Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

A couple of recent articles on the mayoral race have relevance to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. In Stringer’s high-wire act: A real estate agenda for developers and leftists alike , Politico reported 2/7/21 that Comptroller Scott Stringer "is subsidizing his campaign with real estate donations he collected for years, up until progressive Democrats declared them verboten following Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s insurgent congressional victory in 2018." And that real estate players are comfortable with Stinger in understanding their constraints. And while Stringer criticizes "real estate’s role in the de Blasio administration’s housing policies," he has a reputation as a pragmatist. Here's the most controversial section: While publicly implying he will pose an obstacle to that sector, Stringer is quietly telling developers he will work with them if elected, according to interviews with seven people in the business who have direct knowledge of his comments. In meetings ...

OK, it's clear that the poorest New Yorkers have the greatest housing needs, as the Community Service Society pointed out in a report last month . At the same time, Comptroller Scott Stringer--a likely candidate for mayor in 2021-- proposed a "fundamental realignment" in the city's housing plan to both focus on those most in need and to raise new money for it. His plan--which involves raising transaction taxes to the level of some other cities faced with a flood of real estate investors--was endorsed by progressive groups like the Community Service Society, the Legal Aid Society, New York Communities for Change, and Community Voices Heard. Some 515,000 extremely and very low-income households "live precariously close to homelessness," paying over 50% of their income, and facing overcrowding. Nearly 90% of them have incomes under than $47,000 per year for a family of three. But less than 25% of the city’s current affordable housing plan is being bu...

The reason we have to ask "Affordable for whom?" so often is that the main housing subsidy tools in New York and everywhere are structurally designed to help people who make $40,000 a year and up. New rent assistance/operating subsidy tools are the way out of this box. https://t.co/F1EIOXsr9k — Tom Waters (@slowboring) November 29, 2018 In late November, the Community Service Society (CSS) released a new report, MAKING THE RENT TRULY AFFORDABLE: Why Operating Subsidies Belong in New York City’s Affordable Housing Toolkit , by Nancy Rankin and Oksana Mironova. The report ( in PDF , and at bottom) cites widespread "housing hardships among low-income New Yorkers—like falling behind in the rent, doubling up with other households, and facing threats of eviction—that force families to make difficult trade-offs and can be precursors of homelessness." The solution, according to CSS, is to refocus the city's affordable housing plan. While Mayor Bill de Blasio...

From the Wall Street Journal, 9/26/18, New York City Comptroller Admits Error on Housing Report New York City’s top fiscal officer issued a mea culpa on Wednesday for a major calculation mistake in a report on the rapid decrease of affordable housing. Comptroller Scott Stringer’s report, “The Gap is Still Growing,” this month stated that the city lost more than 1 million apartments renting for $900 or less between 2005 and 2017. But the actual number is less than half of that: 425,492 houses, according to the updated report. Indeed, the dramatic number drew much coverage , and the math error is a big one. Though the conclusions in "The Gap is Still Growing: New York City’s Continuing Housing Affordability Challenge," must change somewhat, the report is still pretty damning.  That lack of affordability is part of why some supported Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park and others argue for more density above all. And why Borough President Eric Adams argues for more monitoring...

In a 4/29/16 column, Gonzalez: NYC's housing reports so flawed they're nearly useless , Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez wrote that Comptroller Scott Stringer told Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen that "his office found so many errors and omissions in a periodic report required by the City Council since 2012 to track both new affordable units and the subsidies handed to real estate developers that the data are almost useless." Omitted from the Local Law 44 report are two 100% affordable buildings that are part of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project, 535 Carlton Avenue and 38 Sixth Avenue, which have benefited from $85 million and $93 million in tax-exempt financing from the New York City Housing Development Corporation (NYC HDC). New York City Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner told Gonzalez that her  agency omits projects that receive get NYC HDC help only. Stringer pointed out that NYC HDC's board includes mayoral executives, including Been (who...

OK, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is running for mayor. And he presides over a borough that, unlike Brooklyn, doesn't have an identity independent of the city at large nor, arguably, needs one. But it's still worth noting how Stringer's State of the Borough Address , unlikes Markowitz's version , focused on policy. From the preview: First, I’m announcing a plan to cut taxes for working and middle class families. It’s simply not right that in New York City someone who makes $50,000 per year pays the same city tax rate as someone who makes $500,000 per year. I’m proposing that we create a more progressive income tax system that restoresfairness and boosts the economy. You can  read more about my tax plan in today’s Wall Street Journal. Second, we should make housing more affordable by creating a larger fund to rescue foreclosed buildings. We should then work with non-profit developers to renovate these properties and turn them into affordable housing. T...

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who uses his office more as as policy shop than cheerleading Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, this week issued a report calling for the abolition of the favoritism-riddled system of member items in City Council. The report is of course somewhat self-serving--it was seen as a slam on City Council President Christine Quinn, a rival to Stringer in the 2013 mayoral race, and Stringer never refused member items when serving in the state Assembly. But it was embraced by at least two editorial pages, with one pointing out how the current system offends fairness--an observation that, as I describe below, could have been applied to a key episode in the Atlantic Yards process. From the report: As the new fiscal year begins, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer today released “Reforming Local Member Items in New York City,” a report recommending the abolition of the current system for allocating City Council member items. Th...