Monday, June 5, 2023
Mostly cloudy. High 76 degrees.
Notices
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Perspectives
By Carol Tannenhauser
I am an immigrant to New York City from the suburbs. For me, the “old country” is Long Island. So it is with consternation that I witness the way my “homeland,” and other parts of New York beyond the city, have been reacting to calls for more affordable housing and for taking in newly-arrived migrants. It seems they don’t want either – or at least, their politicians don’t.
First, in April, they put up (and won) a fight that threatened to derail the state budget process, by refusing to consider building affordable housing along their commuter corridors. “We don’t want to be the sixth borough of Manhattan,” was one way the argument was framed. This is nothing new. “By one measure,” reported The New York Times, “Westchester County and Suffolk and Nassau Counties on Long Island have allowed fewer homes to be built per person in the past decade than the regions around nearly every other major U.S. city, including Boston, San Francisco and Washington.”
This has contributed to a statewide housing shortage, which Gov. Kathy Hochul was trying to address through the budget before the suburbs stonewalled her. She ended up abandoning the effort, after confronting what the Times described as “a history of segregation in suburban communities, which in many cases were designed to exclude Black people.”
Then there’s the migrant question. Around 61,000 asylum seekers, most of them from Latin America, have arrived in New York City since last spring. The city’s longstanding “right-to-shelter” policy means New York has a legal obligation to offer them housing. And for a while, Mayor Eric Adams kept that policy front and center. “I gotta say it’s pretty impressive how many shelters they have opened up so quickly,” said Robert Hayes, the lawyer who won homeless people the right to shelter back in the late 1970s and 80s.
But in mid-May, Adams said the city had reached the limits of its largesse; there was no more room, and the cost of sheltering had topped $4 billion. He asked that the wording of the city’s right to shelter policy be changed to permit the city to deny shelter to homeless adults (but not families with children) if it “lacks the resources and capacity to establish and maintain sufficient shelter sites, staffing, and security to provide safe and appropriate shelter.” He devised a plan to send a few hundred migrants to hotels in two suburban counties north of the city — Rockland and Orange — at the city’s expense.
“We are not equipped to humanely assist these individuals,” Rockland County Executive Ed Day said, while declaring a state of emergency and vowing “to impose fines to stop the city’s plan to put migrants up at hotels in the county,” the Associated Press reported.
And Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus “ordered all hotels, motels and short-term rental facilities not to accept any migrants as he declared a state of emergency,” according to the AP.
I might have hoped that the closed-door attitude of these politicians would stir some sort of backlash from others, to welcome the migrants. But not a single New York City suburb — or any other city, town, or village in the state — stepped up and said, “sure, we’ll take a couple of hundred people to help out. New York City has been amazing!”
It’s not too late…the migrants are still coming, drawn by the promise of safety and jobs…and, yes, in New York City, of shelter and compassion.
But only, for the time being, in New York City.
Native Manhattanite here.
NYC’s legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone who needs it – even if from out of state or out of country – is unique.
Personally I don’t fault suburban jurisdictions for not wanting to “help”.
Moreover suburban areas don’t have the necessary infrastructure like mass transit or services like public hospitals.
Genuine question. The right-to-shelter consent decree is based on a a declaration in the New York State constitution which states that “the aid, care, and support of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the state and by such of its subdivisions”. What is stopping someone from suing any of the other cities/towns in NYS to provide shelter, and would the result in the courts be the same as in NYC?
John,
It is certainly possible that a lawsuit could be brought against other jurisdictions.
The article conflates related but separate issues – housing supply (and therefore costs) in NYC are way too high and that makes providing any social housing extremely expensive.
Suburbs not building enough housing hurts NY state as everyone pays more rent and we lose residents to cheaper states like FL. Hochul should do everything possible to remove the barriers to building more housing in the suburbs, even if current LI residents aren’t thrilled.
