By JOHN MAZOR

October 16, 2006 -- Hundreds of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants rallied along the East River yesterday to try to keep their apartments rent-stabilized.

With the 110-building middle-class development up for sale by Met Life, residents fear losing the protections that have made the complex affordable since it opened in 1948.

"They want to turn this into a gated, market-rate, master community," said City Councilman Daniel Garodnick. "We're not going to sit back and let that happen."

Backed by labor and private equity groups, tenants bid $4.5 billion to buy the property, vowing to leave 40 percent of the units rent stabilized.

The bid - against some of the nation's most powerful developers - made the first round of cuts. The second is today.