New York City has thousands of tiny vacant lots that could, in theory, become housing. The first hurdle? Naturally, another advisory group.
This is The New York Daily Fix. Today: whether City Hall can turn those awkward little lots into actual homes, what the budget watchdog is warning about, and why one dangerous day on city streets has safety advocates asking what has to change.
Monday in New York. Deep breath. Let’s go.
Let’s start with the lots.
From r/nyc:
City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Friday that the city’s legislature would create a new Advisory Group on Housing Affordability, with the goal of reevaluating regulations and cutting red tape to allow housing development on nearly 3,000 vacant lots across the city.
Small lots, big promise. But the phrase we’re listening for is pretty simple: actual code changes.
And over on Reddit, one r/nyc commenter had the obvious reaction:
An advisory group tasked with cutting red tape is some serious irony.
I mean, yes. A group to cut bureaucracy is extremely New York. But if it comes back with real zoning and construction-code fixes for 17-to-25-foot lots, fine. We’ll take the irony, and the apartments.
Another r/nyc commenter was a lot less generous:
Another task force. Another commission. Another advisory group. Another czar.
The Council and Mayor's office will do anything other than take action. But at least this gives some hand picked friends some resume building.
The cynicism is earned. New York is unbelievably good at turning obvious fixes into stakeholder theater. So the test here should be blunt: give us a deadline, give us a bill, and show measurable new housing capacity. Otherwise, yeah, it’s résumé confetti.
And another commenter zeroed in on scale:
While 35k units is not enough to ease the housing crisis, but it is better than nothing. I would be interested to read more details on her proposal.
That feels like the right read. Thirty-five thousand units would not solve the housing crisis. But waving it away because it’s not a silver bullet is exactly how the city stays stuck. The key question is whether the rules make these skinny lots actually financeable and buildable.
Next, from CBS News:
Marcia Kramer covers New York City's economic health and more with Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein.
When the Citizens Budget Commission is in the chair, you can usually expect less spin and more math. Which, in New York City politics, can be the most disruptive thing in the room.
And from Gersh Kuntzman at Streetsblog New York City:
Three pre-teens, two on foot, and one on a kick scooter, were injured in separate incidents in South Williamsburg, New York. The first incident occurred at around 1:30 p.m. when a 61-year-old man driving a Toyota struck a 9-year old boy crossing Division Avenue at Lee Avenue, and the second occurred at 3 p.pm.
Three kids hurt in one neighborhood in one afternoon. That is a street-design indictment. If the same corners keep injuring children, telling people to “be careful” is not a safety policy.
Links to every story we covered today are in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, take a minute and read deeper.
That’s The New York Daily Fix for this Monday. This is a Lantern Podcast.