There is truth in your comment, that anyone currently renting at below market rate (which is most new yorkers. I grew up in a $700 rent stabilized apartment on 17th st. Some of my family is still rent stabilized), if forced to move out, will be displaced since they can't afford market rents. So it is their interest to avoid change.

This is the quagmire that our zoning and development laws, of limiting the ability for buildings to be easily built, have gotten us into. NYC has had a housing crisis for two decades, and it seems to only get attention now because it has become a nationwide issue. But ultimately the underlying issue of everything, is that we just absolutely need more housing to be built. There is no way to avoid it.