Highbridge residents spend more of their incomes on rent than tenants in any other neighborhood in New York City, according to a recent report - and rents are set to rise again after the city's Rent Guidelines Board held its first ever public hearing in the Bronx on June 19.

In a 5-4 vote June 27, the board approved rent hikes for leases that renew on or after Oct. 1, 2006 of 4.5 percent for one-year leases and 7.5 percent for two-year leases.

The report, released by New York University, showed that Highbridge residents spend more of their incomes paying rent than people living in any other neighborhood in the city. The median monthly rent in Highbridge is $743, the report indicated. And median household monthly income is about $21,000.

The neighborhood's buildings have one of the highest rates of housing code violations in the city, too, with all sorts of repair and service problems, the report said.

Despite the housing code violations, low incomes and high rent burdens, the city's Rent Guidelines Board approved significant rent hikes for landlords at a raucous meeting June 27. About one million apartments in the city and almost 9 out of 10 apartments in Highbridge are rent stabilized.

Bronx residents perhaps deserve some credit for the large crowd that turned up in Manhattan for the board's final vote June 27. That crowd included hundreds of tenants who had showed up for the June 19 meeting, which was held at Hostos Community College. When the board's chair, Marvin Markus, whose irascibility towards tenants is well known, told Bronxites to "shut up," a member of the public at the microphone scolded Markus.

"Don't talk to them like that," the woman said, using the microphone to silence Markus. "Show some respect!"