Submitted by izengabe, Oct 23, 2007 13:31

What your editorial neglects to mention is that many of those tenants in rent control and stabilized apartments made economic choice and decisions based on a promise made by the government of NY that their rents would rise at fixed levels.

Many of those tenants could have purchased apartments in NYC 10, 15 or even 20 or more years ago at rates well below today's prices. After all you might recall that 11 bedrooms apartments on Central Park West (like the one you mentioned) were selling for less than $100,000 when Ms Farrow moved in.

Many of today's rent controlled tenants did not purchase property and remained renters because they believed the governments promise of protection.

The governments policy of rent control turned many potential property owners into renters and forced them to miss one the biggest property booms in American history.

Now that property prices in NY have skyrocketted to kick these people out on the streets would be unfair. Any ending of rent control has to be done while protecting people who made rational economic decisions based on promises made by the governemnt of New York.

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