Article Image

IPFS News Link • Housing

New York City's Affordable Housing Bonanza for the Rich

• reason.com

It's no secret that one-percenters have occupied more than their share of Manhattan's rent-controlled apartments. High profile freeloaders of the past include New Yorker editor William Shawn, singers Carly Simon and Cyndi Lauper, TV personality Alistair Cooke, Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe de Montebello, former Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorensen, screenwriter Nora Ephron, Mick Jagger's ex, Bianca, and Mayor Ed Koch (D). Manhattan Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-13th District) famously pigged out on four rent-controlled pads—three to live in and one for his campaign office.

Fans of Woody Allen's film Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) may recall the 11-room apartment where Elliot and Hannah reside. That's actress Mia Farrow's actual rent-controlled apartment, passed down from her parents—and did I mention that it's on 73rd Street overlooking Central Park? Even free-market heavyweights Murray Rothbard and Robert Nozick partook in the spoils of a law that made housing artificially cheap through state coercion.


JonesPlantation