Rent Is Too Damn High Candidate's Rent Is Actually Low

Photograph of Jimmy McMillan by aboutmattlaw on Flickr

Jimmy McMillan, the mustachioed and gloved gubernatorial candidate who debate- karate chopped his way into the zeitgeist with his rousing rhetoric, "The Rent is TOO DAMN HIGH," has been chatting with dozens of media outlets about his breakout performance during Monday's debate. But now it turns out that his own rent for a one-bedroom in Flatbush is just $800/month—and the NY Times reports, "Mr. McMillan said in an interview on Tuesday that for at least the last decade, he had lived rent free. 'We’re like family,” Mr. McMillan said of his landlords. 'They don’t want me to pay any money at all. I am basically living there rent free.'" Can he work his magic for the rest of us?!?

The Times explains more:

Mr. McMillan said that he moved into his apartment, a one-bedroom on Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, in the early 1980s but soon fell behind on rent when he left his job in the Postal Service on disability. The landlady, Mr. McMillan said, admired his Vietnam War service and forgave the back rent and, eventually, the future rent, too. In exchange, he did maintenance work, and after she died in 2003, her heirs continued the tradition.

Building manager Viola Hampton told the Post, "The rents should go up but they haven't. People don't have that kind of money... Everybody here is like a family," and said of her tenant's platform, "He's not necessarily talking about himself. He's talking about the poor person."

McMillan is paying $900/month rent on a rent-stabilized place in the East Village for his son. Also, per the Times article:

"Mr. McMillan declined to show the apartment, saying he feared for his neighbors’ safety, and fielded questions from the driver’s seat of his parked graphite-colored Honda CR-V, which is also his mobile office. When he travels, he sleeps in it, too; in the back were a sleeping bag, a bottle of Scope Original Mint mouthwash and a pair of nunchucks he keeps in a seat-back pocket. That weapon happens to be banned by the state he wants to run. “My main object is to protect myself,” he said. “I will worry about the consequences later on.”

McMillan boasted, ""People want me to help set up the Rent Is Too Damn High Party in other states. The way people are talking right now, I'm going to be the next governor," and wants another chance to debate, "I talked to a few of the other candidates and we agree: There needs to be more debates, and at least one upstate." And here's more McMillan, from The Last Word:

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on October 20, 2010 11:09 AM

Comments [rss]

Jibreel

irony the ones whom snicker and laugh more likely work at the Daily Show as writers, ride the L train back to Bushwick to only further gentrified the area that McMillen lives. This whole thing is even an attack on my free market principals due to the fact New York City itself is not like most American Cities... there are no "Donut Hole" neighborhood even near by that Mr. McMillen could move too. Yes NYC is expensive however where will your average low skill worker "live" at? These are also the people whom without are not going to fix your coffee/sandwich, sale your newspaper, flip your burger and so on. Too many people still think of 1950's terms of planning when there was still built infrastructure within our City Propers however in New York City when you say "I live in Brooklyn" you really live in Brooklyn vs someone from Cleveland lives in the Greater Cleveland Area as Cleveland City Proper is filed in vacant infrastructure vs the influx on Manhattanites being priced out of the Island turning to Brooklyn as a viable option... jokes on you

Joan Angelson

The only reason we are letting this guy run with this crazy platform is because he is black. If he were white we wouldn't even know who he is.

just saying

Jimmy McMillan is either 63 or 64 years old and he left the Post Service on disability in the early 1980s. So that means that he hasn't been employed since he was in his 30's. And he hasn't paid a cent in rent for years in return for odd maintenance chores.

It's obvious: Jimmy McMillan's rent is too damn low.

jpeditor

Let have the govt take over all the rental real estate!

"Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes."

Communist Manifesto, 1998 edition Penguin’s Signet Classics ($5.95).

GO FOR IT. $10 says you turn NYC into Detroit!

Dogsbody

I don't really get the point of this article. Firstly, maybe he believes $800 IS too high, or maybe he believes rent on OTHER apartments is too high, preventing him from living elsewhere.

