June 22, 2023
Verenice Mackey
Photos: qphotonyc
The rent is too damn high according to tenant activists, and too damn low according to their landlords. The Rent Guidelines Board voted to side with the landlords on Wednesday night at Hunter College. It wasn’t the double digit hike they proposed, but it was higher than the activists wanted.
More than a hundred tenant advocates had waited an hour to enter the Hunter College auditorium on the Upper East Side. After they finally got in, having cleared an NYPD security check, the vote was quickly counted: 5-4 for higher rents.
Noor Inqalabi addresses tenant activists outside Hunter College.
“Landlords here are making more money than anywhere in the World. In the midst of people losing jobs they have the audacity to not only keep the rents in place – but to call for a 16% increase. What do you say to them?” (the activists replied) “Shame!”
~Noor Inqalabi, from Party for Socialism and Liberation.
