Hellish Landlord Drawing Protest in the Slope
A three-story building at 152 Fourth Avenue between Douglass and Butler is drawing attention for the particularly negligence of its landlord, Gustav Rodriguez; another four buildings owned by Rodriguez have also drawn similar complaints. Among the complaints: Peeling paint, no heat and “an overwhelming stench of sewage in the halls.” The building had 40 tenants…
A three-story building at 152 Fourth Avenue between Douglass and Butler is drawing attention for the particularly negligence of its landlord, Gustav Rodriguez; another four buildings owned by Rodriguez have also drawn similar complaints. Among the complaints: Peeling paint, no heat and “an overwhelming stench of sewage in the halls.” The building had 40 tenants last year and now only 8 are left, prompting charges that the landlord is doing everything he can to rid the building of its rent-stabilized tenants so he can cash in on the Fourth Avenue boom that’s underway. A protest rally is scheduled for today outside the buildings.
Tenants Rally vs. Hell Buildinh [NY Daily News] GMAP
The value of rent stabilization is that people don’t have to move out of a neighborhood that they have provded value to when forces beyond their control start moving rents up. There is nothing un-American about that, and I would say that most people would see the value in that.
The real issue, that nobody seems to bring up for either side, is that, if we agree that there is value in providing housing stability for renters, then shouldn’t we all be paying for that (not just landlords)? If we were to allign the incentives so that landlords weren’t bearing the brunt of this, then the dynamic changes quite a bit, and many of the standard arguments are no longer valid.
And, having done a major research paper on this topic, I can tell you with some degree of certainty that the mainstream press is overwhelmingly anti-rent regulation.
well… on some levels it is important to ensure that people have affordable housing outside of the projects so I think the principle is good I just don’t think the way in which they’re doing it is really effective its like putting a band-aid on the problem. I suppose economically if there was a free market this wouldn’t be an issue since in theory people wouldn’t pay excessively high prices and there would be “fair” (for lack of a better phrase) housing prices but rent stab kinda screwed that up and the cycle goes on and on… which is why its almost irreversable.
What necessity for rent stab? After war housing emergency ?
But i agree it is hard o revers it is like a drug addiction. We need good rehab.
I have a love/hate relationship with rent stabilization, while I consider myself a pro-free market type individual, I can understand the necessity for rent stabilization in that the problem will be too hard to reverse now.
There is definitely a tendency to take tenants side in the press and in court. It is all i wanted to say and i don’t see anything dumb about that. Apologize or prove me wrong.
“The worst is press; it is allways hellish landlord and they newer can see problem as a whole.”
What a dumb statement. I am sure if you did a lexis search you would find plenty of news stories on the problemsof rent control. Every article the media does need not be an indepth analysis of the problem. This article, like many news articles, is merely relaying something that is happening in the city so that you can know about it. That’s all. If it did what you think it should it would need to be many thousands of word longer.
Well said linusvanpelt
Rent stabilization is the most not American thing that had ever happen to America.
It is unfair and creates unhealthy situation like this. The worst is press; it is allways hellish landlord and they newer can see problem as a whole.
I used to live right around the corner from that building on Douglass. Pretty horrible. I don’t suppose it will make much difference to 9:52 anon, but the people who live there certainly won’t have any other options in the neighborhood.