May 24, 2010 2:50PM 

# $288/​Month for an Upper East Side Studio 

By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) 

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“Rent Control Is a Vanishing New York Treasure,” [proclaims the headline over](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/nyregion/25appraisal.html) a *New York Times* story. Like [Josh Blackman](http://joshblackman.com/blog/?p=4550), I think “treasure” isn’t the right word here: “[anachronism](http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RentControl.html)”, “[disgrace](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1133)” and “[abject](http://fee.org/library/books/roofs-or-ceilings-the-current-housing-problem/) [policy](http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent-affair.html) [calamity](http://jim.com/econ/chap18p1.html)” are more like it.

**P.S.** The Times article sympathetically depicts a Gotham tenant who pays the legally dictated rent of $288 to live in one of the nation’s most desirable neighborhoods. You guessed it: he feels put upon in that situation, believes his landlord should be doing much more to spruce up the place, and has teamed up with Manhattan State Sen. Liz Krueger to pursue his fight.

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