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Mayor de Blasio’s plans to redevelop East New York — a test case for his affordable housing plans for all of New York City — are fatally flawed, according to a report from Newsday. De Blasio wants to rezone the area to encourage mixed-use high-rise development with 50 percent market rate, 30 percent middle income and 20 percent low income apartments and retail on the bottom level. But income levels and rents in the area now are too low to attract developers, middle class residents or retailers, according to developers and others quoted in the story.

Local residents and politicians want low-rise, low-income housing as well as infrastructure improvements in the area — not pricey Williamsburg-style high rises, they said.

More information is coming soon, perhaps as soon as September. The administration plans to present its East New York-specific zoning proposal to community leaders in the fall, said the story. The story hinted that perhaps the administration will find public sources of funding for affordable housing. A study of mandatory inclusionary zoning is also due out at about the same time.

De Blasio Housing Strategy Faces Test in East New York [Newsday]
Image by City Planning


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. We recently bought a small Victorian in Cypress Hills and love the neighborhood (based on demographics, we’d be considered the gentrifiers). Does anyone know the meeting time & place when DeBlasio will present this plan to the community? Or of other community meetings regarding it? We’d like to be involved in the process. Thanks

  2. A lot of people in the neighborhood still put signs in their front window so you may have to put some footwork in. At my family’s house we had a vacant apartment and put up a sign, we had so many people knocking on our door that we gave the listing to our realtor since we couldn’t handle all the submissions. We have been getting a lot of people displaced from Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights so there might be a lot of competition. Good luck in your search, it’s a great neighborhood.

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