Housing Crisis in NY

Just about everyone knows that there is a affordability crisis in New York. The blighted 70’s and 80’s were fixed first by the iron fist of Giuliani and then by the money bags of Bloomberg. Now Bill De Blasio desperately tries to implement his progressive agenda without much help from the Feds or the State. He has always been ambitious and a lot of his plans he has been able to get through with a lot of bargaining with the State legislature.

I don’t necessarily think building new public housing is bad idea but I do think there are much better ideas out there. De Blasio knows he can’t get the funding he really needs from his pals in Albany so he should try to be as realistic as he can. Having private developers investing in the building of new housing where certain apartments have to be affordable or are rent-controlled is a very smart strategy. Building new sprawling HUD complex’s is risky and usually ends up getting bogged down and given a band reputation before doors even open. The larger problem here is income inequality and the wrong being image projected of what a successful New York means. Wall Street and the tech industry are great but they don’t help keep New York an affordable city. The poor people and the minorities get pushed to the outskirts of town to keep up the image of a perfect safe New York that has been built up since the late 90’s. I hope that De Blasio’s intentions here are really to rebuild New York as a place for the middle class. Right now the city (especially Manhattan) is essentially a playground for the super rich and the expense is forcing young creative people out and bringing boring yuppies in (even the “creative people” are pretty talentless). Affordable housing in the form of rent-control or in the form of law making is the only solution to stop the tide of green that has changed the character of the city for the worse.