Last night, the Rent Guidelines Board met to discuss rent hikes for rent-stabilized apartments. As expected, people protesting the hikes were also present. NY1 reports, "For one-year leases, the board is now looking at a hike of two percent to 4.5 percent. For two-year leases, the range is four percent to 7.5 percent." Last year, the board agreed on hikes of 4.5% for one-year leases and 8.5% for two-year leases. Landlords and building owners say that while those hikes seem big, they barely offset costs for heating oil and water. Still, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says she would ask the board to freeze rents; one tenant organizer said, "This would be an appropriate year to do that. This is the worst recession we’ve seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s."