1) Go buy a place of your own and be your own landlord. That may be simple or impossible because you’re downtown in a city where commercial real estate is crazy expensive.
2) Develop a better relationship with your landlord. Being that you can’t change him, change you. Sorry, but you are at his mercy. He can easily kick you out when your contract expires and not renew, up your rent because you’re a difficult tenant, etc. Being that he doesn’t have your check, cancel the old one and write a new one. Better than him making up a breach of contract excuse. Sorry, you can’t be the stubborn one because of the investment you have in the location.