The city has begun advertising the lottery for apartments in 40 Riverside Boulevard, the Upper West Side building that sparked our original story that coined the term “Poor Door.” The building on West 62nd street overlooking the Hudson River will have separate entrances and amenities for affordable-housing renters and market-rate condo owners.
In return for creating 55 affordable apartments, Extell Development will receive permission to add floor area beyond the amount allowed in zoning rules and get a 421-A tax abatement, benefits worth millions to the developers and the condo owners. Those tax breaks in particular have come under fire as critics say they often benefit the ultra-wealthy without producing much affordable housing. Local Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal is part of a group trying to end the tax benefit.
A rendering of the income-restricted entrance.
Oddly enough, 40 Riverside Boulevard now appears to be using three alternative addresses as well — the developers applied for tax breaks using 40 Riverside Boulevard, have marketed the luxury units as 50 Riverside Boulevard and as One Riverside Park (tagline “Look Out for Number One”), and have now added a fourth address: 470 West 62nd street. It’s all one building. Most of the apartments are already in contract, according to Streeteasy.
To qualify for the 55 apartments available through the lottery, applicants have to meet certain income thresholds — a family of four trying to get into one of the 30 two-bedrooms must make $38,880-$50,340, while a single person seeking a studio must make $30,240-$35,280. Rent for a studio is $833, for a one bedroom is $895, and for a two-bedroom is $1,082. Residents of Community Board 7, which encompasses the Upper West Side, are slated to receive 50% of the slots, Brick Underground notes. There’s more information on the income requirements here, and more on the application process can be found here. The application deadline is April 20.
Those who support the Poor Door note that people applying for affordable housing should be grateful for whatever they get — and having known some of those lucky people the answer is of course they are, look at the cheap rents they’re paying!
But whether recipients of tax breaks or subsidies are grateful is not really a public policy question (we certainly don’t ask it when condo owners at 15 CPW or when the New York Yankees receive tax breaks or subsidies). The larger question is what the city should require in return for tax breaks and zoning changes. This remains a heated debate: a recent poll found 78% of New Yorkers oppose the Poor Door. The Observer is okay with it, the Times generally approves (though its editorial included a strange non sequitur implying that poor doors are for buildings that house disabled and elderly people) and Gothamist wrote a biting critique of the Times.
Stephen Colbert, of course, had the funniest take.
What happens to the affordable apartments once the tax abatement expires (20 years?)?
Do the units convert to market?
@ Lisa… it’s up to the landlord.
I will take that poor door anytime- believe me I will be very grateful!
Totally agree with you Dan!
This is just a lottery for a government handout. The concessions to the builder are valuable and cost the city revenue. Bus drivers living in the Bronx will pay taxes to subsidize a few lucky people that get new apartments on the Upper West Side for close to free.
This is not “affordable housing”. It is expensive housing provided to a lucky few for nearly free, at a substantial cost to the taxpayer.
This is a disgusting practice and should be stopped, not celebrated.
Agreed – These subsidies just distort the real estate market and create adverse incentives = Economics 101; ALSO – the city (and federal gov’t) should think about addressing tax policies that further distort the real estate market, especially capital gains taxes….there’s more than a few oldsters who are sitting in very large apartments – many of whom would like to move to small places but couldn’t afford the gov’t’s tax bite.
You’re wrong Art M.!!! It’s the only way many people can afford to live here. As far as a lucky few… I know that perservance does wonders. I know quite a few people who got in to program and deservingly so!
this program allows students. In what world can’t a 20 yr old take out a loan to pay for college and housing and have a part time job also? My middle class children will be paying off student loans for 20 yrs but these less fortunate children get a government handout when they have the rest of their lives to pay back a loan ???? It’s nonsense
I never heard of students getting in! Maybe that just started happening, but was never allowed a few years back. If that’s the case, students should definitely not be allowed to participate in lottery. That’s Absurd!
I’m just waiting for WSR to publish the number of applicants of people who want to live behind the poor door, so I can go to town on this.
@denton… I don’t think as many people care as the press has given it. They need an affordable apartment whatever the situation is. I personally think the poor door is ridiculous but I do agree they shouldn’t have the same amenities as others paying exorbitant rent for an apartment.
Well, maybe we should call it what it is…”government-supported lottery winner door.”
It seems the right policy decisions in NYC are to (i) get rid of the 421-A tax abatements (for once Helen is on to something!), (ii) implement some kind of pied-à-terre tax for non-resident condo owners, (iii) relax rent control regs to free up more market rate apartments, and (iv) consider more progressive property tax rates. Obviously encouraging more development, as de Blasio is trying to do, without massive tax benefits.
I would add to this eliminate the mortgage deduction, but high-income taxpayers essentially do not realize the benefit anyway given the Pease Amendment to the Obama tax changes in 2012. If you make over $400K annually, the benefit starts to go away.
The income limits for those 55 affordable limits are absurd. Why should someone making $30k get to live in a luxury building in a prime location? Does anyone actually believe this program is helping the housing market in NYC?
Dear 9d8b7988045e4953a882,
If you read the description of the apts. carefully, you will see they are not “luxury”, even though they are attached to a luxury building. They are very small (the studios, for example are 415 sq feet – that’s much smaller than a standard studio apt), the kitchens have no dishwasher, there is one laundry room in the entire building for all the apts., there is no doorman, gym, etc. There is a “community room” and a place to store a bike. There is a parking garage next door that will probably be very expensive, if you can get into it – maybe will cost as much as their apts. They probably will have pedestrian fittings and hardware. So the apts. will not be very luxurious, just new, and some may have nice views. They’re just located in a ritzy area (which by the way, you have to walk a ways to get to anything, including a subway)
And to Art M, these apts. will start at $833 for essentially a room with a kitchen (the size of a small hotel room), and go up from there. That’s 10k a year. Where does that compute to “free” in your book? If you go by the standard rent cost being 1/4 of your income, people should need to be making $40k a year to pay for it. (the threshold is $30,000 – 35,000).
And to Denton, no need to wait for the figures: Over 7,000 people applied for the 43 or so apts. at the 80/20 building on W. 77th St. and Broadway.
There are a lot of people living in this city who don’t make much and need affordable housing. They’re actors, artists, bus drivers, building porters, teachers, waiters, cooks, busboys, babysitters, house cleaners, social workers, medical aides, trainers, yoga teachers, the folks who prepare your lattes at Starbucks, stockboys, store workers, retirees, seniors, music teachers, entry level employees in non-profits, store salesmen and other people who work for minimum wage, etc.
You said, “415 sq feet – that’s much smaller than a standard studio apt”.
Are we living in the same city? A studio in a typical walkup building in Manhattan is around 330-350 sq ft. My studio in Turtle Bay, before I moved to the UWS, in a prewar, doorman building was 400 sq ft. It was rent-stabilized, and I was paying $1500/month when I left five years ago. 415 sq. ft. is a perfectly acceptable studio by NYC standards. And $833/month is more or less free for a brand new studio in a great neighborhood.
What-no dishwasher? One laundry room? No gym? You just described a significant number of coops and market-rate rentals in our neighborhood.
hurrah!! well said Wendy!
as Wendy points out, that bus driver is probably living in an apt that the nay-sayers consider “subsidized” — rent stabilized, or public housing, or Mitchell Lama.
we need MORE subsidized low and moderate income housing, not less.
So you;re willing to pay for it – you’ll pony up more taxes?
The 80/20 program has been going on since the mid 90’s. It’s only now that it’s getting much attention. So taxpayers have been paying for 20 years! So now your complaining?! We need the program! No one is building affordable housing. So this is an alternative! And a lucky few get in. So what’s the problem?!
Actually, we need LESS subsidized housing. That would bring down rents for everyone equally, benefitting all New Yorkers. Unless of course you believe that “All the animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell).
It’s time to get rid of the tax breaks and let the market take care of itself already. The developers don’t need our tax dollars, and not everyone needs to live in a luxury building.
@Paul RL.. your right, not everyone needs to live in a luxury building, BUT is there anything else being built? NO! Every building being built for residence is a luxury building. There are no affordable buildings going up.
Well said. Time to get rid of these tax breaks and interventions into the housing system (not going to call it a market). This is just madness when someone who makes 30k wins a lottery to get a luxury apartment in prime location, and people who make more must commute 1.5 hours each way from NJ, as many of my coworkers do.
no, but EVERYONE needs to live in a clean, up to code building that they can AFFORD… and does not require 3 and 4 hour round trip commutes to work. yes, that is what many working class people are doing now. as well as working 2, 3, 4 part-time jobs.
maybe you haven’t seen the stories of adjunct professors living in their cars.
