Having just spent 3 years in Manhattan, I can provide
more specifics about why rent control is a bad idea --
here, New York, SF, or Kalamazoo. I see four
problems:
#1. Rent control creates an unduly hostile
relationship between landlords and tenants. Like sour
milk, an environment of mistrust, hostility, etc. is
awfully hard to reverse once it takes hold.
#2. Rent control does nothing to increase the
quantity or quality of housing supply. In fact, it
has a retardant effect on both.
#3. Rent control creates growing inequity amongst
renters. Half the people in Manhattan seem to be
paying $300 a month for glorious, pre-War apartments;
the other half -- including all the newcomers -- are
paying $3,000 to $5,000 a month (NOT a typo), or some
slice of it (lots of already small 1 and 2 bedrooms
are shared by multiple roommates). Rough (economic)
justice, indeed.
#4. Over time, attempts to mitigate problems #1 - #3
create a derivative problem: mind-numbing complexity.
Manhattan now has "modified" rent control, "rent
stabilization," abatements, phase-outs, Grandfather
clauses, etc. -- and a bureaucracy to administer it
all.
Market forces certainly don't operate perfectly, but
negating them entirely demonstrably doesn't work any
better. There's no reason to reinvent here what is a
very cracked wheel.
Ross Kaplan
Fulton
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