Tucked inside New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sweeping affordable housing proposal is an echo of an idea from the Michael Bloomberg era: to use vacant public housing property to build new housing units.
Last year, Bloomberg’s plan to lease out New York City Housing Authority land and allow developers to build market-rate apartment buildings on it stalled after low-income residents of the projects revolted. Now, after condemning his predecessor’s plan, de Blasio also wants to use that land for development, albeit of a different kind — to build affordable housing units, not luxury ones, and possibly a few supermarkets and retail stores.
Bloomberg wanted to build on vacant space currently occupied by basketball courts, parking lots and outdoor plazas. It’s unclear which vacant space de Blasio would focus on. The mayor’s office stressed that any proposals would focus on improving residents’ quality of life.
“This is a community process that’s going to center around the needs of NYCHA residents,” Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said in an emailed statement. “We have a lot of listening and engaging with NYCHA residents ahead of us — they’ll be the ones identifying priorities and articulating how they want to proceed.”
De Blasio’s housing plan states the city will work with the Housing Authority and residents in coming months to assess the potential “for underused NYCHA land and development rights to benefit existing residents, increase affordable housing, produce local retail, and community facilities.”
9 comments:
Fresh food stores sounds like a great idea for some housing projects. A lot of them don't have fresh food nearby. Add in that a share of any profits go to funding new amenities - repairs have to be funded by the city/state/feds, and that a high proportion of jobs (80%?) be reserved for NYCHA residents.
Vacant space occupied by basketball courts......
> vacant space
> occupied
Pick one.
"We have a lot of listening and engaging with NYCHA residents ahead of us — they’ll be the ones identifying priorities and articulating how they want to proceed.”
Translation: they have already had the local bishops and reverends and groups like Elmezzi Foundation helping the community to 'form' its opinions for a number of years now. Another legacy from the Bloomberg years.
Nothing is unscripted and the mike is not turned on until the play is written and the major actors rehearsed.
That empty space was put in for a reason and all the urban planning schools know this.
The sad thing is they will say nothing for they are also engaged in major expansions swallowing up their local communities.
Fresh foods sounds like a good idea ...
Sure, and they will be out of business replaced by a Pioneer before the buildings are topped out, which in turn will be replaced by a city agency employing a lot of Democrats and providing low hanging photo ops for the Queens pennysavers any time the news gets a bit slow.
The things one can learn by reading "The Epoch Times": that "NYCHA residents" self-identify as "NYCHA residents".
If I am ever interviewed by "The Epoch Times" shall I identify myself as "Owner-Occupant of R2 Housing".
translation of the commissioner's remarks
"if we can get away with it with balloons and some wiener roasts its a go."
We should keep the basketball courts up if anything.... after all the department of health is always complaining about obesity. If these courts are being used, they should be kept up.
But to tell you the truth I think this whole subsidized housing thing is just a way to control who lives where and they can put a huge list of demands on what you can do in an apartment that you're paying for. It's just like big brother is watching you, that's all it is.
"Fresh food stores sounds like a great idea for some housing projects. A lot of them don't have fresh food nearby."
Yeah, because supermarkets operate on very small margins and the shoplifting that happens in the ones patronized largely by housing project residents simply can't make it. Only the overpriced bodegas with their second-rate foodstuffs thrive.
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