Tuesday, August 28, 2018

How NYCHA became de Blasio's biggest problem


From Politico:

On the same day the scandal-scarred New York City Housing Authority was publicly acknowledging that it had violated a series of federal standards over the past year, the two city officials charged with overseeing it were occupied with other matters.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was rolling out his latest plan to raise money for his national political ambitions, and Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor who oversees housing, was discussing her proposal to build more statues of women across New York City on "The Brian Lehrer Show."

The juxtaposition highlighted what has become clear since de Blasio took office in 2014: Decaying buildings that house some 400,000 New Yorkers have rarely topped the priority list, and the administration is only now beginning to embrace policies that could have made a difference years ago.

Through a review of City Hall decisions and interviews with more than three dozen current and former government officials, politicians and people who work in the affordable housing industry — many of whom wished to remain anonymous to speak freely about a controversial subject — a picture emerged of a government conflicted over how to handle an agency with entrenched problems that call for an implausible increase in federal funding.

In de Blasio, NYCHA is overseen by a cautious politician, unwilling to challenge unions over work rules that impact building maintenance and leery of upsetting tenants concerned with private development on public land. Glen has presented different challenges: She declined to incorporate public housing into her affordable housing plan, rendering it less urgent and less subsidized, sources said. And where the mayor has acknowledged some ownership of NYCHA, despite its structure as a quasi-federal entity, she publicly distanced herself — a characterization she strongly disputes.

De Blasio campaigned on a promise of attending to those he believed former Mayor Michael Bloomberg ignored. Few embody that population better than public housing residents — who are predominantly black, Hispanic and financially struggling — yet they remain among the most disadvantaged in de Blasio’s New York.

NYCHA’s problems have now become unignorable.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's never helpful when the person (Lynne Patton) appointed by Trump who oversees billions of dollars in Federal Funding for Public Housing in NY/NJ has zero experience in housing but apparently a good wedding and events planner which is what she did for the trump family.

NYCHA clearly had problems prior to this but how does appointing a wedding planner with zero experience bring anything to the table?

Anonymous said...

This guy has Presidential aspirations?

LOL!

He isn't going any further. Anyone running against him would just point to the utter chaos, borderline criminal activity, profound dishonesty, and cronyism.

We have seen this movie before. See how it worked out for Hillary? And she ran against a novice. DeBlasio will be running against actual politicians.

JQ LLC said...

de Faustio's biggest problem is the actual Faust in his administration when it comes to city's horrid affordable housing program and the willful neglect and exacerbation of public housing to make it dependent on privatization, and that's the grey-haired gentrification harpie and consummate neoliberal Alicia Glen. For this article actually exposes the catalyst behind it and how much of a pussy knucklehead our mayor is that he is dependent on her "expertise" and connections to the REBNY overlords.

Lynne Patton is a retard, but all that criminal lying and denying of infrastructure services at NYCHA was going on way before Stronghead Trump appointed her and even Carson. This malfeasance was occurring while the supposed liberal democrats were in office and fun size mayor bloomberg prior to that. Actually Carson did the right thing sending the feds after these bastards, even if there might be an underlying political partisan motive (which is irrelevant, these 800 kids were fucking poisoned)

Anonymous said...

Just shut it down and give it over to private developers already. Use the proceeds from the sale to help the erstwhile residents resettle. Excelsior, NY!

Anonymous said...

Duhblazio sees to it that he has no problems. He's barely in NYC. Here's the answer to help him out-- it's the state's fault and/or the fed's fault. It likely involves more billions of my tax money that he wants sent to his account, and call him when you have it figured out.

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