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Rudy Trashes Rent Decontrol Compromise By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, April 20, 1997

Mayor Giuliani yesterday rejected a potential compromise in the battle to save state rent laws, saying the protections must be maintained for 2 million tenants.

The mayor said it was “unacceptable” to lift the ceiling on rent hikes for units where tenants move out or die because that would eventually eliminate the protections.

However, Giuliani said it was “a good sign” that state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who has threatened to let rent laws expire June 15, has signaled new willingness to compromise.

“We are urging Sen. Bruno and the Senate and the Assembly to continue rent stabilization completely for everyone, protect everyone,” Giuliani said at City Hall.

Bruno (R-Rensselaer) warned that outright renewal “is not going to happen.”

But Bruno, who first demanded a two-year phase-out in exchange for dropping the June 15 expiration, added he “would be willing to consider a lengthier transition in the context of a negotiated resolution.”

Giuliani’s statements represent the latest effort by the mayor to aid tenants without attacking fellow Republicans trying to end regulations.

The exchange came a day after Bruno softened his initial threat, hinting he might accept vacancy decontrol, enabling tenants to keep their apartments for years.

But even as he offered willingness to compromise, Bruno said he was “not locked in” to a deal on vacancy decontrol.

Bruno criticized Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) for holding to an all-or-nothing demand for renewal of the rent laws.

“Such an unwillingness to negotiate . . . makes it more likely that the laws governing rent controls will lapse on June 15,” Bruno warned.

Original Story Date: 042097

April 20, 1997
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City Council Holding Rent Line By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullWednesday, March 26, 1997

The City Council yesterday endured glares, chants and boos, but ultimately got cheers from tenants as it overwhelmingly approved largely symbolic action to continue laws that restrict rent hikes.

The 47-to-3 vote, which sets the stage for Mayor Giuliani to sign the bill before an April 1 reauthorization deadline, also makes it tougher for landlords to impose large rent hikes on luxury units that become vacant.
The decision came before a boisterous, heavily pro-tenant crowd of about 300 that packed the City Council hearing gallery and spilled over to the City Hall Public Hearing Room, where they heard the Council proceedings over speakers.

But the decision could be rendered essentially meaningless by the state Senate where Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer) has vowed to let the rent protections expire June 15 unless state lawmakers agree to a two-year phaseout of the half-century-old rent protection system.

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens) cited that threat after the vote. “We have sent about as clear and convincing a message as we could to the majority leader of the Senate,” he said.

March 26, 1997
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City Hall Protesters Rally for Rent Control

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

February 27, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Hundreds of placard-waving tenants rallied outside City Hall yesterday to denounce landlords and politicians and demand renewal of threatened state rent protection.

The tenants, worried that state lawmakers will allow the laws on more than a million city apartments to expire in June, applauded as housing advocates accused State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer), Gov. Pataki, Mayor Giuliani and other officials of favoring landlords.

“Landlords have claimed for years that rent control and rent stabilization have made it impossible for them to make what they call reasonable or adequate profit. This is sheer baloney,” Bob Grossman of SRO Tenants United told the crowd at City Hall Park.

The rally was the first major protest by Showdown ’97, a coalition of tenant organizations fighting Bruno’s threat to let the state rent laws expire on June 15. The laws regulate how much landlords can charge for lease renewals and vacated apartments.

Bruno has called for a two-year transition to a free-market rent system. Only elderly, disabled and low-income tenants would keep rent protections under Bruno’s plan.

But the Democratic-controlled Assembly and several Republican lawmakers from New York City districts are battling to extend the current laws.

The tenants called on other state lawmakers to support the fight. Carrying sheets and placards that read “Keep Rent Protection,” the crowd of about 750 joined in chants of “Tenants united will never be defeated.”

Bruno spokesman John McArdle scoffed at charges that the majority leader is beholden to landlord groups, who have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Senate Republicans. He said Bruno “has been calling for rent decontrols for the last 10 years” on the ground that the laws perpetuate an unfair system.

Jack Freund, a spokesman for the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents most of the 25,000 owners of the more than 1 million rent-stabilized housing units in the city, criticized the tenant activists.

“Rent regulations have been a disaster for New York City’s economy and its renters. It’s time to phase out the system in a responsible manner,” Freund said.

But Jenny Laurie, director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, said that “landlords are full of crap” for battling to strip tenants of their rights under the law.

February 27, 1997
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