Word: condoe
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Dates: during 1979-1979
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While the legal battles meander through the courts, condominium conversion may be continuing. "At some places, they (developers) have lost their rehabilitation loans, but in other areas it hasn't changed the pace of conversions," Lawrence A. Frisoli, a city councilor who voted in favor of condo conversions, said last week. Frisoli's claims are wishful thinking, responds Sullivan. "I haven't heard of a single condo being occupied. When the law is broken, I assume the person will be prosecuted and end up with a $500 fine and a criminal record for the rest of his or her life...
...Condo conversion has a history and a future as a political issue. Five years ago, condos were rare in Cambridge, as they were in much of the country. Soaring home prices and the desire of landlords to be free of rent control helped spur the condo boom in Cambridge, a wave of conversions that shrunk the number of apartments in the city by 2000 in the past three years. "Condo conversion has really affected Harvard--it has cut the housing stock at a period when demand, especially from transient students, is increasing all the time," Sally Zeckhauser, president of Harvard...
...Condo enthusiasts answer those arguments with claims of their own. "60 to 80 percent of condos are sold to the tenants who lived in the apartment that was converted," Walsh contends. "Buying those units is a stabilizing factor for them--there is no better rent control than a mortgage," he added. The "homeless elderly" problem will be solved soon too, Frisoli says. "There are two bills in the state legislature to protect the elderly from condo conversions. That seems to be the sore point, and it will be long gone by election day," he said...
Walsh can run down a laundry list of pro-condo arguments. "It gives people interest in the city as taxpayers, it increases the amount of revenue to the city, it improves the property, and last but not at all least, it lets everyone experience the pride of ownership which is a basic American right," Walsh says. "Condos open new gates for people coming in, and since so many old tenants buy them, the price has to be damn right...
Another bloc the progressives hope to lure to the polls with the condo issue is students, who, since they are transient by nature, might oppose conversion of rental units. That job may be difficult: in the last municipal election, where housing was also an issue, the predominantly-student third precinct of the sixth ward turned out only 349 of 1462 registered voters. Ballot referenda on South Africa, nuclear power and the Kennedy candidacy may draw more students to the ballot box this year, but the issues are no guarantee. "Based on their past experience, many politicians in this city tend...