I own in the city. Not looking for a handout. But I also rented here for very long time and have sympathy for renters who have to deal with negligent landlords who will fuck you over by denying basic services or plain force you out in name of chasing the profits. Been there.

Places where not-for-profit housing exists, you are basically paying a COOP fee instead of rent, and that fee covers cost of all operating expenses. Underlying mortgage, common utilities, maintenance, etc. No private profit is levied on top of that. Over the years such housing becomes really inexpensive. This is not some commie plot to nationalize housing. Variations of this have existed for a century in NYC. For the last 2 decades+ we have been balls deep into "private for profit developers" will magically make housing more affordable. Not happening. Not here, or anywhere else that took this neoliberal approach.

> We live in a free market my friend.

I don't know where to even begin with this absolutist statement. NYC housing market is a pasta bowl of regulated and unregulated rules and regulations. Like, anyone living here should at least know the basics.

Are you typing this from Florida?

Oh yeah. I was just putting the not-for-profit concept out there. Even if implemented today at a large scale, it would take decades to see any meaningful results. And it's not happening anyways.

> we just fix our renting rules to be more equitable.

This part is going to continue to be a mess. The 2018 IAI reform was well meaning and intended to prevent landlords from evicting long term tenants in order to deregulate units or just significantly jack up prices through various improvement clauses. Or as I call it: "The great dishwasher revolution of 2010-2018". I didn't know a single person who had a dishwasher in NYC prior to that time period, man.

End result of that reform? Landlords are hoarding apartments they deem unprofitable and are waiting for regulatory winds to change. You could throw in clauses to prevent this, but hand of capitalism is insatiable. They keep finding different ways to circumvent. Combine units to deregulate is the latest and greatest. That empty unit is waiting for an adjacent unit to become vacant so they can go to work.

> Every major city around the world is currently experiencing an affordability crisis

Direct result of almost zero interest loans that have turned real estate into a wealth hedging tool. The recent uptick in interest rates is the best thing that could happen to affordability, but even that will take a decade plus to play out, and most likely it will not be allowed to play out. Interest rates will drop to near zero again just in time for corporations to buy out the next round of foreclosures.

We've been through all of this before.

Not-for profit housing and non-market housing is a thing that is utilized across the world to various degrees of success. This is not to be confused with subsidized social housing (like NYCHA).

We just lack the imagination here to even ask the right questions. Asshole landlords or ownership. Both of these are rooted in for-profit financial transactions. There are a lot of people financially vested in you believing these are the only options.

This is an excellent architectural critique of folly of developer maximized modern design. I have worked on projects that have a "better base". More human scaled. But this often requires giving up square footage above, and no developer in NYC is gonna do that. Every inch counts when it comes to leasable space. You end up with flat rectangles poking into the sky. You can't even add interesting awnings or similar elements because you are already up to the property line. Zoning laws are not written by people who are design inclined. But if you had no zoning, results would be even worse.

This is a topic Jane Jacobs covered extensively. A successful neighborhood has to have a mix of old and new buildings. This is going to be a challenge when you are creating neighborhoods from scratch. See Canary Wharf in London or La Defense in Paris. Same energy as Hudson Yards. They all feel eerily detached from rest of the city.