You build more housing in the suburbs while traffic and public transit gets worse (look at LIRR riders unhappy with service now after $11B is spent for a new terminal also look at how Eric Adams told WPIX that NJ residents tired of commuting should move to NYC), you’re not helping things here. You’re in effect marginalizing unwanted people by pushing them out of areas targeted for gentrification and into Nassau county where they would have FEWER career and social opportunities. All while the best career, dating and social opportunities are reserved for those willing to pay $3500 for a 1 bed on the UWS. This is a fundamentally unfair system and legitimate housing concerns are being weaponized to create a two tiered metro area of haves and have nots.
Not everyone wants to live in Manhattan… Building more housing just gives people the option to choose where they want to live. Restricting supply as NY has done for decades is what has created the tiered metro you are so worried about.
Much of the UWS is historic district and many of the people who have taken part in gentrifying neighborhoods such as Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood do so because they cannot afford the UWS. There’s also plenty of people living in Hell’s Kitchen because they cannot afford the UWS as well. When rents dropped in 2020 and in early 2021, many many young professionals from Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, Hell’s Kitchen, even people from gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens flooded the UWS now that they could afford the UWS. These people ALWAYS aspired to live on the UWS, but the UWS doesn’t want to build more housing for them.
Would UWS residents sacrifice their historic districts to allow for new development? This discussion is always framed about insinuating how saving the suburbs is bad, but when its the UWS brownstones that are threatened, UWS residents will cry and scream about the character of the community or the history of the UWS being threatened. We saw this with the SoHo rezoning, we saw that Manhattan residents don’t take kindly to perceived threats to the character of their community when Deborah Glick opposed the SoHo rezoning and got a primary challenge by Ryder Kessler and Glick defeated Kessler by a 69%-31% margin. UWS (and Manhattan south of 96th Street in general) is throwing stones from a glass house when it comes to discussing building more housing.
I don’t totally disagree, but the larger issue is the density of the UWS is meaningfully higher than many other neighborhoods (and the density of the city is meaningfully higher than the suburbs).
The UWS and Hicksville both have some restrictive zoning. But you could build 1,000 apartments across from the Hicksville LIRR at a fraction of the cost than building the same on the UWS.
Here’s the rub. Manhattan is where it’s at. Try convincing transplants from out of state or expats from Europe or Japan that they should live out in Hicksville. Manhattan is where people, especially newcomers who are in white collar educated positions, have the most social network opportunities. Doesn’t exist in Hicksville. Plus making LIRR commutes worse/longer and Eric Adams telling NJ residents fed up with commuting to move to NYC. Yes the UWS and Manhattan can’t absolve themselves from responsibility here. The best they can do is Manhattanites don’t touch the suburbs and the suburbs won’t touch Manhattanites.
The distance from Midtown to Hicksville would take 15 minutes with a Japanese or European rail system. That’s the real rub.
Doesn’t change the fact that there are many people gentrifying Harlem and Washington Heights who would rather live on the UWS. They are the ones pushing out minorities from these neighborhoods. They’re not going to Hicksville, European rail system or not.
For the right price, people will live marginally further away from Manhattan. This isn’t about Manhattanites telling the burbs what to do, this is about the governor telling the burbs to stop strangling the growth of NY state.
I am an area worker that has paid “the right price” for many years and live in an area with no subway service. UWS residents don’t want me to drive a car to and from work even though it is much more convenient and less cumbersome than using transit. When I do “the right thing” and use public transit and make multiple transfers to get to work on the UWS, Riders Alliance calls the transit service I live near “a luxury service” and bemoans the high subsidies and Eric Adams says that if I am fed up with traveling back and forth when discussing congestion pricing, then I should move to Manhattan. I currently pay $2200 a month in rent for an apartment that would be worth $4000 a month had it been on the UWS. Manhattanites need those outside Manhattan to thrive and Manhattanites can’t have their cake and eat it too. I’m happy to live further away from Manhattan as long as you meet me where I’m at, and that is parking spaces. But push my buttons with parking/driving, push my buttons with nonchalance towards transit concerns and now I want to have affordable housing, not on Long Island or in Queens, but the UWS where I work.
That’s right, we should make it legal to build more affordable housing on the UWS and throughout NYC .
Housing is always affordable, after all somebody owns it. The question is for whom? What you are referring to is cheap housing.
Texas felt the same thing when NY politicians actively created the same crisis there that we are now experiencing.
