Opinion: Words by George NYC apartments were never really "affordable"

The new beautiful people who love to equate social justice with unconstrained real estate development love to say that everybody could get a great place to live whereever they want if only developers were allowed to build anyplace they wanted to, as tall as they like.

If you don't believe me, go to the website of the supposed non-profit, Open New York (opennewyork.city). They proudly state: "For too long, residents in the wealthiest neighborhoods have abused zoning laws to prevent new construction."

If you look at their Wikipedia page, you will find out that the initial impetus for this group, which was brought to NY to promote the new fad of Yimbyism back in 2016, was the closing of Long Island College Hospital.

If you remember, Cobble Hill had a hospital for 150 years until the Cuomo administration, in a brief alliance with mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, plotted its downfall. After a small battle, the LICH real estate was given to a favored real estate developer, Fortis, who immediately came before a stunned Cobble Hill Association meeting with a plan to build many large residential skyscrapers on and around the property in exchange for a few grandiose parks. You can actually read what I wrote about that in 2015 by going online here https://www.star-revue.com/cobblehill-to-change-forever-as-lich-becomesskyscrapers-by-george-fiala/

Anyway, Cobble Hill decided not to give in to the Fortis blackmail and did not allow their neighborhood to be rezoned, so Fortis was forced to build according to the existing zoning regulations,

by George Fiala

wringing every last inch of buildable space by doing what every developer does, finding every possible loophole.

The Open New York Yimby movement has succeeded in turning real estate developer's dreamy wishlists into what is now considered established scientific fact, that the more towers are built, the cheaper apartments will become.

Well, I hate to break the news, but I've been around now for almost 70 years, and for pretty much all that time building here has proceeded at breakneck pace, with the net result of ever increasing rents. The only exceptions have been during times of high crime and heavy disease. In my opinion, the whole stop and frisk movement of our police force was driven by the demand of the real estate industry to sterilize the city in order to create a better condo selling atmosphere.

You can start even before my long ago birth by looking at our own Red Hook Houses, one of the first NYCHA projects. Before 1906 there were no building regulations in NYC. Combined with immigration, this led to the construction of tenement buildings that had no indoor bathrooms and were firetraps. Every year brought increasing deaths due to apartments burning up.

By the 1920's, a big social movement was afoot to create safe apartments for the less well off. The problem was that poor people could only afford about $12 a month rent, and the apartments in the safer buildings rented for $50. Mayor LaGuardia was a good friend of FDR, and he convinced FDR, using the Depression as a way to get the public to approve it, to put into place Louis Heaton Pink's 1925 plan for lower and mid- dle income subsidized housing.

When the Red Hook Houses opened in 1939, thousands were happy to leave their tenement slums and moved in.

Fast forward to my first NYC apartment, in 1978. I had gotten a job making $75 a week at the Villager newspaper, with offices in the West Village. The closest I could afford to live from work was on St. Marks Place near the park, where I split a $175 railroad flat with a college friend. I could have saved some rent by taking a back apartment with the bathroom in the hall, buy my friend Harry said to go for the "lux."

My plan was to move to the West Village the next year, when I'd get a raise. But the rent increases always outpaced my raises, and I refused to go corporate just to live in a fancier place.

So I stayed in the East Village, rent going up just a little each year, because this was a rent stabilized apartment. Which is why it was affordable. The regulation is only for buildings built before 1973, and most of the apartments that remain are held off the market because the building owners are hoping the law will change. Open New York is only interesting in building new towers, so they have no position on this.

My next move was to a somewhat fancier Boerum Hill co-op, which was only possible because my mom gave me $10,000 after my dad died. I had somehow gotten married and had a kid, but I also developed deep debt and eventually my wife told me to leave. I left her the apartment, which she sold for 10 times what I first paid for it about 25 years later.

Because I not only stayed away from the typical corporate life, where you could kind of afford to live nicely in NY, but started my own business, where I got paid last, I continued living in apartments commensurate with what I could afford, in places such as Windsor Terrace, Boerum Hill and Bay Ridge.

In Boerum Hill, I had a duplex in a brownstone, but the staircase hung precariously and the plumbing barely worked. There was plenty of heat because the landlord lived downstairs. But he died of AIDS which sent me first to a rented room across from Prospect Park and then to Windsor Terrace. I didn't really live alone during these years, I cohabited with large numbers of cockroaches. Windsor Terrace winters were spent sleeping with my coat on, because there was often no heat. In my Bay Ridge basement apartment, floodwaters from the upstairs sewage system occasionally visited.

So yes, I have been able to afford living in the City all these years, but if you are not wealthy you had to make sacrifices that today's college-educated youth will not abide. No German marble kitchen counter tops, Building residential skyscrapers in all the boroughs will not bring social justice to the poor or working class people What they will bring are nice places to live for the children of the wealthy who are just starting out in life, investment vehicles for the super-wealthy, and a steady profit stream for developers.

Cartoon Section with Marc and Sophie

SHORT SHORTS:

Garbage cans for all.

You can adopt a garbage bin by going to the Adopt a Litter Basket page on 311’s website and following the directions there. You can also call 311 and speak to a representative directly about any questions.

“Individuals or groups may sponsor City litter baskets to prevent trash overflow in high-traffic areas. The sponsor must monitor the basket and change the liner when the basket is full. The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) provides liner bags and a collection schedule.”

Cory at Wet Whistle Wines brought this to our attention, as he figured out how to replace the garbage cans that would go mysteriously missing from his Van Brunt corner. He said that after calling, Sanitation came the next day with new trashcans!

Our new congressman gets going quickly in Washington

Congressman Dan Goldman was announced as a Vice Chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force for the 118th Congress by Chair of the Task Force Congressman Mike Thompson. “Combating gun violence and holding gun manufacturers accountable was a centerpiece of my campaign and will be a top priority of mine in Congress,” Goldman said. “Gun violence is an inexcusable scourge on our nation and I am looking forward to getting to work with Rep. Mike Thompson and members of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force to save lives and protect our communities.”

The House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force is a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to find common-sense solutions to reduce gun violence in the United States. The Task Force was formed in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and has been instrumental in passing a number of gun violence prevention measures. The Task Force numbered over 180 members of Congress in the 117th Congress.

The Gun Violence Prevention Task Force played a leadership role in securing the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in 30 years with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, higher funding to run the background checks program and research gun violence, and programs to break the cycle of violence.

Thompson said, “Gun violence must be a top priority for the next Congress, and essential to this effort is the involvement of the new leaders in Congress. I am thrilled to have Congressman Dan Goldman join the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force as a Vice Chair. Dan has been a passionate and consistent advocate for gun violence prevention and he will be a great addition to the Task Force.”

Congressman Dan Goldman served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. He took on some of the office’s biggest and most consequential cases: prosecuting gun trafficking and violent gangs, mafia bosses and Russian organized crime, and landmark insider trading and major corporate fraud cases. In 2019, Dan Goldman served as lead counsel for the impeachment investigation of President Donald J. Trump for abusing his office for his personal interest regarding Ukraine. In that role, Goldman led depositions and questioned witnesses in public hearings, and testified before the House Judiciary Committee.

Red Hook jazz Hicks and Union is the spot

A few years ago, Mike Cobb wrote about Nick Green in the Star-Revue. Nick runs the music portion of the Flying Lobster bar.

"As to his vision for the venue, Green explains, “I wanted to take charge here because they’re fewer and fewer places to play in NYC. My goal is to have a space where the many musicians with whom I’m in touch can