This is the sort of thing that made me say that O!s mortgage interest rate was comparatively small potatoes.
While aggressive evictions are making rent-stabilized apartments increasingly scarce in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent apartments in a sprawling penthouse overlooking Upper Manhattan, courtesy of one of New York’s premier real estate developers.
Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.
Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit, six-tower luxury development with doormen that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.
The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in the building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.
********
Yet Mr. Rangel, a boisterous critic of other landlords’ callousness, has been uncharacteristically reticent about Olnick’s actions [in aggressively forcing tenants out of rent-controlled apartments].
********
Mr. Rangel, 78, declined to answer questions during a telephone interview, saying that his housing was a private matter that did not affect his representation of his constituents.“Why should I help you embarrass me?†he said, before abruptly hanging up.
Olnick officials declined to discuss when or why they decided to permit Mr. Rangel to lease multiple rent-stabilized units. Asked why he had been allowed to use one as an office, Jeanette Bocchino, a spokeswoman for the company, replied: “This is a private matter for the Olnick Organization and Mr. Rangel to evaluate.â€Â
As always, YMMV.
Comment by cranky-d on 7/10 @ 7:04 pm #
I’m shocked by this revelation. Shocked!
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 7/10 @ 7:08 pm #
Mr. Rangel, 78, declined to answer questions during a telephone interview, saying that his housing was a private matter that did not affect his representation of his constituents.
Charlie on his taxpayer car lease
and my constituents appreciate TAKING IT UP THE A#$!
http://wcbstv.com/seenon/car.lease.us.2.713776.html
Comment by dre on 7/10 @ 7:13 pm #
Charlie owns a plantation. We be his slaves.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 7/10 @ 7:16 pm #
I bet just on their pricey taxpayer funded lifestyle alone it costs taxpayers more to
endowfund a Dem controlled congress.I bet if someone did a study just on congressional per dium / living and car exspenses only they show that a Democrat congress cost the average taxpayer a pretty penny.Comment by Jeff G. on 7/10 @ 7:19 pm #
The only people with the power to do anything about this kind of thing don’t want anyone looking into their finances, so they just kinda let it go.
These people are no longer our equals. Who’s going to do something about it?
Comment by MayBee on 7/10 @ 7:24 pm #
John Conyers will be right on this.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 7/10 @ 7:25 pm #
The “non-partisan ethics” (giggle) group CREW filed a compliant against Norm Colman for renting a basement apartment in DC at fair market value. They say it’s an ethics violation because he rents it from a friend who is a campaign consultant and it should be listed as a gift.
So, Who’s going to do something about it?, I guess not so-called “non-partisan” “ethics” “watchdogs”.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 7/10 @ 7:26 pm #
Maybee
Your from Michigan right? Have you caught up with the City Council / Conyer bribery scandal?
Comment by dre on 7/10 @ 7:35 pm #
William Jefferson my man is into this.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&q=william+jefferson&btnG=Search+News
Comment by MayBee on 7/10 @ 7:41 pm #
Tops- it was breaking news when I was up there. Along with the latest trial of Kwame Kilpatrick, who claims the latest text message exchange with his mistress is the result of hackers forging messages.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/10 @ 7:42 pm #
What a corrupt piece of shit. That’s really sad. And also the Olnick Organization is a corrupt piece of shit. Bloomberg for real needs to get off his poncey ass and get this taken care of.
Comment by dre on 7/10 @ 7:43 pm #
I wonder if Charlie has a “wide stance”?
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 7/10 @ 7:54 pm #
hackers forging messages
Maybee
Yeah, that was pretty funny considering what efforts his attorney went to shuttle the transcripts out of town and of course the settlement agreement arising out of the lawsuit to keep them secret. Wonder why he didn’t raise the hacker defense in the whistle blower lawsuit?
Comment by lee on 7/10 @ 8:13 pm #
Uum, excuse me, you whiners!
I’ll have you know this is the most ethical congress EVER!
Nancy told me so.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/10 @ 8:23 pm #
The good Reverend Jackson could a lot redeem himself by putting his sling blade thinger to good use here I think.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 7/10 @ 8:29 pm #
the thing is, Charlie has 3 apartments to live in? (WTF? are they 3 expanded into one penthouse or something?) and the 4th apartment is his office (WTF? Is it like a 2 bedroom apartment office?), yet about his car lease he says his taxpayer funded care is his office
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 7/10 @ 8:41 pm #
Some folks call it a kaiser blade, I call it a sling blade, umm hmm.
Nuts out Charlie…then buscuits ‘n mustard.
Comment by Argentinian Cow on 7/10 @ 8:54 pm #
That is the question. If we collectively had any sense, we’d throw them all out. Clearly, we collectively do not. Now what?
Comment by Pablo on 7/10 @ 8:54 pm #
Oops.
Comment by Spiny Norman on 7/10 @ 10:09 pm #
This sort of petty corruption may be par for the course – William Jefferson’s (D-Louisiana) 90 Grand in a freezer that he commandeered a LNG unit to go retrieve after Katrina is little more than “walking aroung money” – but the difference is that Republicans go to prison for it, while Democrats are regarded as urban heroes “stickin’ it to the man”.
Comment by Spiny Norman on 7/10 @ 10:10 pm #
…walking *around* money…
Comment by RTO Trainer on 7/10 @ 10:40 pm #
Here it looks to me like he’s embarassed himself.
Silly me.
Comment by psycho... on 7/10 @ 10:53 pm #
It’s done, son. This is it. This is
whowhat we are. Rangel’s famous “comfortable car” quote is so bullshit-cuttingly accurate, it looks stupid. It’s not at all.Down in the thoughtless animal goo where the political brain operates, all that matters to voters is that that man’s car is stolen. The more garishly, blatantly, redly so, the better.
Enabling that crime, participating in it –and all the billions of others that constitute politics — satisfies them so deeply — even, or especially, or only via cowardly proxy — in places so primitive they’re inaccessible to any but the vilest act, nothing else could ever take the place of it. That big red car is every voter’s pornographic keepsake. How else will they relive their only true and perfect moment?
Few of us are brave enough to murder and rape and pillage for ourselves. We need Rangel’s car to look at, Kennedy stamps to lick, Che t-shirts, I VOTED stickers…
I need a drink. Five drinks. Five more drinks.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 7/11 @ 12:45 am #
difference is….democrats like corruption, they just didn’t like the republicans taken’ it away from them for a little bit.
Comment by js on 7/11 @ 12:47 am #
So Rangel has been in Congress for how long, and the NYT suddenly starts ratting him out? Did they get a sudden case of ethics or something?
Hmm. He supported Hillary till the last dog died.
First Jesse, now Chollie.
Are Obama’s folks traveling around taking care of anybody who might be inconvenient?
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 7/11 @ 12:51 am #
How come Jane Hamsher doesn’t get the shakes over CHARLIE’s 7 Saddam like apartments?
Because he’s a democrat.
Comment by alppuccino on 7/11 @ 3:21 am #
Any time I see a story about Charlie Rangel, it reminds me of a picture I did in ‘72 – Wrangle Charlie. The set was nothing but practical jokes. I sprinkled Rocket Fiber on Peter North’s guacamole on lunch break, and he crapped a green rooster-tail during a dogging scene. I laughed so hard I peed a little.
Comment by B Moe on 7/11 @ 6:04 am #
Here it looks to me like he’s embarassed himself.
If only he were capable of being embarassed, in which case we wouldn’t have these problems.
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