Policy

March 9, 2017

As the Mayor weighs options for loss of public housing funding, Trump considers $6B in HUD cuts

Just two days after newly appointed Secretary of HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) Ben Carson went along with plans to cut federal funding to NYCHA by at least $35 million, the Trump administration is reportedly considering decreasing HUD's total budget by a staggering $6 billion, or 14 percent, according to a leaked budget draft obtained by the Washington Post. Though it's not clear how the cuts will affect NYC specifically, previous estimates said cuts to NYCHA's federal aid could easily balloon to $150 million this year, and Mayor de Blasio was already weighing his options for how to deal with the blow. The Wall Street Journal reports that he said yesterday he plans to put aside city money to help fill the gap, but if the city is "cut on many, many fronts simultaneously," there won't be enough to cover the loss in federal funding.
What happens next?
March 8, 2017

Watch a 3D-printed home get made in under 24 hours

While many of us living in New York City search for months before finding that perfect apartment, there's now a way to get a brand new home built in under 24 hours. As reported by engadget, the San Francisco-based startup Apis Cor used a mobile 3D-printer to print out the concrete walls, partitions, and building envelope for a 400 square-foot-home in just less than a day, all for the pretty reasonable price of $10,314 (not including the property, of course). And while NYC doesn't have much open space for free-standing homes, the technology could potentially be used for various residential components or tiny home configurations.
Watch the entire process in action and see inside the tiny home
March 7, 2017

Waldorf Astoria’s iconic interiors officially made a New York City landmark

In news that will come as a surprise to no one, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously this morning to designate the interiors of the famed Waldorf Astoria a New York City landmark. According to Curbed, the decision was made within minutes without hesitation from any of the board members. The announcement also comes hot on the heels of the hotel's closure just one week ago, as its new owners, Anbang Insurance Group, undertake what's expected to be a three-year renovation and conversion that will bring forth 840 updated hotel rooms and 321 luxury condos.
more details here
March 7, 2017

NYCHA’s federal funding cut by $35M

Just a day after Ben Carson's confirmation as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) penned a letter not only inviting him to tour the city's public housing stock (the largest in the country) but urging him not to support budget cuts that would ultimately affect its 400,000 residents. Roughly $2 billion of NYCHA's total $3.2 billion operating budget comes from HUD funding, which is immediately needed for the thousands of apartments in dire need of repairs. But their worst fears have come true, as the Wall Street Journal confirms that Trump's first budget cuts geared towards the city reduce NYCHA's support by $35 million, the agency's largest decrease in federal aid in five years, and this figure could very well grow to an unprecedented $150 million.
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March 3, 2017

With Ben Carson’s confirmation as HUD Secretary, NYCHA plans next steps

Retired neurosurgeon and failed Republican presidential nominee Dr. Ben Carson is officially the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which will put him in charge of 8,000 federal employees and an agency with a $47 billion budget, tasked with overseeing most of the nation's affordable and public housing, enforcing fair housing laws, and providing low-income persons with mortgage insurance. The senate voted yesterday 58-41 to confirm his appointment; the relative lack of Democratic pushback was surprising considering Carson not only has no political experience, but no apparent knowledge of housing, development, or urban issues. Likely with this in mind, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has already extended an invitation for Carson to come tour the city's housing developments.
What's next for HUD?
February 28, 2017

Mayor de Blasio to unveil plan to open 90 new homeless shelters amid growing community opposition

The exact details of the mayor's proposal, to be announced Tuesday afternoon, are not yet known, but the focus will undoubtedly be the mayor's ongoing battle to significantly beef up the city's overwhelmed shelter system, according to the New York Times. New York–along with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C,– has experienced an increase in homelessness in recent years, though the number of homeless people has declined nationwide. The city's shelter infrastructure is over capacity to the point that, as 6sqft previously reported, around $400,000 a day is being spent on using hotel rooms as temporary shelters. Homelessness is one of the mayor's thorniest problems; the proposal will reportedly increase the number of shelters throughout the city by nearly one third.
Why the opposition?
February 28, 2017

City’s planned Garment District rezoning will reduce protections for fashion companies

Just two weeks after the city announced that they'd spend $136 million to create the "Made in NYC Campus," a hub in Sunset Park that will provide affordable space for film and fashion companies, it's come to light that the de Blasio administration has been planning a rezoning of Manhattan's Garment District. As Crain's explains, this could potentially roll back rules that require landlords to rent a portion of their buildings to fashion companies, a clear push to drive these businesses toward lower cost space in Sunset Park.
More info ahead
February 28, 2017

Mayor pulls Theater District air rights plan after disputes with City Council over floor price

Image via Wiki Commons The de Blasio administration pulled the plug Monday on proposed legislation that would give the city a 20 percent cut of any air rights sales in midtown Manhattan's Theater District, according to Crain's. The reversal followed disputes with City Council members over a key element–a floor price for the sales. The proposal had been part of a long effort to get theater owners to up the amount they contribute to a fund used for venue maintenance and support for smaller theaters. There is now speculation as to whether the move could cast a shadow on the administration's Midtown East rezoning plan, which is a similar policy initiative.
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February 22, 2017

