Three weeks after calling for Governor Spitzer to veto the new 421-a legislation (which, among other things, gives Forest City Ratner another $300 million in tax benefits for Atlantic Yards without requiring any additional affordable housing), Mayor Bloomberg threatened to yank roughly half of the $205 million of city money committed to the project. “Pure and simple, it’s a giveaway,” a high-ranking city official told The Post. Bloomberg wants what State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries publicly called for two weeks ago–removal of the 421-a carve-out that exempts Forest City Ratner from complying with the standard requirements about how much and in what manner low- and middle-income units must be built. As handed to them on a silver platter in the new legislation by Vito Lopez, FCR could satisfy much of the affordable housing quote by building middle-income, rather than low-income, housing; it also could segregate the affordable housing into separate buildings and postpone the affordable portion of the project for years. (Bloomberg is also pissed off that the 421-a bill would squelch his plans for 10,000 subsidized middle-income units in Queens and elsewhere.)
Ratner’s Plan Hits Big $nag [NY Post]
Bloomberg Asks Spitzer to Veto Botched 421-a Bill [Brownstoner]
Pols Call for Ratner to Abandon 421-a Carve-Out [Brownstoner]
Photo by Tracy Collins