Wow. Did you see the latest DC Palace Intrigue? It don't get much intrigue-ier. Senior Officials inside the White House calling out the President as immoral? Or amoral? Both? Like as in...you know what that is, right? Sociopath. We already know he's a narcissist, and probably borderline personality. And a pathological liar. Why aren't we out in the streets? If ever there were a time the world needed moral leadership... What's that got to do with a meeting about Franklin avenue rezonings? Nothing. Just blogging. Back to the local beat...
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Here was the Tuesday meeting at BP Adams' Borough Hall, where-at yours truly gave a tearful testimony to the need for affordable housing, as in rent-stabilized apartments less than $1,000, because working people really can't afford to live here any more. But the Q's voice was drowned out by the activists who claim the Garden will become a dust bowl due to the rezoning of a couple of plots (40 Franklin for one) to make way for hundreds of new apartments. Hundreds of which they'll build anyway, but through the City's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, we would give them a few extra stories and we get a boatload of affordable units. AND the market rate units are stabilized too. A few years ago such a bonanza would have sailed through. Not now, thanks to scare-pictures like this one:
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Yep. A planned 17 1/2 story building will, after rezoning these specific spots, miraculously grow to be twice that height, brownish-orange, with no windows. Or, if you are less prone to propaganda, you might consider the following rendering:
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Yep. Shorter than Ebbets. Shorter than Tivoli. Not postcard-worthy, but hardly a catastrophe of epic proportions.
The Q is damn sick and tired of these arguments, fraught with notions of how adding a few stories will lead to MORE gentrification. Jesus, like it ain't on hyper-drive already. Like we don't actually need more apartments in decent neighborhoods. Like the plan isn't already for HUNDREDS of new market rate apartments Not stabilized.
Of course no one but me and a guy from a Haitian civic org came out in support, so I might as well sneak back behind Blogger where most fear-mongering activists would prefer I stay.
Or as one guy said to me - "your opinions aren't wanted here."
That's where we're at folks. Discourse is not wanted around here, whether in Congress or at Borough Hall.
Here was the Tuesday meeting at BP Adams' Borough Hall, where-at yours truly gave a tearful testimony to the need for affordable housing, as in rent-stabilized apartments less than $1,000, because working people really can't afford to live here any more. But the Q's voice was drowned out by the activists who claim the Garden will become a dust bowl due to the rezoning of a couple of plots (40 Franklin for one) to make way for hundreds of new apartments. Hundreds of which they'll build anyway, but through the City's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, we would give them a few extra stories and we get a boatload of affordable units. AND the market rate units are stabilized too. A few years ago such a bonanza would have sailed through. Not now, thanks to scare-pictures like this one:
Yep. Shorter than Ebbets. Shorter than Tivoli. Not postcard-worthy, but hardly a catastrophe of epic proportions.
The Q is damn sick and tired of these arguments, fraught with notions of how adding a few stories will lead to MORE gentrification. Jesus, like it ain't on hyper-drive already. Like we don't actually need more apartments in decent neighborhoods. Like the plan isn't already for HUNDREDS of new market rate apartments Not stabilized.
Of course no one but me and a guy from a Haitian civic org came out in support, so I might as well sneak back behind Blogger where most fear-mongering activists would prefer I stay.
Or as one guy said to me - "your opinions aren't wanted here."
That's where we're at folks. Discourse is not wanted around here, whether in Congress or at Borough Hall.