125-year-old Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine finally declared a city landmark

Image via Wiki Commons On Tuesday the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to designate the 125-year-old Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine, the world's largest cathedral; in addition, 115 neighboring buildings became the Morningside Heights Historic District. The designated district runs from West 109th to 119th streets between Riverside Drive and Amsterdam Avenue and includes the famously unfinished cathedral and surrounding campus. With the designation, calendared by the LPC in September, comes a 3-D online map that provides more information about the buildings in the district, most of which were constructed between 1900 and 1910, including townhouses dating back to the late 1800s as well as pre-war apartment buildings.
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February 21, 2017

New bill would calculate AMI for affordable housing based on zip code, not region

To set qualification guidelines for its affordable housing lotteries, the city turns to the set area median income (AMI), basing annual household income and rents off this figure. However, as The Real Deal explains, "the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development calculates AMI regionally, "using a formula that lumps the five boroughs together with Putnam, Westchester, and Rockland counties." For 2016, this equated to $65,200 for a single person and $90,600 for a family of four, but a new bill proposed by Democratic State Senator Michael Gianaris and Assemblymember Brian Barnwell would require developers of new 421-a projects to calculate AMI based on the specific zip code in which the building is going up.
More info ahead
February 17, 2017

More basement apartments would help ease the city’s housing crisis, says new study

A study released Thursday by the Citizens Housing and Planning Council (CHPC) suggests that Mayor Bill de Blasio's initiatives to ease the city's housing woes should include a program that would convert the 38,000 or so basements in the city's single-family homes without having to make big changes to city or state laws. As Crain's reports, the study is part of the CHPC’s Making Room initiative that explores how alternative housing typologies can better meet the needs of New York’s diverse households. The council introduced the study by stating their belief that "based on the findings we present here, that a basement conversion program in New York City would be an efficient and exciting way to add residential density and expand housing choices in our expensive and highly constrained urban market."
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February 17, 2017

Port Authority approves $32.2B capital plan, will include new bus terminal and airport upgrades

The Port Authority Board of Commissioners yesterday approved a $32.2 billion, 10-year capital plan--the agency's largest ever. The major allocations include: $3.5 billion to begin the planning and construction of a new Port Authority Bus Terminal; $10 billion towards improving trans-Hudson commuting, including a $1.5 billion Goethals Bridge replacement, completion of the $1.6 billion Bayonne Bridge rebuilding, and a $2 billion rehab of the George Washington Bridge; $11.6 billion in major airport upgrades, which factors in $4 billion for the new LaGuardia Terminal B, a plan to extend the PATH train from Newark Penn Station to the Newark Airport, and the beginning of Cuomo's JFK overhaul; and $2.7 billion towards the Gateway rail tunnel project.
More details ahead
February 16, 2017

Homeless spending in NYC doubles over three years, likely to hit $2.3B

Back in November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mayor de Blasio had spent a record $1.6 billion on homeless services since taking office three years prior, a 60 percent increase that came with 20 percent more New Yorkers in city shelters. Now, as shared by the Post, Comptroller Scott Stringer says that homeless spending will reach a whopping $2.3 billion when this fiscal year ends on June 30th, almost twice the $1.2 billion spent three years ago. "We have to pause and ask ourselves, are we seeing results?" he said.
Find out more on this growing crisis
February 15, 2017

Removing garbage cans in subway stations led to more trash and track fires

For those who thought removing subway station garbage cans as a means to decrease litter and rats seemed counterintuitive, you were right. The Post looks at how things have fared since the MTA took out cans in 39 stations in 2012, and since this tactic was nixed by the state Comptroller’s Office in 2015. Despite the latter attempt to course correct, a new state report shows that the situation is still just as bad in many stations, with the amount of litter on the upswing and an increased number of track fires.
What's the solution?
February 14, 2017

Repairs to New York state’s water infrastructure could cost $40B

New York City already has planned a $3.4 billion investment over the next five years to repair the decaying infrastructure of the century-old Catskill Aqueduct. As 6sqft previously explained, the 92-mile network of tunnels, dams and reservoirs brings the city's water supply from the Catskill/Delaware and Croton watersheds. If you think this figure is steep, consider the $40 billion that a report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimates it would cost to repair and upgrade the entire state's aging water infrastructure over the next 20 years. As the Daily News explains, in NYC alone there were 562 water main breaks in 2015, and throughout the state, contamination is leading to concerns over clean drinking water.
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February 13, 2017

De Blasio’s 2017 affordable housing plan includes $1.9B for 10,000 new units and Elder Rent Assistance program

In preparation for his State of the City address this evening at the Apollo, the Mayor announced two major affordable housing initiatives. The first will allocate $1.9 billion for 10,000 new apartments reserved for households earning less than $40,000, 5,000 of which will be set aside for seniors and 500 for veterans. The second implements a new Elder Rent Assistance program to provide 25,000 seniors with monthly rental assistance of up to $1,3000, to be funded by the city's proposed Mansion Tax.
More details ahead
February 12, 2017

