Monday, January 10, 2011

Express support for affordable housing in our neighborhood

The following was sent by Rob at Save the Lower East Side!



Tomorrow is the deadline for community comment submissions (send to spura@cb3manhattan.org) on SPURA — the largest vacant land area south of 96th Street — a rare opportunity for the creation of affordable housing, and a part of Bloomberg's plan to create or preserve 165,000 affordable units, including 60,000 new units to be created. How many of these 60,000 new units SPURA will contribute depends in part on what our community says.

CB3 is currently working toward a plan of 800 affordable units, and a total residential ratio of 50 percent market-rate to 50% non-market-rate. The non-market-rate housing will comprise
20 percent low-income housing,
20 percent moderate (<$100,000 income) & middle income (<$130,000 income) housing, and 10 percent senior housing. In other words, the CB plan, if built, would result in at least 1,600 residential units, about the size of one EV block of six story tenements. Whether the city will respect the community agreement is an open question. Look at what happened to Atlantic Yards. The area stands in Sheldon Silver's district, and he has not yet commented.

The city, however, seems strongly committed: the city needs the revenue from the sale of the land, the residential and commercial taxes and residential disposable income that development will bring, as well as add to the legacy of the mayor, who has made affordable housing a goal. But before the city can move forward, it needs an agreement from the CB, as a first step. So now is the moment to express support for affordable housing in Manhattan.

The current CB3 plan is here.

Send your comments to spura@cb3manhattan.org

8 comments:

LESmiserable said...

Yep...great...so EDC is flogging off Essex Sreet Market (9 on Map)for luxcond devel

Nice harbinger of how inclusive and affordable this sh**show would be- shut down the one local joint that sells affordable food that isn't rotten.

glamma said...

tricky. i sent in my support for affordabe housing. but "affordable housing" itself is a sham used by both bloomberg and developers to blindside people to their true ambitions - to make the most money possible off luxury housing and all the community-destructions that ensues when the character and integrity of our neighborhood is so harmfully changed and sold out. it seems like 9 times out of 10, the affordable housing and community-benefiting commercial spaces promised never come to fruition and no one is ever fined or forced to create it, no one is accountable, no one is penalized, and we all get duped over and over again. the whole thing just seems to be a total hoax at this point and it really makes me sick.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone who read this blog live in the affordable housing on 11th Street between A and First? I kept my eye on that as it developed over the years, and I checked the developers website a few times a week waiting for promised applications to pop up, and I emailed them and even called and never got a straight answer about when the advertised applications would be available, and the building was completed and is now inhabited. But how did those people get in? None of the applications were made available to the public. I am so curious about this. If anyone has answers, please share.

Cookiepuss said...

Seward Park co-op's were originally created as affordable housing for working people, kind of like Stuyvesant Town except they were for purchase. Well, in 1998, I believe the co-op board decided that the units could be sold on the market.
In other words these people were lucky enough to get the opportunity to purchase apartments based on their income and now they just want to cash in and screw everyone else. These co-ops went up as affordable housing and as far as I'm concerned should be passed down as such.
This is bad enough, and now they want to create more 50% market rate Bloombergian housing there.
WE DON"T NEED ANYMORE FUCKING MARKET RATE HOUSING PERIOD

The people of Seward Park apparently want it this way. Bullshit! They claim that the 50% market rate model is the only way they that the housing can be built. According to who, them and community board members. Who, people like Dominic Pisciotta, CB3 board chair, who just happens to live in one of the buildings.
Who's kidding who. The 50% market rate model will make their property value go up.

I hope that people realize that the future of the Lower East Side is in the hands of the community board and really what the hell do they know. They have all been coerced into believing that the 50% model is the only way things can be done now, as if It's a given. Mars Bar same thing.

That being said, apparently the 50% market rate component is written in stone and what they are fighting about now is the other 50% and how that should be divided.
According to people involved, residents of Seward Park would like the other 50% to go more towards the mid income people claiming that too much low income housing will make the area unsafe. Now how classist is that.
The community board keeps looking at the affordable housing that has been included in these projects but doesn't see how they have destroyed our neighborhood by creating a playground for the rich.
If they can't create all affordable housing then they should just turn the area into a park.

I'm sorry this in inexcusable.

EVERYONE DO SOMETHING NOW

Anonymous said...

Where is Seward Park?

Anonymous said...

it's the area of parking lots right next to the Williamsburg Bridge

Anonymous said...

the area of parking lots is where they want to develop that is Seward Park is the area of highrises surrouding and including the lots

Rocky Raccoon said...

Seward Park is the single largest piece of undeveloped land NYC owns period! Given the opportunity to build 100% affordable housing which could be split between moderate-income, low income and very low-income (folks who live at or below the proverty line)the folks involved say no because of their property values and the perception that working-class and lower income NYers will drive-down their property values - how elitist and classist is that. So instead they decide to throw a few crumbs to the community with this 50% affordable crap. This is the last real opportunity to develop affordable housing on a large scale in the LES and because a bunch of folks who recently purchased co-ops built for low-income people want to protect their investment they screw everyone else. Shame on You - may your propery values go to hell in a handbasket!