New York Govenor David Paterson Has a $1,250/Month Rent-Stabilized Apartment in Harlem
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gov. David Paterson says he pays about $1,250 a month for a rent-stabilized apartment in a Manhattan neighborhood, less than half the market rate for housing in his complex.
Paterson's two-bedroom apartment in Harlem is part of Lenox Terrace, a set of residential buildings spread across six-blocks in central Harlem. The market rate for a similar apartment there is $2,600 a month or more, according to the landlord's Web site.
According to their tax returns, Paterson and his wife Michelle made about $270,000 last year. They also own a home upstate and have access to the Governor's Mansion in Albany.
Paterson said the rent was appropriate, given the city's rent regulations. ``It is within the spirit of the law,'' he said. Critics disagreed, saying high-income New Yorkers shouldn't be eligible for rent stabilization.
Compared with other city politicians, Paterson's apartment is modest. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Upper East Side town house is worth millions.
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned earlier this year amid a prostitution scandal, lives rent-free in the penthouse of a Fifth Avenue building built by his father.
Rent stabilization laws govern about a million apartments in the city and is governed by the Rent Guidelines Board, which recently gave preliminary approval to rent increases.
