NEW YORK : De Blasio Unveils Affordable Housing Initiative

[Vlajos]

Is it cheaper for a family of 5 to live in NYC or Michigan?

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Is it cheaper for a family of 5 to live in NYC or Michigan?

Definitely Michigan, by far. The added cost of "more space" is insignificant in Michigan and huge in NYC.

But that isn't "typical", in either case. Average household size in NYC and Michicagn are both around 2.5.

[Perklol]

delete

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Definitely Michigan, by far. The added cost of "more space" is insignificant in Michigan and huge in NYC.

But that isn't "typical", in either case. Average household size in NYC and Michicagn are both around 2.5.

Obviously there are no families of 2.5, so a family with children will have a much easier life in Michigan vs. NYC.

[Wizened Variations]

I have worked in a couple of boom towns over the years. By boom town, I mean towns with a good amount of high paying jobs and little or no affordable housing.

If you make $75,000 per year and rent is $3000 a month, you are not going to be able to save much money.

If you make $30,000 per year and rent is $1000 per month in another city, you are not going to save much money.

Ideally, then, one wants to make $75,000 and pay a thousand per month rent. And, yes, if you have a good resume, look very skillfully for a job, and, have acquaintances where you are looking for work this is doable.

Seems to me a question of how much sweat one wants to put into the job/location/cost matrix, and, doing a lot of legwork and headshaking. At least by so doing, one can get the BEST deal available, which, of course, consists of compromises made upon what one considers to be ideal. IMO, when one looks at all the variables he or she can investigate, and, makes the BEST deal, one can live rather well almost anywhere.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by lio45

Absolutely right.

It's certainly a lot cheaper to buy and live in a typical Michigan house with a typical economy car in the driveway than to buy and live in a typical NYC condo or rowhouse without a car, it is not?

No. You can live in an urban neighborhood without a car in a city where apartments are 1/2 Manhattan's cost.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...sfp=3160509449

Mayor to unveil midtown east rezoning timeline


Andrew J. Hawkins
May 21, 2014

The plan for a massive rezoning of midtown east, which stalled in the waning weeks of the Bloomberg administration, will get a new lease on life next month. That is when Mayor Bill de Blasio will release his timeline for reinvigorating the effort, according to Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for economic development and housing. In fact, speaking at a breakfast forum hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission on Wednesday, she revealed that the administration would release its timeline in about two weeks.

.....On another matter she noted that the plan would not include much in the way of housing. "That is not a place where we're going to be concentrating our housing efforts."

With regard to housing, however, Ms. Glen revealed that the City Planning Commission would release by August or September an analysis of which neighborhoods the administration will concentrate its rezoning efforts on to support Mr. de Blasio's plan to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. That process will include a plan to mandate the inclusion of below-market rate units in any development benefiting from a rezoning, also called mandatory inclusionary zoning.

That report will likely call for 12 to 15 neighborhoods to be rezoned, among them in East New York, a neighborhood Ms. Glen said is "very underbuilt."

During the forum, Ms. Glen also said the city would commit $350 million in its five-year capital plan for infrastructure improvements in Hunter's Point South in Long Island City, Stapleton in Staten Island, and Coney Island—three neighborhoods she said have "amazing housing potential."

[chris08876]

I'm liking this mayor so far from what I hear. Sounds like Bloomberg 2.0 which I am a 100% for. It is true with regards to the housing potential in some neighborhoods. Good to see that consideration is going towards such neighborhoods.

[Perklol]

Isn't East New York a little unsafe?

[llamaorama]

Obviously there are no families of 2.5

Sure there are. We just call him stump, and the special ed teacher said he ain't too bright.

But anyways I agree with your point.

I think an analogy for urban living might be air travel. For a single adult it usually easier to fly than drive. You don't spend as much money on gas, motels, pet sitting or the the opportunity cost of not being at work. But if you had to take a whole family, the marginal cost of another passenger in the car is a lot less than another plane ticket.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by Eveningsong

Isn't East New York a little unsafe?

Sounds like De Blasio is hinting at gentrification. I would imagine that zoning certain neighborhoods would allow for larger luxury developments which over time will cause gentrification. You can have affordable housing, but with all the new developments going up in neighborhoods in Brooklyn, it is definitely causing prices to rise in certain neighborhoods even with the ratio of luxury/affordable housing that De Blasio likes.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Crawford

In my experience, no. I spend around the same or slightly less in NYC.

New Yorkers are mostly renting, so they aren't in condos or rowhouses. I find everything (besides housing) to be the same or less than in Michigan.

I'm absolutely okay with comparing apples-to-pears (i.e. Michigan SFH with a nice yard and driveway to a NYC condo or, at best, a little rowhouse) but I'm definitely not okay with comparing renting to owning, since the main reason why I am saying that Michigan will cost you less is that on a limited budget in Michigan, you can easily own, while in NYC, you are sure to be stuck renting.

So, I'm going to say you can't just throw that factor out of the window. In your renting-to-owning comparison, sure, it might "cost" you the same every month out of pocket, but you've really gotta factor that the principal part of your mortage payment is not a cost, but rather forced savings. And then you have to consider the potential appreciation of the house, if only through inflation.

