By: Dana Rubinstein, Mihir Zaveri
NEW YORK -- A "rent freeze" on nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in New York City went into effect Thursday, prompting cries of victory from tenant advocates. At the same time, a group of landlords seeking to overturn the freeze made public dozens of pages of internal communications between city officials and members of the panel that approved it, claiming they showed improper efforts to influence an independent process.