Affordable housing, not luxury units
Why are we demolishing affordable, viable housing and replacing it with luxury condos? Where are all the City of Yes cheerleaders who pushed to build, build, build? Did they really think that developers would happily spare existing housing to build new ones? This is happening all over the city and no one seems to be moving a finger to stop it. Replacements are always a luxury. The number of existing rent-stabilized apartments is decreasing every day.
Ironically, the only places where developers are somewhat limited are designated historic districts. It’s no wonder the development community hates historic designations. They have opposed the designation of each district as historic since the 1970s.
The poster child for this seems to be the Upper East Side, probably because a local group, Friends of the Upper East Side, keeps track of it. For example:
At 1045 Madison Ave., 14 luxury units replaced four townhouses with 13 affordable units and nine ground-floor commercial tenants occupied by small, local businesses.
At 355 E. 86th St., a pristine row of renovated four-story red brick buildings with street-level stores was demolished for a 23-story skyscraper with an unspecified number of apartments, none of them affordable.
At Third Avenue and 75th Street, 43 affordable units and four ground-floor stores are being replaced by 38 apartments in a new luxury building.
Yorkville has dozens like this. Some of these lost units have had their rent stabilized; not necessarily cheap but affordable.
On the Upper West Side, at 15 W. 96th, a 321-foot tower with 21 pricey condos replaced three historic-quality five-story townhouses with 30 rental units. Rumor has it that a whole block of old buildings will soon be destroyed. A skyscraper with expensive condos will follow.
The occupants of these lost apartments are exactly the ones the city is losing to the suburbs or New Jersey. They have no choice.
Developers say these buildings are not financially viable. But they benefit from all kinds of tax advantages and always seem to find buyers.
Yorkville is just the perfect example of this phenomenon. A 2020 study of affordable housing loss by George James and Associates looking only at rent-stabilized units in Manhattan from 2007 to 2020 shows a net loss of 14,438 stabilized units on the Upper East Side and 11,127 stabilized units on the Upper West Side, both highest among the community board’s study areas.
And every neighborhood in Manhattan recorded a loss, with a total net loss of 37,466 units. No study has yet been carried out for the other districts. The recent rezoning of Midtown South opens additional floodgates to this trend. The area is filled with genteel old apartment buildings filled with stabilized and otherwise affordable units on sites now zoned for luxury towers.
A new effort is emerging within the City Council to curb this unnecessary loss of existing affordable housing. A bill supported by Councilmembers Gale Brewer, Sandy Nurse and Chris Marte would require developers to provide as many affordable units as they demolish for a luxury high-rise. Of course, the affordable price under the current formula is not as affordable as what is lost. But it would be a start.
Small local businesses that often occupy street level stores are lost with all this affordable housing. Many of them have been run by families for generations. Residents often depend on it.
All of this adds up to a more expensive city and a continued loss of middle-income taxpayers.
Gratz is an award-winning journalist and author of several books on cities.
