NYC Approves Apartment Building With Separate Entrance for Poor People

[onehandle]

It would be difficult to come with a more on-the-nose metaphor for New York City's income inequality problem than the new high-rise apartment building coming to 40 Riverside Boulevard, which will feature separate doors for regular, wealthy humans and whatever you call the scum that rents affordable housing.

Extell Development Company, the firm behind the new building, announced its intentions to segregate the rich and poor to much outrage last year. Fifty-five of the luxury complex's 219 units would be marked for low-income renters—netting some valuable tax breaks for Extell—with the caveat that the less fortunate tenants would stick to their own entrance.

The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development approved Extell's Inclusionary Housing Program application for the 33-story tower this week, the New York Post reports. The status grants Extell the aforementioned tax breaks and the right to construct a larger building than would ordinarily be allowed. According to the Daily Mail, affordable housing tenants will enter through a door situated on a "back alley."

http://gawker.com/nyc-approves-apartment-building-with-separate-entrance-1608352680

The future is now.

________

What Domestic Terrorists Are Teaching Our Children

[lpbk2713]

1. Unfuggenbelievable.

So now you have to carry around your latest Form 1040 to get entry to your own residence.

[brooklynite]

71. What the hell does that mean?

You probably need the 1040 to GET the Apartment...just like you need it to get into Public Housing.

[Ken Burch]

2. Why on Earth would DiBlasio be ok with this? n/t.

[Enrique]

5. to get the low-income units

of all the housing needs people have, the need to go in the same entrance as rich people doesn't rank very high.

It reflects badly on the rich tenants that this would be such a big issue to them, but a lot of things reflect badly on rich people.

[IrishAyes]

21. It reflects badly on poor folks too, when they let themselves be made doormats!

[F4lconF16]

25. I doubt they're "letting" themselves be doormats.

Many don't have a choice. If I were in their situaton, hell yeah I'd enter in another door if it meant I'd get a roof over my head. I would hate it, but what's worse: the hot shame and indignity, or the cold winter outside?

The idea that this reflects badly on poor people is sick. They're not the problem, they're the victim. It's akin to saying it reflected badly on a black person for "letting" themselves be forced to use a segregated water fountain. What a load of crap.

[IrishAyes]

29. Take it how you will. I believe in fighting for my rights,

because nobody on top of the heap is going to hand them out free. I'd rather light a figurative fire under my brothers and sisters than to see them remain sheep, for that's when they'll surely get sheared. At this point we've got numbers on our side. Don't undercut our chances by advocating a conciliatory stance. Get too comfortable and you'll pay for it with a silver collar.

[F4lconF16]

32. I couldn't agree more.

I hope that people will fight this, I want people to fight this. In no way am I "advocating for a conciliatory stance" and I'm wondering how you got that out of what I said. My problem was that the way you said that absolutely implied that we should think less of the poor who are willing to go through the door rather than jeapordize their housing.

[IrishAyes]

36. Try to wrap your head around this:

Saying - truthfully - that something reflects poorly on someone doesn't NECESSARILY mean you 'think less of' them than of another. That might be a temporary error on their part. But when people refuse to recognize the deal they've made with the devil, they become complicit in the results. That I can never excuse because it's ultimately bending over the wrong way, and BTW enabling the plutocrats to continue in THEIR wrong ways. They'll point to their contented slaves and say slavery's fine, look how happy they are!

By delaying the tipping point and making the eventual revolt even worse, those who comply now actually have a great deal of fault in whatever happens later. Hopefully the next revolt will be less bloody and violent, but that would go against historical precedent. Anyone who truly cares about anything but his own comfort and convenience had better help put the brakes on now by fighting for justice before the rest of suffering humanity simply blows up and the whole damn world goes blooey.

Which is harder or worse, getting your back up NOW while there's still a chance of peaceful resolutions, or waiting until the rest of us have to fight for our lives? You don't seem to realize the pitchforks are already coming out. I don't want to see that - but we all will if more people don't stop this hand kissing shit.

