are still there, nobody has moved.
The cycle continues until the apartment is priced out of the regulatory threshold.
X/Z and other contractors work with landlords and both the Rooms For Rent contractors and landlords share in the excessive profitability of each overloaded apartment.
NYC has become a sanctuary city by default and it has impacted the housing stock; illegal immigrants can get cheap overcrowded housing while resident citizens end up homeless or in the shelter system.
Progressive Liberals are usually aghast with the result of this collision of two issues, housing and illegal immigration, but often their brains settle into denial by blaming Russian Oligarchs or some other red herring for scarce housing resources.
The Rooms For Rent scheme has deregulated thousands of apartments very quickly and is cheaper than buyouts; it's a win/win situation for landlord and contractor, but not so much for legal resident citizens.
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I feel sorry for the owner of a small owner-occupied dwelling with a few rentals. Trying to get through housing court to evict a deadbeat tenant in a timely manner is virtually impossible. There are plenty of abuses by professional property owners, but plenty of tenants know how to play the system.
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The good news. NYC has undergone major urban renewal. During the past 20 years, neighborhoods that languished underwent gentrification. The bad news. The price of homes and rentals escalated to a point where middle income and working class families had little choice but to vacate entire communities. NYC reflects the social-economic bifurcation seen at a national level.
Real estate speculators and developers "own" the Planning Commission, and have minimum requirements to include unit allocations for affordable housing. Community impact studies, if conducted at all, serve no purpose. Greed is the driver. Concern for quality of life for all New Yorkers be damned. The second shoe drops when we consider the absurdly low property tax rate assessed property owners when compared to similarly priced homes in surrounding suburban communities. Hence, opportunities to recycle some of the financial gains made by those who lease, develop or own these real estate money machines fails to improve urban education, public transportation and infrastructure. Small wonder that so many hard working New Yorkers join other Americans in feeling a sense of alienation from public officials.
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“In response to the investigation, the Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. of the Bronx wrote a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio urging him to move more quickly to put into effect a 'right to counsel' law that was passed in 2017 but has a rollout deadline of 2022.”
Bringing this minor survival issue into focus, with all the water cooler (or coffee pod machine) debate and excitement over the Straw Law reported in yesterday’s NY Today: :)
tune of “Tin Man” by America" - “Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man”
Sometimes when they legislate
And want the public to believe they get stuff done
We all feel glad to take the bait
And be diverted to an issue that’s more fun
So Blaz really does have nothing on the Straw Man
When it comes to getting us all involved
Our latte guy will now be watched by the lawman
And we'll cheer: A problem‘s been solved
(So please, help N-Y-C) -
All the problems underground, still astound
And they can’t fix housing
Spending stays unsound, but they found
The straw law they’re espousing
Pleases N-Y-C
-- (to fade, as other issues step out of the light)
So Blaz really does have nothing on the Straw Man.
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I am neither a landlord or owner in New York City, but I know more then a few that seem to maintain rent control apartments and have homes in places like Florida and elsewhere..... Need go no further then the abuses from a congressmen from Manhattan which abused the system.
The reality is, this should be a supply and demand argument. If there is a shortage, someone will show up with investments to provide services, but not if you place a million regulations about how to run a business and how much you can make on them, then the investment won't show up.
There are parts of the country giving away real estate for nothing and some even incenting those to move in..... If you cant afford NYC, then you should consider moving somewhere else where it makes sense. We should not be subsidizing anyone to stay here. By the way, when this lower end labor pool moves on, it will also drive up wages, if you want services such as a cup of coffee, you will pay more and the person making it will get paid more. Chain reaction resulting in wage growth.
Supply and Demand works.
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@Cromwell:
IMO, if you can't afford NYC, the question to ask is: Who made it unaffordable? Who decided that and why?
Why should New Yorkers have to go to "parts of the country giving away real estate for nothing"? Wherever those places are, they're not New York City!
Bloomberg & De Blasio get the credit for giving the place away to developers, and for shrugging their shoulders at the needs of the millions of regular working people who comprise the middle class.
And no, those of us who were born here and have lived (and contributed) here all our lives have NO obligation to "move somewhere else"! WE were here first, and we were here through all the decades when the city was not considered desirable.
I think the rich should go some place in the midwest and make it a new hot-spot for the rich. Go inflict yourselves elsewhere.
In the meantime, we should *not* be subsidizing the RICH to live here - and if you look at the tax breaks given to many of the most expensive residential buildings in NYC, every single New Yorker IS in fact subsidizing the developers and the rich!
Supply & demand in NYC is completely distorted and perverted by politicians, lobbyists and developers.
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L...... If there's distortion, it's rent control that distorted it... And you were here "first"? First amongst whom? If you earn minimum wage you can't live on 5th Ave. I was born in a horrible neighborhood in Brooklyn where I couldn't even walk through the park without the real fear of being mugged. Now it's hipsters and the park is filled with young couples and mommies enjoying picnics with their kids. Which would you choose? I'll take gentrification and free markets any day over Needle parks.
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Beyond the greed factor and outright criminal behavior for the moment, the actions by The Real Estate Industrial Complex are enabled by the Democrat Party that has let the housing accountability enforcement systems devolve into disarray just like everything else it can get their hands on. You can't blame this on Trump. Perhaps the Democrat Party should focus on getting it's house in order (not likely) rather than rail against the President every other minute as we approach the primary and general elections.
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You’re right. The Democrats should develop positive plans to improve government. But then will Republicans hold their leaders accountable for the way they are handling our affairs? For example, does it make sense to you that the President spends more time defending himself against a witch hunt than pushing forward the infrastructure plan that he promised? Is the wall more important than balancing the budget? Is he leading by example and reducing the expenditures of the White House?
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