« Weekend Events Piece of Historic Wallabout Threatened by Developers »
June 29, 2007
Bloomberg Asks Spitzer to Veto Botched 421-a Bill
The combination of some poor political calculation on the part of the Bloomberg administration and the back-room dealings of a state assemblyman may spell doom for a housing bill that was supposed to create more affordable housing in the city while stemming the flow of handouts to luxury developers, according to some post-game analysis in The New York Times this morning. The most embarrassing piece of the eleventh-hour alterations to the bill by Assemblyman Vito Lopez of Brooklyn (who, notes the Atlantic Yards Report, has received campaign contributions from Bruce Ratner's brother and sister-in-law) in heavy consultation with REBNY's Steven Spinola, is the additional $300 million it gives to Ratner's Atlantic Yards project in return for no additional affordable housing concessions. In addition, Bloomberg et al are pissed that the Lopez version of the bill, which expands the exclusion zones in the outer boroughs beyond what the city had originally defined, removes the city's ability to give tax benefits for some 10,000 middle-income apartments currently in the works and also blocks the city from funding 2,000 apartments in poor areas. So here's a question: Is the Bushwick-based Lopez as big a dirt-bag as this whole ordeal makes him out to be (he is, after all, a close pal of the poster boy for corruption Clarence Norman) or was he just following his heart in fighting to tilt the bill more in favor of low-income residents than middle-income even if it meant further enriching some wealthy developers in the process? Or does the truth lie somewhere in the middle?
City’s Plans for Housing Flop in Albany [NY Times]
City says "Atlantic Yards carve-out" worth $300 million [AY Report]
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/1502
Comments
no, you were correct, he's a dirt-bag. and apparently an effing idiot. stellar plan, vito.
Posted by: mikey steggs at June 29, 2007 9:08 AM
dose the extension to get your foundation in still remain in place?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 9:20 AM
I think that if this bill passes the poorer neighborhoods he is seeking to protect will end up getting screwed.
His thought process is that if they extend the exclusion zone then developers will include the affordable units. However, he has lowered the income threshold for these units which makes them cost the developer even more.
The end result will be that no one will build in these neighborhoods. It just won't make economic sense. Developers will choose to build in either the neighborhoods where they don't have to include affordable units or they will go to prime areas where their profit will be big enough to cover the added expense of these units.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 9:39 AM
Lopez really believes that FCR deserves credit for putting so much capital at risk over a decade ago and built in Brooklyn when no one else would. But, he went too far and made a stupid move. He's not a dirt bag. This debacle underscores an emerging theme this year: Albany legislators micro-managing NYC policy (borrowing words chosen by Bloomberg and quoted in Crains this morning)
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 10:00 AM
It's time now for Spitzer to step up to plate and veto this ridiculous piece of legislation...the give-away to Ratner/Atlantic Yards is just so appalling.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 10:17 AM
Ohhhhhh....stop your non-stop bellyaching already...jeesh.... you people are some of the biggest whiners imaginable!
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 10:31 AM
good point there Mr. Jeesh. wait, what was your point?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 10:37 AM
"Ohhhhhh....stop your non-stop bellyaching already...jeesh.... you people are some of the biggest whiners imaginable!"
Irony, anyone?
Posted by: Anon at June 29, 2007 10:40 AM
It's a real shame that the legislation that V. Lopez forced through will hurt the very neighborhoods he wants to protect. Forget the AY give-away, there are more substantial problems with this bill.
Middle-Income New Yorks are in the most danger of being priced out of the city. This bill will only speed their exodus creating a larger income gap in NYC; hurting our economic and social fabric.
Construction costs are rising so fast that it's almost impossible to build affordable housing without extra government subsidies much less the decrease in allowable rents for the 20% affordable. If he wanted this legislation to actually work - he should have fought for increasing NYS tax-exempt volume cap allowing developers to opt into affordable housing programs.
Now middle-income developments targeting working families will only be built on the fringes of the city while the poor and extremely rich occupy the center.... I thought that was what everyone is trying to avoid - geographic segregation.
Posted by: Fez at June 29, 2007 11:16 AM
On the face of it, I have to agree with both 9:39 and 10:00. With nothing but the information reported in the Times, et al, I'd have to say Mr. Lopez made a poor deal with the devil in order to help a large portion of his constituents that no one else is thinking about. If passed, it will backfire, and that is a shame.
There is a reason why many people who truly want to help their fellow man don't go into politics - you can't get anything done unless you compromise and convolute to the point of making bad deals like this in order to squeeze out some kind of perceived good. The whole thing needs to be vetoed, then unwound, laid out straight, and voted on in a clear, clean cut way without the attached riders, exceptions, etc. But that probably won't happen.