[F4lconF16]

37. Again, you're blaming the victim here.

While I'm happy when the poor and downtrodden say something, I'm not going to hold it against them if they don't. This isn't like bigotry, where I do blame the people who don't speak up. So many of these people are doing all they can just to keep their families under a roof, to get food in their mouths, to survive. I don't get angry at them for not having the energy or the motivation to say something, particularly when it's been shown many times in the past that those who speak up get screwed. Many don't have the privilege of doing or saying something, though I'm glad you do.

I don't want to see that - but we all will if more people don't stop this hand kissing shit

Really? You think that people renting a low-cost apartment because that's what they can afford is "hand kissing shit"? This is why I think that you look down on people. It's evident in the way you say things. It's too bad you can't see it.

Don't blame the slaves for not revolting, blame the people who are enslaving them.

[IrishAyes]

48. Actually there's enough blame to go around.

I don't blame people for being poor. DON'T INSINUATE THAT I DO! In most cases they're doing everything humanly possible to earn their way under an economic system stacked against them. What I do blame anyone for is not sticking up for what's right. You're being selectively blind when you indicate that bigotry may be worse than enslaving another. If you must speak out against the one, why does the other skate free? If you think 'the poor' are incapable of fighting for justice for themselves and others - as they damn well better if they want to see any - then you are by extension holding them beneath yourself! There's the ultimate condescending insult!

Neither did I imply in any way that poor people shouldn't move into these places. It's not necessary to trade human dignity for a roof over one's head. Move in and THEN slap the building owners with a discrimination lawsuit so fast it'll make their fat heads spin. Never mind if they make you sign a hold-harmless clause in the lease. Any document with one iota of illegality in it is unenforceable in its entirety. The ACLU and/or others would bring enough pressure to bear so that the legal protestor can't be evicted before the laws change in his favor. If the building owners send the NYPD to drag him out before that, he can sue the damn city too.

Better to fight it out in the courts before it becomes unavoidable to fight it out in the streets. Bread lines turn into bread riots all too easily, and then you'll see what real trouble is.

I'm going to say something else about fully functioning adults in closing that you probably won't like either. Wish I could claim credit for the statement, but somebody else beat me to it eons ago: he who is unwilling to die is unfit to live.

Note I did NOT say 'eager' to die or even 'willing to kill'. What it means, for anyone conceptually challenged or eager to twist words, is that when your life means more to you than anything else on earth, you've already sold out. And that is slavery, no matter how plush the trappings.

[F4lconF16]

65. I think you misread what I said.

I did not mean to imply you were blaming them for being poor, just that you were blaming them for not fighting back.

I agree with most of what you said here. I just have a problem with the way you say some of it. The poor do have a responsibility to fight back against what is wrong; I don't disagree with that. And you're right, I did say that "This isn't like bigotry, where I do blame the people who don't speak up". I'll take that back. Perhaps a better way to say what I meant is that I don't blame them for not speaking up in certain cases. Both bigotry and oppression (economically enslaving someone) should be spoken out against. That said, I don't blame them for not saying something about economic oppression when they don't have the ability to do so.

Many people are in a situation where speaking out can bring themselves and their families harm, either directly or indirectly. I don't blame someone for working or shopping at Walmart, despite the fact that they are then helping a horrible corporation enslave more people, because sometimes that is their only option. I'm not going to go after them for not boycotting Walmart; I'm going to go after the company itself. In no way am I saying that the poor are "incapable of fighting for justice", because someone in that situation with Walmart certainly could boycott, but instead I am saying that there are perhaps reasons they don't. I won't blame a single mother for taking the only job available to her to support her children even if it's a job that supports that evil, and I don't think that "reflects poorly" on her at all.

I'd like to say it again: I believe the poor have a responsibility to fight for their rights. I believe they should vote for candidates that will help them. They should say something at dinner table discussions if someone else excuses the right wing and their corporate taskmasters. But there's a lot of times they can't "do the right thing", like my Walmart example.

