Rezoning New York: Bill De Blasio’s (un)affordable housing plan

With rent prices in the city sky rocketing, Mayor Bill de Blasio has come up with a plan to combat the surge in costs. The strategy is an elaborate rezoning process that will change the way residential areas are built and inhabited.

This process involves re-negotiating the types of structures that can be built in certain areas– for instance, permitting high-rise buildings in neighborhoods that previously did not allow them. The assumption is that building up will decrease the cost of living by reducing the amount of actual land used by a single residence.

Further, de Blasio’s plan is to make a certain percentage of the new high-rise buildings mandatory “affordable housing” units. As of now the percentage floats around 20 per cent, with the rest of the housing units going for their regular market value. De Blasio claims that this will increase the actual number of affordable housing units available in the affected neighborhoods, while the new construction will draw in more business development, improving the neighborhoods overall. Sounds like a win-win, right?

Not exactly. Sadly, many of the high-rises that de Blasio plans to put up will be luxury buildings. Despite the fact that 20 per cent of each building’s units must be affordable units, the remaining 80 per cent will be renting for quite a pretty penny. What this means is that affected neighborhoods, previously deemed “underdeveloped,” are going to see a massive influx of higher-income individuals looking to reside there. This prompts the opening of new businesses to accommodate the neighborhood’s new residents. All this new development quickly causes surrounding real estate prices to go way, way up. Forget the F-word… the G word is the one we should be concerned with here. Gentrific…. oh, you know.

Not to mention that the word “affordable,” as used by DeBlasio, is almost a misnomer. The affordable units will not be affordable to those who truly need it– families making 30 per cent or less of a neighborhood’s median income. Instead, prices will more closely accommodate the income of individuals making 60 per cent or more of the median income of the neighborhood. This makes the already meager 20 per cent of affordable units look even less than ideal.

The unfortunate aspect of this rezoning project is that it is aimed primarily toward neighborhoods with a large population of low-income individuals. East New York, for instance, is one of the first neighborhoods under consideration by Mayor de Blasio for rezoning and construction. While mainly ignored for the last couple of decades, Mayor de Blasio makes plans to “improve” the neighborhood. However, doing so may lead to unwanted consequences for the current residents. You know, like them not being able to afford to live there anymore. Or whatever.

Long story shot, all this hubbub will drive rent prices up, and ultimately De Blasio will displace the people who call East New York home. Similar situations have been taking place in neighborhoods like Bushwick and Crown Heights over the past decade. And, don’t get me wrong, Bushwick is definitely amazing– I lived there for a few months myself and many of my closest friends call it their home. But it’s really kind of gross to not even acknowledge the things that had to happen in order to allow all these youthful, primarily white middle-class folks to stampede in.

Mayor de Blasio’s plans are in their infant stages, with a ways to go before anything is decided and finalized. But if his plan does come to fruition, it is just another move that will lend to the dire trend of making NYC as a whole entirely unaffordable for lower-class residents. Where does the lower class go when all of New York City has been gentrified? Oh, heaven forbid, not…. Jersey?

(But seriously. Don’t make all the poor folks go to Jersey. Let them keep their homes, and stop milking this city for its every last penny.)