Keep Housing Affordable in NYC
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
McKee's media - housing in the time of COVID 19 - 3/17/2019
ARTICLES OF INTEREST TO TENANT ADVOCATES:
EVICTIONS SUSPENDED
Janaki Chadha: EVICTIONS SUSPENDED STATEWIDE: Responding to grassroots pressure from tenants & electeds, state court system suspends "non-essential" cases, including all evictions statewide (Politico NY)
Georgia Kromrei on the moratorium on evictions (The Real Deal)
Amanda Luz Henning Santiago: The advocates & lawmakers who called for a moratorium on evictions (City & State)
Amanda Fries: Evictions halted, but advocates say more protections are needed (Albany Times Union)
Georgia Kromrei on the moratorium on evictions (The Real Deal)
Amanda Luz Henning Santiago: The advocates & lawmakers who called for a moratorium on evictions (City & State)
Amanda Fries: Evictions halted, but advocates say more protections are needed (Albany Times Union)
STUY TOWN, KUSHNER, ZONING
Georgia Kromrei: Stuyvesant Town lawsuit could result in J-51 apartments throughout NYC remaining permanently rent-regulated (The Real Deal)
Yonkers Times: Scofflaw landlord pleads guilty to 10 fire & building code violations, will pay $50K in fines; Yonkers to toughen housing maintenance code
The Real Deal: Confusion over new broker fee rules raises tensions between landlords & tenants
The Real Deal: Confusion over new broker fee rules raises tensions between landlords & tenants
Salon: "Dirty Money" on Netflix documents Jared Kushner's harassment of his tenants
Kay Dervishi: Questions abound about how state's new redistricting process will work following 2020 census (City & State)
Kay Dervishi: Questions abound about how state's new redistricting process will work following 2020 census (City & State)
Thursday, March 12, 2020
McKee's Media (excerpted) - 3/12/2020
ARTICLES OF INTEREST TO TENANT ADVOCATES:
END MCIs
ANTI-WAREHOUSING BILL
MANHATTAN DA: INVESTIGATING LANDLORD FRAUD?
Josefa Velasquez: Ousted prosecutor Diana Florence accuses Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance of halting investigations of landlord fraud (The City) (Read her resignation letter including parts that were blacked out by the D.A.)
UPSTATE RENT REGULATION
ZONING
Jeffrey Kroessler: What zoning is really for: to protect the public's space from special interests (Daily News OpEd)
Samar Khurshid: New York City Council Members spar with de Blasio planning chief over neighborhood rezonings (Gotham Gazette)
STUY TENANTS SUE BLACKSTONE RE: NEW RENT LAWS
Michael Gartland: Citing new rent laws, StuyTown tenants sue to prevent Blackstone from deregulating 6,000 apartments when J-51 benefits expire (Daily News)
Michael Herzenberg: StuyTown tenants rally in support of lawsuit against Blackstone (New York 1) (VIDEO)
HOMELESSNESS
Daily News: State Assembly proposes new $450 million program to tackle homelessness across the state
David Brand: The urgent campaign to include rental assistance for homeless New Yorkers in the state budget (City Limits)
Michael Gartland: One in 100 newborns last year went "home" to a shelter, per Coalition for the Homeless (Daily News)
Michael Gartland: Citing new rent laws, StuyTown tenants sue to prevent Blackstone from deregulating 6,000 apartments when J-51 benefits expire (Daily News)
Michael Herzenberg: StuyTown tenants rally in support of lawsuit against Blackstone (New York 1) (VIDEO)
HOMELESSNESS
Daily News: State Assembly proposes new $450 million program to tackle homelessness across the state
David Brand: The urgent campaign to include rental assistance for homeless New Yorkers in the state budget (City Limits)
Michael Gartland: One in 100 newborns last year went "home" to a shelter, per Coalition for the Homeless (Daily News)
CHARLES URSTADT DEAD; HIS LAW LIVES ON
Broadsheet: Charles J. Urstadt, author of law revoking NYC's home rule powers over rents & founder of Battery Park City, dead at 91
Broadsheet: Charles J. Urstadt, author of law revoking NYC's home rule powers over rents & founder of Battery Park City, dead at 91
TAX THE RICH TO HOUSE THE POOR
Morris Pearl: New York State must enact a wealth tax on billionaires (Daily News OpEd)
Morris Pearl: New York State must enact a wealth tax on billionaires (Daily News OpEd)
COVID 19 CORONAVIRUS
Daily News: Coronoavirus causes chaos on New York economy; Cuomo asks DiNapoli to assess impact on state budget
Daily News: Coronoavirus causes chaos on New York economy; Cuomo asks DiNapoli to assess impact on state budget
Nick Reisman: Big-ticket items take back seat to coronavirus in budget negotiations; lawmakers focus on paid sick leave legislation (NY State of Politics)
Amanda Fries: Cuomo, lawmakers negotiate paid sick leave for coronavirus quarantines (Albany Times Union)
Amanda Fries: Cuomo, lawmakers negotiate paid sick leave for coronavirus quarantines (Albany Times Union)
Queens Daily Eagle: Real estate industry floods Donovan Richards campaign for Queens Borough President with contributions
NON-PROFIT DONORS MAY BECOME PUBLIC
City & State: Defeated in court, Andrew Cuomo again floats bill to require nonprofits to make public disclosure of their donors
Brendan Lyons: Lawmakers seek to bypass Cuomo, win constitutional amendment to replace weak JCOPE ethics agency (Albany Times Union)
Kingston Daily Freeman: Assembly Member Kevin Cahill doubts accuracy of study that found Kingston vacancy rate exceeded 5 percent
City & State: Last Week's Winners & Losers
https://www.cityandstateny.
