Politicians Can't Back Sell-The-Projects Idea
Unsurprisingly, a group of legislators has a serious bone to pick with HUD regional director Sean Moss over his recent comments that selling some public housing developments might help solve New York’s affordable housing crisis. A letter addressed to HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson that was signed by 14 assemblymembers (including Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries)…
Unsurprisingly, a group of legislators has a serious bone to pick with HUD regional director Sean Moss over his recent comments that selling some public housing developments might help solve New York’s affordable housing crisis. A letter addressed to HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson that was signed by 14 assemblymembers (including Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries) makes the case that selling public housing is in no way a long-term solution for the city’s housing crisis:
At issue is the assertion that mass displacement of residents in one neighborhood, would benefit residents of another. At the very least, this assertion is misguided. The existing NYCHA developments are of much more value, to both the number of individuals which they provide shelter to as well as the diverse communities they help foster, than a short term budget windfall. Likewise, any purchase and/or development of affordable housing, short of new construction of full scale NYCHA developments, would be comparatively wasteful of the suggested sales proceeds and could by no means accommodate the same numbers of residents currently served by existing developments. In short, a sale of NYCHA properties would be a ‘one-shot’ deal, and would offer very few benefits for those in need of public housing extending past the year of the sale.
Full text of the letter on the jump.
HUD Official Speaks the Unspeakable: Selling The Projects [Brownstoner]
4:51 is correct but NYCHA’s 2006 “Plan to preserve public housing” aims to correct these problems.
Not sure, though, that such petty corruption comes close to tax loopholes for private equity managers and the like. Everyone skims the system with the tools they have at hand.
Some sobering news, many people in “public housing” have other houses in other parts of the world. I’m not kidding. I’ve spoken to more than a few people who receive public housing subsidies here in the People’s Republic of NYC, while maintaining nice carribean homesteads in places like Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. I also suspect, but haven’t confirmed that many of the Hasidic community housing like that entire stretch along Kent Avenue, are classified as subsidized in some way. Therefore making the occupants of these restricted abodes eligible for government subsidies. Meanwhile I’ve also heard of Eastern Europeans who are married claiming that they are not married in order to receive two public housing apartments so as to rent one out to fellow travellers. Just a few things to think about as you continue to work hard on the books to pay your taxes, while every other contractor, pizza parlor owner and 99cent shop owner gets to take the money and run while insisting on getting paid in cash.
Actually, Monstrose, I think that you provide a better example than Mr. Bush.
If college educations are so irrelevant to being a cop, then why does having a bachelors or masters degree accelerate promotions?
My comment about college educations was NOT meant to imply that people who do not have one are stupid or lesser than (anyone with a degree knows that’s not true :), only that in this day and age many fields offering a similar pay scale require a minimum of a four-year degree. That is the reality and that was the basis for my comment. I’m sorry that you misunderstood it, but hopefully I’ve clarified myself.
I also agree with your point that experience is the best teacher. Interesting, we seem to agree on many things, but I just can’t be forgiven for my stance on that salary issue, can I?
For what it’s worth, I have two cousins who are police officers, but I doubt that will matter to you at this point. I think that this has more to do with a line of logic prevalent amongst law enforcement: we put our lives on the line, therefore we are above criticism. This line is pulled out time and again and, overall, it’s pretty effective as silencing critics, whether the subject is corruption, unjustified shootings, or, in this case, salaries and benefits.
So, we’ll agree to disagree. You’ll see me as an ignorant, cop-hating elitist and I’ll still think that 59K after five years on the job, overtime, full pension, and lifetime medical benefits after 20 years of service ain’t a bad deal in a nation where many jobs of similar pay and inferior benefits require a graduate degree.
And, despite this belief, I still respect police officers.
The Pontificator, here. You misquote me, 3:58, I never said, “If you’re in trouble, who do you call?” Had I said that, the answer would have to be Ghostbusters. A logical answer to an absurd question.
Let me just point out while you are obsessing over the measily $2,700 between my number of $30K and the actual $32.7K in a cop’s starting salary, my contention is that neither amount is worthy for the job required. While we are at it, $59K, which you seem to think is so decent, is scarcely enough to pay for a home anywhere other than out of the city, or in the far reaches of an outer borough. Plus, you have to get through the first 5 years of rookiedom, when one is most likely to get killed, or to make a serious mistake. During which time, you are struggling by on far less than the glorious $59K.
You say you respect cops, but you certainly don’t respect them in your posts. To allude that a college education is the only way to success is to not only diss any cop that didn’t go to college, but also the thousands of other people who perform vital tasks in our society. Since some people spent 4 years in a never ending kegger before staggering out of the gates of higher education, I scarcely see where the superiority comes from. College does not equal smarts. Look at George Bush.
Heh. Godwin’s Law remains true.
“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”
-sg
Benson- I did not call you a Nazi- I equated the kind of society you seem to advocate with the one established by Nazi Germany. those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. I so love being called a nut by guys like you- last resort of a bad argument. See ya!
“:”but for a job that does not require a college education, they do pretty well after only five years on the job.” Do you not see this? What respect? I’ll take those deep breaths when you can prove you have the mental capacity to understand what you said.
You obviously think a cop’s job is so easy any uneducated jerk can do it? (Unlike your big-ass so-called educated self). The training cops get today make your college education look like kindergarden. You must be right out of college to so stupid as to think college is the only way to get an education. There are people who have learned more by living and doing that you will ever comprehend- and I don’t care if you have 6 doctorates. You will just always be that ignorant.
Benson,
OK, I’ll bite.
From 1961 to 1970 the welfare rolls in NYC expanded by a factor 4 — but so did the rolls nationally. NYC was not exceptional.
Moreover, as slice of the budget, welfare payments went down 6.2% between 1969 to 1975. Hardly, then, the cause for the budget crisis.
As for Guiliani and crime, who’s being “clever”? As you know, the crime rate starts droping well before Guilliani takes office and dropped by similiar percentages in other cities that pursued different policies. Why don’t you cite the pre-Guilliani statistics?
No doubt we can attribute some of the crime drop to police strategies — but no more than about 15% and some of those strategies are pre-Guilliani. To be generous to the pro-Guilliani side, we can probably settle on him being responsible, then, for about 1/10 of the crime drop.