Fixing the housing crisis? Atlantic Yards example shows that developers gaining subsidies and zoning benefits don't deserve slack, says Times commenter

A Nov. 26 New York Times article, 5 Ways to Fix New York City’s Housing Crisis, quoted various experts, including former deputy mayor Alicia Glen, now managing principal at the real estate firm MSquared:

She said the city needs to focus on the “small and practical” things, like regularly pursuing big neighborhood rezonings to make way for more density and negotiating better prices with landowners and contractors for affordable housing development. She said the city should spend more on subsidizing mixed-income housing developments and not just developments that target only low-income people.

Among 51 comments, the eighth most recommended was this one, from Eve Salinger:

Re: Alicia Glen's point about small and practical - more that 3000 units of housing - including 800 affordable - have yet to be built on the Atlantic Yards site, a 20 year old project that has received hundreds of millions in subsidies and little oversight. If developers are to be given increased subsidies or greater latitude with regards to zoning and regulations to deliver more housing, it needs to be delivered now, not on a schedule that suits the developer.

That's an astute point: delays are costly.

“Whatever the pace may be for the delivery” of Atlantic Yards benefits, a state court judge once wrote, “the nature of those benefits remains the same.”

As I wrote for Common Edge, that observation has proven hollow, especially for the delivery of affordable housing.