Why should legal UWS residents feel obligated to provide housing and other taxpayer funded benefits to individuals who have entered our Country illegally?
I agree with you 100%. Someone needs to take a look at these taxpaying residents leaving the city and state all together. Who will then contribute to these taxpayer funded benefits.
They entered the country 100% legally under the USA’s asylum seeker process. They were documented by the federal government when they arrived at the border.
Out of the 4.5 million encounters along the southern border since Biden became president, there are 1.2 million documented “get-aways,” and absolutely no clue of how many illegal “get-aways,” that are undocumented. The time for gas-lighting the American people is over whether through posts like yours or the progressive news media outlets.
They gamed they system and became TEMPORARILY LEGAL till their case is heard. They are not eligible or for asylum being economic refugees that they themselves are admitting. It we are stuck paying for them for years because somehow our current administration decided we have to pay for them. We didn’t have to only a few years back, whoever wanted to work survived and made a life for themselves. This is unprecedented- citizens are paying for thousands and thousands to be housed for free.
This piece when discussing discrimination in the suburbs misses a lot of nuance. Many within minority groups want to live in the suburbs ON THE SAME TERMS as whites, meaning private backyard, private garage, white picket fence etc.
Yes there’s a lot of cultural conservatism in the suburbs that is exclusionary and unwelcoming of people different than them. But what liberals and progressives in NYC want to do is push a plan that would “diversify” the suburbs, give more people “affordable” housing, but give minority groups less than what whites living in the suburbs have. Recently, NYS spent $11 billion dollars on the LIRR only to make service WORSE than what it was before and have commutes to and from NYC LONGER than what it was before. But Manhattanites don’t know or care about it. If anything, what this housing compact would’ve done is banish “unwanted” people out of NYC to the suburbs and “solve” the affordable housing crisis while white educated NYC liberals and progressives absolve themselves of the damage they did gentrifying NYC and displacing minorities and immigrant groups out of NYC, while white educated NYC liberals and progressives have NYC as a playground to themselves and Bloomberg’s dream of NYC being a luxury product is fulfilled and white NYC liberals and progressives absolve themselves of any guilt.
We don’t care about your piddling little LIRR complaints because they are a joke compared with what we have to deal with taking the NYC subway.
You people sound so spoiled, complaining about how your commute now takes 15 minutes longer. OH WOW A WHOLE 15 MINUTES. WAIT A SEC, LET ME FIND MY TEENY-TINY VIOLIN FOR YOU.
Meanwhile people in NYC have to routinely wait 30 minutes for trains that then decide to go express to make up for being so late, so now we have to take a damn rocket to the Bronx and get a local train back down so it takes 2 hours to get home, being forced off the train due to trackwork and made to wait another 30 minutes in the freezing cold for a shuttle bus, trains breaking down or getting delayed between stations with nothing but garbled, unintelligible updates from conductors so we have no idea what’s going on, lines randomly going out of service with no warning and you don’t find out until you’ve already paid the fare, oh and let’s not forget the looming possibility of getting pushed onto the tracks. The crap that subway riders have to deal with is UNREAL.
The LIRR is amazing. It’s fast, reliable, and compared to the subway it’s almost always on time. Try commuting with the subway for awhile; you’ll stop your whining about the LIRR real quick.
Many people who use the LIRR and other commuter rail or bus services do transfer to the subway. If you’re headed downtown, the UWS or the UES or Harlem, you have no choice but the subway. What do you think, someone headed from LI to the UWS by public transportation is walking 40 blocks to the UWS? Someone headed to Canal Street from Penn Station or Grand Central is walking there? Someone headed to Mount Sinai on 98th Street is walking there? Manhattanites have a privilege of using Citibike when they don’t want to deal with the subway or paying for an Uber or Lyft to go shorter distances. People in the suburbs aren’t spoiled at all, more likely than not, they cannot afford to pay $4,000-$5,000 for a 2 bed on the UWS, that kind of money is a mortgage for a house in the suburbs. Have a young child, you’ll be spending an arm and a leg trying to rent out an apartment or buy a co-op or condo in the PS 87 zone. Eric Adams says if you’re fed up with commuting to move to Manhattan. Maybe its time to have a serious discussion about why so much of the UWS is a historic district. I’m not against historic district landmarking, but the outer boros and suburbs have a lot of leverage and Manhattanites don’t want to poke that bear.
