Sunday, May 17, 2015

People who need affordable housing don't trust de Blasio plan

From the NY Times:

The plan, which calls for 80,000 new apartments, mostly for households with annual income of less than $69,000, requires an extraordinary amount of diplomacy, even with the mayor’s allies. Neighborhood groups and their City Council representatives, who must sign off on any rezoning, are anxious about taller buildings, more people and gentrification. Labor unions want assurances that they will have a bigger role in construction, even though it drives up costs.

Perhaps the most vocal complaints are coming from affordable-housing groups that want the new homes that are designated as affordable to go to the poorest residents, as opposed to a mix of income levels, and that want to ensure that current residents will not be displaced as people with higher incomes move into the neighborhood and make it more upscale.

While the activists acknowledge that they have enjoyed more access to a post-Bloomberg City Hall, they have also been conducting frequent protests there. At a demonstration in March, protesters yelled “Slow it down!” as Mr. de Blasio passed by them.

“It hasn’t been easy for either side,” said Maritza Silva-Farrell, a spokeswoman for Real Affordability for All, a coalition of more than 50 housing and tenant groups. “It’s hard when you hear that a community is going to be rezoned and you don’t know what that means.”

Administration officials have played down the anxiety, but there is obvious concern, and there are signs that the resistance is wearing on them. In an interview, Mr. de Blasio said he planned to go out into communities to “talk about the plan directly to the people.”

“We have to show people in neighborhoods all over the city that this is a very different approach to development and one that protects their interests,” the mayor said.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't afford a home,
When do I get my free home
And I want my new home to be in whitestone or bayside,
I will refuse my free home and complain Loudly if its in College Point!!!

Anonymous said...

Dumblasio is a moron anyway. The more people who live here, the worst the quality of life becomes. Whoever voted for this idiot must be stupid themselves or an illegal!

Anonymous said...

Just because Republican's don't offer free stuff for votes does not give you the right to complain

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

That's because all arrogant, pompous, lazy, cowardly, dishonest, derelict, unapologetic, unrepentant, recalcitrant, intensely incompetent politicians of New York State government continue to dictate (as in unchallenged Neo-Fascism, no less), their counterfeit 'Private Splendor versus Public Squalor mantra that always, without exception, betrays public trust, with impunity.

It's a tragic debacle of private, involuntary membership country club status that continues to rob and siphon all of the repeatedly (ad nauseam), talked about benefits of a purportedly stronger and more unified middle class (that was always designated for accountability and enforceable representation of their languishing constituents to prevail in the first place), but are never actually accomplished through hard work, civics, personal sacrifice and REAL public servitude that doesn't betray its constituency with a vengeance!

In the end (as in the beginning), the real edict is: "Don't blow my scam---and I won't blow yours!"

We all pay a crushing price for the endless loop of political corruption and graft---as I am constantly reminded of how the former middle class stability of my erstwhile grand city continues to slip away into the deepest wells of Third World beggary, obscurity, quiet desperation, hopelessness, helplessness and societal collapse, that ironically continues to shield all false, fake and failed political leadership with benefits, job security and exalted wages that were always designated for their subjects (but who never reap any of the rewards).

It's a scourge of epic fail and societal collapse that is reinforced every day by City Hall and Albany!

Ned said...

Income less then $69,000 (around 1200 a week) a year is poor ?

Where get one of these apartments? I'm selling my house but rather not move back to Greenville (no work)

-Ned
www.nra.org

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
Just because Republican's don't offer free stuff for votes does not give you the right to complain"

..But they do, you just have to be rich and powerful enough to qualify.

JQ said...

This should have been the first thing Blaz took care of, but instead spent a year pushing for Pre-K. The irony is that some applicants trying to get their kids into the program are homeless. You think getting these kids a roof over their heads (with a kitchen) would be more important, but that must be what samaritan village is for.

Anonymous said...

another ploy to stock the low rent new housing with blacks first, Spanish second, immigrants third. All other citizens can go to hell. It's another one of the "40 acres and a mule" power play for blacks. Welfare = black bank accounts.

Anonymous said...

Let them go back to momma and admit they are failures and shovel manure

Anonymous said...

These comrades are the kings of buzzwords to get voters to vote for them. Why offer "affordable housing" when housing projects look disgusting and are filled with crime? Trying to kiss up to anyone's fancy is the job of these folks, and they want people to do it back by perpetually voting for them.

Anonymous said...

We don't need projects i.e. prisons in Queens - we need homes for the MIDDLE CLASS!!!