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UWS Luxury Condo's "Poor Door" Is Now City-Approved
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jul 20, 2014
Modified Jul 20, 2014
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jul 20, 2014
Modified Jul 20, 2014
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The push to ban "poor doors"—entrances that spare market-rate tenants from being forced to share an entrance with their less fortunate neighbors—wasn't quick enough to stop the glass-bound luxury condo at 40 Riverside Boulevard. The Post reports that developer Extell has the green light from the HPD to construct a separate door for the building's 55 affordable units.
Those 55 apartments, which are located in a separate "building segment" that faces the street, will rent for 60% of the area median income ($51K for a family of four), while 219 nicer, river-facing condos will likely be obscenely expensive.
Extell's largesse is being rewarded with a "floor area bonus" under the Bloomberg-era voluntary inclusionary zoning program, and they plan to sell that land to other developers at a profit [PDF].
Is this taxpayer-sponsored segregation? Maybe! Say, did you know that global inequality is supposedly decreasing? (Just not here).
Tagged
affordable housing crisis
Extell
inclusionary zoning
Upper West Side
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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