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December 15, 2006
Could lost AY revenues have tripled affordable housing?
Atlantic Yards Report
Oy! Norman Oder is playing with numbers again, this time to try to answer a question posed by attorney George Locker: how much affordable housing could the incredible disappearing tax revenues pay for?
The lost city revenue is pegged at $193.2 million, in net present value.
How much does affordable housing cost? Well, the city is spending $83,200 per unit of affordable housing in its Queens West project.
Divide $193.2 million by $83,200 and you get 2322 units.
...
Of course things are more complicated; the amount spent on housing depends on the costs and constraints of the site, and the range of incomes of the population the housing would include.And there's no assurance that new revenues would go into housing. (Heck, there's no assurance about the accuracy of the projected new revenues, because the ESDC's calculations ignore all sorts of subsidies and public costs.)
But those calculations are at least as plausible as the $5.6 billion lie--and certainly food for thought.
NoLandGrab: Food for thought? Let's chew on this for a moment.
Bruce Ratner contends that the historical density and enormous size of the project is necessary to offset the cost of building the so-called affordable housing.
Yet, a mere 8% shavedown of the project, between the version promoted in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the Final EIS, could subsidize another 2000+ units?
Heck, why not keep the commercial space to restore the tax revenue and shavedown the luxury condos (which don't generate as much in taxes)? Theoretically, we could build more affordable housing, right?
That works for taxpayers. How about for Bruce Ratner?
Damn, we don't know the answer because the financial projections for the project have NEVER BEEN RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC, despite the liberal use of taxpayer money and eminent domain.
What's for dessert?
Posted by lumi at December 15, 2006 7:47 AM