The local paper for the Upper er East Side THE $100 MILLION HOUSE BUSINESS, P.16
A PRIMER ON THE LOOMING RENT DEBATE BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
OurTownEastSide
O OURTOWNNY.COM @OurTownNYC
2015
UNCOVERING MANHATTAN’S AIRBNB SCAM
Affordable housing advocates gear up for rent law fight
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
7-13 Our Take
NEWS
Approximately 2.5 million New York City residents are covered by the state’s rent laws, which are set to expire in June. These laws include legislation governing rent stabilization and rent control, as well as the controversial 421a tax break that is offered to developers in exchange for building affordable housing. According to affordable housing advocates, the danger isn’t so much that the rent laws won’t be renewed, but rather that they will be weakened as the political price for their renewal. Advocates are also focused on reversing amendments that govern the deregulation of affordable housing, which is known as vacancy decontrol. A landlord is able to remove a rent stabilized unit from regulation by legally and steadily increasing the rent over time through vacancy fees, major capital increases and individual apartment improvement increases. Once the rent passes a $2,500 per month threshold, that unit is removed from rent stabilization and can be brought into line with market rate housing. As June approaches, we spoke to two affordable housing advocates who are active in the fight to strengthen rent laws and repeal vacancy decontrol: Sue Susman, an independent affordable housing advocate and tenant leader, and Ken Schaeffer, vice-chair with the Met Council on Housing.
WEEK OF MAY
Photo courtesy Eileen F. Gould
WADDLING INTO THE HEART OF THE UPPER EAST SIDE NATURE IN THE CITY A family of ducklings on York Avenue has become a local attraction BY CODY GERARD
For about the past week, walking down York Avenue between 73rd and 74th street has meant enduring a cacophony of “awws” and “how cutes.” That’s because a family of eight newborn ducks has taken residence in a fountain outside of 1385 York Avenue. The family has become something
Newscheck Crime Watch Voices Out & About
of a neighborhood event as news of the ducks has traveled from neighbor to neighbor. The family attracts a constant stream of adoring viewers and photo takers. Their birth was even announced at a formal party that East Side resident Elizabeth Manus was holding nearby. Though the small fountain is fairly isolated, nature-wise, the ducks are well cared for; a nest box has been has been set up in the fountain and the ducks are regularly fed by residents of the neighborhood, as well as a local bird sanctuary. Still, sadly, of the nine ducks that hatched, eight remain. (One resident suspected foul play at the hands of local teens,
2 3 8 10
City Arts Top 5 Business 15 Minutes
12 13 16 21
though no evidence of that has surfaced.) Locals say that the mother and father duck have used the fountain as a home since at least last spring, but, that this is the first time ducklings have been seen with them. For now, the ducks seem relatively comfortable in their small fountain home. There are plans to move them into Central Park once the ducklings reach five weeks of age. Until then, they will continue to receive the love and adoration of the Upper East Side, which is more certain than ever that spring has, indeed, arrived.
A clutch of state lawmakers has made it their business to make AirBnB miserable in Manhattan. Led by State Sen. Liz Krueger, the officials have long argued that AirBnB makes the city’s housing crunch worse by effectively taking affordable apartments off the market. At times, the arguments have been hard to swallow: How is a $400-a-night-apartment in Times Square rented by European tourists going to make it any easier for the rest of us to find a decent place to live? State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has finally convinced us. The intrepid Rosenthal -- a newspaper reporter in an earlier life -- took the unusual step of staging her own undercover sting operation last week to prove that AirBnB is scamming New York. Rosenthal, using a hidden camera, documents several cases in Manhattan where apartments clearly are being used as full-time nightly rental properties, in violation of the state law that forbids renting out an apartment for less than 30 days if the tenant isn’t at home. Meantime, AirBnB presses on, arguing that it is in the vanguard of a sharing economy we should all embrace.
Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday May 8– 7:41 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.
Home delivery of Our Town Eastsider H $49 per year. Go to OurTownNY.com $ or call 212-868-0190