Next, you say that they should move in, and then hit the owners with a lawsuit. I disagree that that's always an option: many people don't have the resources or the time to do so. Many people work two jobs to make ends meet. I don't blame them for not sticking up for what's right then, because they can't. And that's the main problem I had when I read your initial post. I don't agree that it reflects badly on the poor when they "let themselves be made doormats" because I don't think they're just letting it happen. I disagree strongly with that statement.

What you've said afterwards, I agree with more. The poor absolutely can and should fight for themselves. They should get this hashed out in our court systems before this economic situation gets even worse. I just disagree that they should be blamed when they can't, even if that means they're not always doing what's "right".

As for your last statement, I think you're right, to a point. We need people that are willing to die for their causes. I agree that life without being willing to die for the things most important to you is in a sense slavery. But what things are most important are where we might disagree again: to me, it sounds like you would say that someone not willing to die for a cause would be enslaved. But what about a parent? What about those with responsibilities towards others? I am in a situation where if needed, I could die for a cause, for the greater good. Others? That might not be the case, because others depend on them. I would disagree that that means they are slaves or have less than true freedom.

I think we're on the same side here. We both want the problem to be fixed. We both think everybody has a moral responsibility to do what is right. I just ask that we don't go after the people who can't help, who can't change things because of the situation they've been stuck in.

[IrishAyes]

67. But you're saying on the one hand everyone should, then making exceptions for those it would

inconvenience. I disagree. Rosa Parks, for instance, stood to lose her very life. MLK certainly took that risk and paid it too. Not that they were exactly poor, but the poor who stood with them suffered the same dangers. And Ms. Parks and Dr. King would never have succeeded w/o the strong support of their largely poor followers. Think about the poverty-stricken men who made that southern march where they simply all wore a sign reading "I AM A MAN". During the Summer of Freedom, more than a few poor people - surely with families - laid everything on the line for freedom.

It's happened before. It can happen again. Nobody can tell me they should be able to sit this one out for one convenient reason or another and dishonor those who risked all.

[F4lconF16]

68. Yes, and Rosa Parks and MLK and others made sacrifices that they felt they were willing to make.

I disagree that everyone should be expected to make those sacrifices. Some sacrifices, yes, but not all. I don't expect every person to be willing to let down their life, or family, or friends; I don't believe I have the right to ask that of them. That is a personal decision, and I while I might ask that of them, I will never blame them for not making those sacrifices. Those who can may make a huge difference, but not everyone has to, or should.

I will not hold someone to blame for not fighting when there are legitimate reasons not to. Using my Walmart example above, I don't define a single mother working at Walmart to provide for her children as a "convenient reason" to sit out the fight. It's statements like that that make me think you don't have respect for them. No one should call providing for your children a "convenient reason" for not fighting, and providing for your children is not dishonoring those who did risk it all (that was the one specific example I made, so I'm assuming you are referring to that).

You clearly have fought and will continue to fight for the benefit of the poor and working class, but I think you are wrong on this. Looks like we'll have to disagree, and I will bow out of this thread now.

Have a good day.

[WinkyDink]

39. GET REAL. AS IF poor women would get anywhere with your "revolt." WHY DON'T YOU START IT?

NO, instead you ask the POOR to start the revolution.

Just like Wat Tyler had to do with the Peasants' Revolt. Google the results.

[IrishAyes]

57. How would YOU know what I have/have not been up to over the years,

perhaps including now? Do you have a magic looking glass of some kind? How arrogant to assume all on your own that I've done nothing just because you might not have. Guilt speak, anyone? I don't owe you my resume. But I will tell you I come from a long line of proud Fenians. We're always up to something.

[IrishAyes]

59. Stop twisting my words - or don't you know the difference between starting something

and participating? Where did I ask more of anyone than I demand from myself?

Right. Exactly nowhere.

[Android3.14]

50. You have to ask yourself

Whether Rosa Parks' refusal to move from her seat reflected positively on her. The answer is obvious, but I bet there were a large number of people who thought at the time that it reflected poorly. People, who are members of a group which others victimize or marginalize with bigotry, have a responsibility to communicate that the behavior is inexcusable. Those who do this are heroes to the rest of us.

