Submitted by Lou Zacharilla, Jan 3, 2007 16:52

The notion that rent regulations have created either a housing shortage or a privileged class of renters in New York is primarily a notion which the real estate industry has perpetuated through lobbying and funding political campaigns, and most likely newspapers and magazines that depend on advertising revenues. I have not noticed any slump in the real estate industry through the course of the past 20 years, but I have noticed the following:

1) A larger proportion of income being spent on housing in NY than is stated to be fiscally healthy by the Federal government for a middle-class family.

2) An elitist notion is formed in the Sun's editorial which suggests that those of us who can no longer afford the apartments in which we have lived, paid rent on time and contributed to our communities in a variety of ways should live in smaller dwellings. If this were in fact a fair market in any sense, that might be at least acknowledged. However, it seems a ruthless view and ignores the fact that the real estate industry enjoys a bouquet of government subsidies, from tax abatements, infrastructure and privileges carved-out by upstate legislators whose campaigns have been financed in part by monies from real estate interests hundreds of miles away - with no direct connection to their constituents or communities.

The Sun seems content catering to a readership of affluent, and good for it. However, the housing crisis in New York is deepening for anyone earning less than $200,000 (believe it or not), despite a continuous and aggressive gutting of the rent control legislation under the former Governor and, again, a State legislature that had no "skin in the game," but everything to gain by going along with the real estate money train.

A sensible view would be to increase all income/rental ceilings and, for a period of time, suspend the "market rate" apartment conversion until the State returns the actual decision-making process for rent regulation where it should be: the municipalities. In the case of NY, this means the City Council - which presumably consists of actual New Yorkers who live in rental apartments, rather than homes subsidized by federal tax incentives, such as mortgage deductions.

LZ

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.