The Real Deal

Anonymous

these "people" are crazy. here we go again "Mazzoni said that its failure to vote at all shows a lack of concern for tenants' rights." This is not about "tenants' rights" - this is about rent stabilization - I'm a market rate renter - these rules ensure that I pay MORE - passing these bills would hurt more tenants than it would help (there are more market rate rental apartments than stabilized ones) so let it be known that these 200 animals at this rally are the noisy minority. Fair minded New Yorkers realize that market rate renters are forced to carry too much of the burden and we must do what's right by them, namely, leveling the playing field for all renters.

Comment #1 Posted By: Anonymous 07/12/10

Anonymous

these people seem so concerned about rents - why don't they care that my rent is so much higher than it should be because of THEM!!! Greedy pigs all of them!!!

Comment #2 Posted By: Anonymous 07/12/10

Anonymous

We would actually like to extend rent regulation to more apartments so more New Yorkers have protection from unwarranted rent increases and from baseless or retaliatory eviction. Landlords and the media have effectively pit one group of struggling tenants against another- we need to be united. I am a market rate tenant and I believe strongly in the need for rent regulated housing. It is a misconception that rent stabilization is the reason rents are so high; the real reason is we have a major housing shortage and many landlords take advantage of this.

Comment #3 Posted By: Anonymous 07/12/10

Fair minded

Calling working class renters animals and greedy pigs has me wondering if the writer might be representing Landlords interests not market rate tenants. The Housing movement wants housing to be fair and affordable for all new yorkers. Pitting one group of renters against another sounds like a real estate lobbyist ploy - not the true comments of a renter.

Comment #4 Posted By: Fair minded 07/13/10

Anonymous

#4 - number 1 here - I'm a market rate tenant who can stand the bravado. Your concerns are for yourselves. If not then get rid of rent stabilization for rich people, until then STFU!!! My neighbor has made millions and her rent is 3 times less what my roommates and I pay. She has the same apartment that we do, yet she lives alone. We can't afford to live alone so we cram together. Why protect her rent at my expense? Landlords have nothing to do with rental rates - trying to blame them is a red herring. If they controlled prices then why did they let rental rates fall 25% last year? Rental rates are so high for two main reasons - rent stabilization and as #3 states a lack of supply. Landlords are not the problem (in fact if we'd let them build the units they wanted Landlords would actually be the solution). If you really want to do the right thing then your first move should be to eliminate rent stabilization for the rich. There is no justification for such nonsense. NONE!

Comment #5 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

If you are foolish enough to pay a scalpers price market rate rent you are also stupid enough not to know that no one else supports you!

Comment #6 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Concerned Citizen

Rent regulation keeps AFFORDABLE APARTMENTS available for current and future generations of renters. The Real Rent Reform Campaign is asking State Legislators to pass bills that would strengthen these laws to stem the loss of regulated housing due to weakening amendments passed at the behest of the real estate industry. Have you ever heard of a landlord that would voluntarily lower the rent?

Comment #7 Posted By: Concerned Citizen 07/13/10

RENT STABILIZATION WORKS

Rent should be affordable. End of story. It balances society. You market rate renters who cram into apartments with other idiots just so you can say you live in a certain neighborhood deserve to give landlords all of your income for being so stupid. I agree that certain neighborhoods and buildings should have market rate rent but not all. If it wasn't for rent stabilization I wouldn't have been able to support myself while going to college and afford a decent quality of life in Manhattan. Stop paying market rate rent in neighborhoods you can't afford and live in other parts of Manhattan or in the outer boroughs. Or are you too racist, scared, or prejudiced to live with people that don't look like you? I'm tired of people that don't make a decent income who want to live in neighborhoods like Tudor City and pay an arm and a leg yet want to complain about their rent and how they don't make enough money.

Comment #8 Posted By: RENT STABILIZATION WORKS 07/13/10

Anonymous

There is no "right" to affordable housing.

Comment #9 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

#9 quoted by Pamela Liebman.

