$75 LOFT TOO GOOD TO BE LEGAL

The New York Post ^ | 5/18/02 | DAREH GREGORIAN

[Conservative til I die]

May 18, 2002 -- Time may be running out on the best deal in town - Blossom Esainko's $75-a-month SoHo apartment. An appeals court has ruled that the state Department of Housing and Community Renewal should set "an appropriate present-day rent [about $2,000 or more] for this full-floor loft" at 322 Spring St. because of "issues and fairness and equity" with what had been the steal of the 21st century.

[Conservative til I die]

So typical of moronic Village area New Yorkers. I see a few hundred of the burnouts everytime I go out to a bar down there.

[l33t]

Old-time residents of Upper West Side pay less than $500 a month for 5 bedroom apartments. While their neighbors whose apartments are not rent controlled pay $20,000.

[RnMomof7]

Can you say "Gore voter"?

To every man according to his (or her) needs ...from everyman according to his ability......ummmmmmmmmmm or in other words.............. rent control

[general_re]

And yet it never really occurs to anyone that rent-control is the major reason that there's a shortage of residential real-estate in NYC.

Whatever. In case anyone didn't figure it out with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the People's Republic of New York will always be around to show people that socialism really doesn't work.

[Brett66]

I don't live in New York so this is an alien concept to me. I can't believe the owner can't set his own rates. I would kick her @ss out and find someone willing to pay reasonable rates. </mean Republican capitalist>

[general_re]

Guess what? The law in NYC doesn't let you indulge your mean republican capitalist instincts - you're not allowed to do that. Now, knowing that, would you get into the landlord business in NYC?

Yeah, me either. And that's why there's not nearly enough residential housing in NYC - because potential landlords aren't as stupid as the NYC Department of Housing thinks they are.

[PoisedWoman]

More power to Blossom, say I. A rent-controlled apartment/loft is a glorious thing!

A friend of mine inherited a rent-controlled apartment in Queens, in an area that was once very nice, but has gone to the dogs. Scruffy, but not particularly dangerous. He keeps the apartment for his frequent trips to NY, as it's much cheaper than hotels and is quite nice inside. I don't know how they arranged the "inheritance." Probably by putting his name on the lease before his uncle died. And BTW, my friend is very well-heeled -- perhaps because he knows how to save a buck.

[Conservative til I die]

What's funny is that this idiot flake (her pic is in the print edition, and she looks EXACTLY like I expected) whines that if she has to move from this cheap place, she won't be able to find anothe rone as cheap. Well, honey, do like everyon else and find one that fits according to your budget.

[Conservative til I die]

Your friend is an ass. Let him go and work for an apartment like everyone else.

Didnt know you were a Marxist, though.

[NickRails]

Rent control was established during WWII to prevent landlords from gouging workers who came to NY to support the war effort, such as working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Since rent control was established, there has been a housing emergency, which is described as a vacancy rate of less than 5%.

There are many things wrong with rent control.

1. It's not socialism in that it's not based on ability to pay, it's based on that you were lucky. If it was based on ability to pay, it would be somewhat more palatable.

2. It locks people into a paticular apartment. There are plenty of elderly who would give up their $400 3 bedroom apts for a smaller one, but if they do their rent would increase. So they stay, and waste space.

[angkor]

When I lived in Boston I paid $1,200 for a studio in Back Bay. Across the river in the People's Republic of Cambridge, people were paying $350 for a rent-controlled 3-bedroom within a few blocks of Harvard Square.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Gore voter, yes but at least he wasn't her landlord

[LibWhacker]

I thought the IRS treated all such "deals" as out-and-out gifts and taxed the recipient in full according to the going market value of the gift. Guess not if you're in one of the lib-favored groups.

[eastsider]

Thanks for the skinny on rent control. Know anything about rent stabilization?

[general_re]

It's not socialism in that it's not based on ability to pay, it's based on that you were lucky. If it was based on ability to pay, it would be somewhat more palatable.

Well, except that it is. It's an attempt to keep all rent within everyone's "ability to pay" - it's not individually tailored to your particular income, but the idea is that it keeps housing within any given person's particular means. It's socialism the same way that any price ceiling is socialism - you gave the reason it came about yourself. It was instituted to keep the greedy capitalist exploiters from expropriating the wages of the proletariat. Well, not in so many words, but that's what it boils down to.

And it has the same effect as price ceilings have in all other markets - when you artificially cap prices, you artificially restrict supply. In the short term, prices are kept down, but in the long term, the problem is never fixed because there's no incentive to build new property and increase supply.

[eastsider]

Have you ever seen "Joe's Apartment?" It's a semi-animated comedy/musical about an out-of-towner who falls into a roach-infested, rent-controlled apartment. Not very deep, but pretty entertaining.

[StriperSniper]

Esainko, who's single and has a pet turtle,

Odd things to group together.

As for the turtle, with all the wierd laws in NYC she should be careful publicizing that until she make sure it's legal.

[NickRails]

You're right. I was looking at it for each individual instead of the overall effect.

NYC is full of all sorts of social engineering laws that have all kinds of unforseen effects.

[ladyjane]

More power to Blossom, say I. A rent-controlled apartment/loft is a glorious thing!

Do you think welfare is a glorious thing too? And and no-show government jobs?