LETTERS

Dear Gov. Pataki:

I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate you on your unpublicized, practically unknown, unwarranted, illegal, vicious “midnight coup” on the (formerly) rent-regulated tenants of New York.

Using your favorite hand puppet, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, you have gutted the last shred of protection we poor, put-upon tenants had from the rich, powerful, ruthless, heartless real-estate lobby. And you did it while we were busy with what’s turning out to be a miserable holiday for all tenants. Brilliant. You are unquestionably the leading figure in the drive to destroy the last vestige of affordable housing in New York. It is your political legacy. It is the way you will be remembered.

Your dedication to evicting the indigent, the working poor, the old and infirm, those living on small fixed incomes and just about everyone else is singular and spectacular. There is only one other politico who may exceed you for sheer viciousness and sadism—your own pet pit bull, Joe Bruno. His “Let ‘em move—everybody moves” speech, which we also saw on TV, showed him to be one of the most vindictive elected officials in American history. Reminiscent of that Austrian fellow who was so popular in the ‘30s and ‘40s.
You have raised the bar on the Republican credo that greed beats need every time. Your highly publicized tour of duty with “Dubya” during the campaign that ended with him stealing the election demonstrates how wonderfully you guys will work together. And you will hold up your end by creating more terror, more confusion, more despair and more homelessness than possibly any political figure in American history.

I’d like you to know that I knew at least two people—and I’m sure there are many, many more—who died of stress/anxiety cardiac arrest because they didn’t know how they would pay their rents. One of them, a good friend of mine, said to me some six weeks or so before his death, “Well, if they want me dead this badly, maybe I’ll have to die.” He meant it. He was 71 years old and a World War II hero. He worked hard all his life. His only sin was that he didn’t make enough money to keep up with your rents.

That’s death by government abuse. Your abuse. You and your legislative and real-estate cronies. And it’s clear that there’s plenty more to come now. Congratulations.

As you no doubt know, rent-regulated tenants in New York City are paying upwards of 35% of their net incomes in rent. People of color and other minorities are paying upwards of 50%. But I admire your entrepreneurial spirit. You’re going to raise that figure to 80%, 90%, 110% of their income—and more. What the hell—the sky’s the limit! This is America.
In keeping with your obvious conviction that anybody who isn’t rich should be dead, you’ll be glad to know that many of us are already not eating regularly, or certainly not eating healthy food and not taking any or only a small part of the medicines that keep us alive. You will get your wish, Governor. I promise. My question is, how in God’s name will you live with it?

I myself am already paying much more rent than I can afford. And since I’m a recovering cancer patient, I’m terrified about giving up my medications. But because of that piece of slime you just slid through the DHCR, I will inevitably have to. I just finished reading that lengthy, virtually incomprehensible code revision. As best I can discern, it allows landlords to tack on unregulated fees for everything from flushing the toilet to watching TV. I envision a day when we will be charged an unspecified fee for water, heat, sunlight, cable, electricity, cooking gas, and God knows what else. It’s quite clear that your strategy is to place all us “squatters” (that’s what you’ve made of us) at the mercy of the most merciless group on earth: Your constituents—the real-estate lobby. They are now free to starve us out at their pleasure, deny us all services, and leave us no recourse to any law we can comprehend. And they’ve got the “upstate guys” to back them up. We haven’t got a chance and we know it.

No doubt above it, Governor: Every time you win, we lose. In light of all the great governors New York State has had, you are unquestionably one of a kind. Now we must pray and hope and work to make sure that we never have to suffer another one of your kind again. I just pray it isn’t too late.

Ned Viseltear
Manhattan
Rent Stabilized
(for as long as it lasts) Tenant