Are the subways perfect, absolutely not. But there are workers on the UWS that both use commuter rail AND transfer to the subway. Pitting outer boro and suburban people versus Manhattan residents only makes Manhattan residents look out of touch. Look, they’re the ones able to afford $3,000 for a 1 bed apartment, are close to work, close to the most social opportunities anyone can ask for etc. It’s Manhattanites thumbing their nose down on people who don’t have the privilege to live south of 96th Street who make me lose all sympathy when there’s a rezoning like the one in SoHo in 2021 or lose all sympathy when housing nonprofit executives like Aaron Carr say that historic district landmarking is bad. I think both Manhattan and the suburbs have bad karma floating around them due to the way they treat certain people. Just saying.
There’s not really any evidence that people only want to live on Long Island in McMansions because it’s currently illegal to build anything else. The land use in LI is abysmal, nothing but massive surface parking lots right next to the LIRR that could easily be used for housing (which would provide more in property taxes than the parking lots do).
What progressives would like to do is increase housing supply so that the rent growth would be less insane and make NYC a more affordable place to live, to do that we will need low density places that are served by public transit like LI and Queens allow more housing to be built.
And yes there are opportunities to build more in Manhattan, borough president proposed a long list of sites.
Most people who move to Long Island move there for a private backyard and more space. Space that is much more affordable than a neighborhood like the UWS. For $4,000 to $5,000 a month, you can mortgage a nice house with in house laundry, backyard, garage etc. that’s yours in 30 years once the mortgage is done. Good luck getting nearly as much space and amenities for $4,000 to $5,000 in rent on the UWS.
You can rent a 2 bedroom in Long Beach, the most liberal and densest part of Nassau County for $2600 a month. Good luck trying to get a 1 bed on the UWS for that price. In fact now cheap low end studios on the UWS go for $2400 to $2600. Younger people are being told that if they want to have access to the most social networking opportunities, career opportunities, dating opportunities, they have to live in areas like the UWS or other areas in Manhattan or gentrified Brooklyn. Not Nassau County. It’s the Sex and the City/Friends lifestyle being sold to people. Manhattanites, some of whom are involved in producing and creating shows like this, want to absolve themselves of any responsibility. Young people don’t want to live in eastern Queens, there’s plenty of relatively affordable housing stock there. This is about ultimately creating a city of haves and have nots. Those in Manhattan are the haves. Those outside of select gentrified outer boro areas and Manhattan are have nots. The nonchalance to worsening transit makes it clear.
What in the world are you talking about? Plenty of young people live in eastern Queens now and housing costs have gotten more expensive there too.
This isn’t some conspiracy, it’s very simple – housing is too damn expensive because we don’t build enough. Make it legal to build apartments, especially near places with good transit.
When attention is focused on a neighborhood with a disproportionate amount of historic districts, that is very wealthy like the UWS and where NY Times is the word of God, the response is to deny and deflect. A lot of people want the UWS, they want Manhattan south of 96th Street. The younger people who live in eastern Queens aren’t new arrivals from Ohio or California or expats from France, like the ones who live on the UWS, the younger people in eastern Queens tend to live with their parents and grew up in the community in eastern Queens or grew up in western Queens where their family rented and finally bought a house in eastern Queens. The people who gentrify Astoria want the UWS, many of them flooded the UWS once prices dropped in late 2020/early 2021. That is a reality the UWS has to reckon with. I don’t agree with Sara Lind with most of her policy positions, but I am glad she forced the UWS to look itself in the mirror when she ran in 2021.
I am confused, Robert. As long as someone has the money to live somewhere, there is no way a suburb can stop someone from buying or renting there. This is the way our economy works. You can’t go into a luxury store and demand a discount because you can’t afford the product (but you still want it). If asylum seekers cannot afford to live in one of the world’s most expensive cities while they wait for their case to be heard, that is another problem entirely, and speaks to our mismanaged border and asylum policies.
What is the racial ethnic breakdown of NYC?
