Word: reals
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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LANDLORDS and the real estate industry have been trying to whittle away at Cambridge's rent control law for the past 20 years. But none of these attempts have been as sly as the Cambridge ballot initiative known as Proposition 1-2-3. Proponents have used misinformation and deception to obscure the real issue--rent control--that the referendum addresses...
...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...
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...
...Arizona Republican John McCain ($125,433), Ohio Democrat John Glenn ($234,000), California Democrat Alan Cranston ($897,000) and Michigan Democrat Donald Riegle, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee ($76,100). In addition, according to the Arizona Republic, DeConcini's top aides received more than $50 million in real estate loans. Keating also gave McCain and his wife trips, including vacations in the Bahamas valued at $13,400, which McCain paid for after they became public knowledge...