Renters in New York are no different than Boston renters except they get less for their money. This could be why volunteer software coders in New York meet on a regular basis to make software apps for tenants who have landlord problems.
One records renter problems with heat to help report bad landlords. https://heatseek.org/history/
Another one tracks buildings going through displacement. www.displacementalert.org
The app Who owns What helps tenants find exactly who owns buildings and rentable properties no matter how many LLC corporations the owners hide behind It does data science to compare common data between various public records.