White (Non-Hispanic or Latino): 31.9% Hispanic: 28.9% African-American: 23.8% Asian-American: 14.3% — Oct 12, 2022
Where is this “white liberal Manhattan playground”?
IN THE SUBURBS!
What’s the racial and ethnic breakdown of the UWS? What’s the average income of the UWS? UWS residents claim to be compassionate and welcoming of all people regardless of background, but when they don’t live up to their values, they refuse to look at themselves in the mirror.
“welcoming’ doesn’t mean “paying for” or “living next to”
It has nothing to to with wanting or not wanting to “help”. It has everything to do with not wanting to participate in the lunacy current administration created.
Wow. I can’t believe The NY Times played the race card. That’s so out of character for them !
NYC created this crisis by declaring itself a sanctuary city but wants others to pay for it?
Historical note (roughly, from an amateur who once studied this history): NY STATE constitution which guarantees right to shelter (see comment above) was drafted in 1937, just before the first national minimum wage laws (via the Fair Labor Standards Act) was pushed through as part of the New Deal. The year or two immediately before that – in fact the several years since the height of the Depression and the Dust Bowl – had seen NYC flooded with “economic migrants” – (to sarcastically use the parlance of some of todays politicians) from all over the US as well as overseas. Social reformers were fighting for living wages (until 1936 blocked again and again by the state and US Supreme Courts), and even employers were crying foul because with so many desperate for jobs and no “floor under wages” every service business was at risk of being undersold by unscrupulous fly by night operators. Restaurant and hotel workers, steam laundries, etc – the battle over wages in NY State and elsewhere was making legal and social history in the mid 1930s. Much of what tipped the balance in favor of better wages and housing by the later 30s were headlines like “Women and Children Sleeping In Subways” – THAT’S how bad the migrant issues were then. Our same subways, but photographs of whole families sleeping there. So we should maybe remember what the city learned then: It’s better for everyone when you try to provide shelter for the desperate, and set standards requiring businesses to offer a living wage. (And yes, I’m in favor of low rise denser housing near transit hubs, fewer parking lots, and etc. And more supportive housing for the mentally ill. Try again, Gov Hochul! Thank you Carol. Shame on the leafy burbs. My hardworking adult kid can barely afford a nice low rise part of Long Island City – great transit, birdsong, safe, nice people. Gentrifying fast, natch…a challenge.)
Shame on the UWS for those that want to make it harder for area workers like myself to drive here, are at best nonchalant towards how hard our transit commutes are, and then don’t care if workers with buttons being pushed can’t afford to live in the neighborhood they’ve worked in for many years, the UWS.
Tri-state suburbs are no longer the demographic/socioeconomic monoliths that they once were, let’s say 1960s-1970s…
For example, check out New Hyde Park/Long Island, Port Chester/Westchester, Hackensack/NJ
New York is a sanctuary city; the suburbs are not. You have to eat what you sow. Also the suburbs do not have the money, infrastructure, or manpower to deal with an influx of immigrants.
I find it amusing that several Americans try to apply immigration principles that were applicable, and perhaps reasonable, back in the late 1800s to nowadays. Open immigration and “give me your poor” beliefs were good then as we were coming off the industrial revolution. Mega projects (building the subway system; highways; skyscrapers; factories; etc) were the norm back then and were able to make use of the extra labor from immigrants. Our country (and world) is not in the same situation. Allowing the excess of immigrants is putting a HUGE burden on all. We will feel the true repercussions soon with the lack of housing; schools; food; etc.
Lack of food? Is there any credible source that says the US will run out of food if we allow in immigrants? That is absurd misinformation and xenophobic fear mongering.
This country has plenty of room for immigrants and the NYC area has a significant labor shortage, especially for low wage jobs. This city and this nation have been welcoming immigrants for centuries – all of us (except Native Americans) descend from them. We literally have the Statue of Liberty here. It would be a historic mistake to close our doors.
How about we broaden the perspective here a bit. Lots of cheap land in North Dakota, Kansas, Utah, etc. And in some of these places, unemployment rates are virtually zero so there are jobs that need to be filled.
