Mark Winston Griffith, Working Families Party candidate for city council for Brooklyn's
36th District (Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy) and former executive
director of the Drum Major Institute, shares his views on “responsible” development.
housing in this city is a joke. the mayor has given all the land he can find to privater delevopers, and this guy named ratner who uses eminent domain to take over whole community. it is a shame, that this is being allowed to happen. watch out, donald trump is coming. the city council has to put a stop to this.
Oct. 19 2009 08:11 AM
Score: 0/0
Michael D. D. White
from Brooklyn
Re the “Community Benefit Agreement.” Not only is the megadevelopment developer-initiated, developer-driven, the “Community Benefits Agreement” is similarly developer-dictated and therefore a sham. (Among other things not enforceable when the project is transferred.)
Just take the housing component as the most important and prime example. There is no real commitment to provide affordable housing. Look at the tell-tale gap in the middle of the agreement specifying low income people who will not be benefitted.
As Noticing New York discussed with Betha Lewis of ACORN the first day of the ESDC hearings, anyone who earns an annual income from $38,407 to $46,086 (HUD family of four standard) is not going to be provided with affordable housing. Coming into the hearing we asked some of the demonstrators demonstrating in favor of the project whether they had incomes in that range. They said their incomes were lower, in which case ACORN did not negotiate to have any affordable units included in the project for them because the lower income units would be provided by the federal tax code in any event. Then skipping over the units ($38,407 to $46,086) that are not being provided, one finds that one is dealing with units that are renting for $3,000 a month, $2,300 a month, $1,500 a month: Units that the market would be providing anyway. In other words, ACORN basically negotiated that Forest City Ratner would provide absolutely nothing in terms of affordable housing.
Michael D. D. White Noticing New York http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/
Sep. 30 2009 11:46 AM
Score: 0/0
hjs
from 11211
i used to think won't it be nice to have a multi-party system in the USA. now as a new yorker i have to think won't it be nice to have a 2 party system!
Sep. 30 2009 11:32 AM
Score: 0/0
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Comments [3]
housing in this city is a joke. the mayor has given all the land he can find to privater delevopers, and this guy named ratner who uses eminent domain to take over whole community. it is a shame, that this is being allowed to happen. watch out, donald trump is coming. the city council has to put a stop to this.
Re the “Community Benefit Agreement.” Not only is the megadevelopment developer-initiated, developer-driven, the “Community Benefits Agreement” is similarly developer-dictated and therefore a sham. (Among other things not enforceable when the project is transferred.)
Just take the housing component as the most important and prime example. There is no real commitment to provide affordable housing. Look at the tell-tale gap in the middle of the agreement specifying low income people who will not be benefitted.
As Noticing New York discussed with Betha Lewis of ACORN the first day of the ESDC hearings, anyone who earns an annual income from $38,407 to $46,086 (HUD family of four standard) is not going to be provided with affordable housing. Coming into the hearing we asked some of the demonstrators demonstrating in favor of the project whether they had incomes in that range. They said their incomes were lower, in which case ACORN did not negotiate to have any affordable units included in the project for them because the lower income units would be provided by the federal tax code in any event. Then skipping over the units ($38,407 to $46,086) that are not being provided, one finds that one is dealing with units that are renting for $3,000 a month, $2,300 a month, $1,500 a month: Units that the market would be providing anyway. In other words, ACORN basically negotiated that Forest City Ratner would provide absolutely nothing in terms of affordable housing.
See: http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2009/07/rater-little-boy-trying-to-get-too-many.html
Michael D. D. White
Noticing New York
http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/
i used to think won't it be nice to have a multi-party system in the USA.
now as a new yorker i have to think won't it be nice to have a 2 party system!
Leave a Comment
Register for your own account so you can vote on comments, save your favorites, and more. Learn more.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. We reserve the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting. By leaving a comment, you agree to New York Public Radio's Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.