I was once an adjunct and choose the job for the extreme amounts of time off. Once I valued money more than time off I left adjuncting and started working for a consulting firm full-time. There’s no reason to feel pity for adjuncts – they choose that life and generally have advanced degrees that would qualify them (outside of academia) for higher-paying work. Rent-control is a failed policy which hurts buildings, owners and almost anyone new moving to the city. No one has the “right” to live in NYC. No one. Everyone has the right to want to and try to but there is no guarantee of success in the Constitution, nor of housing in a high COL neighborhood of one’s choice.
you’re missing the point about adjuncts. if you’re working full time teaching at college, you deserve a living wage and the ability to have a modest apartment — whether or not you could “make more” doing something else.
why do they deserve this? What if I choose to not take a 100k/year full-time job and instead choose a 15k/year job that is more “fulfilling”…? Do I deserve the same lifestyle regardless?
Life is full of weighing pros/cons and doing cost-benefit analyses and choosing based on those analyses and other life needs and factors. Life is not just a fun fair where you pick a job you like the most. Also, the vast majority of adjuncts do not work full-time for any one college but cobble together schedules comprised of classes taught at a variety of institutions.
This just about sums it all up. I couldn’t have written it better myself and I doubt anyone else could either. Eloquent and true, Marie.
Hopefully someday people will have free will, and be able to choose where they apply for work.
Jeremy, what planet are you on?
Do you really think people choose to have jobs that require long commutes??
The job market is tough and people take these jobs because they have families to support. Obviously you lack any kind of compassion. People like you are the problem.
Oh, really? I reverse commute, which takes me about 1.5 hours each way. And the reason I have that job….because I CHOOSE to, just as most people do. No good comes of creating a false fabric by micro-managing where people should and shouldn’t live.
*Of course* people select jobs with long commutes! Obviously. For sure there are people who work in midtown and live on LI, in Westchester, or Riverdale and wouldn’t move closer to work if you paid them.
People make cost/benefit choices like that all the time. People also make choices about namecalling on community message boards. Not everyone makes the best choices, tho.
I wish I were poor (and could win the housing lottery).
On a scale of 1 to 10 for empathy, you rate a minus 100. You should hope never to become poor, lest others have adopted your ideas.
lol. what does your comment even mean??
Also, if something is on a scale of 1-10 there can be no -100 😉
Marie ladies and gentlemen.
“Poor Door”?…despicable. And, these are supposed to be affordable apartments?! For whom? Those earning in the low-mid $30,000 range?! They have got to be kidding!
How about some real affordable apartments, and some dignity thrown in?
Screw dignity. If you’re gonna give me a 1 BR for $1k per month instead of $5k market rate, I’ll pick up your dry cleaning and walk your dog!
I would take that poor door in a nanosecond. And as usual, Colbert misses the mark. He satirizes the rich but fails to tell us who they are. They tend to be Russian, Mexican and Chinese tax cheats looking to launder their ill-gotten gains. And we’re subsidizing their property taxes! Do something on that, Colbert.
Disagree on the poor doors, but completely agree on the secret international money that’s pouring in. It’s outrageous that there are no Know-Your-Customer rules for the brokers and developers selling these multimillion dollar assets.
Take a hypothetical example: Mexican kidnapping ring. Or Russian malware hacker or Somali pirate, even. If they hoped to open a US bank account with $10 million, they’d get laughed out of the room at a good bank, and a badly run bank that opened such accounts could pay out a settlement in the billions. If they hoped to buy a condo on 57th Street through a triple-layered anonymous shell corporation: ‘welcome! here are your keys.’
It’s crazy that luxury real estate has no safeguards against this.
I too would gladly take the poor door. Those benefiting from this program and taxpayer largess should be thankful. That some of them have the chutzpah to complain about the entrance is amazing.
Previously in 80/20 buildlngs, the subsidized tenants had the same benefits (and supposedly the same kinds of apts and fixtures) as the market rate tenants. Apparently this building will change that. What I find most interesting is that the “poor door” side of these apts. will have no doorman. How easy it will be to get into that building, in a location where every other building has a doorman. It’s like asking for theft to come into that otherwise very weatlthy enclave on the UWS. Very weird.
