In “Opposing Atlantic Yards,” Kent Barwick argues that the current plan for Atlantic Yards would not work for New York City. He claims that the current proposal would not bring a good balance of people compared to the surrounding neighborhoods. I think that this balance is pretty important since the people would need to communicate and travel across surrounding communities. If there was tension or an imbalance between the people across the communities, there may be future problems and complications in the neighborhoods. I think that these problems are very common with renovation and neighborhood transformations in general since the people that inhabit these neighborhoods has a big effect on the future and result of the changes.

I think that the building incentive that the city is giving to developers is perfectly fine since it would help provide affordable housing for people who really need it. I do not think that it should be a big issue since the benefits outweigh the costs. Even though these buildings would have a huge impact on the surrounding neighborhoods by causing congestion, the possible help that would be provided for the low income New Yorkers is more important. As long as they can maintain a safe and orderly setting in the neighborhood, it is a good idea.

I think that his claim that the character of the neighborhood is more important than the ability of the neighborhood to house more people is absurd. The character should not be more important than providing people with affordable housing. The city’s homeless population is growing and the lower-income residents need affordable housing. If projects like this do not go through, the income gap between the rich and the poor will continue to increase since the poor will find it even harder to find affordable housing.

If his idea of creating a comprehensive requirement that all new high-density development in the city include a modest proportion of affordable housing can go through, then this may be a better solution to help with affordable housing. This would not cause the overall character of the neighborhood to deteriorate and there would still be affordable housing provided for those who need it most.

I do not think that it should be a problem to allow the city’s zoning resolution to take care of deciding where and how many affordable housing units to build. Also by providing separate open space areas like Rockefeller Park in order to help with the congestion problem that may arise as a result of the affordable housing units. In a city as diverse and crowded as New York, developers need to take any chance they get to provide more housing at affordable prices. I think that this alternative transformation plan for Atlantic Yards would be much more effective than the current proposal.