The City Council should mind its own business.

According to today's Herald:

Faced with soaring Hub rents, some fed-up apartment dwellers are forming unions to negotiate better deals with their landlords.

Now Boston’s City Council is joining the fight, with plans to hold a public hearing today on a proposal to give government backing to tenant unions and force landlords to make concessions.

Basically, the way it would work is this - if tenants in a specific building (of 20-units or more) wanted to band together and meet with their landlord to negotiate rents, as a group of one, the landlord would have to agree, or risk having a (scarlet) letter put into their file at city hall. The letter would be reviewed any time the landlord wanted new permits, tax abatements, or other city assistance.

So, basically, the way I see it, it's a way to blackmail landlords into accepting collective bargaining.

The leader of this ill-advised proposal is City Councilor Sam Yoon. A public meeting is being held today to discuss it.

City landlords are hell-bent against it. (Well, would you expect otherwise? It's money out of their pockets!)

They've lined up some heavy-hitters including Barry Bluestone, of Northeastern University (who is often on the side of the little guy) AND genius (and personal hero) Edward Glaeser, of Harvard University.

Glaeser will argue the proposal has the potential to derail efforts to build badly needed housing and “become a case of good intention leading to unfortunate outcomes,” according to an advance copy of his remarks.

Read on: Rent control revival? - By Scott Van Voorhis, The Boston Herald