Monday, June 20, 2011

Scenes from today's march in the East Village against rent hikes

Earlier this afternoon, dozens of residents joined Council Members Dan Garodnick and Rosie Mendez for a March and Rally for Fair Rents ... The group met at the northeast corner of 14th Street and First Avenue ... and then marched to The Great Hall at Cooper Union.

EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams documented the march...










The Rent Guidelines Board's final vote happens next Monday at the Cooper Union's Great Hall.

For more on the story... DNAinfo ... The Local East Village ...
at

2 comments:

  1. Ken from Ken's KitchenJune 21, 2011 at 9:59 AM

    Props to Mendez and Garodnick for arranging that. Heard some great testimony from tenants and pols alike (Garodnick was really good). Stringer had a great closing line. Something like, "You raise rents when times are bad. You raise rents in a recession. And you raise rents when times are good. Are there any times when you don't raise rents?" I think the answer to that question is yes, When Mike Bloomberg is not the mayor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TomJune 21, 2011 at 3:23 PM

    Here's a link to the RGB chart showing all annual increases for October 1, 1968 - September 30, 2010:

    http://www.housingnyc.com/downloads/guidelines/aptorders2010a.pdf

    I don't think it mattered who was in office. The RGB's annual votes on permitted increases have caused Rent Stabilized rents to rise at a rate far exceeding the rate of inflation.

    For example, from 2000 to 2010, inflation in the US was 26.7%. But for the same period the RGB approved 1 year renewal increases that cumulatively increased rents by 41.7%. This means that during the past 10 years, permitted Rent Stabilized rents have increased at a rate that's 56% greater than the US inflation rate.

    The RGB should vote in a rent rollback or, at minimum, a rent freeze.

    ReplyDelete

Your remarks and lively debates are welcome, whether supportive or critical of the views herein. Your articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to an article are welcome.

However, commentary that is intended to "flame" or attack, that contains violence, racist comments and potential libel will not be published. Facts are helpful.

If you'd like to make personal attacks and libelous claims against people and businesses, then you may do so on your own social media accounts. Also, comments predicting when a new business will close ("I give it six weeks") will not be approved.