Word: condominium
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...Middlesex Superior Court justice yesterday upheld a controversial Cambridge ordinance which attempts to slow the rate of condominium conversion in the city...
City Attorney Stephen Deutsch, arguing in favor of the ordinance at the hearing, said state home rule legislation and the city's own rent control statute gave Cambridge power to regulate condominium conversion...
Rent control worked for a while to maintain the city's diversity and prevent the eviction of elderly and low-income tenants. But five years ago, property-owners discovered a new weapon: the condominium. Instead of raising rents, landlords abolished them all together, and fixed their apartments up for sale on the open market. In five years, 2000 rental units disappeared, and the same alarmed cries of gentrification arose. Again the city acted, this time passing an ordinance to limit severely the rate at which apartments could be converted...
...Condominium conversion, when it occurs, seems guaranteed to force an exodus of low- and moderate-income tenants and elderly residents, probably along with many "transients"--students for the most part--who are the butt of numerous attacks from city developers. The study shows they will likely be replaced by higher income owners, for the most part young professionals (attracted by the city's budding high technology industries). They will be single, or, if married, have few children. "That is the definition of gentrification," Councilor David Sullivan--who won his seat with heavy tenant backing--says...
Some see the conversions as a potentially beneficial trend. Billy Walsh, a local lawyer specializing in property transactions, says it "is the right of every American to buy a condominium." Vickery, while less ebullient, insists home ownership has its advantages. "We have a high percentage of transients now," he says. "I guarantee you that once they own their homes, people become more active, more concerned about neighborhood politics...