![Keith Rubenstein](https://commercialobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/11/rubenstein_final.jpg?quality=80&w=615)
Keith Rubenstein.
Keith Rubenstein
Founder at Somerset Partners
![Keith Rubenstein](https://commercialobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/11/rubenstein_final.jpg?quality=80&w=615)
How much longer can this go on?
It’s hard to say because there is a combination of things going on at the same time!
What does normal look like?
Normal looks a little different every day.
If you could go back in time to March of 2020, what’s the first thing you would do?
More focused on looking forward toward March 2022 then back on March 2020.
What do you do now that you never did before 2020?
Spend so much time at home and occasionally wear a surgical mask.
What’s the biggest threat to the return to normal?
Definition of normal is still being determined. I think some things will be forever changed. But there will be pre-COVID life again, but people need to be encouraged to go to work.
Is now the time to buy or sell?
Depends on what and where. I think New York is always a great place to buy and maybe there is some opportunity to acquire assets that would have not otherwise been available.
Suddenly, there’s a big change to the New York state constitution and you’re now named the 58th governor of the Empire State — what do you do about the eviction moratorium?
I would eliminate the moratorium, but I would issue an executive order allowing tenants to raise hardship as an affirmative defense to a nonpayment claim. The burden would be on the tenant to prove whether hardship applies in her or his particular proceeding.
Lightning round
Eric Adams or Curtis Sliwa?
Eric Adams for mayor; Curtis Sliwa for chief of police.
Last time you got on an airplane, what was your destination?
Oct. 3 flight to Zurich.
What vax did you get?
Pfizer.
Your go-to takeout?
Monte’s Brick Oven.
Where does your patience wear thinnest — evictions or anti-vaxxers?
Anti-vaxxers.