I don’t know about “previously” in regard to 80/20s with fixtures and appliances. I’m in a lottery-won Related 80/20 the last 6 years and their buildings are great(!) but my apt (and other bldgs of theirs) have different appliances, fixtures, white fridge and all kitchen appliances, formica counter instead of granite or even fake granite; also carpets instead of hardwood floors. Some things are the same; a kitchen lighting fixture, granite windowsills, closet doors. But bathroom and kitchen tiles are different, different sinks, faucets, bathroom cabinets. And our affordable apts are mostly smaller than equivalent market rate studios and 1 or 2 bedrooms.
Just sayin’ The apt is lovely, but it’s not egalitarian in the sense that as soon as a workman comes in he’ll know, instantly, from my carpet that I’m an affordable tenant. Other neighbors would know immediately too, that I’m not of their rich ilk when they see my carpet, or if they come in and see my white kitchen appliances, etc…Also, many of the the affordable apts have wonky designs in comparison to the market rate ones. All this aside, I still pinch myself everyday and am thrilled it’s supposed to be “permanently affordable.”
An elderly artist friend moved to one of those tax-break apartments before the poor door policy. She has always gone in and out without anyone making her feel different, in fact I doubt anyone living there knows she gets a break in rent. The only difference in her apartment is that it’s probably smaller than the others.
i am so glad to see that there are people commenting who are well-informed about housing policy, and concerned with the issue of affordable housing.
For a 1 Bedroom apartment at less than $900 per month I’d walk through the “poor door” smiling and laughing every damn day. And with the $ I save, I can easily pay for a gym and laundry service thank you very much!
Too bad most of the people “winning” this lottery will likely be politically connected.
Ever wonder why people in this income bucket choose to live in NYC? Why not move to an area of a country with ample jobs (or at least on par w NYC), MUCH lower housing costs, MUCH shorter commutes, more stable communities, etc. Geographic mobility is a gift. You can be a great barista, yoga teacher, laborer, etc. in Manhattan, Kansas (or Omaha, Orlando, Scottsdale, Nashville, Lancaster, PA, etc)…you get the drift. Why subject yourself to living in a wealthy person’s basement. You can do better. Just look across the Hudson.
J– exactly right. If folks moved to where a more reasonable cost of living exists… the vacancy rate in apartments would increase… resulting in downward pressure on rents.
I know people have family in NYC, love the area, etc, but accepting a 2-3 hour commute seems excessive. Immigrants to this country (now and in the past) also left family and beloved cities behind …. but moved on behalf of their economic interests and for their future families benefit.
Its the people “frozen in place” by regulated rents that force the market rents up due to scarcity.
Flame me all you want but this is human nature and basic economics.
dry…It’s just the opposite , rent regulations went into effect
at the start of WW2, to prevent the real estate industry
in NYC from gouging the public. As long as there was
less than a5% vacancy rate they were in effect. It was
what stabilized the city and the workforce and helped to
preserve neighborhoods like the upper westside. The
only thing that’s frozen are the hearts of the landlords.
wrong , wrong , wrong
the sense of entitlement in this town knows no bounds.
Those income qualifications sound unreal. I bet that many that end up living there make most of their salary in cash and can therefore meet these unrealistic (for NYC) salary limits.
Sooo…the poor kids, who are living separately from the snobs, have to grow up to be made to feel separated and inferior because some rich assholes see them as untouchables??? So how is deleting the relationship-building between classes supposed to help influence the younger poorer citizens in NYC by not giving them access to people who might be able to influence them in a positive way?
These owners are dumbfucks to the development of this city!
SL – I’ve lived in two integrated 80/20 buildings, and think that it’s a very reasonable model. But . . . the argument you’re making is pretty nuts. The New York experience involves constant encounters with places, prices and events that are out of reach. And it’s not the job of random neighbors to be a “good influence” on random kids in the building.
Honestly, if you can’t handle that reality, commune life might be the solution.
Obviously the owners do not care about such things and development of NYC youth did not event cross ther mind. And it probably shouldn’t. It all comes down to money. If u live in NYC you are pretty much on ur own.
i hope that those of you who are complaining about “subsidized housing” realize that your own housing is very likely subsidized. Start with the condo and coop owners, most of whom get substantial subsidies through the mortgage interest tax deduction. For high end apartments these subsidies can be very large (even with the new limitations on tax deductions).
as for the argument that simply doing away with rent stabilization will somehow solve or even assist the affordability crisis: to paraphrase Pope Francis, that is “crude and naive” economic reasoning.
