Lets first admit that Bloomberg is playing catch up on this. He came in midway through a real estate boom, having inherited a host of unfriendly policies from a generally unfriendly prior regime, and, to his credit, at least recognized the problem. He’s been playing catch up ever since. Even given all that, the record is not outstanding. Rezonings are turning out to be massive give aways, with little in return for local communities or long-term residents. What’s working on the waterfront is not working inland. And all of this plays into the hands of the more outrageous proposals from all sides.
Jones is right that the Mayor has often refused to expend political capital in Albany in support of housing. Jones cites the failure to win rent protections for Mitchell-Lama tenants – the same could be said of the 421a reforms.