[IrishAyes]

58. Thank you.

[WinkyDink]

38. It's called "leverage." They have none.

[F4lconF16]

40. Exactly. nt

[IrishAyes]

61. See #60.

[IrishAyes]

60. Wrong again, buster. What you don't see is not necessarily non-existent.

That idea is sooooo egocentric!

[silverweb]

8. He likely wasn't in office yet.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Bloomberg would have been and it could be he couldn't even have done anything about it. These kinds of contracts and permits are sometimes negotiated for years.

It looks like the company got this restriction in exchange for other considerations. I'm betting someone files suit in the not-too-distant future and the courts will have their say.

[Betty88]

77. I would like to think he is'nt

remember he has been mayor for about a minute. Now think back who was mayor before that, in the months and years something like this takes to plan? Humm who could that be....

[Ken Burch]

96. I know who the mayors were before that...don't patronize me.

So tell me...realistically...how long does DiBlasio have to be in office before he can start making things like this stop?
I'm asking that respectfully...what's the reasonable expectation here?

[mindem]

3. Wow

This country is rapidly becoming screwed up beyond redemption.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Let them eat cake.

Actually, the point IS to full integrate the affordable housing with the market rate units and Extell should rename it the Exclusionary Housing Program.

[edhopper]

6. I will let my signature speak for itself.

[TBF]

7. What do you people expect -

you're lucky to be sleeping inside the building.

[bluesbassman]

11. Yeah and I hear Airbus is designing their beds.

[Lucky Luciano]

15. Not too far from the truth actually.

If you pay $400 for a $5000 per month apartment, you are in fact pretty lucky.

[TBF]

18. I was being sarcastic but I do understand

that many folks would actually say that.

That's why I talk about income inequality so much. I promise you the best way to remedy this is to adequately tax folks (especially the "people" that we refer to as corporations) and redistribute in the form of aid and preferably jobs so folks can work, have their paycheck, and feel like they are part of America too. The way we are going in this country right now is not going to work long term. The gap is too wide. It will be fixed or the upper classes are going to have a revolution on their hands. Folks can only take so much.

Peace.

[TheKentuckian]

63. I think it is already too late for that too or will be by the time the adjustments

could be implemented and optimized (if such ever happened but that is a different story), the need for labor diminishes, in fifty years or less there won't be enough to spread around to less than half of the possible labor force. I'm thinking 30% with some solid redundancy and what there will be to do will be complicated.

The current system isn't capable of distributing resources allowing for fairly broad prosperity and eventually conditions will not allow it to distribute them almost at all no matter how regulated, the flaw is fundamental and as such cannot be danced around.

Now, don't get me wrong. We damn well should do exactly as you prescribed but it is a bridge not a destination.

I suspect the truly major players can see or pay people who can see the end of the road, hence the ca$h out of thin air leverage to corner all the real value and then when the music stops pay half of us to murder the other half to make sure they get to plop down in that last chair.

[TBF]

69. ...

[IrishAyes]

84. Those guys might find themselves sitting atop an ash heap, too.

[hollysmom]

34. But they make up for it by making those apartments postage stamp size, not

the same size of regular renters - that way they can fit in 10 affordable apartments in the space of 1 regular apartment. I have been in one studio. I don't think I could live there. I have too much stuff, I know stuff should not be important, but some of it is. Like shoes, and I don't have a lot of them, maybe 15 pairs including flip flops and beach water shoes. They also do not get access to the health club, et al.

[Lucky Luciano]

42. I lived in a couple of these buildings.

The low income people had good apartments. I think the tax advantage us only 20 years - check me on that. At my current building they jacked the affordable rates to market rates on a lot if tenants because it was around the 20 year mark. They all left...then they tried to raise the market rates by around 5% the next year! I pounded the fucking tables (with a smile on my face) and took a 1% increase. The affordable housing rates are for good apartments because they eventually take them to market rates.

