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It gives strength back to us to continue to push these pro tenant bills. We kind of feed off each other.”
And seeing busses of dedicated voters has an impact, Rosenthal says. "Especially in an election year, it's important for them to remind legislators that they don't just come up," she says. "They vote and they represent the thousands and thousands of people who vote on these issues.”

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Eileen Markey
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McKee has been part of tenant lobby day since 1972. He recalls sitting-in at the office of then-Senate majority leader Earl Bridges over vacancy decontrol. In the late 1940s tenants made their way to Albany on winding Route 9W to press for an extension of war-time rent regulation. Tenants eventually won, but state troopers turned them back at Poughkeepsie, McKee says.

McKee says tenant lobby day is important because it shows elected officials their constituents are passionate about issues and because it inspires the constituents. “It's important to show the flag. But it is much more important what we do in the districts,” he says. As this legislative session nears its June 21 conclusion, Housing Here and Now plans to increase pressure on senators and assembly members in their home districts, McKee says.

Among the demands made Tuesday was a call for Brooklyn senator John Sampson, Democratic conference leader, to remove Espada from the housing committee. “We are not putting up with this," McKee says Wednesday. "We have had it. If Sampson doesn't do this, he can just forget about getting help from anyone in the tenant movement come November.” Activists want Espada removed because they blame him for stalling debate on pro-tenant bills last year, because he gets lots of contributions from the landlord lobby and because of his legal trouble.
        
Indeed, some of Espada's own constituents want him removed. Those who came to tenant lobby day Tuesday delivered an eviction notice to his office and staged a raucous protest for over an hour, vociferously encouraging the senator to vacate not only the committee chairmanship but the Senate seat itself. “My feeling is that he is firmly in the hands of the landlords. He doesn't advocate for the regular people in his district,” says Joseph Ferdinand, 57, a member of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy coalition who lives in Espada's district. Ferdinand was among the people who posted flyers near Espada's office that read “Tenants are watching you” and danced and shouted insults at the senator's office.