What I found most striking about Ariana’s post is a fact that, quite honestly, shouldn’t be new to anyone in this class at this point. We’ve all been through multiple Macaulay seminars–we must have all heard dozens of times about the rampant inequality that is in large part a defining facet of New York City. However, seeing the numbers in black-and-white, as Ariana quotes them, remains astonishing. I refer, in this instance, to the middle of Ariana’s final paragraph where, talking about the NYC housing market, she says, “the idea that municipal planning requires a share of new construction to be low-income affordable housing units. However, the ratio for this is 80 percent market rate housing to 20 percent affordable rate housing. I was shocked to see this ratio because 20 percent in my opinion is nowhere near enough.” And, of course, I completely agree with Ariana.

The fact is that NYC feels ever more like an environment that is hostile to all but the super rich. Not only are lower-income households neglected and forced to struggle, the ultra-wealthy are continually more empowered.

To my mind, the prime example of the empowerment (a term that may not precisely convey my feelings, but it’s the best I can think of at the moment) of the one-percent is the recent construction of 432 Park Avenue. For those to whom the address is unfamiliar, you might know the building better by the description Professor Omri Elisha gave it during a particularly frustrated outburst during a Peopling of New York class last spring: “It’s just a ****ing matchstick!” The second tallest building in NYC, the tallest residential building in our hemisphere, and who does it service? Only those with extreme wealth–and a mere 104 of them, at that. Think of it: over 400,000 square feet of potential living space, and only 104 people will get to take part. For the luxury of living in 432, owners have paid starting prices of $7 million (the penthouse sold for a whopping $95 million) and will likely not even be spending much time there. The massive monument to money is estimated to be only a quarter occupied at any given time. And who will be occupying it? “Middle Eastern oil magnates, Chinese billionaires, Russian oligarchs, and the Latin American aristocracy,” says Joshua Brown of Fortune. Not low-income New Yorkers.

And bringing this back to the numbers that Ariana quoted, for all the extreme wealth that is wrapped up in this building, how many affordable housing units have to be built? Using the ratio Ariana quoted and assuming that my math isn’t as bad as I dread it is, the total is approximately 25. For the obscenity that is 432 Park Avenue, benefitting the extremely wealthy as usual–and not even New Yorkers, not even people who will live in the City’s precious real estate–25 people will have access to affordable housing. I’m sorry if I’m not being clear about what exactly the problem is here–it’s that I have trouble wrapping my head around numbers this ridiculously out of whack.

Admittedly, I’m having trouble tying this back to zoning. I’ve gotten a little fixated. But look at the skyline. Isn’t 432 noticeably…ah, distinct from its surroundings? Mind you, it sits on a property that once housed the Drake Hotel, which topped out at 21 stories–a far cry from the 96 stories of 432 Park Avenue. How is this zoning even ok? (The answer lies in FAR, a concept I don’t totally understand even after reading a couple of articles, but which I found most helpfully almost explained here.)

And, obviously, 432 Park Avenue is just the (very tall) tip of the proverbial iceberg. Although an extreme example of the drastic inequality in New York, it is one of many similar luxury buildings available to only the deepest pockets. Ariana sums up the problem succinctly, I think, when she says, “we need to be very careful about the choices we make concerning this city.” After all, who really needs new apartments? Is it the super rich who live in other countries? Or the low-income, full-time residents of New York?