The battle for rent reform is coming to a head in the New York State Senate, exposing rifts in the Democratic conference. Democrats hold a tenuous 32–30 majority in the senate, but their ranks are fractured into different camps, making the passage of so-called “controversial” legislation difficult.
At a Sept. 10 senate special session, 150 tenants urged their Democratic allies to get behind a package of rent reforms that passed the State Assembly earlier this year. On this day, they had hoped to see the senate pass S2641, a bill that would prevent landlords from evicting tenants from more than one apartment for personal or family use. However, the bill had been withdrawn the day before after Sens. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) and Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn) voiced opposition. The vote on S2641 was supposed to be a “practice run” for repealing vacancy decontrol, a rule that lets landlords deregulate vacant rent-stabilized apartments if the monthly rent can legally be $2,000 or more.
Kruger’s campaign war chest is well stocked, thanks in large part to real estate interests that appreciate the support. Tenant advocates say that Kruger, a conservative politician from a largely Russian southern Brooklyn district, fears any potential Russian challengers and thus ingratiates himself with the powerful landlord lobby to maintain his seat. He has also verbally sparred with tenant advocates in Albany and ducked behind closed doors to escape chanting tenants who lined Albany corridors Sept. 10. He is allied with conservative Latino senators like Dilan and Ruben Diaz, Jr. (D-Bronx), an evangelical minister who opposes marriage equality, and former senate coup leader Pedro Espada, Jr. (D-Bronx).
In a small victory for tenants, it appears that former coup leader Espada and Jeff Klein (D-Bronx, Westchester) were inclined to vote for S2641 Sept. 10. Klein is closely aligned with two white senators, Craig Johnson (D-Nassau) and Diane Savino (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn) and has tepidly offered his support for rent reform. His group is known by many tenants as the “white guys.”
Tenants will rely heavily on the socalled “Manhattan liberals,” (Senators Tom Duane, Liz Krueger, David Squadron and Eric Schneiderman), as well as progressives in the Black and Latino caucuses to pass rent reform, which they hope to bring to the table at a special session to be held in late September or early October.
Bennett Baumer works as a tenant organizer on the West Side of Manhattan.
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http://chelseanow.com/articles/2009/09/17/the_buzz/doc4aa959f76c21639531...
At his town hall meeting last week, State Sen. Thomas Duane seemed to go dangerously out of his way to chastise Senate colleague Hiram Monserrate for allegedly attacking his girlfriend.
While discussing the power struggle that gripped Albany this summer, Duane had harsh words for Monserrrate, who ultimately returned to the Democratic caucus after defecting to the GOP with Bronx Sen. Pedro Espada. “Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and I also think that—from what I’ve read in the papers, from what I know of the case—it seems to me like a classic case of domestic violence where the victim changes their story after the fact,” Duane said of the incident, where Monserrate allegedly slashed girlfriend Karla Giraldo in the face with a broken glass. (She denied the charges despite video evidence showing him chasing and violently grabbing her the night of the incident.) “I believe that the DA in Queens is a very good DA, I think justice will be served, [and] I believe the justice system will do its job,” Duane added. Monserrate has shown open support for the Senate’s pending same-sex marriage bill, so it’s questionable why Duane would want to take a swipe at one of the measure’s supporters considering its fragile state in Albany. Duane even went so far as to say he hopes for stern action by prosecutors against Monserrate, who is expected to stand trial on Sept. 14. “While everyone is innocent until proven guilty, I would be surprised if there wasn’t a plea to something and hopefully a felony, but maybe not,” he said. “But hopefully that is what’s going to happen.”
http://chelseanow.com/articles/2009/09/17/news/doc4aa9524beb67a601254340...
“My dedication to the cause of tenants and rent regulation has been the reason—I would have to say the biggest reason—that I ran for office to begin with,” Duane noted of his commitment to the issue. He contended that the Senate power struggle originally stemmed from the issue due to the landlord lobby’s influence in Albany
“The coup—there’s no doubt in my mind at all that it was about real estate. But they’re not going to win,” he said. “I don’t care how powerful they think they are—people think they are—we are going to come down firmly on the side of tenants and ending vacancy decontrol, and if I have my way, expanding regulation and preserving more affordable housing.”
The Democratic held State Senate, like Obama, will in the end disappoint tenants/people. There is just too much real estate money at stake. Democrats get elected with the people, but it is an electoral strategy not a governing strategy. That said, I don't if you call what goes on in the NYS Senate "governing."
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