Rent Control: Welcome to New York City
July 1, 2026
Last month, I traveled from Maine to New York City and back, with my two baby daughters. Again, in recent years, while still operating out of Chicago Loop, we have also maintained a co-operative apartment in Riverdale, Bronx and a home in Maine. After ponying up a mere $15.00 per day for long-term parking, the flight out of Portland to JFK took only 50 minutes. From there, the real fun began, with a three-hour grind from Queens to The Bronx via Air Tran, Long Island Railroad, and MTA.
Knicks in Five
It was an exciting time to be alive and in New York City. The Knicks had taken down the Spurs in five games – to end a 53-year title drought, the World Cup was in Jersey, and the Yankees were playing though a Home Stand in The BX. Admittedly, this was the most action that I had ever seen in the Big Apple, and the Knicks revelry rivaled Da Cubbies taking the World Series in 2016.
Times Square then felt like the Center of the Universe, with throngs of World Cup fans enjoying watch parties beneath the bright LED lights. Several blocks away, stood Madison Square Garden, as the epicenter for Knicks fandom to paint the town bright orange and blue. Yes, long lines wrapped around the NBA Store at 5 AV, with almost all Knicks merchandise being sold out for weeks.
We took the 1 Train from The Bronx to the end of the line – at South Ferry for the Knicks Championship Parade. We settled into a spot on Wall Street – at the New York Stock Exchange and managed to spot parade floats several blocks away down Broadway. The mood was festive, of course, with total strangers eagerly spoiling my babies with bottomless bags of sweet, cotton candy.
The Bronx is Burning
Still, any trip to Chicago and New York can quickly turn sour, after the ticker tape fully descends and the smoke clears. I might compare the feeling to that of an Ancient Roman or Egyptian overseeing ruins: the lights are on, but nobody is home. Chicago itself has lost more than one million residents since its 1950’s peak population, while New York millionaires continuously beeline to Florida, taking billions of dollars in recurring tax receipts with them and out of City coffers.
This year, Chicago homeowners are eating massive property tax hikes, while City Hall blames the shortfall on collapsing Loop commercial valuations. Ironically, it was the same City Hall that ran many of these businesses out of town, leaving Joe Six-Pack holding the bag.
In Manhattan, congestion pricing is in full effect, which has simply shifted the bottleneck onto the I-95 George Washington Bridge and Cross Bronx Expressway. Here, in the 70’s, desperate landlords torched buildings and filed bogus insurance claims in flailing attempts to recoup property investments that collapsed under rent control. NYC will just have to learn these harsh lessons again.
Financial Strategy
Billionaire Google founder Sergey Brin quietly dumped his New York City apartment portfolio for pennies on the dollar. Institutions will consider operating out of Chicago / NY / LA mega-cities solely for prestige, while shifting more dollars toward business-friendly Sun Belt states for real profits.
Kofi Bofah, Chairman
ceo@onyxinvestments.com