Metropolitics

Regulating Basement Conversions in New York City

Ooha Uppalapati — 2023-07-14T05:00:00Z

Ooha Uppalapati examines the regulation of basement apartments in New York City and the implications of proposed laws for both homeowners and tenants.
On August 30, 2022, the Comptroller of New York City, Brad Lander, released a report titled Bringing Basement Apartments into the Light. The report, which lists recommendations for the provision of “basic rights, responsibilities, and protections of basement apartment residents and owners” (NYC Comptroller 2022) marked the one-year anniversary

- From the Field / housing, New York City housing policy, accessory dwelling units, housing policy, basements, New York

The Contestations and Contradictions of the New York City Housing Authority's Plan for Mixed-Income Redevelopment

Valerie E. Stahl — 2020-11-10T06:00:00Z

The New York City Housing Authority, faced with a capital shortfall of nearly $40 billion, is pursuing a series of privatization plans. Its residents are resisting. As Valerie Stahl asks, when public housing is seen as an avenue for profit, is it actually being preserved?
Resident resistance to infill: competing ideas for the future of NYCHA
On a frigid evening in January 2019, the meeting room at the Stanley M. Isaacs Center, the community center for the public housing development of

- From the Field / housing, housing justice, affordable housing, public housing, social housing, New York City housing policy, public-housing redevelopment, privatization, New York, United States

Managing New York City's Rental Housing Catastrophe: The Once and Future Potential of Tax-Foreclosed Properties

John Krinsky — 2015-10-20T05:00:00Z

New York City faces a rental housing crisis, with homelessness at record levels, more than a million households spending over 30% of their incomes on rent, and the number of apartments renting for $1,000 or less plunging fast. The city has an opportunity to manage this catastrophe, argues John Krinsky, by reviving a policy it pioneered in the “dark days” after the 1974 fiscal crisis: that of taking control of tax-delinquent property neglected by private owners and transferring it to nonprofit

- Essays / housing policy, New York, housing crisis, New York City housing policy, de Blasio administration, tax-lien sales

New York's de Blasio bargains with FIRE

Tom Waters — 2015-06-16T05:00:00Z

Frantic deal-making over an obscure but costly New York City real-estate tax incentive (421‑a) provides a window into the politics of Mayor Bill de Blasio's attempt to implement a progressive urban policy agenda. The mayor hopes to deliver on campaign promises to combat economic inequality while sustaining growth. But his valuable political relationships with real-estate developers pose a challenge to his bid to bring development and redistribution into the same policy universe. Tom Waters shows

- Debates / housing policy, United States, real estate, New York, affordable housing, 421-a, real-estate industry, New York City housing policy, FIRE, growth coalition, de Blasio administration, Bloomberg