November 9, 2023
What Dems — And NYC — Can Learn From The GOP’s Bronx City Council Win
Some will attribute Kristy Marmorato’s election as the first Republican to represent The Bronx in City Council in 40 years to selfish NIMBY-ism. And there is no doubt her opposition to two subsidized- (a k a “affordable-”) housing developments in the northeast Bronx (District 13) were a key factor in her defeating incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velazquez —…
October 13, 2023
Liberals Reap Consequences Of Their Homeless Policies
It’s cliche to observe that socially conservative views emerge when liberals are “mugged by reality.” But when it happens to the governor of California and the local leadership of Portland and Seattle, it’s not trite — it’s important. That’s exactly what has happened in the form of a push by leaders from every Western state asking the…
October 4, 2023
Variety Is the Spice
At first glance, Mayor Eric Adams’s extensive new citywide rezoning plan, meant to encourage new housing, may seem like more of the problematic same. It emphasizes, for instance, the construction of yet more “permanently affordable” new apartments through the dubious means of permitting more units to be built if some get set aside as “income restricted.” This “inclusionary”…
September 18, 2023
There’s an Easy Fix That Would Solve Our Housing Crisis: Light Touch Density
We’re living through one of the greatest housing crunches the U.S. has ever known. It’s resulted in record numbers of homelessness and entire generations certain they will never become homeowners, that critical milestone of the middle class. But there is a simple solution to the problem. The answer to our housing crisis is to legalize…
August 24, 2023
Want To End Apartment Warehousing? Ease Up On Rent-Control Laws
New York City’s Independent Budget Office this week reported that some 13,000 rent-regulated apartments in the city have been vacant for more than two years — fueling the charge that owners are deliberately “warehousing” apartments to pressure legislators to ease limits on rent increases. A group called the End Apartment Warehousing Coalition, comprising 22 tenant organizations, supports…
August 23, 2023
Solve Two Crises At Once: Put Migrants In NYCHA
As New York City gives over soccer fields and recreation centers to housing for a wave of migrants, and Gov. Hochul feuds with Mayor Adams, one public housing resident on the Lower East Side has a better way. The New York Times reports that Camille Napoleon “has hosted as many as 12 migrants at a time in…
August 13, 2023
The Bill to Repair NYCHA Projects Doubles—but Pols Won’t Fix the System
We knew Big Apple public housing is in dangerously bad shape—but it turns out it’s twice as bad as we thought. New York City Housing Authority officials just revealed the $40 billion estimated in 2017 for the new roofs, pipes and boilers the aging projects need has ballooned to $78 billion. Yet a state plan billed…
August 5, 2023
Rent Control ‘Shabbifying’ NY’s Housing As Owners Feel the Squeeze
Perhaps cowed by tenant protests, the Rent Guidelines Board has backed off rent increases of as much as 16% (for two-year leases) for the city’s 900,000-plus rent-regulated apartments. That property owners should be limited to modest hikes (2.5% for one-year leases), even as their costs of fuel, taxes and repairs go up, ignores the fact that inflation…
July 30, 2023
26 Miles of Scaffolding Blights NYC’s Public Housing, Some Up for 10 Years
No New York pedestrian would disagree with Eric Adam’s characterization of the city’s ubiquitous sidewalk sheds at stalled construction sites as “ugly little green boxes.” But his targeting of private buildings owners with $10,000 a month fines for scaffolding that stays up for more than 90 days without building repairs proceeding also suggests selective prosecution. …
July 25, 2023
Not Just Tulsa
Earlier this month, an Oklahoma judge ruled that the City of Tulsa cannot be held legally or financially responsible for the actions of the violent mob that burned down the city’s Greenwood section, known as the Black Wall Street, in 1921. Three survivors of that murderous riot will not, it appears, receive compensation. Despite their disappointment, the…