Dont_mute_me_bro t1_j59p5d1 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 12:06 PM

I don't know why this isn't done more. The ILGWU sponsored apartments on 8th in Chelsea and Manhattan Plaza in Hell's Kitchen was sponsored by Broadway unions and guilds.

The "Build affordable housing" crowd should be focused on getting SEIU, UFT etc to do something like this. The unions have deep pension funds and members who need to live near their jobs. I don't see why this isn't more common...

King-of-New-York OP t1_j5a93vc wrote on January 21, 2023 at 3:08 PM

IMO an effective astroturf campaign by landlord/real estate interests in NYC and elsewhere.

Montreal will soon open a 42 mile metro system built by a pension fund.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ; lit. 'Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund') https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caisse_de_dépôt_et_placement_du_Québec

REM Montreal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Réseau_express_métropolitain

elizabeth-cooper t1_j5c7y66 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 11:11 PM

Ask the 1950s why, not the 2020s.

But I'll tell you the answer: They had NYCHA. They didn't need to build their own housing. If you look at the pictures in the article, you couldn't tell the difference between Electchester and Pomonok Houses across the street.

And then came the lawsuits of the 1970s that forced NYCHA to accept the kind of people you see there today.

DeliMcPickles t1_j5cgoen wrote on January 22, 2023 at 12:11 AM

Can you explain that last sentence a little more?

Entire-Builder-9836 t1_j5ck0fb wrote on January 22, 2023 at 12:34 AM

NYCHA historically denied non-white people housing until the late 60s/70s. So the “working poor” that they were built for originally were not actually as poor as you see today because of racial disparities in income, education, number of children etc.

On top of this, once the projects went majority black they lost any political goodwill that used to be aimed towards them as uplifting places for working poor, now they became dens of vice and crime for people who get handouts, beginning a self fulfilling prophecy that perpetuates itself even today.

Most of why the projects suck so badly is literally just racism, and trying to have the buildings torn down by the process of neglect, with no replacements in sight for their residents.

elizabeth-cooper t1_j5d22yk wrote on January 22, 2023 at 2:47 AM

It wasn't about race, it was about homelessness. They sued to force NYCHA to accept people who were homeless, literally destitute, rather than the "working poor" who simply needed affordable housing.

They always accepted non-white tenants but there was segregation, but that was already being ended in the 1960s.