So, yes, you can make ends meet equally well in both Michigan or NYC, but after ~15 years of that you're basically "given" a free-and-clear Michigan SFH.

(And at that point, there's not only all that equity that you own, there's also the fact that your cost of living will then drop by quite a bit -- no more mortgage payments. For Michigan only, of course -- the NYC renter will be paying just as much as ever, and in fact certainly more, considering that regular rent increases are almost guaranteed.)

[NYguy]

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...sfp=3335556299

Weisbrod promises neighborhood-specific zoning


By Ryan Hutchins
May. 22, 2014

Building a taller and denser New York is a requirement for Mayor Bill de Blasio's affordable housing plan to work, and the mayor himself hasn't shied away from that fact.

“It's going to take a willingness to use height and density to the maximum feasible extent,” he said at a closed-door event with the Real Estate Board of New York in February. “I don't have a hang-up about it.”

But it's much more sensitive matter to say where all that new housing stock should be built—the 8,000 affordable units that must be constructed each year to achieve the administration's ambitious goals under its $40-billion plan.

That much seemed clear on Thursday as Carl Weisbrod, the chairman of the Department of City Planning, spoke to City Council members about how the agency is approaching plans to rezone many parts of the city.

Weisbrod said there would be 15 neighborhoods that planning and housing officials will propose for rezonings, though so far only one has been identified (East New York). Determinations will be made within a few months, he said.

Weisbrod, while saying there is a “basic assumption” the new zoning will bring with it a “central theme,” was careful not to suggest small communities would have skyscrapers plopped on top of them. And he was careful not to say that one particular model of mandatory inclusionary zoning—the proposed requirement that new buildings include a certain percentage of affordable units—would be applied everywhere.

“This mandatory inclusionary zoning is based upon land-use considerations and will be a common theme running through every neighborhood,” he said. “But we do anticipate that mandatory inclusionary housing will be tailored to the rezonings ... in particular neighborhoods. So it's not going to be one size fits all, but I do hope that we will be able, in each one of these, to provide a degree of predictability—a degree of reliability, based on sound land-use principles.”

He said every neighborhood would not have “precise exact targets that are set forth in the housing plan.”

“It would be appropriate,” Weisbrod said. “It would be in keeping with existing neighborhood conditions and neighborhood size.”

Aside from East New York, which the chairman said would be a model for the other 14 neighborhoods, the mayor's housing plan calls for building more units along Atlantic Avenue, which the plan says “offers the greatest opportunity for higher-density, mixed-use development with several large opportunity sites.” It also says “the transit corridors of Pitkin Avenue and Fulton Street” are good places for new investment, as well as Hunter’s Point South, Stapleton and Coney Island, provided there are infrastructure upgrades in those locations.

On Thursday, Weisbrod was more vague, saying there are opportunities to change zoning in areas where there “could be a huge amount of housing capacity.” And he also said he sees mandatory inclusionary zoning as a separate issue from providing developers room to exceed height limits—that is, increasing the “floor area ratio,” or F.A.R. The city's voluntarily inclusionary zoning program has used F.A.R. increases to get more affordable units into new projects. It's unlikely that will be much of a factor any more, Weisbrod said, because including affordable units in new projects will no longer be voluntary and the zoning changes will allow for bigger buildings.

“Under the mandatory program, that requirement of increased permanent affordability— that will be imposed,” he said, noting that, depending on the neighborhood, that “probably won't involve increases in F.A.R. It will just be required.”

He also said the city must weigh the creation of affordable housing units against what developers will be willing and able to build. A requirement of too much affordable housing without significant subsidy could mean nothing gets built. So Weisbrod said the program can't be aggressive “to the point where the private sector is not going to invest the capital. So finding that balance is something we are going to have to look at on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis.”

[Perklol]

I know someone has said this before but why Staten Island? It has the worst commute times and is isolated from Manhattan Island. Also wasn't Sandy and Hurricane Irene a warning about building on the coastline?

[scalziand]

Staten Island has plenty of places to build on that aren't on the shore, it is quite hilly after all.

[chris08876]

I'm wondering what the population will look like in the next four years. The amount of construction is unprecedented. This will really help fuel it. There is a 2.8% gain from 2010, to 2013, in which 2013, the city had 8,405,837 residents. It grew by 230,704. Thats 77k new residents per year! I'm thinking this rezoning will increase that 77k to maybe 90k per year or even 100k. Brooklyn, Queens, and especially the Bronx will see the biggest increase. The Bronx has a few large scale, 1000+ unit projects in the works.

Staten Island I would like to see grow faster. Its slow compared to all the other boroughs, but the potential is there. Commute wise, maybe a solution could be more buses or even more ferries at a greater frequency. Although, just a hypothetical, if growth skyrockets in SI, maybe a future subway extension could be proposed. Instead of using the SIRT primarily, and the ferries, the 1-Train could be extended. Although the costs would be enormous.