The proof is in the pudding. Since the adoption of more aggressive rent deregulation laws in 1997, tens of thousands of units have left rent stabilization on the UWS. So this should have the effect of lowering overall rents, right? Wrong. Rents have skyrocketed. We’ve done the experiment, and its given us the results.
If supply could expand in an almost unlimited way — as it can with televisions or Kelloggs cereal or smartphones — then the theory might hold. But the supply of apartments is limited. You would have to get rid of all zoning laws and start ripping down buildings willy-nilly… does anyone really want to see that done in NY?
Don’t listen to extremist propoganda. The answer to the housing issues is less government , not more. Those who disagree do not understand basic economics and suppy and demand. The proof is in the pudding, the city makes housing so expensive, and taxes the apartments to the extreme. usuaally 1/3 of the gross income goes to the City, not to mention fuel, water, sewer, tickets, unions, theft, nonpayments, lawyers, etc.
ALSO, income tax deduction is FEDERAL IRS, you don’t like it, complain to your senator.
The City – while demonizing them – is relying on private developers to build. So let them, without all the red tape and delays, they can build thousands upon thousands of units.
… he says, while desperately applying for subsidized housing built by unions (Penn SOuth). why not just move in to one of those thousands of empty units the developers have built recently? answer: they’re way too expensive.
………..he says from his luxury Riverside condominium pontificating……..
Of course he answered it himself the supply of apartments is limited. You would have to get rid of all zoning laws and start ripping down buildings willy-nilly… does anyone really want to see that done in NY?”
No I would not want that. The result of that choice: less apartments then the market needs. meaning the existing units will be that much MORE expensive.
BTW -these units literally cost everyone at least a million dollars each. A lucky few get them. Hardly an answer to the problem.
… and you don’t seem to understand the De Blasio housing policy.
when i said “if you are making 30K or 40K”, I was referring to the “lucky few” you refer to who are getting the affordable apts. those are the majority of the income levels. So obviously they are not “the lucky few.”
I wasn’t referring to YOUR income, of which i obviously know nothing.
“Disclose connections”? that’s ironic, considering that you’re the one who has been posting anonymously for years.
what in your mind does “involved with members of this administration” mean? i supported De Blasio for Mayor — that’s no secret. does that disqualify me from posting?
You have no idea what I make.
Please read the NY magazine article , you and your ilk are destroying the liberal cause by hijacking it.
My point is New York housing and costs in general are TOO MUCH for everyone. The answer is not for a few to literally an figuratively to win the lottery and the expense of everyone else.
The NYC government has it completely gone. Clearly you are involved with members of this administration. You should fully disclose your connections, rather then pretend you are not an affiliated member of the ruling left wing class.
if you’re making 30K or 40K in NYC, you’re not one of “the lucky few.” I think you’ve got it backwards.
Haha, it sounds like a bunch of whiney babies on this forum. All I hear is a bunch of people that are upset that they overpaid for their apartments to impress friends that don’t care for them. I support affordable housing. Just because my extremely wealthy parents didn’t leave me a ridiculous sum of money; that doesnt mean I don’t deserve to live here too.
If you wanted to show off you should have moved to the east side.
There is still people in the neighborhood from the 80s and 90s when all of you were terrified to pass by here, let alone buy real estate.
I fully understand BDB’s housing policy, which is destined to fail.
What I see are the last gasps of the extreme left wing who are finally seeing the light and moving to the center and/or dying off.
Like me, you can be socially liberal, but not willing to write a blank check for failed causes.
No one has a right over anyone else to live in Manhattan. and if you chose to, then pay for it. or live in a small space. or look uptown or an outer boro, or NJ. like folks have been doing for over a century.
the issue, as the original posting by WSR so clearly put it, is public policy. It’s not whether an individual “has a right” or “deserves” to live in any particular place. It is whether it is a matter of the public good to have affordable housing in NYC, and to have places for working class and middle class and, yes, poor people to live in Manhattan and the other boroughs.
those of us who favor large amounts of affordable housing believe that the city is for the people who live here and work here, and that policy should revolve around them and their common good. The opposite philosophy is that the city is for investors. Those advocating affordable housing believe in putting the interests of people above the interests of capital.
and, of course, if the direction we are going in continues, NYC will eventually strangle itself. the fact that we have all incomes, especially working class people, is what gives this city life and elan and creativity.
