Should Sandy Redevelopment Funds be Used for Luxury Condos?

As Bloomberg departs, two super scandals from his years in office stand out.  The City Time payroll boondoggle where Mark Mazer played him for a chump; and the rebuilding after September 11th.  The former has received some press, (why not put some displaced from Sandy is this nice spot!?





but the latter remains majorly under-appreciated.  In cogent blogpost, Good Jobs NY goes back and looks at how Federal money's were used to subsidize luxury condos' and "small businesses" such as boutique law firms.  But what really offends is the lack of a comprehensive regional development framework.   This is in part due to the corruption and economic incompetence of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation as well as the anti-transparency of the NYC Economic Development Corporation.  If NYC aims for a democratic resilience, NY'ers might have to get into a debate like those around the World Trade Organization in the last decade: reform or eliminate? 

Check out the excellent posts for background:
http://clawback.org/2013/08/23/federal-task-force-on-sandy-rebuilding-urges-regional-economic-development-community-development/

Good piece on the CUNY center that will study Jamaica Bay.  There is a conference coming up on this that will be at Brooklyn College in October.  And we will also discuss thus at out Philosophy of the City conference to be held at BC Dec5-7.
http://www.adaptny.org/2013/08/20/jamaica-bay-to-serve-as-lab-for-studying-climate-change/

GOOD JOBS, AFFORDABLE HOUSING, SUSTAINABLE ENERGY. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION.

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:

http://www.citylimits.org/conversations/topic.cfm?topic_id=201

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. 

New Top-Tier Research Institute, Conservancy Coming to Jamaica Bay - Rockaway Beach - DNAinfo.com New York

Big news for NYC's pursuit of urban resilience and CUNY!  Not only will there be a research institute run by CUNY, and first housed at Brooklyn College (!), but a Jamaica Bay conservancy has been founded (ala Central Park conservancy) and there is an "ideas competition" being run by the Dept of Interior (Federal) which is a new twist because they other idea competitions are run bu the city (NYC EDC or HPD).  Although maybe HUD Is running one as well now.  In any case, i only found out recently the Bloomberg's vision for Jamaica Bay is not to "develop" it but to make it into a tourist destination/preserve/research site.  More comments to come, but for now, I am very proud of my BC and CUNY colleagues for working over the last two years or so to pull this together--twas amazingly complictadd because of all the organizations and juridisdictions involved, especially state, local and federal, and parks.

New Top-Tier Research Institute, Conservancy Coming to Jamaica Bay - Rockaway Beach - DNAinfo.com New York

Prototype Sponge Park Planned for NYC's Gowanus Canal » The Epoch Times

Havent seen enough coverage of this: great example of soft infrastructure that benefits environment and commununity and is relatively low cost.


Prototype Sponge Park Planned for NYC's Gowanus Canal » The Epoch Times