mcny-panel-1

The lack of affordable housing in a city where rents are skyrocketing is a full-blown crisis that threatens to tear at the city’s social fabric, a panel of four local experts agreed Monday, at a discussion hosted by the Museum of the City of New York.

“We need to preserve the diversity and vitality that makes New York what it is, and I’m worried that escalating housing costs are threatening that very vitality and diversity,” said panelist Ingrid Gould Ellen, director of the Urban Planning Program at NYU Wagner.

The panel, held as part of the museum’s current exhibition on the history of the city’s Landmarks Law, was called “Preserving the Fabric of Our Neighborhoods” – though moderator Simeon Bankoff, executive director of preservation advocacy group Historic Districts Council, suggested at the outset that an alternative title could be “Surviving Our Own Success.”

Several decades ago, the conversation would have been about a fleeing populace and vacant buildings, he noted. Michelle de la Uz, executive director of Brooklyn nonprofit community organization Fifth Avenue Committee, recalled that she “started in Park Slope when there were many abandoned buildings and vacant lots. Obviously now the neighborhood is a very different place.”

The panel broke down the current picture: spiking rents, a burgeoning population that’s expected to grow further, an influx of global capital that’s helping drive prices up and, in the midst of those trends, a declining number of rent-stabilized housing units.

It makes for a “double whammy,” noted Ellen, who said 200,000 rent-stabilized units were lost between 2002 and 2011.

The resulting situation is dire, the panelists agreed. When eight affordable-housing units were offered in Sunset Park, Boerum Hill and Park Slope recently, 30,000 people applied, De La Uz told the capacity crowd. “That just gives you a sense of the demand,” she said. “This crisis is not to be taken lightly.”

Ellen Baxter, executive director of Broadway Housing Communities, a nonprofit developer of supportive housing, offered one general prescription: share the wealth.

“The real estate industry in our beloved New York City is remarkably powerful, and that’s in part where the solution rests,” she said. “We need to create more of a balance with those very powerful interest groups, and it simply means getting a share of the profit margin that the for-profit sector has become accustomed to, to create more affordable housing.”

Mayor DeBlasio’s affordable-housing plan received expressions of support, though Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, was among those arguing that it doesn’t go far enough. “If I had my way, any new building would have to have affordable housing,” she said.

Brewer was also among those expressing concern about the raised height limits in the mayor’s plan, and the potential for overbuilding.

“We need to be denser, I’ll give you that,” she said. “But at the same time, we need to be able to breathe. So these are huge issues.”

Communities need to be part of the dialogue, said De La Uz, who noted with approval that this is happening.

“What’s interesting about the conversations in East New York or East Harlem or Jerome Avenue in the Bronx is that now communities are saying wait, this is going too fast, and we want to understand what the impact is going to be on existing residents,” she said. “We need to see residents as part of this process.”

De La Uz -– who took aim at the Bloomberg administration for rezoning that “incentivized the demolition of affordable housing” in Park Slope and elsewhere — argued that the city needs to take a hard look at ways to keep longtime residents from getting priced out of gentrifying neighborhoods. “If we’re really serious about preserving the fabric and the diversity of our neighborhoods, we need to be looking at anti-displacement methods,” she said.

When it comes to preserving communities, attention needs to be paid to the commercial sector as well as affordable housing, panelists noted.

“Retail has to be part of the discussion,” said Brewer, who drew appreciative laughs with a comment about vomiting at the sight of 7-Eleven stores. Duane Reade in particular drew no love from the crowd. “How do you prevent Duane Reade from taking over the city?” one woman beseeched the panel. Solutions discussed including offering tax abatements for owner-operated businesses and imposing limits on the size of some stores.

An Exhibition About the Landmarks Law in Brooklyn and Beyond [Brownstoner]
Six Panels Explore Preservation in Brooklyn and Beyond [Brownstoner]

mcny-panel-2

Above, left to right: moderator Simeon Bankoff of the Historic Districts Council,  NYU Wagner’s Ingrid Gould Ellen, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Broadway Housing Communities’ Ellen Baxter, and Fifth Avenue Committee’s Michelle de la Uz.

mcny-panel-3


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment