Friday, December 13, 2013

New York's Politicians Have Been Failing Us for a Long Time


 The view from Central Park will never be the same.

NY's politicians have been failing us for a long time, and that includes our city councilman, Dan Garodnick, who has received truck loads of money from real estate and who, along with his fellow city council members, still upholds "air rights," which makes possible the disasters we are seeing pop up all around Manhattan.  And who are the tenants for these high-rises? The mega rich who will not be spending much time in the city, and many of them, foreigners. Don't be surprised if the buyer of STPCV turns out to be some foreign company or a conglomerate that includes a foreign company whose interest in this property will be to bulldoze its buildings, getting rid of its middle class residents in the process, and put up similar high rises. The city may even offer up tax breaks for this screwing.

Not breaking news, but a good summary of what's been happening to this city, as affordable housing and the middle class are disappearing:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/12/new-york-high-rise-boom/4005289/

The disparity between rich and poor is underlined at the end of the article:

And at a time when more than 51,000 people — 21,000 of them children — spend the night in city homeless shelters, the contrast between penthouse opulence and street-level poverty is as dizzying as any view of Central Park.

One57, which broke ground during the recession, will receive tens of millions in tax breaks designed to encourage construction, which critics say would have occurred regardless.

"We're used to inequality in New York," says Benjamin Dulchin of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, an advocacy group. "We're not used to it being subsidized by the taxpayers."


One player not mentioned in this article, and in other such articles, is an entity that used to have a significant hand in New York's construction business:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/mafia5.htm

I wonder if we are still paying dues.

19 comments:

  1. The same folks (and their real estate buddies) who get millions in tax breaks to build mansions in the sky in Manhattan for the world's superrich bemoan rent stabilization as being an obstacle to affordable housing. What f..ing hypocrites!

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  2. I have long considered NYC's RE cabal to be another embodiment of the Mafia.

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  3. Thinking this DAILY and how wrong it is. Shame on nyc

    SHAME SHAME TO NYC. Why doesn't a reporter expose this?

    btw, really think we're being overcharged on our flat. Does anyone have the number or the email to write / call the DOH to inquire on last rent paid? thank you. the new website sucks.

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  4. The Bloomberg Regime has been the kiss of death for the middle class in New York. Thank God he is going soon. I doubt that the damage he's done can be undone, but hopefully the damage won't continue under the new mayor.

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  5. While it's true that there have always been rich people in New York and that it wouldn't have become the great city that it eventually became, the rich of the past always gave something back. They created jobs, funded charities, helped with progressive social movements. They had some sense of moral obligation, call it noblesse obligee, if you like. The rich we have here these days are parasites that suck the blood out of the poor and middle class and give nothing, but nothing back. They only support each other and live in some kind of other universe, totally peopled by their own kind where they only have contempt for the regular people/99%. It sort of reminds me of the history I've read about Tzarist Russia! Remember "Dr. Zhivago?" I wouldn't want to see some kind of bloody uprising here, but I wouldn't mind seeing a bloodless one. There will be a reckoning, though, because history teaches us that there always is a reckoning. Something's got to give.

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  6. "really think we're being overcharged on our flat. Does anyone have the number or the email to write / call the DOH to inquire on last rent paid? thank you. the new website sucks."

    You should get a form every year from DHCR saying what the rent should be. Did you try the DHCR site? Not sure if that's what you're referring to when you sat DOH. Go to http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/faqs.htm#rsrc4 and see the info under "Are there any requirements for gaining access to registered rental information?"

    The contact page for DHCR is http://www.nyshcr.org/AboutUs/Contact.htm

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  7. "SHAME SHAME TO NYC. Why doesn't a reporter expose this?"

    I think the media is controlled by the RE Mafia and their cronies. Reporters are not free to report the truth any more. The closest you will ever get to honestly reported news is on PBS and the BBC and, maybe, NPR. So far, they haven't become controlled by the Masters of the Universe.

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  8. NYT has a report this morning about air rights over the Schubert Theater.

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  9. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-11/manhattan-apartment-rents-drop-for-a-third-straight-month.html

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  10. The closest you will ever get to honestly reported news is on PBS and the BBC and, maybe, NPR.

    LOL

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  11. I don't really trust Garodnick. I didn't vote for him because I sense that he is in the pockets of the RE Cabal and is something of an opportunist.I hope I'm wrong, but that's the way I feel about him. I know that some people, he can do no wrong.

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  12. From that Bloomberg report on rents in Manhattan dropping:

    Manhattan rents are unlikely to drop precipitously in the coming year as rising employment keeps leasing demand strong and higher borrowing costs deter potential buyers. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.46 percent last week, the highest since September, according to data from McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac.

    “I don’t think the purchase market is going to see the same heavy volume it saw in 2013 next year,” he said.

    Among Manhattan neighborhoods, rents on the East Side fell the most last month, dropping 3.4 percent to a median of $2,800, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman said. On the West Side, the median fell 2 percent to $3,250. Rents downtown, defined as the area south of 34th Street, held at $3,495.

    Leasing costs for luxury apartments, the top 10 percent of the market by price, climbed 1.2 percent to a median of $8,500.

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  13. "LOL"

    RK, he's back.

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  14. ""LOL"

    RK, he's back. "

    Yup, Faux Noise, Rush and Glenn are his idea of truthful media reporting. He must be very disappoint that John Gambling is retiring this week and Bloomturd won't be giving his one-sided view of events anymore.

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  15. How's the Liar in Chief working out for you?

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  16. Yup, Faux Noise, Rush and Glenn are his idea of truthful media reporting. He must be very disappoint that John Gambling is retiring this week and Bloomturd won't be giving his one-sided view of events anymore.

    So the lame stream media repeats lie after lie from Obama and you call Fox out. Keep drinking the Kool Aid. The Liar in chief would be so proud of you!

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  17. BTW, I'm not letting through any more tangential political commentary that doesn't have anything to do with Stuy Town or New York's problems or such commentary will never end, I fear.

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  18. A VOTE FOR DAN "ILL RELOCATE THE GREENMARKET" GARODNICK IS LIKE THROWING YOURE VOTE IN THE GARBAGE! COMING SOON! WALGREENS ON THE OVAL!

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  19. How can anyone trust or defend this empty suit garodnick ? He lied to the upper eastside for years with his BS rallies and when it came time for him to actually do something and stand up for the community , he voted no on Ruppert Park and convinced his constituents to do likewise. I won't be surprised to see him living in one of their buildings someday, and If(when) his political career is over, I'm sure he'll turn up working for Related or some other big firm he has helped.

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