How grand, how verbose, how honorable. how much propaganda.
Now back to reality. New York City is a big place. There is tons of affordable housing – 60% of units are under controls. in some communities, the market rents are below the controlled rents, hence “preferential” rents. Hundreds of thousands of NYCHA units for far below the cost of actually running them.
If this is so important to “advocates” why not demand the government to build more housing themselves? When I was younger and trying to get a rent controlled unit I was out of luck and this was before decontrol. Those units were for only those connected and in the know (think Charles Rangel with 4 rent stabilized units in one building).
These old time advocates want you to believe this is for the greater good when in reality is only for them and their own type of people – AND they want those they disdain – the creators, the makers – to pay for it for them.
you really just can’t stand to have anyone disagree with you, can you?
BB said: i think you have a responsibility to at least try to get facts straight, and try to be consistent with things you and your co-thinkers advocate.
Hilarous coming from you – who twists small kernels and blow them out of proportion for everything. Or try and change the conversation away from the facts into attacks of racism. Also hijacking of every post that some how offends your senses.
really just stop.
agree to disagree.
you are really getting old.
others things to do with your time.
For the record, when I say rent controls I mean ALL the controls as an umbrella term: rent control, rent stabilization, SCRIE,DRIE, Mitchell lama,
sheesh enough already
i think you have a responsibility to at least try to get facts straight, and try to be consistent with things you and your co-thinkers advocate.
WB said:
“There is tons of affordable housing – 60% of units are under controls.”
There is a severe housing affordability crisis in NYC, which is not limited to Manhattan, and it is getting worse. There simply are not “tons of affordable housing” units that are available to people. In fact, in a comment just above this, you yourself said that “New York housing and costs in general are TOO MUCH for everyone.”
On the UWS, there basically are no more rent stabilized units available — units that ever come on the market. It is too easy for the landlords to remove them from the stabilization system upon vacancy.
You are mixing up terms — between rent stabilized and rent controlled. You probably are aware that rent control ended (except for grandfathered tenants) circa 1972. Rent stabilization is rent “regulated”, and thus rises regularly, usually above the rate of inflation.
WB said:
“Hundreds of thousands of NYCHA units for far below the cost of actually running them. If this is so important to “advocates” why not demand the government to build more housing themselves?”
Of course housing advocates would like to see the govt build or fund more affordable housing, including public housing! That has been a central issue for decades.
Wb said:
“When I was younger and trying to get a rent controlled unit I was out of luck and this was before decontrol. Those units were for only those connected and in the know”
I assume you mean before 1972? Because no one moved into a “rent controlled” unit after 1972… by definition.
But whether you mean rent control before that date or rent stabilization after that date, the access to those apartments were controlled by your favorite group — the landlords! Rent stabilized and rent controlled apts were always private sector. So if someone was for some reason denying you an apt, it was the landlord.
I got a rent stabilized apt in 1991 by walking around the neighborhood and asking doormen. And i’ve been in the same building ever since!
Very interesting debate. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts. I am a long time stabilized resident in a “luxury” UWS rental. Used to experience it as a bustling community ….now it’s very quiet, noons in the elevator, lots of washer/deters whenever I do laundry. Historically…in 2007….10 apartments out of 166 were market rate. Now about 140 are market rate. Have no idea why except for natural mobility, a couple of MCIs …definitely not everyone moving into poordoor places. Length of stay for market raters is much shorter…sometimes around annual lease renewal when LL raises them by hundreds of dollars and won’t negotiate. It’s alotmore change and less community. Pros and cons. I would like more transparency of LL profits.
How to apply?
