NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
#1NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/21/14 at 4:43pm
This is where this city is heading and why, honestly, I can't see myself living here in 10 years.
Link
#2NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/21/14 at 5:01pm
The most disturbing quote...
'No one ever said that the goal was full integration of these populations,' David Von Spreckelsen, senior vice president at Toll Brothers, another developer specializing in luxury residencies, told The Real Deal in 2013. '...I think it’s unfair to expect very high-income homeowners who paid a fortune to live in their building to have to be in the same boat as low-income renters, who are very fortunate to live in a new building in a great neighborhood.'
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#2NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/21/14 at 7:57pmRevolting.
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#3NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/21/14 at 9:16pm
I think Mr Roxy put it worst when he said, "Its all about the Benjamin's."
Twitter @NamoInExile
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#4NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/21/14 at 10:09pm
I think it’s unfair to expect very high-income homeowners who paid a fortune to live in their building
If they feel that way, the let them buy into a building that has no affordable units, but this classism will not stand. It is un-American, and it is deeply, profoundly and inarguably un-New York.
If there are no courts to overturn this decision, then let us all go visit and SH*T in the stairwells.
#5NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/21/14 at 10:26pm
OK--I'll bite...
What is "deeply, profoundly, inarguably un-New York" about people's socio-economic status determining their housing choices, experiences, etc?
The building in question has been configured so that a block of units are designated as "affordable". These apartments are not on the same hallways as the market-rate apartments--they are a self-contained entity, served by their own elevator(s), have their own fire stairs, and their own support services etc. They have their own entry. I don't see the cause for all the hand-wringing.
You think, what do you want?
You think, make a decision...
#6NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 8:41am
"but this classism will not stand. It is un-American, and it is deeply, profoundly and inarguably un-New York."
Classism is alive and well in America. This is just the tip of a very large iceberg.
If you are born into poverty in the United States you have a 42% chance of staying there. This is way higher than other developed nations. I thik we are ranked under Iran and just above Jamaica in upward mobility.
Is Upward Mobility in America a Fantasy?
Updated On: 7/22/14 at 08:41 AM
#7NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 8:56amI don't have a problem with the concept of separate entrances, however the comments in the OP's link are offensive. That said, the idea of upward mobility in America is becoming a myth. It started to disappear with the election of Reagan, but Americans have continued our downward spiral by continually voting against their own interest. We've gotten so close to becoming a plutocracy that it's difficult to see how the country can be put back on a better track. It takes more than a president to transform the country, it takes brave leadership on the municipal, state, and federal levels.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#8NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 9:18amWhy even create this problem? Build separate buildings at different price ranges.
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#9NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 9:40am
They developer got massive tax breaks for this act of noblesse oblige.
#10NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 9:48amquel domage!
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#11NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 9:50am
Yup that's how it works. Build a luxury tower, throw in some "affordable housing" and get a 20 year tax abatement.
#12NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 9:50am
"I don't have a problem with the concept of separate entrances, however the comments in the OP's link are offensive."
Now THERE I agree there is cause for lamentation. I've read several articles across a variety of platforms on this topic--I find the venom in the comments sections directed towards the prospective tenants of these affordable units really disturbing.
It seems to me that this has a lot to do with the lack of mobility described by Erik & Madbrian. People seem SO hostile to the idea of OTHER people getting a helping hand. That pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps narrative is so firmly entrenched in the American psyche that asking for/accepting any kind of help is tinged with un-Americanism.
Unless it comes in the form of Corporate tax relief, of course. Then it's just good old-fashioned 'Murican enterprise and resourcefulness.
You think, what do you want?
You think, make a decision...
Updated On: 7/22/14 at 09:50 AM
#13NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 10:02am
Addison--what are you going on about? Auditioning for this:
#14NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 10:07am
My job require working almost exclusively with people living in poverty. And things are bad. Very bad.
I hope people in this county soon realize that the poor are not to blame for our current economic situation and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" is a myth.
This country is facing a crisis. And there are no leaders from either political party that are addressing it.
If that doesn't change I truly fear for what is to come.
#15NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 10:09am
PJ--Exactly.
Except the Earl of Highhurst expresses a kind of bewilderment about 'the poor', whereas so much of what these comments express is just anger and resentment.
You think, what do you want?
You think, make a decision...
Updated On: 7/22/14 at 10:09 AM
#16NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 10:37am
I resent this separate entrance. It stinks of these:
#17NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 11:05am
Certainly, the underlying emotional content of the two situations feels similar--people of power and/or privilege seeking to insulate themselves from those they see as threatening to their comfortable spot at the top of the heap.
The distinction--in my view--lies in the fact that there was no practical point to separate bathrooms and drinking fountains other than a desire to segregate and dehumanize non-whites. At 40 RSB, the separate entrance leads to what is, in effect, a separate building.
If everyone entered the building through the same entrance, there would STILL be some point--likely immediately upon entry--at which the different occupants would go their separate ways.
The way to avoid this necessity would be to have designed/developed the building so that the affordable units were dispersed indistinguishably among the market-rate units.
You think, what do you want?
You think, make a decision...
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#18NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 11:27amI can't comprehend missing out on the wonders of a world of diversity by only catering to white trade.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#19NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 11:28amThe unspoken subtext of this story: The use of the word "affordable" as some kind of untouchable, icky, dirty thing to be a part of.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#20NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 12:55pm
The distinction--in my view--lies in the fact that there was no practical point to separate bathrooms and drinking fountains other than a desire to segregate and dehumanize non-whites. At 40 RSB, the separate entrance leads to what is, in effect, a separate building.
Except the separation is entirely to segregate and de-humanize the poor.
#21NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 1:01pm
I think there is a false equivalence in equating this to Jim Crow. There is nothing 'separate but equal' about this, other than the neighborhood. Aren't the more expensive units much more luxurious, including amenities that are not available to the affordable units?
And is it an exaggeration to categorize the affordable units as 'the poor'?
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#22NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 1:15pmI still think there is a "less than" stigma to these apartments now. A "you might be allowed in here, but that doesn't mean we want you here" stamp on anyone who might live in the same building with the "haves".
#23NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/22/14 at 1:54pm
The way to avoid this necessity would be to have designed/developed the building so that the affordable units were dispersed indistinguishably among the market-rate units.
I used to live in a building like that. Forty-nine floors and we all had to use the same entrance and same elevators. Personally, I never had any issues with it. My next door neighbor had an affordable unit. She was a Polish immigrant around 70 years old and sweet as can be. We always looked out for each other.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#24NYC Gives OK To Building Apts With Separate Entrances For Affordable Housing Tenants
Posted: 7/23/14 at 1:06amIMHO, PJ is completely correct. BTW, the big magilla in this subject is all about the so-called "amenities" in these new hi rise complexes, which btw are cropping up incessantly in my "MIMA" (Hell's Kitchen) nabe. Amenities, in real estate jargon, being rooftop space, luxury gyms, etc. Which is why a 1 befroom apt goes for $4-5,000/month. What the **** is wrong with these wealthy ****s? Do they think the "poor" people have cooties or something? For Chrissakes - SO WHAT IF THE SUBSIDIZED PEOPLE "mingle" with y'all? What in G-d's name is happening here. Disgraceful that this is even a "story".
