Before They Make Her Run: Defending Bianca’s Rent-Stabilized Status

Tom Acitelli — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:12:21 -0400

We noted last week that Bianca Jagger was getting evicted from her rent-stabilized Park Avenue apartment over visa problems (she's a Brit).

A New York Sun editorial asks today: "... why should the taxpayers of New York have provided a wealthy woman for more than 20 years the benefit of a below-market-rate Park Avenue apartment?"

Curbed answers back, though, with one of the most coldly thorough defenses ever of rent-stabilization, which keeps about 1 million apartments in the city below market rate:

No harm no foul, and here's the thing: We all would have done the exact same thing. Lucking into a rent-stabilized Park Avenue apartment is like winning the lottery, without having all those crazy problems that lottery winners all wind up with for some reason. If suddenly you could afford the market-rate rent, would you want to give up the stabilized rate? ... The system is one giant corrupt game, and we all look for ways to take advantage. Kudos to ol' Bianca for holding on to her place for so long.

Observer » Before They Make Her Run: Defending Bianca’s Rent-Stabilized Status

Before They Make Her Run: Defending Bianca’s Rent-Stabilized Status