New Yorkers ask to make vacant units available

In response to the NY Times article on how to make New York City more affordable, some posts pointed to vacant units.

Chris in Queens, for example, wrote: 

I would also like to see some kind of residency requirement, where if you own a property and you don't either rent it out or live in it for a certain amount of time, you have to pay a stiff penalty. I don't like that people can just buy property and sit on it, driving up housing costs for everyone else.

That's followed by a long discussion - including how one might show the apartment owner is not really living there. But that question doesn't matter where landlords of large buildings with many rent-stabilized apartments are refusing to rent out those that become vacant.  We need a better law!