From the Front Lines of the NYC Harassment Housing Wars

Tenant Harassment Made Possible by the Innumerable Failures of the Executive Branches of NYS & NYC Government

July 14, 2025 / Bastille Day / New York NY / News Analysis & Opinion / Queens Buzz.

Editor's Note I. We've been tracking a tenant who has been harassed by his landlords for the past nine years. We intend to include video, audio and photographic accounts of his experiences in this section, to show you, the viewers, first hand, what landlords in this city are doing to their tenants and getting away.

Both the NYC Mayor and the NYS Governor continue to fail, to right these wrongs. Based on what we've seen, it's not so much problems with the laws on the books, but the incredible lack of will to enforce them. We believe the Mayor and the Governor don't enforce the landlord harassment laws because the land owners control the government of NYC and NYS through the officials they fund to get elected. The funds go largely into disinformative TV ads used to convince voters that they, the pols, are working for us. But they are not - and Eric Adams is the perfect example of this - he's working for the rich people who have funded his campaigns. That's why Eric is always smiling, because he's been pulling a fast one on us and getting away with it ... at least so far. Cuomo isn't much different, as you will soon see.

Introduction to Landlord Harassment of Tenants in Rent Stabilized Apartments in NYC

This Section is dedicated to helping New York voters understand how the executive branches of NYS and NYC government are failing New Yorkers every day with respect to preservation of truly affordable housing, and the taxpayers' billions of investments in such.

This in depth report will show how the executive branches government - both Mayor and Governor - are almost entirely responsible for the phony 'NYC affordable housing crisis'. It's a crisis which they have created, which they prolong, and which they use to keep shaking down taxpayers for more and more money to give the billionaires, real estate developers and investors who provide funding for their campaigns [directly or indirectly via PAC spending].

A great deal of their campaign money goes into paying for disinformative Network TV commercials to convince voters that good candidates are bad, and bad candidates are good. And Network TV News and programs too often seem to support the false narratives by ignoring the real stories, ignoring who the pols really are, or just plain ignoring competing candidates. This is why competitive candidates, like Mamdani and AOC, need to bypass billionaire TV News, and use the web to reach voters - because billionaire TV News is trying to muzzle their voices and those they represent.

This will be a running commentary that will soon get started and likely run well into 2026, possibly longer. Stay tuned. I'm nearly certain you will find this an interesting ride.

• CLICK here for reports about Landlord Tenant Harassment in NYC.

Editor's Note II. What's below is a bit of some of the early research we started doing, after our anonymous victim tenant started becoming aware that he was being harassed by his landlords. The landlords began the harassment by pretending they were simply doing renovation projects, but as time wore on, the ruse became less and less believable.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL ACCOUNTS IN THIS SECTION OF THE ANONYMOUS VICTIM'S PERSONAL STORY ARE HIS ALLEGATIONS, WHICH REMAIN TO BE PROVEN IN COURT. LITIGATION IS PENDING / IN PROCESS.

In the beginning, 7.17.25, we will begin posting ad hoc. Eventually we expect to hit a weekly stride. If you're a tenant in NYC or a landlord, I'm pretty sure you're going to find this a somewhat fascinating story, along the lines of the work done in the 1930's by Upton Sinclair in the Jungle.

NYS Rent Regulations up for Renewal

NYS Assembly and NYS Senate to Strengthen, Renew or let Expire NYS Rent Regulation Laws

March 19, 2019 / Queens Neighborhoods / Queens Government & Politics / Queens Buzz NYC.

On Saturday I attended an event discussing the upcoming legislation pending in the NYS government in Albany concerning NYS rent regulations. Currently about 2 million of the 8.5 million people who live in NYC will be affected.

The primary topic of the event was MCI or Major Capital Improvements, which is a loophole in rent regulations that allows landlords to initiate projects within their buildings and then pass along the project costs to their tenants, in such manner as to provide the landlord with an incremental revenue increase that lasts into eternity, and which encourages landlords to get creative in originating projects in an effort to raise the rents of their regulated apartments at an accelerating speed in order to grow the monthly rent beyond the legal limit of regulation.

What happens then, is that a significant number of longstanding tenants in regulated housing, are priced out of their homes and neighborhoods. Some of the displaced tenants even become homeless. This is why homelessness nearly doubled under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg - who looked the other way as NYS rent regulations were being renewed.

The event was held in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, where hundreds - if not a thousand - people came to particpate in the discussion.

I'll have more on this at a later date.

NYC Landlord Harassments Continue

NYCCM Helen Rosenthal Hosts Housing Clinic to Inform Renters of Their Rights

May 29, 2018 / Upper West Side Neighborhood / Manhattan Real Estate / Manhattan Neighborhoods / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

MB - S.

On Wednesday, May 25th I went to the Goddard Riverside Community Center on Columbus Avenue at 88th Street to attend a housing clinic designed to inform renters of their rights.

***The following introduction is based on prior research done by me, and was not information provided at the housing clinic. I'll let you know when I segue out of my preamble and into the housing clinic.***

Over the past decade landlords appear to have become increasingly aggressive in trying to wriggle out of NYC and NYS rent stabilization regulations, that govern the rental payments under which about two million New Yorkers live.

It is my understanding that the government contributed land and / or financing to build or repair the buildings governed by NYC / NYS rent stabilization laws in exchange for the pricing rights on rent stabilized units. Many of the new landlords who have acquired rent stablized buildings, may possibly be in violation of approaching their business contract(s) in good faith, as the definition of good faith according to Wikipedia is:

"In contract law, the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing is a general presumption that the parties to a contract will deal with each other honestly, fairly, and in good faith, so as to not destroy the right of the other party or parties to receive the benefits of the contract. It is implied in every contract in order to reinforce the express covenants or promises of the contract. A lawsuit (or a cause of action) based upon the breach of the covenant may arise when one party to the contract attempts to claim the benefit of a technical excuse for breaching the contract, or when he or she uses specific contractual terms in isolation in order to refuse to perform his or her contractual obligations, despite the general circumstances and understandings between the parties. When a court or triar or fact interprets a contract, there is always an "implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing" in every written agreement."

What is at stake, throughout the city, is literally hundreds of millions and more likely billions of dollars in - rental benefits or rental income streams - depending on which side of the struggle you're on. The landlords appear to be trying - using the torturtous side effects of construction including noise, health risk dust [inhalation], privacy loss and apartment functional loss - to wrest away the billions of dollars of rental pricing rights benefits from tenants to be pocketed by the landlords themselves. Given the high dollar value of what's at stake - including people's homes - this seems like attempted grand larceny, especially in cases where landlords are breaking the law to achieve their goals.

This will be continued at a later date. Including the segue into the information provided by the Housing Clinic to inform tenants of their rights.

Tenants' Rights March & Rally - June 14th Midtown at 4.30 pm

P.S. There's a March & Rally scheduled for June 14th, beginning at 4.30 pm, at the NY Public Library at 5th Avenue and 40th Street. They plan to march to Governor Cuomo's office at 3rd Avenue and East 41st Street. For details contact info@realrentreform.org or call 212.979.6958. All but one of the No IDC NY senatorial candidates have been invited to participate, and there's a possibility that NYS gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon will be there too - as this seems to coincide with her reasons for challenging Governor Cuomo.