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]
2:21- can you please explain further what you meant about CUNY?
I’m wondering how loud 2:03 will scream when the “little piggy-in-training” doesn’t come fast enough when he needs them. I’m just amazed at the ingratitude of people on this board toward first responders. I suggest those of you who would prefer NYC without a police force might try living in a lovely place like Iraq- courtesy of our present administration.
I simply cannot figure out where you people grew up? On some white supremicist-survivalist camp in the wilds of Idaho? Do you have any clue as to how a city functions?
This has just gotten too absurd for words.
When one of those desperate people formerly from the now disbanded projects robs your college educated ass, I’m sure you’ll be shrieking for the “lil piggy in training” to protect you. Maybe he’ll have something better to do, like look for a roommate on Craigslist.
I cannot believe that some jerk is acting as if a police cadet, lacking a college education, whilst training for a life threatening, badly paying, get no respect from anyone job, is somehow a lower form of life. What an appalling attitude. If someone is free to choose to be an artist, or fact checker, or any kind of underpaid college grad, why is someone else not free to train to protect us? It’s a wonder anyone does, with that kind of thanks.
I think this discussion has sunk about as low as it can, so I’m out.
Benson,
You write “at the same time continued to hand out subsidy after subsidy that raided the treasury”
So, I assume you are against any policy that reduces tax-receipts — which would include subsidies to developers now.
However we assess the City’s post-war leadership, it’s simply not true as you write that “they took no account of the lure of the suburbs.”
Moses explicitly used public funds to create incentives to keep the middle-class (and their $) in NYC. Mitchell-Llama, Title 1 projects, all aimed to stem suburban out-migration.
Finally, as commentators from both the left (Moody’s _From Welfare State to Real Estate_) and Right (Morris_The Cost of Good Intentions_) NYC’s gov’t was not more generous to unions and the poor than were other cities at the time, it was contracts for supplies and equipment (and to a lesser degree, CUNY) that drove the city’s finances into the red.
Divorce rate for cops is so high b/c so many are f’ing on the side.
2:03 – I don’t want to debate your post too much but I would like to know how your “economic disparity and envy=crime theory” accounts for the significant drop of crime in NYC in the past 15 years at a time when economic disparity is increasing and also how the crimes of rape, dwi, domestic abuse and pedophilia fit into your theory.
Thanks
1:51- well, I am of the opinion that those who are willing to put themselves on the line for others to keep them safe deserve a little extra consideration. Debate you with facts? Calling police officers “overpaid” is your opinion, and an ignorant one at that. I fail to see how you can claim respect for them in one sentence and then state:”but for a job that does not require a college education, they do pretty well after only five years on the job.” Yeah- your respect really show.
FYI- since it is very obvious you do not know a single cop- many times their college educations are law enforcement related, and most of them spend a great deal of time doing community volunteer work and working with kids are at risk populations. I do volunteer work- do you?
20 years? let me enlighten you as to a few facts about being a police officer (and no I am not one): average age of death is 66; high stress levels put officers at a higher rate of heart disease than the average population; 68% increased probability of cancer with increased exposure time to police radar ; Elevated mortality risk of colon cancer and other digestive cancers ; One of the worst effects of stress on police officers is of course suicide. Twice as many police officers die by their own hand as do in the line of duty.
A study of 2376 Buffalo NY police officers found that compared to the white male population police officers had higher mortality rates for cancer, suicide, and heart disease. The suggested reason: Higher stress levels.”; “The national divorce rate is 50%. All research shows police suffer a substantially higher divorce rate with estimates ranging from 60 to 75%. “; and if you want to know the biochemical dynamics of stress and physical damage to the body you should do a little investigating. What they go through in 20 years most people go through in 40.
FYI – I wasn’t paid to go to school either but I am more than happy to have my tax dollars help police officers, soldiers and hardworking poor people get a good education.
Just FYI- Most City civil servant jobs actually require NYC residency within 90 days of commencing the position. Some people would gladly live in fringe areas and commute to their poorly paying City job, but alas…that stupid residency requirement gets in the way.
Ah, I see what you’re saying, Benson, and you make valid points. You can’t legislate responsibility, accountability, and ambition, and yet you can’t deny that despair is a huge part of the experience of being poor, that it’s hard to see a way out of generational poverty. I don’t know what the solution is, but I am certain that forcing homelessness on the residents of the projects will NOT help to cure what ails the projects! It’s quite a tangled mess I think, and of course, not everyone is my mom (for one thing, not everyone had my grandma to help them). And certainly we can’t solve it on a blog. But I do respect the quality of discourse on this thread. I’m glad housing was available to your family when you needed it, and I wish you good luck too. Now this working girl has to get back to work!
stuck_in_the_middle