Page 9 - NY Cooperator October Expo 2019

COOPERATOR.COM THE COOPERATOR — OCTOBER 2019 9 ROSENWACH TANK THE FIRST NAME IN QUALITY CEDAR WOOD TANKS WE ARE CERTIFIED and IT MATTERS! 718.729.4900 43-02 Ditmars Boulevard, 2nd Fl., Astoria, NY 11105 www.rosenwachgroup.com Rosenwach is proud to announce that Rosenwach’s tanks are certified to NSF/ANSI 61 by NSF International, a leading global independent public health and safety organization. NSF/ANSI 61 addresses crucial aspects of drinking water system components such as whether contaminants that leach or migrate from the product/material into the drinking water are below acceptable levels in finished waters. To receive certification, Rosenwach Tank submitted product samples to NSF that underwent rigorous testing to recognized standards, and agreed to manufacturing facility audits and periodic retesting to verify continued conformance to the standards. The NSF mark is our customers’ assurance that our prod- uct has been tested by one of the most respected indepen- dent certification organizations. Only products bearing the NSF mark are certified. ing people to have more choices and more access to privately owned housing units.” Voucher systems could be used for both rental and owned housing in the form of as- sistance with down payments. Grand Gestures Another approach to providing sustain- able, affordable housing is to return to the publicly planned and funded approach used before the 1970s. Robert Snyder is a professor of urban history at Rutgers Uni- versity-Newark and will soon become the City Historian for New York City. “For New York and other cities,” he says, “to become more affordable, city governments have to gain strong allies and supporters beyond their borders. That involves not only state legislatures, but also the federal government to help create affordable housing.” Snyder points to the Mitchell-Lama program as a vehicle designed to keep the middle class in New York City. He suggests that an updated version of this is needed today. “Solutions provided within the free market don’t work,” he says. “The free market doesn’t produce affordable housing on its own.” Snyder also suggests that any large-scale public projects to provide affordable hous- ing in both the rental and ownership mar- kets must be combined with infrastructure improvements in transportation. Available land for such projects is found today in the farther reaches of our urban environment – but affordable, reliable, accessible trans- portation systems to bring residents of these projects would have to be built to make them viable. According to Snyder, the time for the ‘Grand Plan’ has passed. The new Hudson Yards development on Manhat- tan’s west side, for example, is a grand plan built by the private sector almost exclusively for the rich. “You have to begin with a plan that builds in affordability as a priority,” he says, “not as a side benefit of development, that’s the challenge.” That said, Snyder says he does believe that New York has another opportunity to ‘do it right’ if the Sunnyside Yards in Queens are redeveloped. David Eisenbach, a professor of history at Columbia University, makes similar points. “A grand scale type project would be more equitable,” he says, “but we abandoned this approach years ago. Even liberal politicians don’t buy into it today.” Eisenbach reflects that “Historically, a change in direction for public policy requires two things to happen simultaneously: a sustained political shift, and a crash in the real estate market.” Those events occurred in the late 1970s and early 80s when we saw a shift from public plan- ning to free market development. The New York real estate market crashed in the late 70s, and unconstrained confidence in free markets under the Reagan administration became a dominant political force in the early 80s – and Eisenbach thinks we may be at that crossroads again. There are signs that the real estate market is in trouble, with tremendous overbuilding of luxury units 1955 across New York State to provide af- that have yet to be absorbed, and the distinct fordable, middle-class housing. The program in other places, particularly in the garment possibility of a political shift to the left – a was particularly successful in New York City, and electrical unions in the 1950s and 60s as phenomenon that would be judged by two where it provided much needed multi family a matter of economic survival. Many of the election cycles. The first – 2018 – is over. The housing in many neighborhoods, enabling projects built then were both sponsored and election of 2020 may well tell. Mitchell-Lama 2.0 Dr. Adam Tanaka is a senior analyst with dents – to live closer to their workplaces and sive, so this approach was ideologically pal- HR&A Advisors, an urban planning advi- sory based in New York City. He is a propo- nent of taking a new look at a more middle- of-the-road approach that could be viewed and New York State investing in housing for proach in New York City was more compa- as a ‘Mitchell-Lama 2.0.’ The Mitchell-Lama middle-income people,” says Tanaka. “One program was a housing program enacted in was the power of organized labor, which sus- working New Yorkers – teachers, firefighters, financed by these unions. Another factor city workers, and other middle-income resi- contribute more directly to the economies of atable. The middle classes in New York City their neighborhoods. “A number of factors led to New York City ing, which is not typical elsewhere. The ap- tained itself longer in New York City than was that New York City was more progres- were also better acclimated to apartment liv- continued on page 10