Rent Guidelines Board orders for 2012

If your lease renewal goes into effect any time from October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013,  how much your BASE RENT will increase depends on what your current rent is.

If your current rent is $1000 or more, you will pay

• 2% increase for a 1-year lease renewal
• 4% increase for a 2-year lease renewal.                              

But if your current rent is less than $1000, you will pay   

• $20 increase for a 1-year lease renewal
• $40 increase for a 2-year lease renewal.

The Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) has imposed this "poor tax" so that tenants whose rents are below $1000 - usually older tenants who've been in their homes longer (or whose building had Bob Woolis help keep the rents low under Mitchell-Lama as we did!) will pay higher increases.  

NY 1 reports:  
According to studies conducted by the Rent Guidelines Board, the majority of rent-stabilized tenants cannot afford their apartments.

Market rate tenants, it's time to try to get your apartment back into rent stabilization!  Click here for more information, and if you qualify, contact a member of the Executive Committee of the CPG Tenant Association for help. 

Speak Out Against Higher Rents at the Rent Guidelines Board

Let Your Voice Be Heard at the  Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) Public Hearings

For years, the Rent Guidelines Board - entirely appointed by Mayor Bloomberg with no oversight -  has voted for rents unaffordable to many people in this building. Meanwhile, our landlord is converting affordable apartments to unaffordable market-rate units. Can you afford to get another rent increase?

Speak up at this year's public Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) hearings:

Date	Place	Time
Wed., June 13, 2012	CUNY-Hostos Repertory Theater 450 Grand Concourse Bronx	4-10 PM
Mon.,June 18	Cooper Union's Great Hall 7 E., 7th St. at 3rd Ave. Manhattan	10 AM to 6 PM
RGB Final Vote	Cooper Union's Great Hall 7 E., 7th St. at 3rd Ave. Manhattan	starting at 5:30 PM

Travel direction to the Bronx hearing: Train 2,4 or 5 to 149th St. & Grand Concourse Travel directions to the Manhattan hearings: Train 6  to Astor Pl. or R to E.8th St., walk 1 block east.                                                                  Bus 101, 102, or 103 from Lexington Ave. to E.8th St.
SIGN UP TO SPEAK: Call the RGB at 212-395-2934. AND: 

What a Great 2012 Pot Luck!

 
The 2012 Pot Luck was overflowing this year with folks inside and out (most of the kids were running around outside).  To the background of golden oldies and more recent music, we ate  and ate and ate and ate -  and talked and then ate some more.  

Some of the people who made this evening possible are Debbie Gonzalez, Maxine Soares and Lydia Pitsirilos - the Pot Luck Planners; and Alitha Mobley and Marlin Rodriguez who provided the evening's wonderful music and its technical components.

Pot Luck Planners Debbie, Lydia and Maxine 

Here are some of the other people who deserve thanks:   

Na'ava and Sue

Na'ava Ades for emcee-ing

Nicole and Laurie

Laurie  and Nicole Barton for salad

Sarah Belardi & Mike LaGrotta for cupcakes

Renee Belzile for panettone

Mildred, Elise and Renee E.

Chariss Boisseau and Natonio Ray for macaroni and cheese

Jurency DeAndrade for cookies cake

Renee Eddy for turkey wings
Gabrielle Everett for photos

Paulie Fischer for sheet cake (see photo above!)

Yvonne

Sheila Friedling for salad

Yvonne Granberry for greeting tenants as they came in, for keep the trays stocked, and for cleaning up.  

Debbie Gonzalez for spicy vegetables

Zena Gonzalez for spring salad

Tish Howard for Mediterranean chicken

Photo by Monica Jenkins

Florence Jackson and Jerry Pirog for tortilla española

Monica Jenkins for ceviche with shrimp

Shirley Johnson for lasagna

Barbara Jones for staffing the greeting table

Patricia Jordan for candied yams

Mike Lagrotta and Sarah Belardi for cupcakes

Ena Malone for Swiss chocolate cupcakes

Eva Marie Malone for salad

Mary

Brenda Marshall for cake

Mary Martin for cake

Maritza Martinez for moro de habichuela negra

Millie Matos for pasta
Alitha Mobley for music

Kathy Murray for turkey chile

Adelaida Navarro for dessert

Val, Marie, Richard, Gabrielle

Pat Neely for cleanup

Prudence Opperman for black bean casserole

Letty Orellano for baked chicken

Elisa Ovalle for rice pudding 

Namita Prasad for samosas and pakoras and cauliflower and peas 

Valarie Prescott for pasta

Wyona Purcell for cleanup

Sekhar Ramakrishnan for Madras-style broccoli, spinnach, and okra, and barbecued chicken

Marichu Ras for flan

Gloria and Sen. Perkins

Gloria Rios for dessert  

Luz Rivera for pastelitos

John "Bones" Rodriguez for staffing the greeting table 

Marianita and Marlin

Marlin Rodriguez for music and sound system

Marianita Rodriguez for Spanish peas and rice 

Vicki Santiago for flan

Vernon Smith for cleanup

Maxine Soares for Jamaican jerked chicken

Marie Squerciati and Oliva Tabares for empanadas

Charles "Mack" Stewart for the photographs here (unless otherwise noted)

Janie Stewart for stringbeans and pork, & for staffing the greeting table

Traci Swain for providing music speakers

Mack, Sen. Perkins, Darrell
Delia Timmons for salad       

Linda Tyler for staffing the greeting table

Denise Tyus for Spanish peas and rice

Sen. Perkins, Helene, Sekhar, Sue and Shantha

Gabrielle & Sen. Perkins

State Senator Bill Perkins came to give Sue Susman a "Distinguished Woman"  proclamation  from the NYS Senate (click here for the YouTube video), and it was wonderful to know that all the people who make up our tenant association were really being honored by that award.  Sen. Perkins referred to Sue as "communications central" on affordable housing and neighborhood issues. Tenants who want to get added to those e-mail lists as well should contact Sue directly. 

Lavina and Brock

Thanks to one and all who made this a wonderful wonderful event.  And if your name is missing, please let Sue know what you contributed!

Tenant Town Hall this THURSDAY!

Are you tired of soaring rents?

Do you believe tenants need stronger protections NOW?

---

Come to a

Town Hall Meeting

on Tenants’ Rights and

Housing Affordability!

Thursday June 7th @ 6:30pm

Hartley House in Manhattan

413 West 46th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenue

Click here for a flyer in English. 
Click here for a flyer in Spanish . Spanish translation will be provided at the Town Hall. 

Co-sponsored by the Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association with many other groups!

See you there!