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Councilors tear into local landlord

No, not that one. City Realty, and this time for what it's allegedly doing to actual Boston residents, rather than a bunch of college students from Long Island. The Dig reports on a hearing yesterday.

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Balance of power.
Improve balance of power at City Hall and Election Campaigns of Councilors with better Council Communications that are interactive with a variety of mechanisms that offer opportunities to send response to Councilors' remarks, feedback, comment, suggestions, questions. The routine of City Councilors' are the appearances at public events and then in a Public Meeting relatively remote to real access or intimidating setups for Committee Public Hearings.

Greater openness and better Council Communications.
The Documents, Orders, etc. of Boston City Council could be formatted better for easier reading/understanding . Headers of Council Documents are often obscure. Council Agendas and Minutes contain Docket items that can't be understood readily because of a failure to include the actual relevant key terms.

Metro reporting shortcomings.
Journalists fail to obtain, read carefully Council Documents, and fail to note frequent inaccessible format and language used in Council Documents.

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As a native Long Islander, I kind of resent that comment. I went to college here, stayed through graduation, recession, and now am a working professional and an actual Mass resident, taxpayer, and home owner. Not every college kid from out of state comes here to party with Mom and Dad's money and leaves when their four years are up.

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That being said---good thing that many of the City Councilors didn't think this hearing was worth attending. I guess it's not really their problem now that they are making 6 figures from the part time jobs they aren't required to show up for.

I really hope none of them see a dime of their pay raises in 2016.

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Although I'm sure the comment was in jest, it trivializes landlord misconduct against college students, which as we know is a serious and deadly problem.

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(I only lived there for middle and high school) who came to Boston as a freshman and stayed for 10 years as an adult. I specifically chose to move to Boston to get away from that awful behavior, and openly avoided associating with those individuals when I lived in Boston.

Some of us are just innocent bystanders.

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The more Bostonians that grew up elsewhere the better!!

The bring a fresh perspective to Boston.

- The Original SoBo Yuppie

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Adam is a transplant too and the OP made me laugh.

And this is the first time I've ever seen anyone not find shame in Long Island heritage.

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... wgho live in Long Island. And some parts of it look quite lovely.

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My experience is mostly with the STRON GAILAND types who live west of Moriches along the parkway. There are nice parts but the depression of the middle of the island will always stick with me.

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My parents still live in Stony Brook on the north shore of the island. There is a pretty large university and teaching hospital in the same town so the area is actually quite diverse. Not everyone fits the LI stereotype but I'll be the first person to admit that those people do exist. I can't tell you how many people have commented that I can't possibly be from Long Island because I don't have an accent. It's an island of over 4 million people-we can't all be the same!

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These people are despicable! I'm talking about City Realty.

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An empty gesture.

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Complete shame that the Globe and Herald did not cover this hearing, but Farone's article seems to be some kind of third-rate Hunter S. Thompson imitation rather than a real attempt to convey the substance and importance of the hearing. I wish a real reporter had attended who didn't try to turn the whole event into some kind of joke.

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Agreed, this Dig article is like a throwback to the sort of puerile nonsense that used to go in the Phoenix. A shame, since the Dig is the only local paper that regularly attends council meetings.

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So you're saying Faraone won't be remembered in history as the founder of "poopy butt" journalism?

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Why is it a problem that property owners are allowed to rent to whoever will pay them more? I mean, it sucks to have your rent go up and all, but that's life. It's not like no-down-payment mortgages aren't a thing; buying a condo instead of renting an apartment is a good decision if you plan to be in Boston for more than 5 years. I can't understand why people rent for decades -- essentially throwing away their rent money without accumulating capital.

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The truth is that being priced out of one's home does more than just "suck". It can be horribly destabilizing for individuals and families who can't afford to stay in their communities.

Further, the fact that you think zero down mortgages are the answer, in a post mortgage bubble world and in a city with housing prices as high as Boston's are, really highlights an incredible ignorance of the challenges faced by people who don't have the same level of financial security that you clearly do.

