rent-stabilization

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As Vote Looms, Tenants Ask Rent Guidelines Board to Give Them a Break

RGB public hearing attendees protest embattled landlord Steven Croman. (Photo: Karissa Gall)

RGB public hearing attendees protest embattled landlord Steven Croman. (Photo: Karissa Gall)

How many landlords does it take to change a lightbulb? Metropolitan Council on Housing volunteer Mary Crosby posed the rhetorical question to members of the Rent Guidelines Board at last night’s public hearing at Cooper Union. “None, because everyone knows landlords don’t do repairs anymore,” she said. Here’s another one for you: how many owners does it take to change a lightbulb? You’ll never guess… it’s also “none,” she said, “because the owners have removed the light sockets during an eviction.”

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Affordable Housing Group Is ‘Strategically Hitting’ Seven Landlords

Brandon Kielbasa and Mike Ward

Brandon Kielbasa and Mike Ward

Stabilizing NYC, a citywide coalition aimed at combatting tenant harassment and preserving affordable housing, met earlier today on the steps of City Hall to announce the list of landlords they will be targeting in an upcoming legal battle against “predatory equity.”
“We’re strategically hitting landlords who’ve been displacing thousands of tenants every year,” said Brandon Kielbasa, lead organizer at Cooper Square Committee, a tenant rights organization running since 1959.
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Jimmy McMillan Couldn’t Stop the Rent From Going Even Damn Higher

Jimmy McMillan Couldn’t Stop the Rent From Going Even Damn Higher
(Photo: Anna Silman)

(Photo: Anna Silman)

Whelp, it’s official: the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, as expected, just approved rent hikes of 4 percent for one-year leases and 7.75 percent for two-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments, according to Fox News.

Among the usual protesters who turned up outside of the meeting at Cooper Union’s foundation building was Jimmy “The Rent Is Too Damn High” McMillan.

The mayor of Papaya King wasn’t impressed with last night’s actual-mayoral debate. “They’re talking about stop and frisk, gun control,” he told us. “I’m talking about landlord control.”
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