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New York landlords' worst nightmare, the "good cause" eviction bill, is on the move, The Real Deal reported. State Sen. Julia Salazar's bill was amended Thursday to allow for a rent increase of 3 percent or 150 percent of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is higher - up from just 150 percent of CPI in its original form. Language forbidding evictions of tenants who are hit with "unconscionable" rent increases was also changed - to "unreasonable," which lawmakers preferred, according to supporters of the bill. The legislation will now head to the Senate judiciary committee, which is scheduled to meet next week. Rental commissions are back, The Real Deal reported. A New York judge granted a temporary restraining order Monday afternoon, halting a Department of State guidance barring tenant-paid rental commissions from going into effect. The guidance, circulated Feb. 4, would have blocked tenants from paying rental commissions in cases where the landlord hired an agent to market the listing. But amid heavy backlash from rental brokers who said their livelihoods were at stake, the industry filed an Article 78 petition this morning in Albany. Gowanus residents and activists held a press conference last week in the community's latest effort to steer a planned rezoning of their neighborhood, Real Estate Weekly reported. Weeks after the city announced it was in talks with developers to build high-rise housing instead of a park on a former gas plant at the corner of Smith and Fifth Streets, Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice (GCNJ) said the city needs to get its own houses in order first, demanding repairs be made to crumbling NYCHA housing stock. Residents at the event described a "public safety crisis" with units having no heat or extreme heat, leaking pipes and rodent infestations. City Council Member Bill Perkins is opposing a large-scale expansion plan of the storied Lenox Terrace residential complex in Harlem - a decision likely to doom the proposal unless developers can change his mind, Politico reported. The Council's land use practices give him effective veto power over the plan, which is currently nearing the end of the city's public review process. "This project is not good for our community," Perkins said. Beneath a massive blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled proposals today for a citywide basement apartment legalization program, a tax on vacant storefronts, more low-income housing and payment plans for renter security deposits, Commercial Observer reported. The second-term mayor called the set of policy initiatives "a plan to save our city." "We have to save ourselves from the forces of greed," he continued. "We have to save ourselves from laws that no longer serve us."
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