Posted by: Brower Park at June 29, 2007 11:25 AM
the poor aren't in the most danger of being priced out of the city? are there stats that show that there is more housing affordable to the poor in NYC than there is for the middle class?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 11:27 AM
RE: Brower Park 11:25
I agree. There should have been some real debate in Albany about this bill. Instead we got a bill hijacked in the dead of night and force-fed to legislators.
Posted by: Fez at June 29, 2007 11:30 AM
History will hail Vito Lopez a hero. A brave and thoughtful act!
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 11:37 AM
RE: 11:27
Yes- about 400k NYCHA residents. Another 20k low-income units built in the last four years VS. a dwindling supply of Mitchell-Lama units and only 4k new middle-income units.
The production numbers are tilted toward Low-Income units. Also, the IRS provides subsidies to low-income units but not middle-income units. That's why you get 80/20 buildings in high cost luxury neighborhood versus middle-income developments in the same area.
Posted by: Fez at June 29, 2007 11:39 AM
The extension of the exclusion zone to poorer neighborhoods was NOT intended to get more affordable housing in those areas - it was intended to STOP market-rate development. Some affordable housing might get built, but mostly, this is an anti-gentrification move. It will keep these neighborhoods poor and rundown, but at least it will stop the march of the glass condos.
As far as middle-income housing is concerned, Fez is right. And the threshold for "middle income" keeps creeping up. NY is getting less and less affordable to a wider range of folks who just earn normal incomes.
Posted by: WBer at June 29, 2007 11:58 AM
Isn't that Judd Hirsch?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 12:16 PM
Yes, Lopez is a dirtbag, and 11:58 is right on his motivations.
Vito is in cahoots with the criminal Clarence Norman and wants to keep Bushwick poor so that he is relected and he keeps his base as the powerful head of the influential Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council (RBSCC).
The RBSCC actually has nothing to do with senior citzens or middle class Ridgewood; it is a huge social services organization for poor Latinos in Bushwick. As Bushwick becomes less poor and less Latino, Lopez loses his base of power.
One funny thing is that Lopez is actually 100% Italian-American, but changed his last name before first running for office in Bushwick.
Posted by: Crawford at June 29, 2007 1:06 PM
Another thing: the Lopez quest to keep Bushwick mostly poor and Latino isn't going to work. The horse is already out of the barn.
I have been informally tracking RE land/building transactions in Bushwick for the last 18 months or so, and a HUGE proportion of available development sites have recently traded hands from small-time owners to savvy development partnerships. They are buying to build, and most will do so even under the Lopez proposal. Those that don't will just wait three years until the proposal expires, or build "commercial" and try to rent/sell for residential use.
Lopez is also apparently unaware that most of the gentrification in Bushwick has nothing to do with development. It mostly involves the replacing of poorer, Latino residents with more prosperous white residents in existing, market-rate housing. If anything, the Lopez proposal could strenghten this trend by pushing newcomers to existing housing rather than potential new housing.
Posted by: Crawford at June 29, 2007 1:16 PM
Vito's unaware of very little in Bushwick. I'm inclined to go with the dirtbag explanation, personally. He *does* like housing for the poor, insofar as he can get his people jobs related to it and control the votes of the tenants in the traditional ward-heeler way. His corruption is the old machine style--less outright theft, more paternalistic in-office-for-life stuff.
Posted by: Dave Cutler at June 29, 2007 2:15 PM
This is a little shocking. Not one person can come up with even a pathetic defense of Vito.
I guess we can all get along! Everybody agrees on something!
Posted by: iguana at June 29, 2007 5:08 PM
I have another piece of the puzzle. Knowing Bushwick quite well, I know that Vito Lopez's political machine is run like Tammany Hall. The Bushwick Ridgewood Senior Council, I believe it's called, has several seniors only buildings under it's direction and others being built all the time. the senior buildings even have poll booths installed in the lobby come election time and plenty of folks there around November to remind them who's buttering the bread. There is a regular paper distributed to these centers extolling the virtues of Vito Lopez et al which includes various other state senators and assemblymen or women. In the end, the seniors are getting good service but at what price for a genuine democracy? I have to extrapolate that just as the Lopez grip is quite tight in the senior housing market in Bushwick/Ridgewood, so it goes with affordable housing and other government mandated programs which must be filtered through the local political machines. I don't doubt that in the end, the political motives behind the recent events are guided first and foremost by what's good for the Vito Lopez crew.
Posted by: Antoine Roquetin at June 29, 2007 5:11 PM
Dirt bag. But so is the Bloomberg admin in my book. They are totally disinterested in helping Brooklyn residents at all. Or city residents, unless you are super rich and live on the UES. Give me a break. I think the mayor doth protest too much, too late. Why isn't he focussed at all on what his constituents really need. Because he is like that dude who started Dominos. He really thinks that poor people should help themselves. And seems to adopt a Reagan-esque attitude by backing real estate developers above all others....like thinking housing is going to trickle down to the middle class somehow if more luxury housing goes up. He's just a rich jerk.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 29, 2007 9:01 PM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.