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It's almost like there is a housing shortage or something...

And infrastructure, of all kinds.

He negotiated with them, they met in the middle, and he is now supporting a project that will add more affordable housing than this neighborhood has built in a decade. Sane, competent leadership.

More housing, more residents, more tax revenue to fund infrastructure.

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Momentum is shifting in support of the project but Won still opposes.

she opposes in such bad faith that she moved the goalposts she had previously set (50% affordability) UP (to 55%)

She’s telegraphing that there’s no point in negotiating with her.

Not surprising. Real estate developers continously line these guys pockets. They will eventually all crack for the right price.

These "negotiations" delayed the project for how long?

This is good news nonetheless.

Julie Won is a fake-progressive.

She's only pretending to care. Her actions indicate the opposite. She's more interested in perpetuating or worsening the housing problems instead of solving them.

Idk why this is downvoted. Politicians don't just "change their position". They leverage their position until they get something they want.

Because it doesn't fit their agenda and they don't live in the area. The residents here are all opposed. It's an overly ambitious money grab.

That’s a common NIMBY tactic. Just move the goalposts over and over and waste everyone’s time.

We would both like this to be true but infrastructure has not kept up with development and additional people that followed in last 30 year.

lol at tax revenue going to infrastructure. It will go to someone’s pockets long before helping us

What infrastructure specifically? The subway is having low ridership problems so can’t be that.

Never get why so many on this sub go to bad for shady real estate developers

aka negotiate

what polling did you do to conclude that the residents are all opposed?

we go to bat for housing because there's a housing crisis

Surely their has to be a way to build housing without using shady real estate

Subways. Thinking everyone on this sub has had to watch full subways cars pass them and their station when at capacity during rush hour. More cars, more tracks, and need for more people than 30 years ago. Last two years are an outlier and if/when we get back to pre COVID ridership levels we will quickly exceed current capacity.

no one has yet presented that option. the city can't/won't do it. the only people building housing in this city are real estate developers. change that fact first, THEN there can be credible advocacy against them.

This city’s focus on subways/trains as the only meaningful mode of public transportation is just myopic.

Go to cities like London where buses move tons of people and even neighborhoods without Underground stations have good transit service.

But they accomplish that by disincentivizing car usage. You always pay for street parking and they have congestion charging so buses move around efficiently and aren’t perpetually stuck in traffic like here.

We are basically choosing to make a cheap, efficient mode of transit unreliable by catering to car owners so much.

Plus our bus network has barely changed since WWII and mostly focuses on moving people around within one borough. That should also change.

My point is we don’t have to wait decades for subway expansion. But political choices favoring car owners prevent buses from being a good alternative.

Politicians have not made meaningful investment to expand train and subway infrastructure in past resulting in today's over crowding. To think future development will force politicians hands and get investment in any type of mass transit infrastructure is shortsighted. We need a long term regional plan with investments today that will move the needle tomorrow. Instead we have politicians who are only focused on the next election cycle who are loathe to spend public funds on long term projects when spending can be allocated to projectS they can champion and claim as wins this election cycle.

It’s literally illegal under federal law to build any new public housing.

I’d say it’s just as shortsighted to assume that WFH will completely disappear and we will suddenly return to pre-COVID ridership levels.

Why?

Because it was so deeply unpopular last time it was tried that a bipartisan effort produced the Faircloth Amendment banning any increase in public housing.

Reversion to mean is not shortsighted. All things will correct themselves in due time. WFH will not go away but I can say with certainty that more people will start commuting to Manhattan in the future. Next year or next decade. Either way it will happen.