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Vital City | Build More Homes for Families

vitalcitynyc.org · 1,778 words · saved by 1 readers

I grew up in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s. It was wild and fabulous and challenging, and everything you might conjure up (both good and bad). In many ways, my block on the Upper West side was a microcosm of the city: “luxury” co-ops, rent-stabilized “prewar” apartment buildings, a City-owned “Old Law” tenement, one-family brownstones, a moderate-income Mitchell-Lama building and an NYCHA public housing development. Far from utopian, the block did nonetheless embody the extraordinary racial and economic diversity that makes cities great. With Central Park on one end, a public elementary school in the middle and a community facility that housed a Head Start and a seniors’ program on the end of the block, it was part of a vibrant and healthy urban neighborhood. People are often surprised to learn that there are lots of other people like me — born and raised in New York City, who then chose to raise their own families in New York City and are committed to repeating this for future

We don’t just need more apartments — we need larger ones. I grew up in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s. It was wild and fabulous and challenging, and everything you might conjure up (both good and bad). In many ways, my block on the Upper West side was a microcosm of the city: “luxury” co-ops, rent-stabilized “prewar” apartment buildings, a City-owned “Old Law” tenement, one-family brownstones, a moderate-income Mitchell-Lama building and an NYCHA public housing development. Far from utopian, the block did nonetheless embody the extraordinary racial and economic diversity that makes citie

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