The Perfect Rent-Controlled Apartment

[demmiblue]

A retired actor found what he thought was an ideal place to live in Greenwich Village in 1955, for $90 a month. He never left.



It was 1955 when Albert S. Bennett moved into the building on Morton Street.

“I came around the corner and saw all these trees and the Morton Street Pier. There was a Norwegian American liner docked there,” Mr. Bennett said. “The apartment was this tiny space downstairs. It was absolutely perfect.”

Sixty-three years and six landlords later, he still thinks so.

Over the decades, many things have changed, of course: His rent, which was $90 a month when he moved in, is now nearly $900; the Morton Street Pier and Norwegian America line no longer exist; and he has lived on the second floor since the early 1960s.

But his affection for his building, an 1854 townhouse, has never waned. And in the 1980s, after he inherited some money from the estate of his mother, he offered to pay significantly more than the $200 a month the landlord was charging for his rent-controlled apartment.

“Hardly anyone had taken any automatic rent increases, and I felt bad paying so little,” said Mr. Bennett, now 93. “I had this beautiful apartment. She was a good landlord and never asked for automatic increases. And I liked the house so much. So I made a generous offer.”

Does he regret it?

“Oh yes! I’ve said many times that was the worst decision of my life,” Mr. Bennett said. “I got what looked like a huge amount of money to me in 1984, but it turned out it wasn’t.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/realestate/the-perfect-rent-controlled-apartment.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

[underpants]

1. I could do that if it was just me

He could BnB that once a month and make some of that rent.