Letters

Tough Choice for Renters

Posted

Re: “Informed Voting” letter from Joseph Perri (CNY, Feb. 28).

Why, indeed, do people continue to vote for Democrats when they disagree with the party’s stance on abortion and the gay agenda? In New York City, it’s because millions of rent stabilized tenants are being held hostage. There are about 1 million rent stabilized apartments. If each one houses three people, that’s three million who every six years sweat out the possibility of rent laws expiring. Democrats have bundled their support for abortion and the gay agenda with the roofs over our heads.

Republicans are no better. If they truly wanted to stem the Democrats’ progressive stampede, they could admit that, in an area dense with renters like New York City, allowing and encouraging landlords to see only units, not lives, harms neighborhoods, local economies and the workforce. But Republicans love the real estate lobby more than their vaunted social conservatism, and Democrats love their Brave New World aspirations more than their vaunted love for the masses. With their new state Senate majority, Democrats could strengthen rent laws to where they need to be, and then make them permanent. Don’t count on it.

Diane Moriarty
Manhattan