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September 16, 2007
Call an ambulance - our middle class is bleeding
NY Daily News
Errol Louis
That means we have to end the zero-sum politics that pits the needs of the poor against those of the middle class. Look at any of the big development projects around the city that include affordable housing - Atlantic Yards, Queens West, conversion of the Domino sugar factory on the Brooklyn waterfront - and there's a fight about whether subsidizing middle-class families amounts to a wasteful "giveaway" of resources best reserved for the very poor.That is outmoded thinking. Communities, and the city as a whole, thrive when we have many different income groups living side-by-side - civil servants near retirees, welfare moms next door to teachers and carpenters.
NoLandGrab: So...if the best communities are a mix of everyone, including welfare moms, why support a project where there will be no welfare moms? Atlantic Yards would produce exactly zero homes for people making less than $21,270/year. Currently 24% of residents within a 3/4 mile radius of the proposed project make less than $21,270/year. So call an ambulance, Errol, affordable housing is bleeding.
Posted by amy at September 16, 2007 10:32 AM