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Sand shifts under real estate's feet
The changes signal a major shift in the balance of power that has long prevailed in New York, as lawmakers move to alter a series of landlord-friendly rules passed in recent decades. Tenant activists have pushed to reverse those provisions for years, but their proposals were continually blocked under the Republican-controlled state Senate.
“There was some arrogance on the part of the real estate industry that was based on how things have functioned in Albany for a long time,” state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) said, according to The Times. “In the past there was no need for them to truly engage the way that I think would have been necessary this time around.”