See: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-274.html

"Although rent controls are widely believed to lower rents, data I have collected from eighteen North American cities show that the advertised rents of available apartments in rent-regulated cities are dramatically higher than they are in cities without rent control. In cities without rent control, the available units are almost evenly distributed above and below the census median. In rent-controlled cities most available units are priced well above the median. In other words, inhabitants in cities without rent control have a far easier time finding moderately priced rental units than do inhabitants in rent-controlled cities.

This is because tenants in the regulated sector tend to hoard their apartments, forcing everyone else to shop only in the shadow market. Thus, rent control is the cause of the widely perceived "housing crisis" in rent-controlled cities".
-by William Tucker CATO Institute.

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 12, 2006 10:37 AM in response to Bushwicker Makes Top Ten Landlord List

Finally got the comment box to show up so I could post.

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 12, 2006 10:42 AM in response to Site Registration for Commenting

"He projects that completely deregulating the New York housing market would result in an average increase of $8 a month in rent, city-wide."

That hardly qualifies as rents "Skyrocketing" (per post by: cobblestoner).

And what about all the associated costs of enforcing Rent Regulations? How much tax payer money does NYC spend to keep regulations (that were supposed to be temporary back durring WWII) enforced. If rent control were eliminated, the money spent (running the regulations) could put into housing assistance voucher (or some sort of program) for the people that TRULY need help with their rent.

That way individual landlords would not have to subsidies peoples rent, and new comers to NYC would not be shut out of a program that only benefits those who were luck enough to land a rent controlled/rent stabilized apartment.

per http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_34.htm
"Report finds that rent stabilization provides little benefit to residents of the outer boroughs and the lower and middle-income neighborhoods of Manhattan, while providing a substantial subsidy only to the residents of the relatively affluent areas of Lower and Mid-Manhattan....
...in the long run, direct government assistance along with deregulation is the favored alternative. Given that rent regulation disproportionately benefits tenants in affluent areas, direct financial assistance to poor and elderly renters is preferable to simply regulating rents."

And note: I'm a renter, not a landlord. I have lived in a stabilized apartment, but for the last 15 years have been in a market rate apartment. In those 15 years, I had only 2 rent increases of 10% each (both to compensate for higher fuel costs). My landlord only raised rent when THEY had to, not because a law said they had to raise the rent.

If I was living in a rent stabilized/controlled apartment I would have had a larger cumulative % increase in rent.

per: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_34.htm
"Between 1993 and 1999, the median monthly rent of stabilized housing citywide increased 24%, while the median rent of unregulated housing increased only 17%."

And what was the Rent Board 2006 increase? Over 7% I believe.

Rent Controls are not helping all the people they should help, and they should be eliminated in favor of program that provides assistance for ALL poor/elderly NYC residents.

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 13, 2006 9:21 AM in response to Bushwicker Makes Top Ten Landlord List

My comments window appears and disappears. It does seem to take some clicking around and a bunch of refreshes to get it to show up. I have to refresh the pages on the site quite often, as I seem to get cached versions of lots of the pages, and new posts and/or replies don't show up. (I can't seem to keep my IE setting to refresh "every visit to page" seems the corporate profile just changes it back to their default setting every time I log in).

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 13, 2006 9:44 AM in response to Using Typekey: Just a Little Patience

Congrats!

And BTW: Can we please have someone ban using the phrase "DoBro". And I thought that BOCOCA http://www.brooklynnow.com/bococa/index.html was bad.

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 13, 2006 12:56 PM in response to Guess Who Made The Latest Best Of List?

If it's really being built for his two sons (Noah and Daniel Shapiro) and their families, they why is it a 5 apartment plan?
If building design has 6 floors, then wouldn't it just be 2 triplex units? Sounds like it's not just for the two son's families.

And if the block has a five-story height restriction then why not build a 5 story with a finished basement?
Why not work creatively within the zoning laws, instead of trying to break them?

