In his successful run for mayor, Bill de Blasio campaigned on the theme that New York has become a Tale of Two Cities, with the “haves” doing well while the “have-nots” struggle to make ends meet.
So why has Mayor Bill now come down squarely for the largest group of haves in this city — those who live in rent-controlled or rent-subsidized apartments?
On Monday night, a Rent Guidelines Board filled with de Blasio appointees approved a 1 percent rent increase for one-year leases and a 2.75 percent increase for two-year leases.
Though it was not the freeze the mayor endorsed in his campaign, it was the lowest increase ever.
Certainly less than the 5.7 percent increase in landlord costs estimated by the board’s staff.
Think about the economic insanity here: a rent board voting for an increase that is only a fraction of what its own staff reckons is the increase in costs.
The mayor is right that New York’s renters are suffering from an affordability crisis.
But the main problem is a crazy lottery of rent control and rent stabilization, where those lucky enough to have such an apartment (which they tend to stay in forever) drive up rents for everyone else, who must buy in an artificially limited market.
Point is, rental supply will not grow fast enough and prices will keep rising so long as government insists on interventions that favor some renters over others.
For all his talk about reducing inequality, the mayor here has aligned himself with the haves.