Comment #10 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

Affordable housing is not a right, and the current stabilization laws are antiquated and pure populism politics where the squeaky wheel always gets the oil. Lets not forget how many people who make a good living also benefit from the system (myself included at one time). I don't live in the area nicest neighborhood, because I CANT AFFORD TO, THATS JUST LIFE IDIOTS. If you can't afford to live in Manhattan, why do you expect landlords and all the FM renters to subsidize your living? Get a roomate or move to Astoria. Very simple. Now stop whining and get a job or a hobby because you activists definitely have too much time on your hands.

Comment #11 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

#8 - you still can justify why rich people get to keep affordable rents - rent stabilization does not work. It creates a system where my rich neighbor gets rent at 1/3 of what I pay. Voucher systems work - stabilization is a farce perpetuated by corrupt politicians and the those with stabilized rents who contribute huge dollars to these politicians.

Comment #12 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

why is nyc so lucky to have these morons? it was a Monday, don't they have jobs? no, wait the Landlords subsidize their existance. Go look at any other City in this Country and there is more affordable housing and better quality for everyone becuase there is no rent controls. Case Closed - Kruger and the rest of you panderers, wake up. this is not your only constituancy anymore and we vote too. co-op, condo and free market renters are now the majority and we are sick of these idiots.

Comment #13 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

we are living stupid world! no common senses work in new york city and USA!!! hard working middle class and working class support people who do not work!!! Shame !!!

Comment #14 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

They already have the most pro tenant strict laws in New York - a RS/RC tenant can never be evicted,ever, unless they do not pay rent for a very long time. PERIOD. The rents go up a small set % per year - taxes, insurance, fuel, tickets do not have any ceiling, they just go up and up. What is this rally for? MORE controls!!! - unbelievable - they should be happy with the best deal in the United States. But it is never enough for the self entitled crew.

Comment #15 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

"We're demanding they pass the package of tenant [legislation] before they pass the budget," ----- HOW SELFISH IS THAT? Isnt it more important to pass the budget for all New Yorkers?

Comment #16 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

There's a real debate to be had here. I just wish it could be had without name calling. This isn't a naive idea--it has happened on a range of issues, though sadly rarely--and real compromise has come out of it. I don't write this in any real hope that the web will change--it is just sad that it can't be truly useful as the rare place that those unable or uncomfortable airing differing ideas in public can actually communicate. Ah well.

Comment #17 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

FYI...market rate tenants. You choose to pay those prices for your apartments. You think a landlord will charge you less than market rate if all of the units in his building are market rate units??? Who are you fooling? I personally dont agree with all the Rent Regulations laws, but your POV is very much flawed.

Comment #18 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

Sorry -correction - Kruger is not on their side. but you know who is? Tom Duane, Christine Quinn, Vito Lopez - and the rest of the affordable housing jihadists.

Comment #19 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

#20 - what makes you say Kruger is not on their side? She's always lobbying for them - I sent her an email saying "what about me, the market rate tenant" and she replied with some BS crap about how "the people in her district need affordable housing" I replied back and said you're wrong I live in your district - what we need is a level playing field for everyone, not a system that protects the few at the expense of the many.

Comment #20 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

#18 - I pay 3 TIMES WHAT MY RICH NEIGHBOR PAYS AND YOU EXPECT ME TO NEGOTIATE???

Comment #21 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

21, i corrected myslef in 20. But thank you for standing up for the rest of us. It seems the politicians think these lunatics represent the majority , which they do not.

Comment #22 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

The Constitution of the United States is supposed to protect private property rights. Rent control and rent stabilization flout those protections, and distort the market. I do not own property, but I believe in the rule of law. These "activists" have only self-interest at heart, and clearly have zero understanding of economics.

Comment #23 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

Also the democrats passed legistation to cap rents for people living with HIV - how is that fair to anyone else? are the taxes and other expenses caped too. Again special interest benefit and everyone else suffers. I am sorry for anyone stricken with the disease , but many work and ar productive, and live for decades

Comment #24 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

You want rock bottom rents. Let's have the city buy all apt. and we all can live in a city project. Do you want the city running your building - with their record, I think not. There is a price to pay for well run buildings. We don't live in the 1940's. Prices for everyone goes up. If living in Manhattan is too expensive we have 4 other boroughs. My parents couldn't afford Manhattan and we lived in Brooklyn and guess what their are great places to live in Brooklyn and e had a quick commute to the city whenever we wanted to go. I want to drive aBMW but I can'tI drive a VW and its fine.

Comment #25 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

Just taking a guess that only 3 people have posted all of these posts. Kind of funny to see actually.

Comment #26 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Osito

These idiots are not "affordable housing advocates". If they advocated for affordable housing, they would fight to get rid of rent regulation. The rest of the world does not have rent regulation; not even quasi-socialist places like France and Spain.

Comment #27 Posted By: Osito 07/13/10

Anonymous

these free loaders looking for a free housing hand out should be ashamed. go live where you could afford to live. affordable housing is not a birth right. go buy a piece of property and have someone tell you what to charge a tenant-you'll be on the other side of the fence real fast.

Comment #28 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

to all you stabilized renters-SHUT UP OR GO SUPPORT YOURSELVES. LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS. BUY WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD. YOU ARE RENTERS-KEY WORD-RENTERS-NOT OWNERS. LOOK UP THE MEANING.

Comment #29 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

If you want stable housing prices then buy something. For 30 years your payment to the bank will be the same (no annual rent increase to deal with) and then ......drumroll....... YOUR PAYMENT GOES AWAY!!!!!!! So for 30 of your 90 years on earth you pay the same payment to the bank then that payment GOES AWAY. Sure you pay maintenance/property taxes - but there is no better way if you want stable housing.

Comment #30 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

Why would any decent owner allow for roommates anyway ? If your name isnt on a lease, or a rider/clause attached with your name on it,,,,you are living there illegally, fyi.

Comment #31 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

correct #31 - not to mention a PAID OFF asset of your very own after the 30 years - probably the biggest and best investment you would have made. RC/RS is another entitlement program (like welfare, food stamps) that actually demotivates people from working hard and reaching their potential - I know, I was rent stabalized for 15 years. Finally bought in NYC (smartest thing I ever did).

Comment #32 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

G-NYC

Rich folks do not keep stabilized apartments. An owner can take the apartment out of rent regulation if the tenant's income exceeds a certain amount for two(or three) consecutive years. A lof of posters have no clue what they are talking about; astonishing. You should start by familiarizing yourself with the actual laws they are advocating for. That would help raise the level of discourse.

Comment #33 Posted By: G-NYC 07/13/10

Anonymous

"Owner Occupied Property Only"!! Only a slave state allows another party to own someone else's home!

Comment #34 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

#34 - YOU ARE AN IDIOT - oh the irony of your post telling people to learn the rules when it's you who has NO CLUE!!! the income test is two pronged - one is that you make $175K for two years in a row the other is that your rent is over $2K - so if you have a 3 bedroom apartment on CPW and your annual income is $1MM and your net worth is $50MM and your rent is only $1,000/m then you get to keep the unit. Of course people always always always say - OH there are so few of those cases blah blah blah. If there are so few of them then fine, eliminating them will only hurt a few so let's get rid of them - truth is that there are tens of thousand of rich people with stabilized units and they are the ones funneling money to corrupt politicians (kind of redundant to say corrupt politician right) to protect their low rents.

Comment #35 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

G- NYC it is the lunatic fringe who should familize themselves with economics - and business practices. Everything costs money. The law for rich folks in two prong: The household income has to be over $175,000 for 2 years. PLUS, the rent has to be over $2000 per month via the annual rent increases. So, a multimillionare apartment with rent under $2,000 remains rent stabilized.

Comment #36 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

Rangel has 4 rent stabilized units + Governer has one or two as well.

Comment #37 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

Deed all property over to the tenants, the real property holders!

Comment #38 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

Affordable housing and affordable healthcare are rights, anyone who thinks otherwise is horribly ignorant and misinformned. NY is not just for the wealthy, affordable and rent regulated housing must be preserved. Period.

Comment #39 Posted By: Anonymous 07/13/10

Anonymous

#40 and what about market rate renters who pay such a huge percentage of our total tax revenue. What do say about them? They can suck it???? They're idiots? They deserve what they get? They can continue to subsidize your rents and thanks? Face it, your policies aren't fair. They aren't concerned about "the little man" - they are self serving concerns in a bad disguise and nothing more or less. Some healthcare is a right - but not liver transplants - some housing is a right - but not housing in Manhattan. You want a liver transplant? Have private insurance. You want an apartment in Manhattan, then buy one or pay market rate.