375,000 images now free from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Times may have recently questioned whether or not the Metropolitan Museum of Art is "a great institution in decline" (referring to its $40 million deficit and decision to put on hold its $600 million expansion), but the paper is much more positive when reporting on the Met's new Open Access policy. This allows free and unrestricted use of 375,000 high-resolution images of artworks in their collection, ranging from paintings by Van Gogh, El Greco and DeGas to ancient Egyptian relics to classical furniture and clothing.
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February 10, 2017

It may cost NYC taxpayers up to $28M to clean up yesterday’s snow storm

For fiscal year 2017, the city budgeted $88 million for snow removal and has already spent $26 million. But yesterday's dump of the white stuff could bring that number up to $54 million. DNAinfo reports that Comptroller Scott Stringer estimates it could cost NYC taxpayers between $19.9 and $27.9 million to dig out from Winter Storm Niko, which is based on the average of $1.99 million per inch of snow that the city has paid over the past 14 years.
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February 8, 2017

Billionaire’s plan for a West Village mega-mansion gets green light from Landmarks

It's champagne and caviar tonight for billionaire hedge funder Steven A. Cohen, who received the official go-ahead to build a massive, six-story, single-family mansion at 145 Perry Street today. The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted almost unanimously in favor of the plan despite outcry from local residents and, most notably, Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) who had denounced the design in a statement as “starkly modern," "fortress-like and massive," and more like a bank or a luxury retail store you'd find in Miami or Los Angeles, not the "simple but charming" Village.
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February 8, 2017

Pentagon may lease space in Trump Tower at taxpayers’ expense

The line separating Trump's personal business interests and his role as President of the United States continues to blur, as the Washington Post reports today that the Pentagon may lease "a limited amount of space" in Trump Tower. In doing so, the U.S. Defense Department says it will be able to better protect Trump's family, as Melania and Barron have decided to remain in the couple's gilded Trump Tower penthouse, and Donald himself when he is town. The move, however, has one major and obvious sticking point: rent on the space would need to be paid to the Trump Organization—and taxpayer dollars would be used to foot the bill.
more details here
February 7, 2017

Excavating the city: A look at urban archaeology in New York

When most people think about archaeologists, they imagine outdoorsy adventurers—perhaps, modeled on the fictional Indiana Jones—uncovering ancient artifacts in remote locations. They probably don’t imagine archaeologists riding the MTA to excavation sites. In reality, archaeologists frequently do work in New York City and the surrounding region and play an essential yet often under-recognized role in the city’s building industry. While many new developments go ahead without major archaeological studies, most developments only get the green light to move forward after archaeologists have completed at least a preliminary investigation.
how archaeologist work in urban environments like NYC
February 7, 2017

City continues push to raise fee for Theater District air rights transfers

In November, the City Planning Commission voted to raise the cost of air rights transfers in the Theater District, allowing the city to take a 20 percent cut of any sales and establishing a minimum floor price of $346, a roughly 400 percent increase over the current $17.60 flat fee that they feel will be more in line with current property values. Despite vocal opposition from the Real Estate Board of New York, who back Theater District landlords and believe the increase is "is onerous, excessive and unfair," this month the Commission is hoping to have the proposal approved by the City Council, reports Crain's.
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January 31, 2017

De Blasio defends sanctuary city status, saying withheld funds would be millions, not billions

In the state's capital on Monday, Mayor de Blasio spoke in defense of various policies including NYC's "sanctuary city" designation, WNYC reports. The mayor was in Albany to ask state legislators for funding for items like education, public health and affordable housing. In the face of criticism from Staten Island assembly members Nicole Malliotakis and Ron Castorina (both Republicans), who questioned the mayor's pledge not to aid in the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants by the new administration, de Blasio said he had discussed the issue with then-President-elect Trump, and would continue to resist mass deportation for "moral, economic and security reasons." Though Castorina said de Blasio would be risking the loss of billions of dollars in federal aid, the mayor said the money withheld by the federal government would only be $100-150 million and that his legal advisers say the city could fight back in court.
Sanctuary cities are safer
January 30, 2017

De Blasio pushes again for ‘mansion tax’ on home sales over $2M

Mayor De Blasio will renew his call for a "mansion tax" before this state Legislature in Albany today, reports Politico. In support of rent subsidies for 25,000 low-income senior citizens, the mayor has detailed a proposal that will raise the property transfer tax to 2.5 percent for any sale above $2 million. “We are asking for some basic tax fairness from the wealthiest New Yorkers so low-income seniors can afford their rent and continue to call the greatest city in the world their home,” the mayor said in a statement.
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January 30, 2017

With Ben Carson as HUD Secretary, how will NYC housing and development be affected?

Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and failed Republican nominee, has now been cleared to serve as Secretary of Housing for the next four years. For many, his appointment remains perplexing. Carson has no political experience and no obvious knowledge of housing and development issues. At least some concerns about Carson’s fitness for the job […]