Landlords’ Counter-Intuititve Ad Campaign: Rent Regs Are for Rich People!
By Matt Chaban May 19, 2011 10:02 pm
reprintsNow that Governor Cuomo is throwing his weight behind strengthening rent regulation in the state–after a seeming term of ambivalence–the Rent Stabilization Association is out with a new batch of ads explaining how rent regs, at least under the current legislation, only benefit wealthy Manhattanites. Azi over at our sister site PolitickerNY got his hands on the four ads, which just began airing on local radio.
We’ve posted one above, since they’re all basically the same variation on a theme: have an outer-borough landlord talk about a Daily News article and Citizens Budget Commission study that shows only Manhattanites making six-figure salaries stand to benefit from the changes; followed by a plug for the affordable units they own outside “the City,” be it 43 in Flatbush or six in Crown Heights; then exclaim how tougher regulations will make it tougher to run these buildings. The transcript to all four spots are on PolitickerNY.
Meanwhile, Azi points us to a blog post by Megan McArdle of The Atlantic decrying the problems with these new guidelines.