But to Mr. Markus, that kind of bipartisan sturm und drang is something that may be necessary to achieving what he says is the ultimate goal: helping to preserve the city's stock of apartments for low- and middle-income residents, through a complex rent-regulation system that could be conceivable only in New York.
It would cut down on administrative delays that sometimes cause people to lose apartments for which they have applied; revise overly complex rent regulations that eat up precious dollars in record-keeping; and revise outdated income guidelines so that the rural, working poor would have a better chance of gaining access to decent housing.
Gov. David A. Paterson told The New York Sun in May that he pays $1,250 for a rent-stabilized two-bedroom apartment in the complex that rents for $2,600 or more at market rates.
Heartened by the popularity of the 266-unit Hudson Park tower, which he built several years ago, Arthur Collins, the developer, is building another riverfront complex, where rents will begin at just under $2,000 a month for one-bedroom apartments and go up to $3,500 for two-bedrooms.
But while other actors are trying anxiously to stay afloat in the violent current of the marketplace, Mr. Greenspan is buoyed by having landed a place — after a 10-year wait — in Westbeth, a subsidized artists' housing complex, where rents are low and tied, to a degree, on income.
And by 1961, with sales of color sets even beginning to show a profit, Mr. Sarnoff quite typically turned to other conquests, notably electronic data processing, but also such diverse ventures as the acquisition of Random House, the book publishers, and the Hertz Corporation complex that rents and leases automobiles, trucks and other equipment.
There are older two-story garden apartment complexes where rents start around $1,400 a month, she said.
Today, 4,352 of the 11,227 apartments at the two complexes have rents at market rate, up from 3,189 in late 2006.
Now that she is home, in the townhouse complex they rent near the West Palm Beach airport, Ms. Opdyke is struggling to regain her strength.
For the big spenders, the Riverview South complex was renting new luxury apartments on East End Avenue off East 82nd Street in Gracie Square.
