Thousands Ride to Albany to Save Rent Laws
by Liz Wiseman

Tenant Lobby Day on May 20 marked the culmination of a year's worth of hard work and organizing and ended with a line being drawn in the sand: "No Compromises!"

The walk to the Capitol Building started 365 days earlier. Tenant Lobby Day ’96--with the Loft Tenant Protection Act due to expire in less than seven weeks--was one of the largest in history.

But the tenants who came to Albany in 1996 also wanted to set the stage for this year, when the remainder of rent protections would be at stake. The enthusiasm on that day proved an enormous impetus for the various tenant groups to start working as a collective whole. And their 12 months of hard labor seemed to pay off in an extremely successful Lobby Day ’97.

There were over 170 buses holding 48 people each, with most of them full. Including other groups’ buses and people who drove up on their own, that would mean that more than 8,000 people attended. Police estimated 7,000--a substantially higher figure than the 2,500 or less claimed by Governor George Pataki and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

The crowds stepped off their buses and marched to the steps of the Capitol. Guitarists got them warmed up for MCs Scott Sommer and Marina Metalious. Among the public officials there were Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and Brooklyn Councilmember Sal Albanese, rivals for the Democratic mayoral nomination; Manhattan Councilmember Andrew Eristoff; and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone. Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross, who recently broke with Pataki, endorsed rent regulations.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was the keynote speaker, riling the crowd with statements like "the Governor gives more weight to 25,000 landlords than to 2.7 million tenants." He delineated the situation as a "good cop/bad cop" set-up: Bruno was sent out back in December ’96 to be the bad cop screaming for complete decontrol, so Pataki could come down with a "last-minute" compromise to allegedly save the day--something along the lines of vacancy and luxury decontrol, the scenario the landlords have been fighting for to begin with.

Silver accused the governor of pitting tenants against Democrats and toying with the families and futures of all tenants to benefit a wealthy few. He summed up by saying that if rent protection ends, every middle-class family and small business will be driven from the city, and that it was up to tenants to "keep up the pressure."

Helene Weinstein, a tenant speaker, said the end of rent regulations would be as big a disaster for downstate New York as the floods were for Fargo, North Dakota, and that the crowds were like volunteers trying to sandbag the banks before the devastation worsened. She also called Pataki’s proposal to require rent deposits by tenants in Housing Court unconstitutional and unfair.

Tenants planning to lobby State Senators after the rally, however, found them locked in a lengthy session, making it virtually impossible to gain access to them. The capitol was closed and heavily guarded by state police.

"Believe me, it was a chilling sight to see the numbers of state police posted at the entrances to our capitol and to realize they were there only to keep us out," said tenant Dorothy Davis. "And our money as taxpayers was paying for this."

The groups who were able to arrange meetings with their legislators characterized the Republicans as stiff and unable to supply any answers, versus the Democrats holding love-ins and Bruno-bashing sessions.

One Long Island group was able to arrange a meeting with their senator, Michael Tully, who on April 7 voted against a move to extend the rent laws without any changes. Christopher Doherty of Floral Park--almost a veteran lobbyist at 14 years old--described the meeting as hostile and unproductive and the Nassau Republican’s behavior as obnoxious.

Manhattan Assemblyman Steve Sanders began one of his meetings with a spirit-rallying diatribe: "Rent regulations would expire for one reason and one reason only--because there is one man in particular and one party in particular that is saying to tenants in New York City that they are willing to see the middle class, they are willing to see senior citizens, they are willing to see people who have made their homes, raised their families, fought to make NYC better--they are willing to see those people disposed of because they are more concerned about currying favor with the real-estate industry than protecting the citizens of New York City from unconscionable rent increases and possible eviction."

His attribution of this to "Bully Joe" Bruno brought an eruption of boos and hisses. He also reminded the crowd that rent regulations are not stopping new buildings from going up as Bruno also tries to insist. "Bruno doesn’t want to get confused by the facts!" Sanders also urged tenants to write letters and call their elected officials and to apply pressure to their friends and family to take up the cause as well.

Along with the advice, there was also a lot of back-patting. During one extended compliment-fest between Sanders and Assembly Housing committee chair Vito Lopez, a tenant in the back yelled out a question about Lopez’s voting with Mayor Giuliani on 7% rent increases. The tenant was asked to leave.

Republican Senator Roy Goodman’s gentlemanly offering of juice and cookies to Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village residents hardly matched the persona he showed one year ago, when he vehemently decried that the laws must be extended without weakening amendments. He did, however, assert that his pressure is slowly causing Bruno to change his stance: from letting all regulations expire, to keeping regulations for senior citizens and the disabled, to discussing the income limits for those who will be allowed to keep their apartments.

Goodman also expounded on a point that several other politicians had made during the day about the effects of decontrol in the early 1970s. He stated that he had seen firsthand how miserably it failed the first time around and did not want to see a repeat. He cited one landlord who allowed dogs to roam through his buildings, fouling the hallways and keeping the tenants virtual prisoners of their apartments. Other tenants had giant gashes in their doors from landlord goons banging on the doors at all hours of the day or night. The horrific results of decontrol in 1971 brought about the reinstatement of regulations in 1974.

Filing out and marching back down to the buses, the tenants in attendance expressed different variations of the same goal--saving the rent laws and keeping fair, affordable housing. "I couldn't possibly be in New York if we had decontrol," said Kelly Waring, who has been living in his West Village apartment for 27 years.

Another West Village resident, Mary Margaret Amato, said she thought that small businesses would suffer the most, as more rent equals less disposable income. She also felt that the rift between regulated and non-regulated tenants would continue to have an adverse effect on communities as well, that young people doubling and tripling up dormitory-style in order to afford their rents gives neighborhoods a transient quality.

Stuy Town tenant Marietta Hawkes crystallized her group’s sentiments: "I just don't want to see the middle class disappear out of the city."

The wrap-up on the buses back to downstate was basically positive but not overly optimistic. Tenants said they still need to keep the fight up at a fever pitch, up to and probably beyond June 15.