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Candidates for mayor of New York City have made their cases this year in Zoom forums and delivered impassioned stump speeches, but there may be no pitch as effortlessly engaging as a candidate joyfully dancing toward a camera, telling New Yorkers she’s “on her way to replace Bill de Blasio as NYC’s first afro latina mayor.” That’s what former nonprofit leader Dianne Morales did in one of her TikTok videos last fall, amassing over half a million views.
Morales has combined effective online communication and organizing with the farthest-left platform in the race to amass a progressive, young fan base that has propelled her from a relatively unknown nonprofit leader to a champion of the left. Morales supporters congregate on online platforms such as TikTok, Twitter and even the audio chatroom Clubhouse. On Twitter especially, fans of the candidate can be spotted easily by their profile photos set against purple, pink and orange gradient backgrounds. This sunset-color
America’s Failed Experiment in Public Housing
It leaves families living in squalid conditions, trapped in segregated neighborhoods. Rather than spending billions on socialized shelter, we need to put money in their pockets to give them choices.
May 10, 2021 •
(Shutterstock) President Biden’s nearly $2 trillion infrastructure package calls for doubling down on public housing. Projects are in “disrepair,” the plan rightly observes, with “critical life-safety concerns” and “imminent hazards to residents.” Biden proposes investing $40 billion to clean and green them. This is roughly 14 times the federal government’s current capital spending on public housing agencies, and it’s likely just the beginning.
Last year, as the pandemic crushed the economy and public life, annual new housing construction in New York City dropped by 4,600 units to 20,200, the lowest since 2015, according to the city Department of City Planning. While new affordable housing kept pace with previous years and overall housing production picked up in the latter half of 2020, building permits remain relatively low in the first several months of this year, portending an uncertain future for the city s housing stock.
New York has faced a housing emergency for years before the onset of the pandemic, with low vacancy rates and a large portion of residents rent-burdened. The number of units on the rental market more than tripled last summer and remains more than double what it was pre-pandemic. But the ratio of new jobs to housing has remained high since the Great Recession and there is broad agreement among city planners and developers, among others, that more housing is a critical need in the near- and long-term.
How a $180 Million Parking Lot Could Change N.Y.C.âs Historic Character
Will a skyscraper at the South Street Seaport set a precedent for development in historic districts?
This parking lot has been protected as a historic landmark since 1977. Now a developer has been given permission to build a tower on it.Credit.Karsten Moran for The New York Times
By Amy Sohn
May 6, 2021
For more than 40 years, real estate developers have been intoxicated by an asphalt trapezoid at 250 Water Street. It has East River proximity, high visibility from the Brooklyn Bridge and the Brooklyn Heights promenade and â as far as open space in downtown Manhattan goes â it is big: nearly 50,000 square feet. But this particular lot, whose spots ran about $20 an hour on weekdays, is in the South Street Seaport Historic District, which means that anyone seeking to build even a toolshed there must first secure permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
A collage of New York City mayor candidates.
The race for City Hall
By POLITICO NEW YORK STAFF
05/04/2021 05:01 AM EDT
Updated
New York City’s June 22 Democratic primary is one of the most important mayoral contests in recent memory and is heating up every day. In a city that is roughly 7 to 1 Democrat, the primary could determine the next mayor, after almost eight years of a term-limited Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The crowded field includes more than two dozen hopefuls and based on early polls, fundraising and media attention, eight candidates appear viable in the first ever citywide ranked choice primary.