Are you really this cavalier about all the things in life that "suck," or just the things that suck for others? Just because something awful is often a part of life doesn't mean that we should all just accept it. Our system of government was set up so that if a system produces results that society finds unacceptable, the system can be changed. The city council may or may not be able to realize that potential in this case, but they're not wrong for addressing the issue.

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Everyone has it hard. We all have to work to eat and pay a mortgage -- either ours or our landlord's. It's substantially cheaper, both immediately, and in the long run to pay your own mortgage than somebody else's. I'm sorry you find the laws of economics unacceptable, but the city council can't repeal them.

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It is true that there will be wins and losses in any given market economy. And that landlords have a right to charge what the market will bear.

But the problem is that the supply is constrained, and the demand is rising, and that means prices are going up a hell of a lot, and it's hurting people. And not only that, but landlords are charging incredibly high rents for places that are shockingly substandard - no heat, broken windows, broken plumbing, vermin, lead, etc.

Yes, prices rise and fall. It's annoying when you get priced out of Davis Square and move to Medford. But when you get priced out of the entire Boston metro area and have to move away from your entire family and your roots, or move somewhere there are no jobs, etc. then it's really a burden! And that's not a trivial problem that can be solved by "well, that's the market."

It has to be solved by adding more housing at all price points, and it has to be solved by forcing landlords to provide some sort of minimum quality for all tenants, including functional heat and plumbing in buildings without lead and vermin. It will require intervention by municipal governments to make sure that happens.

Does that help?

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There's no such thing as a free lunch. Landlords charge high rents for decrepit buildings because that is what the market will bear. Require those landlords to take better care of their properties, and the rents will just rise further (as more affluent people will be willing to rent them). The *only* solution that actually addresses all of these problems is to increase the supply by making it easier to build denser, less expensive buildings. If you have fewer units of housing than the number of people who want to live in them, the market will have all sorts of illicit ways of coping with that shortage.

All over Boston there are neighborhood associations demanding "more affordability, fewer units and more parking." If we want to see rents go down, we have to put a moratorium on density limits and parking minimums.

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The Dig piece was just name-calling and profanity. It didn't really say anything or provide any facts to the reader. Why, for example, is City Realty so bad? I have no information about that, and the article didn't provide any.

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pops a cap into Faraone's ass, his will calls for Harvard Medical School to get his ego. Whoever called him a Hunter S. Thompson wannabe nailed it. Go get high on your own time.

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Why don't those people having trouble with the rent just vote themselves a 27% pay raise?

Oh yeah, they work in the real world.....

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I'd like to hear Tito's take on the over-build of condos in South Boston under former mayor Menino. Does he care that a two-family home is torn down to make way for a 15 unit condo builiding? He never spoke up when all those condos were built in South Boston, bringing more people, cars, crowded T buses, sidewalks covered in dog sh*t. And, most unfortunately, dude-bros. Does he only care, now that the developers have run out of space in South Boston and are now eyeing his own community?

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No more 1 or 2 bedroom condos or apartments in SoBo.

The only thing that should be built in SoBo are:

1. Parks / Open Space
2. Single Family Homes
3. Three Bedroom condos w/ a minimum of 2,000 sq ft.

luckily the higher end yuppies and life long residents outnumber the dude-bros... i couldn't imagine living the north end or allston/brighton.

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What some consider overbuilding may be viewed by others as adding much needed housing.

If you think it was a problem under Menino, who caved to NIMBYs often, I wonder what you think about Mayor Marty's goal of building 53,000 new units in the city. If he means it, SB is not exempt. Sorry to tell you.

Though I don't know if he's got the guts to face neighborhood opposition to increased density. I don't think it's an accident that his report was silent on where they plan to put these units.

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City Realty just put out a press release this morning apologizing to their residents and reducing rents by 40%.

They also said they couldn't enjoy their breakfast this morning because they were still crying in their cheerios from the spanking the night before.

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