letitia-james-04-2008.jpgA bill seeking to give the City Council more control over rent regulation is expected to be introduced to the state legislature within the next couple of weeks, according to an article in this morning’s Sun. The bill would mean that the City Council gets to vote on who sits on the Rent Guidelines Board, a nine-person body currently appointed by the mayor. In addition, the bill would significantly revamp how the board determines rent hikes because landlords’ net incomes would be considered. Perhaps most significantly, the bill would mean that tenants won’t have to renew their leases as long as they pay rent. Councilmember Letitia James (right) says she plans to introduce a resolution asking the legislature to pass the bill, which has the support of tenants’ rights groups. Frank Ricci, president of the landlord-interest group the Rent Stabilization Association, says his organization opposes the bill. “This legislation ignores the reality of rising taxes, rising fuel prices, and rising water rates, to make this a more political process than it already is,” he says.
Bill Would Give Council More Control of Rent Regulation [NY Sun]
Photo of Councilmember James by threecee.


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  1. Tish James is in office for one and only one reason, the councilman that got shot before her.

    She has repeatedly proven that she is incompetent, one sided (that is towards poor minorities and no one else in her constituency). She was proded and pushed up in her status by some very liberal and demented white home owners in Ft Greene and the Ft Greene Association.

    I know we deserve a better advocate and she will hopefully to soon.

  2. The city should end rent stablization by allowing NO further lease transfers or addition of tenants.

    The current lease-holders of Rent Stablized units should have the right to occupy those units until they die.

    But lease-holders should be barred from adding new names to their leases. Marriage, hand-me-downs from parents — forget it. Nothing. No extension of benefits under any circumstances. When the lease-holder leaves a rent stablized unit, the unit should revert to the landlord and become a market-rate property.

    I had a one-bedroom, 6th-floor walk-up on East 83rd in Manhattan for years. When I left, my rent was $350 a month. After I left, the unit was renovated and the current tenant pays about $1700.

  3. 11:55 is absolutetly correct. They could not build rentals fast enough in the 1950’s and 1960’s because developers were promised that new construction would never be regulated. In the early 70’s they screwed around with the laws, culminating in the ETPA of 1974. New construction came to a halt, and thousands of buildings were sold to coop converters.

    Dumb and dumber. And now dumbest.

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