“I love the idea of seeing, from way down Eastern Parkway, the Museum and the new Meier building bracketing GAP… But…”
“… new development (is) happening seemingly everywhere that practically ignores the realities of the ‘other half’ … when you see so many other new ‘luxury’ buildings under development, slowly moving into older, poorer, *blacker* nabes, I think you need to start asking questions about who really owns this city.”
Stuart replies: “One of the absolute most revealing things on this subject was printed in the NY Times over the weekend, and, as it was the last paragraph of an article, I doubt many took note. The article is about the unsustainable growth that is projected for the next 20 years in NYC:”
Robert D. Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, said that with nearby suburbs nearly saturated, the city was no longer at as much of a competitive disadvantage. Still, he said, “New York’s got to find a place to put another 1.2 to 1.5 million New Yorkers,” adding, “One way to keep these forecasts from happening is to make it prohibitively expensive to live and work here.”
“I will unpack that for all the free-marketeers on this board: The municipal government is encouraging development at outrageous prices as a way to stem the tide of growth due to influx of poor people.“
“I know that’s not what he says exactly, and I know it sounds like a conspiracy, but then again, what else can you call the collusion of developers and the municipal government, especially when things happen like the developer’s own lawyer is supposed to be in charge of an environmental review?”
(Stuart is referring to the revelation that the state hired a lawyer to “independently” review Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project when the same lawyer had already worked for Ratner on the project.)