Wednesday, February 4, 2015

State of City speech: Rezonings to require affordable housing

From the Queens Courier:

The mayor, who called the effort to create affordable housing a “profound challenge,” turned repeatedly to Queens as a large part of the answer. He pledged to write new rules, “ones that mandate affordable housing as a condition for development.”

Two of six neighborhoods in the city he has slated for mandatory affordable housing requirements are Long Island City and western Flushing. Each of the four other boroughs will have one such zone. The city will begin work on rezoning these neighborhoods this spring.

“In every major rezoning development, we will require developers to include affordable housing. Not as an option. As a precondition,” he said, citing another Queens project as an example of how the mandate works.


“Want to see this approach in action? Look at Astoria Cove in Queens. As a result of this administration’s framework — and the City Council’s tough negotiations — 465 units of affordable housing will be created at this site alone,” de Blasio said.

“That’s 465 families who no longer have to choose between living in the city they call home, or finding another city they can afford. It means that hundreds of kids will live and learn and grow in our city.”

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what we are going to do is a shell game - get rid of rent stabilization and move everyone to the Sunnyside Rail yards where there will be plenty of affordable housing.

So say good-bye to you nice Manhattan apartment and live in a shipping container above a freight yard in that hell hole called Queens.

georgetheatheist said...

Smoke and mirrors?

How do they get those flags so nice and orderly and stiff behind the speaker's rostrum? They use starch or coat hangers for the effect? Looks like they're in a chorus line. (Katz had something similar at QC. They had her flunkies march them out onto the stage before she yapped.) I see this all the time. I think Bloomberg started this. Also, how about those mobile rostrums that the pols always plop down on the street when they're having a press event. I just love those fancy-schmanzy officialdom emblems on them. Don't you? I even think Van B. sleeps with his.

The gods have spoken.

Anonymous said...

But what is his defiition of affordable - at one point I saw that income requirements could be as high as 165% of the median income.

Affordable only works for a couple each making over 50K.

Anonymous said...

I thought there'd be at least one flag with a hammer/ sickle next to mr wilhelm........

JQ said...

affordable housing has no longer become an issue,like the small businesses they feign concern over,this has also become a marketing slogan.

and mayor big slow cites that glassy dump in astoria as success? because a measly 465 units were set aside? I think he doesn't(or doesn't want to)know the number of applicants that want these apartments.And the stupid lottery process to get them is absurd.

and with the 7 train breaking down regularly and the crushed sardine can commute on the E and F and local lines,they are concentrating most of the rezoning where these commutes have and will only get worse.

there are actually a lot of places in queens and the other boroughs where more building is possible.But the only thing they are constructing are samaritan villages.

I wish these politicos would stop pandering to and favoring poor families,what about poor single people sans kids? who aren't on welfare?

smoke and mirrors indeed,I hope for his next trick he disappears.

Anonymous said...

"That’s 465 families who no longer have to choose between living in the city they call home, or finding another city they can afford"

...and now many times more families who have to choose between investing in their kid's college fund vs. staying up to date on their city taxes?

Anonymous said...

How much more segregated could putting affordable housing on top of a train yard away from all forms of human life? Tale of two cities my ass! The mayor is off his meds.

Anonymous said...

Here is official floor plan for Queens new affordable housing. Yes. People lived and live this way.

georgetheatheist said...

Alicia Glen, the City's Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development:

"Density doesn't have to be a bad word . . . we want to explain the benefits of density, and why density is not, per se, a scary thing."

- quoted in the NY Times yesterday.

Anonymous said...

So, in other words, dump the third world refuse into Queens so it will not spoil prime real estate areas .This is similar to the post WWII affordable housing projects that were forced into areas of the Bronx...Sound View...etc.....which turned these areas into high crime nabes. Stop listening to your wife, Mr. Mayor, and start acting like a real man.

Anonymous said...

