New York Times, May 4, 2005–Saying that it needed more time to study housing data, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board decided last night, for the second year in a row, not to recommend a specific set of rent increases for the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments. Instead, the board recommended increases of 2 percent to 4.5 percent for one-year lease renewals and 4 percent to 7 percent for two-year renewals. The nine-member board will vote on specific increases on June 21, after two public hearings. Last night’s vote repeated a tactic that the board used last year when its initial vote was also for increases within a certain range. And while the board chairman, Marvin Markus, told an angry audience at Cooper Union in the East Village that recommendation of an increase range was preferable to a set figure because “it’s early in the process,” landlord and tenant advocates in the crowd dismissed the vote as a sign of indecision and election-year politics.
City Rent Board Opts for Ambiguity [NY Times]
Small Rent Hike Is Lease They Can Do [NY Post]