Comment #40 Posted By: Anonymous 07/14/10

Anonymous

Here is another period - 50,000 households pay 95% of the income taxes in New York City - which PAYS for alot of your entitlements. Keep it up, and they too will flee - and then you have nothing. Period. PS: I am not one of them, but I understand economics

Comment #41 Posted By: Anonymous 07/14/10

Anonymous

#41 -crazy stat - do you have a source?

Comment #42 Posted By: Anonymous 07/14/10

Anonymous

strengthening rent-stabilization practices in New York City is a step in the right direction, cost of livin in NY is out of control. And when 3 of 4 weeks of your salary go to rent alone, there has to be a major problem with this situation. Another issue is landlords evicting multiple units in a building out of the blue and claiming owner use to just turn around and sell or renovate and jack up the rent prices. There has to be an end to this madness and more accountability and control on the situation.

Comment #43 Posted By: Anonymous 07/14/10

Anonymous

#43 what about me? Why don't market rate renters get a break? What about rich people who have stabilized apartments. RS is not fair. You are only serving your self interests. Greedy pigs all of you.

Comment #44 Posted By: Anonymous 07/14/10

Anonymous

New data Released by the IRS has just shown that the top 1% income earners pays more in tax than the bottom 95% combined. An analysis of IRS data by the Tax Foundation shows that the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government, the highest percentage in modern history. While the bottom 95 percent paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden. The tax foundation rightly notes that putting this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined. Of course, this isn't even taking into account President Obama's plan to increase the top marginal tax rate to almost 60%.

Comment #45 Posted By: Anonymous 07/14/10

Anonymous

"Tenants Rights" my arse. Market rate renters need to organize NOW. We pay more so the other half pays less. Disgusting. Also, it never ceases to amaze me that RS tenants have no clue... calling supply/demand a "myth" or "misconception" and pretending like 45% of RS tenants don't make 3x the avg NYC income (or have second and third homes). They don't even know the basics of luxury decontrol! Of course, they don't want the facts, they might feel guilty if they weren't so ignorant.

Comment #46 Posted By: Anonymous 07/14/10

Anonymous

stabailzation is the driving force in creating higher rents, if every apartment in manhattan were to be freem market there would be a glutton of vacancies and landlords would lease them at normal rates. all these people who cant afford it dont have to live there. why should landlords subsidize your living? where else do landlords have to lose money because people "cant afford" increases. why do ppl need to live in places that they cant afford?

Comment #47 Posted By: Anonymous 07/15/10

IndexesSolve

Fixing the "my rich neighbor pays too little rent" problem is simple to fix. Change the silly 175k/2k thing to be a simple multiplier. Once you make more than, let's say, 60x the rent - WHATEVER THE RENT IS - your rent goes up proportionally. We should redo the rent regulations to be indexed to income. Problem solved.

Comment #48 Posted By: IndexesSolve 07/16/10

IndexesSolve

Also, we could make it so that the income checks are done every 6 months to a year, not every 2 years.

Comment #49 Posted By: IndexesSolve 07/16/10

Anonymous

yes I know

Comment #50 Posted By: Anonymous 07/20/10

RIGHT

Market renters should not put down those who currently have rent controlled apartment or those who live in NYCHA. Many of you come to NY from other places and cant afford New Yorks rents. Then you find and apartment which you need a roomate to maintain the cost of living rent. You have to be kidding me. I was Born and Raised in New York, and I WORK!!!! And live in PUBLIC HOUSING in New York. I pay taxes just like you and know that my taxes pay for others that don’t. Do you hate me just because I have affordable housing and you don’t. There are MANY people in NYCHA and in rent controlled apartment that work just like you. Don’t think you are giving me anything. I sure if someone offered you an affordable rent controlled apartment tomorrow you would accept it with out question especially if it were in a nice neighborhood. People with rent control led apartment lived in those apartment since god know how long and that is why there apartments are rent controlled.

Comment #51 Posted By: RIGHT 07/20/10