If the candidates running for Mayor this year are going to speak to the issues that affect New Yorkers, they absolutely must talk about housing. New York City is in a housing crisis. Rents have been rising since the 1970s, since Nelson Rockefeller's disastrous experiment with vacancy decontrol.
Rents are now far beyond the reach of the middle class as well as the working class and the poor.
This is not confined to Manhattan. Rents in the outer boroughs are hitting four figures as well. Yet politicians and the media largely ignore this. Outside of a few journalists and the progressive bloc of 10 or so City Councilmembers, no one speaks of this as an emergency, the way crime was spoken about 10 years ago. This is the most important issue affecting the people of New York City.