It is absolutely ridiculous that this is an NYC problem. It is quite ridiculous that this is a NY State problem. It needs a national solution. And everyone is just putting their heads in the sand – both Democrats and Republicans are at fault here.
Up until 2021, it was a Texas problem.
Manhattan is where it’s at. Try convincing transplants from out of state or expats from Europe or Japan that they should live out in North Dakota. Why would anyone take Utah over NYC?! Only here can immigrants enjoy our fine restaurants, museums, the theater, etc. There is so much more culturally to take advantage of here. There is no Broadway or Lincoln Center in Guatemala (or Kansas for that matter!). It is no wonder our new citizens want to be here in the center of it all.
Everyone wants access to Manhattan and I don’t blame them. Banishing people to Long Island while making it harder to drive and making transit worse doesn’t help people. All it does is make people more enraged and when they become more enraged than the UWS will eventually be targeted for a rezoning. We already saw this with the Soho rezoning. Take notes from that rezoning to see what’s coming here.
A rezoning would allow more people to enjoy everything great about our neighborhood, it would support our local businesses by providing more local customers, it make it easier for young people and families to make their home here and it would help older people stay in the neighborhood they love. The Upper West Side has become dramatically less diverse and affordable because we’ve prioritized preservation over growth. Some preservation is great but the pendulum has swung too far and it’s increasingly difficult for people to afford to live here. Bring on the rezoning!
I doubt most of the new immigrants from Latin America are concerned primarily with eating at our over-priced fine restaurants, museums or theater. Many Americans who were born here cannot afford these things. New immigrants are escaping poverty, gangs, murderous environments and corruption, etc to make a new life for their families, or support those left behind. The immigration story hasn’t really changed since our own ancestors came here to escape pogroms, poverty and desperation in their countries of origin. The difference is that when most of our own ancestors came here they got little help from the government or anybody else, and had to figure out how to survive here. I wouldn’t want to have to be an immigrant—it’s brutal and lonely. But they will do anything to make a better life for their children and are tougher than most of the rest of us who have inherited the right to be here, taking for granted what blessings we enjoy. While its truly difficult for us to absorb all those who are desperate to come here, I can’t even imagine what I’d do in their shoes. I hope Id have the stamina to walk thousands of miles through dangerous territory just to “enjoy” the right to survive. If I were them, I’d be trying to get here too. Its a complicated situation that deserves compassion.
Susan: Thank you for this. It’s about time.
If you can afford NYC, by all means choose it over Utah. If you don’t, tough. Most of us, UWS-ers lived elsewhere till we could afford it. The question is why non-working people should be housed in one of the most desirable and expensive neighbourhoods that many working people are dreaming of but can’t afford?
I would love to see a West Side Rag analysis on the UWS’s housing growth. Are we adding housing any faster than the suburbs are? How much are we contributing to the housing crisis by refusing to grow our neighborhood?
Gale Brewer owns a single family townhouse on the UWS. Mark Gorton who’s funding a lot of this bike lane stuff owns a single family townhouse on the UWS.
I’ve been to Singapore for work. Singapore is also a small crowded island with finite space. However, good quality housing is affordable there.
The reason for this is because old and inefficient buildings are constantly being torn down and replaced with taller, better quality and more efficient buildings that can house more people.
Unfortunately, this can’t be done in NYC because our old and decrepit housing stock is filled with rent regulated tenants and you can’t get rid of them.
Furthermore, if anyone tries to construct a tall building they will face significant resistance from the many malcontents in the city, ie look at how many years were wasted over 200 Amsterdam and the tower on West 66th just off the park.
The affordability of NYC for its residents cannot really be accurately addressed without mentioning the whole school issue which went to hell long before anyone was busing immigrants up here. If all kids could get a decent public education in their own neighborhoods (not to mention in a safe school environment) I can only imagine how much less crowded public transportation would be, not to mention roads. Families with kids are not just moving out of NYC to stare at a backyard!
I’d rather have my kid at PS 87 than a school out in the suburbs, but the UWS isn’t affordable. PS 87 just had a wonderful spring fair that I wish my kids school had. I’m a Nassau County resident who works on the UWS saying this. The contempt for those on Long Island is unwarranted.