Evictions Don't Just Effect the Poor, and San Antonio Isn't the Only Evictions Hotbed.

Court rules the eviction of Bianca Jagger was proper
By Jef Feeley and Phil Milford - Bloomberg News

Bianca Jagger, the human rights activist who once was married to rocker Mick Jagger and has fought for refugees in Darfur and Iraq among other places, is homeless herself — in a way. A New York appeals court ruled last week that she was properly evicted from a rent-stabilized $4,600-a-month apartment at 530 Park Avenue based on her tourist-visa status.

The owners of the posh Upper East Side Manhattan building had the right to oust Jagger after 20 years since she was in the U.S. on a so-called B-2 visa and couldn't show the apartment was her “primary residence,” the New York Court of Appeals decided. “We conclude that, absent some unusual circumstance, a primary residence in New York and a B-2 visa are logically incompatible,” Judge Robert S. Smith wrote in a four-page decision released Oct. 23.

Jagger, also the mother of interior designer Jade Jagger, has been an advocate for human rights in world hotspots. She moved out of the apartment temporarily several years ago, saying it had mold, and withheld the monthly rent payments, according to court records. Jagger sued building owner Katz Park Ave. Corp., claiming the apartment was uninhabitable. Katz later rented the apartment to a new tenant.

Roger D. Olson, a lawyer for the Nicaraguan-born British citizen, told the appeals court Sept. 3 that his client was the equivalent of a “snowbird,” a New York City resident who spends the winter elsewhere and returns in the spring. Such residents still qualify to participate in the rent-control program, he argued.

Magda Cruz, a lawyer for Katz, argued that New York's rent-stabilization laws were set up “to provide affordable housing for New York residents,” and that federal immigration law bars visitors on tourist visas from claiming they have their primary residence in the U.S.

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