I hope that rent control will never be seriously considered here. It
violates the laws of physics: you can't make something out of nothing. The
problem is that we don't have enough apartments, period. The reasons
include unfair property taxes and zoning issues. If all this time and
energy were spent on reducing property taxes for apartment buildings and
simplifying the building process, we would actually solve the problem,
instead of creating a delicate, forced compromise. I would rather have the
city build apartments and manage them than implement rent control. I think
more people would benefit.
Rent control MIGHT work in certain limited circumstances, where the
population is small and stagnant, and a small number of landowners has a
monopoly on the market. Our situation was caused by population growth and
bureaucracy. This may be the one place where building ourselves out of the
problem will work.
===
Nathan Hunstad
Minneapolis, MN
(612) 331-7766 -- Home (612) 598-6484 -- Wireless
PGP DH/DSS public key -- http://www.angelfire.com/mn/freakpower/nhpubkey.txt
"You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
--Bob Dylan
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----- Original Message -----
From: Ross Kaplan
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, 11 March, 2001 07:33 PM
Subject: [Mpls] The Disaster of Rent Control
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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