Word: controllable
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Friends and foes of rent control alike should support economic diversity among tenants. Cambridge voters should support the Cambridge Tenants' Union and oppose Proposition...
...Cambridge City Council established rent control in 1970 over the strenuous objections of the real estate industry and large landlords. Nothing in the original policy prevented some 5000 tenants from buying their apartments, however. As the supply of affordable housing dwindled, the Cambridge City Council enacted the Removal Permit Ordinance in 1979, which greatly restricted the ability of new tenants to purchase their apartments...
...supply of rent-controlled apartments in Cambridge has remained relatively stable since then. Rent control has protected an economically diverse community from the ominous specter of gentrification. Without rent control, apartments would be rented and sold to the highest bidder, and poorer city residents would be forced to leave...
THESE economic incentives for the real estate industry to abolish rent control have only increased. The average rent-controlled apartment is valued at $25,000, according to both sides of the 1-2-3 debate; in the free market, these apartments would sell for more than $100,000. Large landowners stand to make millions of dollars, if only Cambridge voters would let them...
Instead of waging war solely at the City Council level, real estate interests decided to sponsor Proposition 1-2-3. By shifting the focus away from rent control, the industry hoped to dupe large numbers of Cambridge residents. And by turning the debate city-wide, landlords planned on capitalizing on its one advantage--access to money for a large-scale campaign...