Bill Mahoney: Despite Cuomo's statement that U.S. Census is a priority, state has not yet released outreach funds from last year's budget (Politico NY)
https://www.politico.com/
City Limits: Emergency grants can help stop homelessness -- if you have a lawyer
https://citylimits.org/2020/
Patch: Three-way race for Brooklyn state senate seat heats up
https://patch.com/new-york/
Erin Hudson: Brokers can charge fees at least until June as state asks for extension to respond to real estate industry's lawsuit (The Real Deal)
https://therealdeal.com/2020/
Matthew Haag: Tenant advocates say brokers & landlords are violating state's new rent laws (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/
Rich Calder: Bronx D.A. investigates anti-tenant City Council Member Mark Gjonaj for misuse of campaign funds (New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2020/03/09/
Amanda Luz Henning Santiago: Mark Gjonaj's many unflattering headlines (City & State)
https://www.cityandstateny.
Walter Mosley & Alex Fennell: 421-a tax subsidy fuels gentrification (Brooklyn Eagle OpEd)
https://brooklyneagle.com/
Wall Street Journal: Master plan to develop Sunnyside Yards envisions $14.4 billion deck over the train yards to make room for 12,000 affordable apartments
https://www.wsj.com/articles/
Mike Jaccarino: "There's nobody left to lay off." How the once-great tabloid New York Daily News sank into decrepitude (Vanity Fair)
https://www.vanityfair.com/
The Intercept: Working Families Party endorses Bernie Sanders for U.S. president
https://theintercept.com/2020/
Common Dreams: Bernie Sanders crushes Trump by 18 points among independent voters in national poll
https://www.commondreams.org/
Danny Katch: Can Bernie Sanders make the Democratic Party a Democratic Party? (The Indypendent)
https://indypendent.org/2020/
Mother Jones/ProPublica: The benefits of being Joe Biden's brother
https://www.motherjones.com/
Nathan Robinson: Democrats, you really do not want to nominate Joe Biden (Current Affairs)
(A long but thoroughly documented & reasoned article about why Joe Biden would be a disastrous Democratic nominee, and why Democrats should support Bernie Sanders)
https://www.currentaffairs.
Albany Times Union: A century after women's suffrage, state legislature is one-third female
https://www.timesunion.com/
Joseph Spector: Coronavirus scams: How to protect yourself from being ripped off (Journal News)
https://www.lohud.com/story/
City & State: Everything New Yorkers need to know about the 2020 U.S. Census
https://www.cityandstateny.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
End Major Capital Improvement increases!
Will Albany end MCI increases?
Come to 50 W. 97th Street's Community Room on
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020 at 8 PM to learn how we can make it happen.
WHY should Albany end Major Capital Improvement increases?
Some highlights:
Landlords have plenty of other reasons to improve buildings (other than collecting MCI increases).
- Energy efficiency saves landlords money. So new boilers, roofs, windows, plumbing, electrical wiring, etc., can save landlords $$$.
- Preserved or increased value of their property. Why should tenants pay for that?
- Legal obligation to provide tenants with safe, habitable apartments and common areas. NYC ordered that our balconies and facade be maintained, for example. (The rest of us don't need to get paid to obey the law; why should landlords?)
The Rent Guidelines Board already calculates in the costs of maintaining a rental building when it sets the rent increases (if any) each year. Why should landlords be compensated twice?
MCI increases benefit mainly large landlords. From 2000 to 2014, 70% of MCI applications received by the State's housing agency came from landlords who owned more than 150 units.
It won't hurt the construction industry since MCI jobs are a tiny slice of the pie. In 2014, MCI costs were only 3/10ths of one percent of the total amount spent on construction. So they won't affect construction jobs.
https://www.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)