This forum is ridiculous. Everyone should have the right to live in NYC or anywhere else for that matter. Everyone should be treated equal no matter what color, race, or CLASS they are in. This capitalist economy is to blame for the Rich & Poor Door and the “Affordable” housing being built. In order for the rich to get richer it had to trick the government heads into thinking they were assisting the lower classes, however if rich developers are building luxury rentals for the rich WITH TAX BREAKS, isn’t that going against what the government was supposedly trying to do regarding taxing the rich instead of providing more tax breaks, yet here we are. These people do NOT NEED TAX breaks if they can afford a 15 Million dollar apartment. Also, the housing boom is bringing in foreign money of which may be illegal and are contributing to providing hiding places for heinous law breaking internationals to reside here. It is apparent that the Capitalists are making NYC more of a territory to house the Capitalists. This is all about money and nothing to do with the economic standpoint of the unfortunate, low or middle income. All will be pushed out once that affordable program is up. Then what’s next? Genocide?! Everyone can’t even afford to take their family and move to another state. Will their be acts such as those back in slave times. The poor doors are discriminative, unethical and immoral. The government wants to bring in more revenue by any means necessary. The constitution grants is a right to live and maybe a clause needs to be added stating the right to live anywhere because from what I’m reading these ignorant people on this forum feel people should not have a right to live in NYC! That’s ridiculously ignorant of you. The 1% of which many of you on this forum may feel you are but ARE NOT should not have the privilege to take over a city or state and deem where others should go. The elite got where they are off the backs of these OTHER classes of people to begin with and that sort of attitude does not coincide with the efforts and intentions that the constitution and human rights acts were to address, as these other selfish factors and issues were not thought of back then. This world needs to become more of a socialist economy bc as is the human race does not seem like it will even exist for long. There are people out here dying everyday from varying issues of poverty and it’s sad. The elite make many of the mistakes as others, as they are human, but how our government and structural system is set only certain people are affected by mistakes made. I truly believe that a government of people who love people and want the human race to continue to exist in years to come will be the only means to an end of the economic decline we are now faced with. There is no balance in the systems and the negative effect on the populations is tremendous. This world is doomed.
This forum is ridiculous. Everyone should have the right to live in NYC or anywhere else for that matter. Everyone should be treated equal no matter what color, race, or CLASS they are in. This capitalist economy is to blame for the Rich & Poor Door and the “Affordable” housing being built. In order for the rich to get richer it had to trick the government heads into thinking they were assisting the lower classes, however if rich developers are building luxury rentals for the rich WITH TAX BREAKS, isn’t that going against what the government was supposedly trying to do regarding taxing the rich instead of providing more tax breaks, yet here we are. These people do NOT NEED TAX breaks if they can afford a 15 Million dollar apartment. Also, the housing boom is bringing in foreign money of which may be illegal and are contributing to providing hiding places for heinous law breaking internationals to reside here. It is apparent that the Capitalists are making NYC more of a territory to house the Capitalists. This is all about money and nothing to do with the economic standpoint of the unfortunate, low or middle income. All will be pushed out once that affordable program is up. Then what’s next? Genocide?! Everyone can’t even afford to take their family and move to another state. Will their be acts such as those back in slave times. The poor doors are discriminative, unethical and immoral. The government wants to bring in more revenue by any means necessary. The constitution grants is a right to live and maybe a clause needs to be added stating the right to live anywhere because from what I’m reading these ignorant people on this forum feel people should not have a right to live in NYC! That’s ridiculously ignorant of you. The 1% of which many of you on this forum may feel you are but ARE NOT should not have the privilege to take over a city or state and deem where others should go. The elite got where they are off the backs of these OTHER classes of people to begin with and that sort of attitude does not coincide with the efforts and intentions that the constitution and human rights acts were to address, as these other selfish factors and issues were not thought of back then. This world needs to become more of a socialist economy bc as is the human race does not seem like it will even exist for long. There are people out here dying everyday from varying issues of poverty and it’s sad. The elite make many of the mistakes as others, as they are human, but how our government and structural system is set only certain people are affected by mistakes made. I truly believe that a government of people who love people and want the human race to continue to exist in years to come will be the only means to an end of the economic decline we are now faced with. There is no balance in the systems and the negative effect on the populations is tremendous. This world is doomed. Half of the condos purchased are not even being lived in! They are purchasing real estate and boosting up the cost of living for everyone else while they travel the world. It appears that many of the prophesies in the bible will be coming to light. The infrastructure under NYC can only hold so much weight. All of these buildings going up for 20-30 stories are placing additional weight under neath and after 9/11 explosion that was enough to upset and dismantle part of the infrastructure beneath NYC. Time will tell, but next will be the sinking of NYC with all the elite living in Pent house buildings they will be provided ample time to get their things and enough money to get on a plane or boat and get out. While the rest of us drown. There will be no need to argue about the poor door when there will be nothing left to argue over.
yes Christina, speak!