[hollysmom]

47. I had travel trailer

It was bigger than my friends new apartment. It was a small travel trailer - 8 X 20. I think she is 10 X 12 for all rooms - kitchen, closet and main room. Maybe they are making them smaller now. The building is 2 years old at most.

[IDemo]

9. No doubt with separate water mains as well

[jmowreader]

14. Yeah, in a way

One of these will be in every kitchen:

[Adam051188]

10. great idea

they might smell, or leave grease marks on doorknobs and whatnot. can't have poor grease on my fine leather glove. if only we could completely erase the last hundred years of social progress through poor mandatory public education and grotesque displays of ignorance and self indulgence on TV that passes for culture here THEN things would really be great....oh we're already doing that? just dandy!

[leftynyc]

12. Let's see

I see both the NY Post and the Daily Mail as sources. You'll have to forgive me for needing better sources than those two pieces of shit rags before I get my outrage up. Especially since I have no idea what a "back alley" would amount to when it comes to a Manhattan high rise.

[onehandle]

17. I saw two NY officials interviewed about this on CNN.

This paragraph from Think Progress I believe refers to them:

New York City lawmakers have taken notice of all of this, and two council members are working on legislation that would expand the city’s anti-discrimination protections to include rent-regulated tenants. A state assemblywoman has introduced legislation that would require buildings to let low-income renters use all the amenities.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/21/3462120/new-york-city-poor-door

This is happening.

[Princess Turandot]

33. There's a small street that dead ends on the east site of the lot...

called 'Freedom Place South'. My guess is that's what they're referring to. (I had the same reaction as you did re: alleys). I imagine that the lower rent units are slated to be on that side of the future building, which does not have the river view.

40 Riverside Boulevard is the vacant lot in the satellite view:

GMaps: http://goo.gl/maps/FnGiB

[Lucky Luciano]

13. Although there is a different entrance,

...the apartments they will get for only a few hundred dollars a month will be amazing. A far sweeter deal than the projects. A lot of people paying $5,000 to $10,000 per month for an apartment get resentful to see others get the same apartments for $400 per month - hence extell's idea to have a separate entrance to keep the market rate renters from being resentful - out of sight, out of mind, etc.

[kcr]

51. Out of sight, out of mind

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Sorry, but it's indefensible.

[Lucky Luciano]

74. Not defending it - just explaining the mindset.

Personally, I think that if they want the tax breaks, then they should build a separate building for low income renters - you can make 3-4 time as many apartments for low income households that way rather than putting them in luxury apartments.

[HooptieWagon]

16. Translation:

poor = non-white, I assume. I wonder if any of the South-bashers are going to chime in.

[Lucky Luciano]

19. See my post #13 above yours.

More a class thing than race. Market rate renters are resentful of others paying pennies on the dollar for what they are paying. 5-10K is a big nut to pay every month. Race not the issue (I hope) - if a minority family came in and paid market rates, nobody would bat an eye.

Most of the low income people in these buildings are very polite - they know what a sweet deal they have. Also, the screening is probably tougher, so they tend to be good tenants without disturbances.

[IrishAyes]

20. My jaw dropped when I read the headline.

If I lived there, I'd like to see them make me crawl in the back door off an alley.

Can anyone else see lawsuits coming???? I'd make sure to try to have cameras rolling when I barged in the front entrance. If a doorman tried to bar my way, he'd be on the evening news. Maybe they'd throw my ass in jail, but they'd pay big enough for the privilege to rethink their ways.

[BrotherIvan]

22. I'm sure the lobby elevators won't stop at the poor floor

This is about a lot more than a door. This is about tax breaks and screwing over the people you are getting $$ to help.

[Denis 11]

23. I would prefer a separate entrance So I wouldn't have to rub shoulders with the rich.

[WinkyDink]

41. Preach!

[PasadenaTrudy]

89. That's what I was thinking too! n/t

[ck4829]

24. Next up, they will live and work underground their whole lives

Get back down there you Subdwellers!

