Tenants Confront Silver on Albany Lobby Day
By Noel Prince

On Tuesday, May 23, tenants and tenant organizers set their alarms for 5 A.M. to get on the bus for the annual trip to Albany. Tenant Lobby Day gives us a chance to meet face to face with state legislators to discuss individual problems, get support for pending legislation, and ask questions on what their representatives are doing about the problems facing New York City tenants.

Our bus was an hour late and didn't go much over 50 mph, so we arrived after the scheduled morning briefing, but just in time for the news conference. There were about 500 tenants already seated in the Hearing Room as city Public Advocate Mark Green, city Comptroller Alan Hevesi and state Comptroller Carl McCall spoke in support of pro-tenant bills proposed by various state legislators.

These measures include repealing the Urstadt Law, which bars the city from passing rent controls stronger than the state's; the MCI Bill, which would limit rent increases landlords can receive from major capital improvements; expanding SCRIE (the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Program) to include disabled rent-regulated and Mitchell-Lama tenants; and the Section 8 Bill, which would place former project-based Section 8 buildings under rent stabilization. They also discussed the city Rent Guidelines Board's proposed increases for 2000. After a hurried roster of the day's meetings, tenants began the task of appealing to Democrats and Republicans to work harder to enact this legislation.

I was one of many "captains" given the task of facilitating meetings. Though I am a longtime resident of the Lower East Side, I was scheduled to meet with State Senator Guy Velella (R-Bronx) and Assemblymember Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx). I enjoyed meeting with Northwest Bronx United Tenants, and found them savvy, articulate and uncompromising.

Velella, who voted against renewing rent regulations in 1997, told us he was on board for all pending legislation, but said he worried that if the Senate repealed the Urstadt Law, the New York City Council might do away with tenant protections all together.

We all had a good laugh, and I asked if the real-estate lobby was the real reason Albany didn't want to relinquish control over the Rent Laws. Velella replied that landlords did spend a great deal of money lobbying Albany, but that they did not influence his vote.

We were all relieved. Velella said he would endorse the MCI, Urstadt, and Mitchell-Lama bills.

Our afternoon meeting with Assemblymember Dinowitz was rather sobering, as we noted that the Republican majority in the State Senate makes it unlikely that pro-tenant legislation will even make it to the floor for a vote. He spoke honestly of our chances, and thought that the MCI Bill might make it through because 2000 is an election year. We discussed the odds of winning a Democratic majority in the Senate this fall and how it might affect NYC tenants.

By far the most controversial meeting was not even on the day's schedule: an on-again, off-again late-afternoon meeting with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who had just survived an attempt to depose him by Assembly Majority Leader Michael Bragman the day before. The Citywide Tenants Coalition had scheduled the meeting, but New York State Tenants and Neighbors had pulled out after disagreeing on what they felt was too confrontational an agenda. I was excited by the prospect of protesting Silver's betrayal of tenants in 1997, and hoped for a large turnout. At 3:30 P.M., about 50 tenants gathered in Silver's office, only to be left waiting for 20 minutes. After we took a vote to walk out in protest, Silver's general counsel came out to apologize for the speaker's absence, saying he was having a very difficult day because of the campaign to oust him, and contending that if Bragman had successfully dethroned Silver, tenants would be in much more serious trouble.

A heated discussion ensued and Nellie Bailey from the West Harlem Tenants and Jeanie Dubnau of Citywide Tenants spoke passionately about the repercussions of Silver's actions in 1997, and requested a meeting with the speaker on the Lower East Side.

Silver's lawyer agreed to set up another meeting and walked out quickly. As I asked him if Silver was going to do anything about the state Division of Housing and Community renewal's proposed changes to the Rent Stabilization Code, he went through a rear door and pulled it shut behind him. I tried opening it, but he held it closed, and I could hear his muffled voice through the door: "He is writing a letter!"

I felt this had been a most eye-opening meeting, and that our message to Silver had been heard, even if he was down the hall waiting for us to leave. We saw him walking back down the hall as we boarded the elevator downstairs.

After boarding our bus, the driver led us in "A Prayer for the Traveler" before disembarking. This made us all little uneasy, and soon afterwards we got lost and were told the steering was pulling to the left. I was relieved by the thought that if we did have an accident, we weren't going fast enough to seriously injure anyone. The best Lobby Day ever.