de Blasio’s More Affordable NYC? | A Call to Audit NYCHA | Where Vacant Houses Are

(Credit: AP)

1. Elected officials, union call for incoming NYC Controller to audit the city Housing Authority. New York City’s congressional delegation on Friday demanded that the incoming City Controller launch a top-to-bottom audit of the troubled New York City Housing Authority. [New York Daily News – 11/12/13]
2. Will de Blasio mean a more affordable NYC? De Blasio has a host of progressive housing policies he has promised to implement. But he is also working against decades of trends driving inequality, both in New York and nationwide. And one of the biggest forces redefining the city has little to do with any one person or policy: People simply want to live here, and, when it comes to holding one’s ground in this shifting, growing city, New York’s poorer residents are at a disadvantage. [Bill Moyers – 11/12/13]
3. Organization to open city’s first transitional shelter for homeless female veterans and their children. They brave gunfire, explosions and mortar in remote corners of the world, but some returning New York veterans don’t even have a place to call home. That’s why Volunteers of America-Greater New York is working to open its second emergency housing center for homeless veterans in the city. The Patriot II center will be the city’s first transitional housing center opened exclusively to serve female veterans and their children. [New York Daily News – 11/12/13]
4. Why it’s so incredibly difficult to fight urban inequality.  The story of American cities today is one increasingly defined by a contradiction, as incredible wealth and advantage thrive alongside increasingly intractable pockets of concentrated disadvantage. Perhaps more so than the fact of inequality itself, the stubborn geography of class is the most troubling reality modern cities face. [The Atlantic Cities – 11/12/13]
5. 108-unit apartment complex opens for homeless residents on skid row.  A sleek apartment complex opened Thursday in the heart of skid row, offering what backers hope will be a beacon for the neighborhood’s homeless residents and a portal to an increasingly revitalized east side of downtown Los Angeles. The $28-million Gateways Apartments, at the corner of 5th and San Pedro streets, has amenities such as an open-air atrium, solar panels and a smoking lounge with its own filtration system. The eye-catching design contrasts sharply with the more institutional facades of the nearby homeless shelters [The Los Angeles Times – 11/12/13]
6. Where the empty houses are. The 2013 third quarter Census Homeownership and Vacancy survey shows that the vacancy rate is still above its pre-bubble level and remains unchanged from one year earlier. This might come as a surprise to house hunters, who have struggled with limited inventory when trying to find a home to buy or rent, but an unusually high share of vacant homes today is being held off the market. The elevated vacancy rate discourages new construction activity and is therefore one of the major hurdles to a full housing recovery. [The Atlantic Cities – 11/12/13]
7. Neighbors, yet worlds apart. It is the discontent born of this juxtaposition, the sudden eruption of a place called Upper Carnegie Hill in the middle of East Harlem, that at least in part resulted in Bill de Blasio’s landslide victory as the 109th mayor of the city. In his acceptance speech, Mr. de Blasio acknowledged the immense challenge of combating the inequities to which he has brought so much attention, and observers have been dismissive of what he will actually be able to accomplish. But standing in front of a food pantry several yards from an apartment building with a rooftop pool makes at least one course of action self-evident, which is to say that the mayor-elect could become a vocal advocate at the national level for increased federal funding for food relief and housing programs. [The New York Times – 11/12/13]
8. Revivals Victorian, Gothic and Civic: Newburgh, N.Y. seeks renewal without gentrification. Ms. Brooks joined dozens of former New Yorkers who in recent years have decamped for Newburgh, hoping to rescue one of New York State’s most notorious cities by way of architectural restoration. [The New York Times – 11/12/13]
9. Sun starts to shine in Jamaica. Jamaica has long been ripe for a revival. The most prominent retailers in the once-bustling southern Queens neighborhood are 99-cent stores, bargain beauty salons and dusty no-name apparel discounters. National chains-from Starbucks to Victoria’s Secret-have long shunned the one-square-mile area despite its status as one of the city’s biggest transportation hubs-featuring the terminus of the AirTrain to JFK and a major transfer station for the Long Island Rail Road, not to mention four subway lines and a half-dozen bus lines. [Crain’s New York – 11/12/13]
10. First tower at Ground Zero site to open. Four World Trade Center won’t be the tallest building at Ground Zero, at 977 feet and 72 floors, but it will be the first to open since September 11th within the Ground Zero construction site. The $2 billion tower, designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki, has a trapezoidal top and a parallelogram-shaped body, with an all-glass facade. Its 2.4 million square feet of office space is already half leased. The city and Port Authority are taking 15 floors each, or about 1,200 square feet. They plan to move in late next year or in early 2015. [WNYC – 11/12/13]