Also, I hope in the next couple of years, we see another study on Manhattan's daytime population. As of now, it is estimated to be 3 million roughly on any given weekday. Where as special events like parades or New Years, the population swells to 4 million. Its amazing, Manhattan is truly a urban wet dream made in heaven.

[chris08876]

NYC Population is Growing, but Housing Lags Behind


Btw, look at 432 Park Ave

New population estimates show that New York City reached a record high of 8,405,837 residents in 2013, gaining 215,782 people since the 2010.
This accelerated growth illustrates the city’s strength, its improving quality of life, and the perceived opportunity that the city holds for economic and social advancement.

The largest gain is from international migration: 229,000 people moved to New York from abroad since 2010. The city’s planning department noted, “Much of this inflow consists of young migrants to Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, where they live largely in non-family households.”
At the same time, the number of people moving out of New York for other places in the U.S. has slowed: the city lost 204,000 people to domestic migration.

The city also gained 213,000 residents through natural increases, or the number of births over the number of deaths. But as the city’s population surges, the number of new housing units coming on line continues to drag down New York’s future. Population increased by 215,000, but the increase in housing units was a paltry 21,688.

The largest disparity was in Brooklyn, which grew by 82,500 people but gained only 5,300 housing units.


Population Increase Housing Unit Increase
Bronx 31,024 3,994
Brooklyn 82,558 5,358
Manhattan 38,030 5,098
Queens 61,240 5,927
Staten Island 2,930 1,311
NYC 215,782 21,688
Hudson County 24,591 3,884
Nassau County 11,098 -2,026
Westchester County 18,285 -1,424

The city’s planning commissioner, Carl Weisbrod, seems to understand the problem. “These population increases underscore the need to spur creation of housing for all New Yorkers,” Weisbrod said, “Something which we are focusing on as part of the Mayor’s mandate to provide 200,000 affordable apartments over the next ten years.”

It is also interesting to note that some of the counties outside of New York City actually showed a decline in the number of housing units since 2010, including both Nassau and Westchester, according to Census data. This is important to keep in mind, as the housing crunch is an issue that must also be addressed on a regional basis.

Hudson County in New Jersey is picking up some of the slack, gaining 3,800 new housing units since 2010, about as many as the Bronx despite having half of the population.

===============================
http://www.yimbynews.com/2014/05/nyc...gs-behind.html

[chris08876]

De Blasio weighs office for industrial development


Development boom threatening factory and manufacturing space, business leaders say

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is considering establishing an office focused on industrial businesses, which often deal with several agencies regarding building permits and requests. This would be part of the industrial development plan for the city.

The Partnership for New York City hosted a roundtable yesterday on industrial issues. Some business leaders at the event talked about the rise of prices in manufacturing zones thanks to the influx of hotels, beer gardens and illegal residential conversions in the city. They argued that the mayor’s affordable housing proposal directly conflicts with the need to protect factory and manufacturing space.

Funding for industrial business zones in the city was chopped to $600,000 this year, compared to $3.9 million eight years ago, according to City Council member Daniel Garodnick.

====================================
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/06/...l-development/

[chris08876]

This is great news in terms of NYC construction from proposal ----> approval.
---------------------------------------

City speeding up building-approval process

To the delight of developers and others, the de Blasio administration has quietly eased a Bloomberg-era practice that delayed major projects, frustrated those seeking zoning changes to build them, and drove up building costs.

No longer will project applications have to be letter-perfect in the eyes of the Department of City Planning before starting the 7-month public review process known as ULURP, according to Carl Weisbrod, who heads the agency and chairs the City Planning Commission.

"Very often City Planning would not allow a project to be certified until the department liked it," said Mr. Weisbrod, referring to the agency when it was run by Amanda Burden, whom he did not mention by name. "We should follow the [City] Charter," which says applications shall be certified when they are complete.

One real estate professional, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “It sounds like he’s saying, 'If you answer the [agency’s] questions in a reasonably complete way, we’re not going to nitpick.' If that’s the case, that’s a real advance."

Asked when the new policy would begin, Mr. Weisbrod told the Crain’s editorial board last week, "We’ve started."

It is unlikely, however, that developers will push for certification of applications that are technically complete but have problems that Mr. Weisbrod warns could lead to rejection. Veterans of the process said it would be foolish to start ULURP’s clock before City Planning Commission sign-off was virtually assured because the strict schedule provides little time to make changes. The first two stages of the review—opinions by the local community board and borough president—are advisory, but the commission can kill a project before it even gets to a City Council vote.

The planning agency, however, is making other changes to shorten the time needed to get to certification, such as adding staff, establishing clearer standards and expectations, and creating metrics to track how fast the agency moves projects along. City Planning also plans to accept applications online at some point.

"We have reduced the time overall from preliminary application to certification," Mr. Weisbrod said. "We can substantially speed up the process and reduce the cost of development."

===========================================
JUNE 11, 2014
BY ERIK ENGQUIST
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...sfp=3015791883

[ziet911]

Staten Island could benefit from an attractively designed sea wall with walkway and bike lanes on top. this would give people a little more confidence building on the island without too much concern of storm surge.