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 13, 2006 3:10 PM in response to CB6 Tells Architect To Shove It

This house is swoon worthy. I can't imagine how the owners could part with it after all that work and attention to detail, that went into it. You would think they would want to kick back and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 14, 2006 12:05 PM in response to Stepping Out On FG Park (For Almost $4 Mil!)

Since it got a window, they can call it a bedroom.
But a door swinging into a room that is not even 10' x 10' would make it really cramped if you put a 5' x 6 1/2' bed in in that room.
Buyer would probably have to go with a loft bed, trundle bed, or the dreaded futon, if they wanted an adult to sleep in there, and still be able to swing a cat.

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 14, 2006 12:25 PM in response to Condo of the Day: Greenpoint, Address Unspecified

UPS requires signatures for all their deliveries (had a lengthy discussion about this with my UPS guy)
But FEDEX is signature optional(FEDEX had dumped several boxes of flat pack furniture in back of the house. Luckily it was a sunny day and no one stole the boxes).
I had no clue that FEDEX would leave such large/valuable packages out in the open. So now I make sure that the order is logged as signature required, and then have to arrange to be there for the delivery.

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 14, 2006 12:54 PM in response to Home Depot /Kraftmaid Horror Story

"Organization (closets, pantries, built-ins, cabinets) are expensive".

If you considering using a closet systems, see these threads:
http://brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2006/04/closet_systems.html
http://brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2006/06/california_clos.html

Posted by: ArsenicandOldLace at July 17, 2006 3:29 PM in response to Finally, a plan

Thanks for the warning! I almost ordered Kraftmaid through Home Depot... I already had been experiencing headaches from their not so brilliant "kitchen designers" but I figured it was a good a price... I want to flip and sell in a few months, but I didn't want to torture a future buyer with particle board. I figured Kraftmaid was a happy medium between the top of the line and bottom of the barrel. Plus I had already paid $100 for measurements. I read on some boards about how great Lowe's was, so I thought I'd take a quick look before placing an order. Boy, am I sure glad I did! The customer service was the best! Even though Home Depot had a 10% off special going on, it seems fishy because my quote from Lowe's was less - even though it was full price. (I think Home Depot just marked up 10% before the "sale"). Lowe's even credited my order $100 since I would have to pay $75 for their installers to measure themselves. In the end, they were just so glad to take a customer away from Home Depot, I actually felt like I was getting extra attention. Actually, I think I was just so used to the crummy ill-treatment of Home Depot that when Lowe's actually gave good customer service, I was in shock. I couldn't say enough good things about my experience with Lowe's. If you are thinking about getting kitchen cabinets, save yourself a big headache and just go to Lowe's. Thanks again for this forum -it's ben very enlightening.

Posted by: heavenlypennies at February 23, 2007 11:47 PM in response to Home Depot /Kraftmaid Horror Story

I'll admit I didn't bother to read all of the responses in this thread, only because I have just one thing to say about Kraftmaid (ie KRAPMADE). Unless you are looking to flush $20,000 plus down the toilet, DO NOT BUY KRAFTMAID CABINETS!!!!

I just hope this post will save someone else from the pain I have had to endure.

Posted by: Miker at March 1, 2007 9:46 PM in response to Home Depot /Kraftmaid Horror Story

What are your complaints about KraftMaid .. would you care to elaborate?

Ough yes and Hamilton Home depot is horrible.

Lowes practically across the street is so much nicer. The kitchen rep I dealt with is extremely nice and helpful.

Posted by: Chudilo at March 7, 2007 3:02 PM in response to Home Depot /Kraftmaid Horror Story

Thanks for the post. I just wish I found it sooner. I have my own horror story with Home Depot Cabinets.

http://homedepotcabinets.blogspot.com

Posted by: guest at July 22, 2008 9:04 AM in response to Home Depot /Kraftmaid Horror Story