wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Robert from NYC December 07, 2007 - 10:49AM

  I think small businesses should have some kind of ceiling on their rents initially, which would allow for changes if the business grows and becomes lucrative then they can change the lease type, as it were. You do see many small businesses open and close in a month or so and the exorbitant rents have a lot to do with that.

  
  
• [2] Marc from Financial District December 07, 2007 - 10:56AM

  The market the market the market!

  God forbid there should be any "interference" with the "smooth" running of the free market.

  Commercial rent control need not look like residential rent control.

  
  
• [3] Levine JJ from NJ December 07, 2007 - 10:57AM

  Regarding the guest's reverence for what he calls "market mechanism" -- can he talk to what might happen if the government-backed Freddy Mae withdrew billions in mortgage backings, along with the city wiping away those tax breaks to developers? Those billions surely have an effect on rental and purchasing costs?

  
  
• [4] christauf from Brooklyn December 07, 2007 - 11:18AM

  Your guest is a virtuoso of euphemisms. While waiting for market forces to determine the diversity of retail opportunities available to my former neighborhoods, or maybe, appropriate levels of amenities my real income "when adjusted for" "scum bag landlords" has plummeted. Whenever I hear someone say "market forces" I wait a second to hear who will have the privilege of taking my money.

  Economists use such impersonal language that you might think no personal, human deciscions were made. In fact, no landlord that I've ever had to deal with was forced to do anything. They have chosen to break laws and I have not ever had the retainer fee to hire a lawyer to challenge them. Market forces are not analogous to thermodynamics they are analogous military force. That is to say their greed has the force of law.

  
  
• [5] elaine weiss from Manhattan December 09, 2007 - 12:26AM

  Dear Brian

  I have listened to your program for a long time, but I have never written (or called) before 12-7-07. I could not believe what I was hearing from Mr Chandan and I could not believe that your guest host did not stand up to him or question him like you might have.

  Mr. Chandan only spoke for the landlord. He condemmed any regulation of rent increase that might interfear with the landlord's profit. Mr. C. agreed with a caller who would only rent to a certain kind of business person and certainly not to one who lived in NJ.

  The guest host was passive and did not challenge Mr. C's ideas like a good interviewer would.

  We use guidelines in many areas of our economy.--salary increases, appartment rent increases, budget increases etc. Why can't we have guidelines when it comes to increases that a landlord could demand of a small business person? This was never discussed.

  The discussion was verry one-sided.