Good news from Supreme Court for NYC renters - rent control stays in place

A lawsuit filed by property owner in New York City went against them at the US Supreme Court. The issue, whether NYC's rent stabilization law requiring landlords to accept rents that are below market value is an unconstitutional taking of property prohibited by the 5th Amendment to the Constitution. The court said it was not. As reported by the New York Times,

Tenants in nearly a million apartments subject to New York City’s rent regulations could breathe a sigh of relief on Monday. The United States Supreme Court, after indicating it might be interested in hearing a challenge to the regulations, decided to let them stand. As is customary when the court declines to hear a case, the justices gave no reasons. There were no published dissents. Perhaps one in a hundred petitions seeking review by the court is granted, meaning that the decision not to hear the case sent no larger message.

The suit did not directly challenge the rent control law, an older system that applies to far fewer tenants. The Harmons said that requiring them to accept below-market rents amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their property.

“We still believe that the Constitution does not allow the government to force us to take strangers into our home at our expense for life,” Mr. Harmon said in a statement issued after the court turned down the case on Monday. “Even our grandchildren have been barred from living with us. That is not our America.”

Obviously, New York City and State officials were delighted with the outcome. Renters vote, too, you know.

Read the full article here.

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The Empire State Building- what it was not designed to do

I grew up believing that the mast on the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, New York City, was put there to serve as a docking port for dirigibles. Dirigibles were a flight of fancy, most notably advanced by the Germans as a source of national pride, for transatlantic flights.

One featured prominently in an Indiana Jones movie, and, most tragically, in a fiery crash in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Now, don't be confused by the blimps floating over football stadiums. Dirigibles have a metal frame to suppor its skin. A blimp is nothing more than a big bag of helium.

The New York Times puts the kibosh on the link between the Empire State Building and dirigibles:

THE new exhibition at the Keith de Lellis Gallery, “New York: A Bird’s-Eye View,” has a striking assortment of aerial views of the city. No image is more arresting than that of the Navy dirigible Los Angeles docking at the mooring post of the Empire State Building, a giant cigarlike cylinder coming nose-to-nose with the tallest building in the world.

That the photograph is a composite, a fake, is disappointing but not surprising: no airship ever docked there, and indeed the whole mooring mast concept was a bit of a stunt itself.

Now, I didn't know that. Did you? Read the full article.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Stephen's Title Agency, LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-227-4724 - Fax 973-556-1628

E-mail Stephenstitle AT comcast.net - www.stephenstitle.com