The lifeblood of any great city is the people living in it. So New York as a great city must look out for all the people living in this great city. When the government of the people looks out for people and protects the people’s interest that is when government is at its best. One of the biggest problems facing the people of New York is the lack of affordable housing and the massive increase in rent prices in New York. Even when developers build “affordable” housing the market value of these apartments is so high that even at below market prices people still can’t afford them. However if they can afford them you will usually have a ridiculous number of applicants all applying for the same apartment. So what I think needs to be done is for local governments to allow transparency when dealing with developers which will allow the people living and applying for these apartments to make sure the developers are keeping their promises. For example if a developer agrees that they will list 30% of their apartments at below market value but then they don’t provide the same amenities that the other apartments offer the residents will be able to be informed about their problem. Also I believe city government should use its strongest tool to help the people not the developers and force them to develop affordable housing. Of course we need to balance the peoples need for affordable housing with the developers need for profit or else developers won’t want to build in New York. Another useful tool mentioned earlier by Crystal is the use of rent stabilization and rent freeze zones that will allow people to live in an apartment without worrying that the cost of living there won’t change over night to some ridiculous cost. One class project we could do as a class is to form a website with the common problems that tenants in New York face and try to inform the public as to how these problems originate and what are something that other people have done to find solutions to these problems. Also we could have a forum section where people can post about the problems they are facing as tenants of NYC and what they are doing about it.
