A recent issue of the Village Voice highlights the matter of illegal hotel conversion, whereby landlords clandestinely transform apartment buildings filled with long term tenants into transient hotels for businessmen. This was an issue brought into the public consciousness by Chris Lombardi of Chelsea Now in an ongoing series about such buildings as the Execu-stay on 24th Street in Chelsea. Now that the Voice has finally jumped on the bandwagon—and it’s about time, really–maybe we can get some legislation to stop this abuse. But the Voice article (“Motel Sucks” by Maria Luisa Tucker, 12/26/07) is a good piece of journalism, and I just want to point out a couple of things that it demonstrates.
Market Rate Tenants at Risk
The first is that, in this run-away real estate boom, market rate tenants are at risk as well. People who are paying market rate for their apartments tend to resent those of us who are “lucky” enough to have rent-stabilized apartments (actually many of us originally moved into what were at the time depressed neighborhoods, taking apartments that might otherwise have stood empty), and to sneeringly tell us that if we can’t afford to live in the city we should just move out. Well, surprise: looks like you can’t afford it either. Landlords and developers don’t care about your community, even if you are paying top dollar: they are more interested in cashing in now. You are basically just a pain in the ass to them, always demanding heat, repairs, etc. And when the market goes south they can just bring in a whole new crop of market rate tenants. All tenants are in the same boat, and we need to set aside our differences if we are to survive the tide of destruction that’s washing over our city.
Landlords on the Dole
The second is that, there are ways to fight back—even if you’re a market rate tenant and think your fate rests with the whim of the landlord. The tenants at One bank Street found that their landlord had taken advantage of the city’s J-51 tax-abatement program, and hence was required to extend rent-stabilization protection to all tenants! Many of the landlords of these buildings have profited from such social programs designed to prop up the housing market when it was far less profitable. Of course now that the market is wildly profitable, landlords want to opt out of these programs as quickly as possible, trumpeting their inalienable property rights, the inviolability of the free market, blah blah blah, and acting like tenants are the ones who are taking handouts. But hey, my freeloading landlord friends, it turns out you were the ones on welfare. And now it’s time to pay the piper–and the piper is the public. — Ed Hamilton
Living with Legends 
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