40 RIVERSIDE BOULEVARD DISCRIMINATION OR SOCIALISM?

40 RSBPosted on August 18th by Leonard Steinberg

The POST is making front page news again about the subject of a new building planned for the Upper West Side (40 Riverside Boulevard)where those paying market rates will have a separate entrance from those paying sharply lower rental rates for an affordable housing component of the building: Extell is seeking millions in air rights and tax breaks for building 55 low-income units. The POST claims ‘Extell is sequestering the cash-poor tenants who make the lucrative incentives possible’. Really? Is this really the conservative Rupert-Murdoch-owned conservative newspaper speaking?

Five floors of affordable housing will face away from the Hudson River and have a separate entrance, elevator and maintenance company, while 219 market-rate condominiums will overlook the waterfront. Studios will rent for $845/month, a one-bedroom for $908, and two-bedrooms for $1,099. Households with incomes below 60% of the city’s area median income qualify for these units: A family of four would need to make less than $51,540; an individual would need to earn less than $36,120. Those buying in the condominium component should expect to pay north of $ 1,500/sf: surely they should be entitled to a separate entrance for those prices, not to mention the enormous real estate tax bills they will be paying towards the city’s coffers over time?

I feel certain that when I started out, getting a brand new studio in a prize location for $ 845/month would have been a windfall (I paid double 20 years ago!), and quite frankly I would not have cared which entrance I had to use: something is very wrong when everyone bemoans the shortage of affordable housing in New York, yet when a developer actually builds some (regardless of the hugely beneficial incentives) but does so with a separate entrance, someone would even DARE to complain about it.

If stupid, self-serving government officials such as Linda Rosenthal are so against this separate entrance for an entirely separate wing of the building, why doesn’t she build some 100% government-funded affordable housing….with your tax dollars? You have to love this very unique version of socialism….always benefitting a select few of course.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 18th, 2013 at 7:56 am and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.