Progressive Politicians Want More Housing in NYC — So Why Are They Making It So Hard to Add Apartments in Midtown?

New Yorkers who don’t eat, live and breathe zoning — which is to say, nearly all of us — might be surprised to discover that there are four enclaves in and around Midtown Manhattan that do not allow new housing. 

Forget the vast investment in subway lines and the walkable proximity to the nation’s largest job concentration; decades ago, city planners decided these neighborhoods had a future in manufacturing.  Residences were viewed as incompatible. 

While the sewing machines and printing presses are long gone, at the sleepy pace at which the city updates its obsolete zoning, no one troubled to rethink the best way to use the land and buildings.  A financially strapped city was leaving millions in potential tax revenues on the table.

Now that’s changed, but not entirely for the better. NYC’s Planning Department has proposed the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan, which purportedly would result in the creation of about 9,700 new housing units in the four enclaves.

Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post

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Eric Kober is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He retired in 2017 as director of housing, economic and infrastructure planning at the New York City Department of City Planning. Follow him on Twitter here. 

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