New York City isn't the only area in the country to be burdened by rent controls. Several other cities and states throughout the nation also have laws and regulations which protect tenants at the expense of landlords, a practice now deplored by most economists.

Increasing public acceptance of market-oriented policies and recognition of the dangers of government regulation, however, are resulting in the dumping of those controls.

• Rent regulations in some states, including California and Massachusetts, have been weakened or eliminated in the past three years.

• Some 32 states, many without any current regulations, have passed legislation that specifically prohibits municipalities from enacting new rent restrictions of their own.

• As recently as 1987, only 14 states had enacted safeguards against the controls.

Analysts credit the efforts of the National Multi-Housing Council, a trade group for apartment owners, which has been working for the past 20 years to get rid of federal and state prohibitions against rent controls, for the increase in the number of states adopting such safeguards.

While the group has so far failed to pass federal legislation, it has obviously had great success at the state level.

• Rent regulations first appeared in the U.S. during World War I, were phased out thereafter, but reappeared during World War II -- when the federal government adopted nationwide controls.
• Those were quickly dismantled after the war, with the notable exception of New York which maintained them.
• During the inflationary 1970s, many other Northeastern and California cities adopted them.

Source: Mitchell Pacelle, "Rent-Curb Crusade Plays Last Stop in New York," Wall Street Journal, June 13, 1997.