FYI: With the budget battle all but closed upstate, lawmakers will return to the issues they’ve been saying for months had to wait, which means two New York City fights are bound to heat up fast. The city still awaits Albany’s approval of its plan to put a water filtration plant in the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park, over the and Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz. A federal court order forcing the city to choose a site means the fight will have to be resolved in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, as Robert Neuwirth reports in the June issue of City Limits magazine, the debate over rent regulations has thus far been eerily silent. But the current rent regs expire on June 15, and the renewal fight is sure to kick in. The debate will likely center on reshaping “vacancy decontrol,” which deregulates stabilized apartments once their rent rises to $2,000 a month. Landlords want that trigger for deregulation gradually lowered. [5/21/03]