So, in other words, dump the third world refuse into Queens so it will not spoil prime real estate areas .

--------------------------

I noticed that he isnt saying shit about Park Slope, his home town.

His house is currently 'vacant' and therefore is an underutilized resource that could house 10-12 families in a new apartment building within the single-family house footprint.

Anonymous said...

Yes, density does not have to be a bad word as long as it is not in Alicia's back yard.

Anonymous said...

Why the tripple NYC and American flags on the podium Mayor Di Blah Blah? One each would suffice. If Der Mayor intends to court the minority vote again, perhaps he should let his hair grow out and get a blow cut.

Anonymous said...

History has proven that every time a developer gets a tax break or incentive, he will find a way to slip around it. One thing is always certain...what a developer proposes for somebody else's neighborhood, he won't accept for where he and his family lives. This is just Di Blasio's form of NMBY nonsense veiled in a do-good wrapper. The man, and his wife, want a second term.

Jerry Rotondi said...

That rings true. That infamous criminal developer,Tommy Huang, got a tax break because of the partial landmark status of RKO Keith's Flushing. theatre. So what did he do with it? Screw us hardworking taxpayers. Developers' promises are usually made to be broken!

Anonymous said...

Whittle away rent control and rent stabilization and promise them "affordable housing" in its place. It's greedy landlords who have made New York an exit port for the middle class. Is anyone dumb enough to believe that a developers intentions will be anything else than squeezing the last dime out of his new residents? The mayor gets his support from the real estate industry. To counter this he proposes being....pardon the reference....a public advocate. Well, he was not much of one when he was.

Anonymous said...

Yes, New Yorkers who ride the subways to Queens do work very hard. And their commutes on the 7, E and F are hellish and long and when the get off the trains, the next stage of their commute by bus involves waiting on long lines in the cold and rain. They pay real estate and income taxes, but the mayor ignores them.

Anonymous said...

This is also going to be big scam.
couple years later you going to see and you'll see how much you got the kids back.

Anonymous said...

Who is going to be responsible for these buildings when they start breaking down? Will these "affordable houses" come equipped with their own super? or will they just turn out looking like the project buildings in a few more years?

georgetheatheist said...

Alicia, we're waiting. What are the benefits of density?

Anonymous said...

I know an elderly guy in Queens who owns a house on a BIG piece of property, about 80 by 210 feet.
Recently he was approached by a developer who wanted to purchase the land. The old man told him to get lost.
Right before Christmas he received a letter from the developer's attorney that told him in a threatening tone that his client would pursue the matter and if necessary utilize eminent domain to secure the land.
The old man had his attorney respond by threatening a law suit claiming harassment and other charges.
He has yet to receive a reply.

Anonymous said...

He subsidized metrocards for the poor, let him subsidize rent. Price controls haven't worked since the Roman Empire tried them.

Anonymous said...

Who will run them a few years down the road? NYCHA, why of course. These will be nothing but pretty looking Housing Projects.

georgetheatheist said...

"I know an elderly guy in Queens who owns a house on a BIG piece of property, about 80 by 210 feet.
Recently he was approached by a developer who wanted to purchase the land. The old man told him to get lost.
Right before Christmas he received a letter from the developer's attorney that told him in a threatening tone that his client would pursue the matter and if necessary utilize eminent domain to secure the land.
The old man had his attorney respond by threatening a law suit claiming harassment and other charges.
He has yet to receive a reply."
___________________________________
C'mon. Name names. This could be big and go national. It'd blow the lid off of things.

Anonymous said...

Hey George, ever hear of privacy?

Anonymous said...

Lawsuits are documents of public record.

Anonymous said...

"Threatening" to file a suit is not a document of public record.

Anonymous said...

Why they don't do all of the housing project in Whitestone malba.
plenty of space in there.

Anonymous said...

Equity demands taxing co-op precincts which vote Republican more, as Repuglicans are oligarchs or wannabes.