But the main point is: you don't need to be directly affected by something to make it your campaign platform. Would it be a big shock if a politician "fighting for the poor" was not actually poor himself. Or if someone campaigning for gay marriage was straight?

So what?

Jamie McDonald

Can someone explain to me how all this is not just essentially minstrelsy?

femiredwood

He did the funniest interview this morning with the PIX Morning News. Freaking hilarious!

http://bit.ly/9C9hRS

SonofTheSniper

Charming guy, but he is totally Scamming though! Can't afford his own cup cuz his free rent is too high?

JacqueMehoff

man that was quite the interview. Look I said I was sorry, what more do you want me to do? interviewer said nothing because the guy's right.

Ed

I did some quick mental calculations on what $800 per month or $900 per month rent would translate in terms of median household median income in New York, which is about $4600 a month. That is just about 18% or 19%. Most people pay more of their income in rent.

But that is the point, maybe paying a fifth of your income in rent is too high. A majority of our income goes to rent and taxes, meaning people here are poorer than it appears on paper.

Conservatives complain about taxes because it means they can no longer decide to spend their money, and actually I agree with this, but rent has the same effect. And since rent is driven in part by property taxes, and government likes to keep real estate values high so the property tax money comes in, I really don't see the difference.

SonofTheSniper

True. But a lot of people don't consider the fact that rent control and stabilization laws are *in part* the cause of high rents. After all, if it is mandated by law that one tennant can only pay $400/month, then another sucker, er tenent, has to make up the difference in the eyes of many building owners. Hence the cycle feds on itself.

Still, even though I don't think Jimmy's ideas are feasible, I still may vote for him. Just to f with the system.

Matt

Jimmy McMillan isn't crazy. He's just watched "Up" too many times:

http://bit.ly/buOT0j

Awesomer

Has everyone forgotten his self-published book "What Jews Want," in which he claims to have discovered a secret Jewish mafia, which turned out in fact to be Al Qaeda?

Oh wait, he has funny facial hair. He's not scary; he's funny!

hotstepper

so this guy collecting permanent disability from the post office (wiki says he's "retired") yet healthy enough to run for governor of new york, on a platform saying that rent is too high while he himself is paying low rent. yup, a quality candidate that we should be spending time discussing instead of actually focusing on our crumbling state.

if this election insists on being a sideshow, i want my sword-swallowing bearded lady.

jpeditor

ALSO: "but soon fell behind on rent when he left his job in the Postal Service on disability."

But he can do maintenance work in exchange for free rent?

"rent is too damn high should be "NYC too hard to keep scamming the man!"

tsk_tsk_tsk

his candidacy calls attention to an important issue for many new yorkers! are you actually suggesting that, because he pays low rent, he somehow can't stick up for people for whom the rent is "too damn high?" get your head out of your nether regions...

hotstepper

yeah ONE issue, ding bat. this guy is a patent charlatan who is helping make a mockery of this already absurd election. if you can't see how ludicrous his candidacy for governor of new york state is i'll gladly send someone to unlodge your head from your ass...or maybe he can add that to his eminent platform for gov.

tsk_tsk_tsk

reality check: he's not going to win. but his candidacy does call attention to an important issue, as i said. sticking up for people who are worse off doesn't make you a charlatan, it makes you human.

btw, pretty hilarious that you're suggesting 'sending someone over'. i'll be waiting hahahahaha

koidragon

Sword-swallowing bearded lady? "Check"... her name is Kristin Davis.

The sideshow is complete.

Spirit of 76

Will you guys listen to yourselves? He's pandering and you're falling for it hook, line and sinker. His rent isn't too damn high and neither is his son's. Admit it, you'd kill for a $900 rent-stabilized apartment in the East Village. And this is a man who admits he's carrying what he knows is an illegal weapon, but he doesn't care. When Paladino says he'd like to take a baseball bat to Albany, people think he's nuts (deservedly so), but this guy would take nunchaku to Albany and that's somehow okay.