These are the four demands articulated in the Alliance for a Just Rebuilding’s report, TURNING THE TIDE; HOW OUR NEXT MAYOR SHOULD TACKLE SANDY REBUILDING.” (go to www.rebuildajustny.org and click “solutions”)
I wonder how these demands resonate amidst the economically and racially divided publics of NYC: Mundane and Impossible? Naive and Necessary? Under Bloomberg there has been a moderate commitment to sustainable energy both in terms of reduction of energy use and efficiency as well as use of renewables. The number of affordable housing units, however, has continued to decrease, as housing becomes less affordable in general. Indeed, last month the NY Times did yet another story on how bad the conditions are in public housing (mold, leaky roofs) and on the repair backlog see this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/nyregion/tenants-sue-new-yorks-housing-authority-over-repair-delays.html?_r=0
and some Mayoral candidates accepted a challenge from housing advocates and slept in tenants apartments (hold all the Weiner jokes, thankfully he’s descended into irrelevancy). Then the Times did another story on public housing: about the number of people on the waiting lost: 227,000!!! There are more people on the waiting list than ARE IN PUBLIC HOUSING! This despite the conditions of the buildings:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/nyregion/for-many-seeking-public-housing-the-wait-can-be-endless.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I wonder how any mayor’s term could be considered successful if such a sizeable section of the city lives in such an precarious and/or untenable situation. And the 500,000+ we are talking about doesn’t even include all the substandard rental situations, much less the homeless!
What does it mean to demand “affordable housing”? Is this merely a plea for more government regulation or movement for a new kind of ownership? AJR is exploring both. There has been a lot of work done on the second route, on a different model of ownership. One type is called ”community land trusts” or CLTs. Check out a short essay on this by NYC planner Tom Angotti here:
and a longer academic study here:
http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/1272_Community-Land-Trusts-and-Low-Income-Multifamily-Rental-Housing
This is one (crucial) element in the transformation of the existing economy into a solidarity economy or what Gar Alperovitz calls the “pluralist commonwealth.” More on that in the next post.
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