The Rent is Too Damn High Party

Isn't Method Man running with Redman this year? I plan on joining the People are too high party.

There are cheaper places to live than New York. I don't think that anyone has a right to live in New York. The reason rents are high are because people will pay that rent. Its is the law of supply and demand.

I vote yes to the facial hair.

Paladi-noooo!

I like the cut of his jib

and his magic mustache

I propose we find out McMillian's barber is ....and vote for him or her.

MHA wrote: I tell you what, laugh at McMillan. I believe he knows what he's doing. While Cuomo and Paladino poo-poo the non-bougie Black vote, all of those poor Blackfolk with housing issues may poll to give this guy their vote, not because they think he will win, but rather because Cuomo and Paladino are laughing at him, and the single issue he speaks on, i.e. that The Rent Is Too Damn High. While all you Whipsters with your very consciously assembled grunge move into neighborhoods which were once wholly Black -- and push Blackfolk out -- courtesy of historical white privilege, Blackfolks are reconsidering the virtue of voting for Cuomo. 'What has he done for 'Us' lately?' will be the refrain. I predict a poor Black turnout in all 5 boroughs of New York City, and a higher than expected upstate vote for Paladino. Paladino may be our next governor.

Yeah, they're really going to stick it to the man by helping Paladino get into office. :roll:

Hopefully black New Yorkers aren't as shortsighted as you think, because they'll suffer most if Paladino is elected.

Is this the first time McMillan got to debate? I know he's been around for a long time--I first saw his website in the 2004 election and I think he'd been running for various offices before that. I'm just wondering why everyone's talking about him all of a sudden.

Mougar wrote: [quote=tsarina]There are cheaper places to live than New York. I don't think that anyone has a right to live in New York. The reason rents are high are because people will pay that rent. Its is the law of supply and demand.

That's certainly the main reason.

I would also argue that the supply of market rate apartments is artificially depressed by rent stabilization and rent control.


problem is it's too entranced to do anything about it. from rich to poor, who has some of the apartments, they won't budge. its treated as a generational investment. kin folks move in when one of them is near death.

rich/upper middle class folks who do this pisses me off more than anyone, some of them might use it as a second place if they have a place in the suburbs etc.. lol one lady i know during my van business thing. she owns few buildings in harlem. she had a rent control place in east village. life isn't fair

anyway it shouldn't be generational, this way eventually the system should be phased out and poor people should be given out vouchers or something similar. right now the system is set up against young and new people to nyc.

old people and people who has been here for a while, could of gotten cheap housing or brought them cheap etc.....

if the system even out everyone would get a fairer market value of their rents.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/20/2010-10-20_jimmy_sez_i_want_you_to_join_my_revolution.html

http://bit.ly/9C9hRS

MHA that is a very simple argument to explain the situation. If you listen to McMillans speeches about cheap rents, money in everyone's pocket. etc, etc, you think "where is the money going to come from?" Rich people paying super high taxes? And how long would that last?
This is one of the most expensive cities in the world. People come from all around the world to live here. They are willing to pay what ever it takes to be here. Why would anyone finance housing in Manhattan or elsewhere to get a marginal rate of return? Doesn't make any economic sense.
Also I take issue with you statement that this was a wholly black neighborhood and "white privilege" is driving the black folk out. 1. This was never a wholly black neightborhood. 2. Nobody "owns" the neighborhood, except for the people who actually own the building. 3. It is the money privilege that is gentrifying neighborhoods. I have been pushed out of The west village, Chelsea, Carroll Gardens. Who do I blame? "White privilege"? Not hardly, Green privilege.
There are alot of cheaper places to live, nobody has a right to live someplace if they cant afford it.

So how does he (Mc Millan) propose to do it? All that pie in the sky right here on earth? Who is going to finance somebody else's lifestyle, when there are plenty of people clamoring to live here? AND willing to pay for it!

Lol @ white people conspiring to push black people out of NY. Who would move to CH if they didn't have any alternatives?

How does one propose solving the "problem" of high rents in NYC? A rent freeze? More subsidized housing? NYC lost a huge swath of its tax base in the recession. How are we gonna pay for these "solutions"?

I think NYC is a very transient city. And I think that things are getting to a breaking point rent wise, and they will correct themselves. We saw it already in the wholesale collapse of the sales of those overpriced Williamsburg condos, and I'm sure when other places become truly unaffordable that corresponding collapses will take place there as well.

But many NY neighborhoods are what they are despite developers' best efforts. Queens, the BX, Washington Heights etc... those neighborhoods aren't going anywhere.

More importantly though, while I agree with and endorse Jimmy McMillan's message, I think it is ironic that he embodies why the high rents of NY are just one of the many things NYers have learned to deal with. I mean the guy's a fighter; he's been shaped and forged by his experiences and in a lot of ways embodies what NYers are about. We're here in this sweatbox of opportunity facing all these challenges, but we fight and scrap to stay afloat, and in doing so add to the character of the city. That's not to say there aren't people being unfairly pushed out of their homes or some pockets of rampant overdevelopment and price gouging.... but it is to say that the high cost of real estate isn't something that can (or should) be subsidized out of existence.

His catchphrase resonates with NYers on many levels for many reasons. But before we utilize his message to push our own agendas, can we at least TRY to qualify his message and really examine the causes and locations of unfairly high rent, before we default into the now thoroughly boring back and forths of gentrification and white privilege? I think there's really something to talk about here.

Well, I say if Cuomo doesn't come up with a plan that addresses the housing needs of middle class and working class people, then he doth not haveth my vote, and he ought not to have yours.