June 26, 1985

Tenants in thousands of rent-stabilized apartments in New York City will pay rent increases of up to 6.5 percent under measures adopted yesterday by the Rent Guidelines Board. In a meeting at 1 Police Plaza interrupted by jeers and catcalls from both tenants and landlords, the board approved increases of 4 percent for a one-year lease and 6.5 percent for a two-year lease. The vote was 5 to 4. ''The board showed a willingness here today to push low and moderately priced homes onto a new level that their tenants won't be able to afford,'' said William Bowen, the chairman of the New York State Tenant and Neighborhood Coalition, a tenants' group.

WEDNESDAYS at 5 A.M. Jan Czech, a fruit farmer from Salt Point in upstate New York, loads her van with 500 quarts of strawberries and heads for the Union Square Greenmarket. On Saturdays, when the market is busiest, Mrs. Czech also brings along apples. But during June - strawberry season for local growers - she concentrates on her strawberries, one-quart baskets of Midways, Fletchers, Honey Eyes and Redchiefs. They sell for $2 a basket. Out in Melville, L.I., Ferdie Schmitt is also focusing on strawberries - and on the weather. If the temperature does not rise sharply and rain is minimal, he will be picking into the city so that by 11 A.M. the shelves of Fairway Fruits & Vegetables (Broadway near 74th Street) will be fully stocked not only with the upstate varieties but also with Allstar, Earlyglow, Jerseybelle and Raritan, names that sound more appropriate for horses in a race at Belmont than for ingredients in a cobbler. When the season ends on Long Island and upstate, after the Fourth of July, New York markets will again rely on strawberries grown in and around Watsonville, in northern California, which are at their peak throughout the summer.

IF a recent culinary foray to North Carolina is any indication, we are becoming one of the least parochial nations on earth where food is concerned. Not long ago, restaurant-going in any but the largest cities of the South was virtually unknown. The best food was thought to be in homes or in boarding houses, and most of that, while frequently wonderful, was standard: fried chicken and country ham, long-cooked greens, black-eyed peas, okra, grits, corn bread and spoon bread. For dessert, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, doughy fruit cobbler or angel food cake. Spices consisted mostly of black pepper in generous amounts, dried sage and herbs like fresh parsley and garlic. Those dishes still exist in the South, of course, and what's more they have now taken hold in other sections of the country. In New York City, for example, restaurants like Carolina, Gulf Coast, Cottonwood Cafe, Tennessee Mountain, Texarkana and Sylvia's serve quintessential Southern fare. At the same time, topnotch dining establishments are making their presence felt in the South. At the places I visited, in the Winston-Salem and Chapel Hill regions, food is expertly prepared, menus are alive with imagination and there is artistry in the presentation. North Carolina still boasts some of the finest barbecue and down-home cooking to be found anywhere, but the newest establishments are marvels of sophistication.

An investigation into allegations of widespread corruption and organized-crime infiltration in New York City's multibillion-dollar construction business was ordered today by Governor Cuomo. The Governor disclosed his plan in a letter to Mayor Koch, who had formally requested the appointment of a special prosecutor in April. Mr. Cuomo said the Statewide Organized Crime Task Force would begin ''an intensive and comprehensive investigation,'' assisted by the state police, the State Commission of Investigation and state and Federal law-enforcement agencies.

The American Express Company announced yesterday that Sanford I. Weill had resigned as president and that it had named Louis V. Gerstner Jr., head of travel services, to succeed him. Mr. Weill's resignation came after months of rumors that the strong-willed Wall Street executive was restless in the huge company and after he made at least two unreported attempts to buy the troubled Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, which he headed, from American Express. Mr. Gerstner, 43 years old, will assume the No. 2 post Aug. 1, when Mr. Weill's resignation becomes effective. Mr. Weill will continue as a consultant to American Express until his employment contract expires in June of 1986. The new president, described by associates as a consummate operations man, is credited with revitalizing the company's travel division, now American Express's biggest profit center. [Page D5.] The company also announced that it planned a partial divestiture of Fireman's Fund. [Page D5.] Mr. Weill, who is 52, made his mark by forging a string of brokerage houses into what today is the giant Shearson Lehman Brothers investment banking arm of American Express.