Hunters Point South approved by city council; tons of development linkage

I really think the HPS plan sucks to be blunt.
It seems that the whole review process was a big charade.
The plan is way too dense and does not come close to considering the impact or the 7 train. There should have been more park, less parking, less buildings.
The good news is that the IRS has to go along with this scheme which is questionable.

Oh great, projects. Just what we need, more hip hop teenage thugs running around.

One way or another this will end up being subsidized public housing, even if it is aimed at middle class, so it’s not much different from Queensbridge. I’m generally pretty liberal and like concept of affordable housing, but in practice these apts will just end up in hands of politically connected — and the much larger group of firefighters, teachers, etc. who don’t get an apt will end up paying higher taxes in order to subsize the cost for the few lucky ones who do end up with the fancy waterfront apts.

Nobody is feigning outrage. I think there are issues here that are worthy of debate.

I think with subsidizing rich or poor, there should be more honesty in the discussion. Put it to a vote as to whether people are willing to pay higher taxes in the noble effort to give the middle class waterfront apts (or to pay to redo Mets and Yankees stadium for that matter). Rightly or wrongly, I think most people would vote against it. It’s just that everyone likes the idea of affordable housing (and new stadiums) so long as they think someone else will pay for it.

I personally like the noble effort at affordable housing and would be willing to pay extra in taxes for it. But I also like the principles behind communism (and recognize it does not work in real life).

5/7, you contradict yourself in your two posts. First you said you’re uneasy about paying higher taxes for affordable housing in NYC and in your next you say you’d be willing to do so. But the issue is pretty simple for me: NYC dies the day the last educated middle class professional decides to leave because they simply can’t afford to live here and raise a family. If the city doesn’t blow more than a billion bucks on the Yankees, Steinbrenner digs deeper in his mighty deep pockets and pays for the stadium himself.

10, yes, if we’re serious about addressing the yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots in this city (and I’m just talking about taxpayers) — which I think threatens the whole future of NYC — then I would be willing to pay. But I’d like to see other efforts in the city to cut wasteful spending, raise new revenues (with bridge tolls and congestion pricing and perhaps even a luxury consumption tax), and stop the corporate giveaways. We have to start somewhere.

I pay a six figure tax bill each year. Its always those that spend the least in taxes that are alway in favor of spending more. There is plenty of middle class housing in this city. Is it on the waterfront in brand new buildings – no, but why should it be. I want to live on Park Ave in a penthouse, but I can afford it so I live in an area that I can afford.

Let me just state up front that I am in favor of subsidized housing as a means to balance neighborhoods and provide the appropriate level of housing for the all of the individuals that make up the fabric of this city.

As someone has indirectly pointed out placing that housing on the waterfront may not be the best use of this land. A better solution might be (that is if this were not the zombie apocalypse) using the higher revenue from waterfront properties and developing a building or two say between vernon and 11th. This would still keep the neighborhood diversity and would probably be more bang for the buck.

The current inelegant solution, however, is directly linked to the fact that individuals do not speak unless directly threatened or their interests are at risk. So while developers were given free reign in the ‘hood for several years no one bothered to ask if it might be prudent for neighborhood development if 20% of the new units were classed as affordable. The city/state could have been swapping waterfront property for inland sites and influencing the economic make up of the community. But now that private development will likely slow to a trickle the only developer in town is the city/state and you are left with the government’s position that economic diversity be a part of their development plans and the only place to do that os on their plot on the water.

So please, by all means, make your voices heard in the futile attempt to protect your own asses.

this is why real estate in nyc will remain higher than most anywhere in the us…restricted supply. gotta love it…those waterfront folks paying 700-1000 sq ft, gotta hate it.

Since it’s going to take about 5 years to build even one building there, if the people flip them 2-3 years from then, who cares? It’ll 2020 and no one will care.

#20 sums exactly the phony mentality that I can’t stand about many of the people who have lived here five or ten years and like to believe they are the only ones who care about the neighborhood. I know people who moved here recently and are committed to the area and others who have lived here many years who have sold (or would like to sell) their properties soon for a large profit (and don’t really care what happens to LIC after that). So please give the old vs. new fight a rest.