NYC can make more housing available for the poor if we dont shun the rich
New York needs more housing.Nearly everyone recognizes that, from across the political spectrum.In 2024, the City Council approved City of Yes, Gotham’s most significant zoning-code overhaul since 1961.
And last November, voters approved — by comfortable margins — three City Charter amendments that make it faster and easier to build housing.That’s why the council made the right call Thursday to confirm John Mangin to chair the Board of Standards and Appeals.His confirmation had turned into a needless culture war over housing, but reason ultimately prevailed.The BSA is the five-member body that decides zoning variances, certain special permits and other technical land-use matters.Council members were right to scrutinize a nominee whose decisions could affect how their districts look and feel.Many of their constituents fear rapid, sweeping change and buildings that clash with the character of their existing surroundings.But his nomination should have been about qualifications to chair a technical, quasi-judicial body, not to relitigate housing fights the council and voters have already settled.Mangin is a strong fit for the job.A Yale Law-educated attorney and urban planner, he has spent years mastering the city’s byzantine land-use rules, including as director of the Housing Division at the City Planning Department.He played key roles in City of Yes and last year’s charter amendments.Yet detractors turned to Mangin’s academic writing, especially two law-review articles from 2014 and 2018, to suggest that he is hostile to neighborhood concerns.Mangin’s basic argument in these articles is conventional wisdom among urban planners today.
When high-demand neighborhoods refuse to add enough housing, wealthier newcomers bid up older housing stock in less affluent neighborhoods.That’s why market-rate housing must be part of the city’s approach to alleviating its supply crunch.Yes, these buildings will be too expensive for many, if not most, New Yorkers....