[IrishAyes]

31. Tell that to F4lconF16.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

52. and be called the Troglytes - the rich will live on floating islands above the Earth

and be called the Cloud Minders.

[randys1]

26. tick tick tick

[onehandle]

46. tock tock tock

[IrishAyes]

62. The French Aristocracy never saw it coming either.

[hobbit709]

27. I'd put up a sign on that entrance.

"ALL ASSHOLES MUST ENTER THE MAIN ENTRANCE"
"This door is for actual people only"

[Jamastiene]

44. I like your thinking, but this place sounds like

the type of place that will be ruled with an iron fist, at least for the poor. They'd probably get kicked out if they dared to do that. Still, I like your thinking.

[Louisiana1976]

28. That's a stupid idea. I'm poor and I live in an apartment building. If my building had a

separate entrance for the poor I wouldn't use it for as long as I could get away with it.

[Rex]

30. Of course they do! NYC is battleground central in the Class War.

And it seems the rich are winning...what a shock!

[daleanime]

35. For some reason....

this really pisses me off.

[Jamastiene]

43. That is sickening.

And people wonder why the rich are so despised by so many.

[oxymoron]

45. Disgusting.

Glad to see this was posted. I just deleted my dupe. No words.

[Generic Other]

49. Dickensian solutions for our times!

Why not just lock them in their units at night? Keep them from getting into mischief. Because of course the poor will open their apartments up like neo-Emma Goldmans: "Send me your poor, your tired, anyone looking for a handout!"

They will allow their relatives and friends to try and hit the rich people up for favors, loans, business propositions. They will bring vice, bedbugs, darker corridors and scarier elevator rides. More stains on the carpet. The smell of poor people food cooking.

And there goes the neighborhood.

[badtoworse]

53. What's the difference between this and buying an airline ticket?

If you want first class treatment, you buy a first class ticket. If you buy a coach ticket, why should you be outraged if first class gets a hot meal and wine, but you only get pretzels (if you're lucky)?

[devils chaplain]

55. Not the same thing at all...

There are no perks being distributed here. They're just trying to humiliate, subjugate, and dissociate themselves from low income people for its own sake.

[brooklynite]

73. To everyone ready to "fight" in this thread...what are you going to do?

This is a private building. You could deny the developers their tax breaks and they'd still make money on a building like this without providing any affordable housing at all. You could press DeBlasio to build more public housing, but I'm guessing the City can't afford to build much, and it doesn't have the taxing authority to raise the money needed, and anyway, public housing has had a checkered history in NYC. So what's your strategy?

[JustAnotherGen]

76. Great points

[devils chaplain]

83. Well...

You replied to my post, so I'll say I don't plan on "fighting" anything as I don't live in NYC. I *do* find the whole thing mean-spirited and am a little repulsed by the attitudes of those who defend behaviors on legalistic grounds and don't foremost have a negative reaction to the morality of the thing.

[badtoworse]

75. Of course there are perks.

The condo owners' entrance probably has a door man, red carpet on a marble floor, security and other amenities. Those things have ongoing costs that the condo owners pay for in their monthly fees. Those things don't come with a $1,000 a month, two bedroom apartment in Manhattan.

[devils chaplain]

82. Sunk costs, most all... the big "perk" is not being confused with the little people...

Do you think that's not the decisive factor?

[badtoworse]

87. The doorman needs to be paid, the red carpet needs to be kept clean,...

..., the marble floor get polished periodically and building security needs to be maintained. Those costs are ongoing.

I have no less respect for "little people" than anyone else. I have no way of knowing what others think - do you?

[Takket]

54. wow, what other amenities await them?

A bucket to flush the toilet?

a ceiling fan and an ice block for air conditioning?

a cardboard box to sleep in?

How do the people who designed this, let alone approved it, sleep at night?

[IrishAyes]

64. By 'thinking' as some of the like-minded posters in this thread, that's how.

Entirely w/o a conscience, so what's to keep them awake?

