New York Magazine takes a look whether—and how—new mayor Bill de Blasio can make good on his campaign promise of moving the city away from the whole "playground for the superrich" thing that has flourished under Bloomberg in a seven part feature titled "The Affordable City: A Mostly Progressive Wish List." The whole thing is certainly worth reading, although one section in particular, titled "Build, Build, Build," is particularly interesting (for our purposes, anyway). It's essentially a list of policies that de Blasio could pursue that would effectively increase the volume and affordability of housing, ranging from the highly controversial/impossible—banish all NYCHA housing to the outer buroughs—to the practical—get rid of the law forcing new residential buildings to include parking. A lot of the issues that come up, such as the NYCHA land lease and tax abatements for developers that include affordable housing, are already frequently debated, while others, increasing taxes on vacant lots for instance, tend to get less coverage. These are all the types of things that are going to start getting discussed a lot in the coming months, however, so read up.
· The Dream of a Middle-Class New York [NYMag]
· Build, Build, Build [NYMag]
Filed under:
Loading comments...