Hi, All.
Here is a picture I took after walking over the Brooklyn Bridge with other tenant activists. I saw these two women, one holding a sign, in a bus-stop shelter that featured a large poster showing Pope Francis with a message about the struggle we all are in together. I got their permission to take this picture.
After originally not intending to march, I was really tired afterwards but it was a very good experience. Among tenant demands were the calling for the extension and strengthening of rent regulation, which is due to expire June 15th; elimination of vacancy decontrol in rent-stabilized apartments, elimination of the 20% increase every time a tenant moves out, and elimination of the removal from rent stabilization when apartment rent reaches a certain threshold (once that removal takes place the landlord can raise the rent to any figure he wants); making the Major Capital Improvement increase (if the landlord replaces the windows or the boiler, for instance) only temporary for tenants rather than permanent; rent freezes or even rollbacks; the creation of far more units of truly affordable housing.
We’ve lost an awful lot of rent-stabilized apartments from city stock, and we’ll continue to lose them if we don’t strengthen the rent laws. The rents are too damn high! Not only do they make our city unlivable, but they encourage so much landlord and developer greed that many important community facilities or amenities such as hospitals, libraries, post offices, schools, community gardens and houses of worship that contribute so much to our communities are being sold and either demolished or converted, gobbled up so that new luxury condos can be created. Many politicians and government agencies have aided and abetted this process.
We have to turn this whole situation around or we’ll lose the city we knew. Eventually large parts of it would become deserted because you can’t have only rich people living here, and even they will need ordinary services that will disappear because no one will be here to supply them. It’s hard to imagine.
I was one of those who spoke to some of the police officers lining our rally areas and our route: “Hey, you guys can’t afford to live here.” We got forthright replies: “Nope;” “Not on my salary;” “I live with my ma and pa;” “You’re right,” etc.
Included in the recipients here is our Comptroller Scott Stringer, who spoke at the rally today. Thank you, Comptroller Stringer. You’ve provided a report with data that supports the tenants’ campaign, and your speech was passionate. However, once again, we can’t forget that you’re also addressing a big event honoring the captains of Wall Street, organized by City and State. What are you going to say to them? Will it be consistent with what you said to us? That, as they used to say, is the $64,000 Question. We don’t need their donations to a few charities and their endowments of hospital wings with their names on them (ironic, since Wall Street greed has destroyed so many hospitals). Generally they create the problems we face; they treat their employees shabbily, and overcharge the rest of us. In short, they impoverish millions of people. There’s a reason for Occupy Wall Street. The tents are gone from Zuccotti Park, but the message is still there. Scott Stringer, will you speak to them about that? I don’t mean to be sarcastic.
Sincerely,
Carol F. Yost