That is, until the riots start and they can't reach their Lear jets quick enough. Besides, when this thing THEY created explodes, where will they run? I don't want to be here to see it, but it's going to happen. Sometimes it's a blessing to be old.

[brooklynite]

72. UNREC

The hyperbolie runs deep in this thread. These are perfectly good apartments that quite frankly many middle class and upper class people would kill to get. The only difference is that their accessed by an entrance separate from the one with a doorman and concierge.

[Scuba]

56. The more things change, the more they stay the same ...

[rug]

66. Pigs.

A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are likewise small, it satisfies all social requirement for a residence. But let there arise next to the little house a palace, and the little house shrinks to a hut. The little house now makes it clear that its inmate has no social position at all to maintain.

Marx, Wage Labour and Capital (1847)

[brooklynite]

70. There'll always be an England...

...The Daily Mail notwithstanding, there are no "back alleys" in NYC. The affordable rentals entrance is on a planted plaza on the other side of the building.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.774781,-73.989495,3a,75y,316.33h,94.92t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1siQ8FaSw6ufMXQTiVMRAZUQ!2e0

[IrishAyes]

86. There'll always be an England? ALWAYS?

Don't count on it.

Yes, I'm aware that's a very old saying. Doesn't make it true.

[RKP5637]

78. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

NOT! Please apply at "back alley" door you filth.

[Mr Dixon]

79. SMH

This is the writing on the walls people, been saying this for a while now the game plan is two classes of people the poor and the rich, no middle needed. The 1% and the peasant’s and I’m pretty sure we can all figure-out who the peasants are.

[MineralMan]

80. Very likely, the low-rent apartments will be completely separate

from the others, with no communication via hallways or other means between the two parts of the building. That means separate elevators, serving the low-rent apartments and no access from the main elevators. So, a separate entrance, too.

That's what I think the arrangement will be, anyhow. Wrong, to be sure, but that's how they'll do it.

[Frustratedlady]

81. Sweet! They use them to get the tax breaks, then...

treat them like trash? They should have their tax break taken away.

Why would anyone subject themselves to people like that? Stay very far away.

[IrishAyes]

85. Or move in and then give 'em hell every way possible.

[NCTraveler]

88. Anyone who has a problem with this needs to understand....

It was created 100% by the government. The government continues to put policies in place that do nothing to bring income inequality back down to earth. They continue to put policies in place to placate the 1%. This is nothing more than a great depiction of what government has become to the working stiff.

[Takket]

90. exactly...

This is the same mentality as people who say, too bad if you are underemployed at McDonalds, at least you have a job! you have an apartment in the new building as long as you hand in your dignity in exchange. and just be happy you have that!

[geardaddy]

94. +1

[brooklynite]

91. What's amazing about this thread is that NOBODY knows what the apartments are like...

....but that doesn't stop anyone from speaking authoritatively about their size, furnishings, building features, etc.

[Lucky Luciano]

92. I mentioned several times that these are legitimate $5,000 per month apartments...

...for $400. I agree it is not nice to make people go through a different entrance, but the deal is pretty sweet for them.

I also mentioned above that it would make more sense if the developers had to build a separate building elsewhere for low income people. Doesn't make sense to give a luxury apartment to one low income family when you can make three or four ordinary apartments for three or four families for roughly the same price.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

93. Or, you could just get the fuck out of NYC and live like an adult human being somewhere else

I looked up the rent on the "affordable" units, none of them are less than $10,000 a year and that's for a studio. No Thanks!

For anything workable even for a couple its $13,000

Seriously, just leave. I'm sure there is a 24-hour Shawarma place in Phoenix.

[brooklynite]

97. Here's a hint...some people WANT to live in NYC

Rich or poor, white, black, hispanic or asian, many people are drawn to NYC for a life tha Phoenix will never match.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

98. some life,

Living in relative poverty while making double the national median income? Sign me up.

[brooklynite]

99. So, more room for the rest of us...

[geardaddy]

95. Somewhere in Hell

Robert Moses is smiling.