How can NYC lower its cost of living? (New York, Union: apartments, rent stabilized apartments)

[JKFire108]

I think that NYC's cost of living is too high, that a lot of people who are poor that are living there like the people who live in government housing can only afford to buy food and little else. Even for the common person who may be making $100,000 per year have very little in the way of savings or spending money for fun things after all the expenses are paid. That is why many people from New York flee to other states and I find that sort of sad.

Besides the obvious source of a cost of living expense being taxes, what other ways can New York City lower its cost of living over all? I think this is a very complex issue but both the state government and the city government never actually looked into this seriously.

Is it possible for instance that the NYC subways could be used to bring in freight from the mainland (are there subways that go into New Jersey) and they could use that to inexpensively bring large amounts of cargo into the city? I think that having trucks from the mainland having to cross the bridge have to pay a large toll, like $30 or something and that is too much. Especially with gas becoming expensive and NYC already congested with cars, it becomes expensive to transport food and other supplies into NYC which is located on an island. Either that, or they can convert one of the bridges back into a railroad, but I think that Atlantic yards is gone so there would be no depot for tons of inexpensive and enviornmentally friendlier than trucks shipping to happen.

I also think that New Yorkers should be able to convert many of their rooftops into gardens which grow organic food. I don't know if the new law passed (which ironically was started by a New Yorker herself) would especially disallow it because it would ban the growing of your own food under penalty of law because it would be considered a "safety hazard" and thus you need to spray it with latent toxic chemicals and it wouldn't be "organic" anymore. If New York City still had allowed it to happen, many poor people and even middle class or rich people in NYC would definitely had good and nutricious organic food if they are charged for a low price. It'd be almost like victory gardens but it'd be on top of roofs. Since the market would be flooded with organic food, it would be lower price for all people. People would then spend less money on organic grocery stores and thus save more money, and the building itself would benefit from lower energy costs from having a green roof as well as increased property value (although high property value can be a bad thing because it increases cost of living of everything around it). I would also like it because in areas which are poor high crime areas, it would help give people like ex-felons jobs perhaps and allow them to make some money, but the organization that runs it should be community run and allow the workers who work there to keep any extra food to eat for free or reuse the organic waste as fertilizer for the rooftop farm.

I also had another idea that NYC should do, that I heard from a man named Win Wenger who pioneered imagestreaming Project Renaissance, Winsights, Part 31, "How to Wipe Out Taxes in New York City"
Win Wenger here says that the city can eliminate taxes if they allowed developers to build small shops and such underneath elevated roadways and traintracks. If the city sold off these properties a little at a time for very high cost, that money could be used to fund the city and have less underdeveloped property. Thus areas underneath roads and traintracks go from areas of blight to desirable commercial properties. It would also increase revenue from the stores also paying more taxes to the city and thus maybe taxes could be lowered if more people pay versus those who use a lot and pay little or none.

I also think that New York City in order to improve the cost of living should put a stop to the building of any new Luxury Towers as they tend to increase the cost of living by their presence. Not only do they demolish old historical buildings and thus turn New York into a more sterile gentrified place, but they also have the effect of raising the property value too high. I also think NYC along with banning the construction of any new luxury high rises indefinitely should take over any luxury tower that is empty and owes too much taxes and convert it into workforce housing. I know however that Bloomberg is too much in bed with developers so to the detriment of New Yorkers the city will probably get even more expensive.

Do you know of any other ways NYC can lower its cost of living?

[R3ALTAWK718]

More affordable housing would be a good start. Taller buildings with smaller units. A shortage of affordable housing is the primary reason why NYC is so expensive.

[JKFire108]

Originally Posted by R3ALTAWK718

More affordable housing would be a good start. Taller buildings with smaller units. A shortage of affordable housing is the primary reason why NYC is so expensive.

I think that is a great idea. We have to be careful though, too much of a good thing can be bad. I think it'd be sad to see many old historic buildings from the 1700s, 1800s, early 1900s be destroyed and converted into a new affordable housing building. Affordable housing is a great goal but we shouldn't destroy NYC and its rich history in the process in favor of new modern towers. What I'd like to see though is if there is lets say an old factory building warehouse, there's been instances in Brooklyn I think where I saw this one picture where they added like 3 or 4 extra floors on top of an existing building without demolishing the existing building, and the whole warehouse was converted into housing. The technology exists in order to do this and you don't even need to change the insides that much, you could have the elevator go directly from inside the "old" building" into the "new building" without any stop or struggle. I hope the same could be done even for low rises, a bunch of them and put a new building on top of it of several more floors for more affordable housing.

Maybe for parking lots, they should build an automated garage which there are a lot of technological solutions out there for (since they can stuff many more cars in a small amount of space than a manual parking garage), put all the cars in there then use the extra land to put affordable housing high rises.

[R3ALTAWK718]

By affordable I also recommend mixed income to keep the building economically diverse.

Originally Posted by JKFire108

I think that is a great idea. We have to be careful though, too much of a good thing can be bad. I think it'd be sad to see many old historic buildings from the 1700s, 1800s, early 1900s be destroyed and converted into a new affordable housing building.

Most older buildings are not worth saving after a certain period of time. Their very design/purpose becomes out of date. Of course we have options. There is still land available, there are also four boroughs surrounding Manhattan (+ Jersey). There are also interesting ways to build: around, over, and even under. Finally there is eminent domain.

Affordable housing is a great goal but we shouldn't destroy NYC and its rich history in the process in favor of new modern towers. What I'd like to see though is if there is lets say an old factory building warehouse, there's been instances in Brooklyn I think where I saw this one picture where they added like 3 or 4 extra floors on top of an existing building without demolishing the existing building, and the whole warehouse was converted into housing. The technology exists in order to do this and you don't even need to change the insides that much, you could have the elevator go directly from inside the "old" building" into the "new building" without any stop or struggle. I hope the same could be done even for low rises, a bunch of them and put a new building on top of it of several more floors for more affordable housing.

It's being done and I support it. Just depends on of the older structure is worth it.

Maybe for parking lots, they should build an automated garage which there are a lot of technological solutions out there for (since they can stuff many more cars in a small amount of space than a manual parking garage), put all the cars in there then use the extra land to put affordable housing high rises.

Most New Yorkers don't drive, even less commute to work by automobile (<25%). There is a pretty good mass transit system. The problem is funding. For that we need to tax the automobile more often, and in different ways. Congestion pricing, tolling all rivers, raising the price at tolls, shorter/more expensive meters are all some options.

[TurtleCreek80]

Wow. You're pretty off-the-mark with your ideas. The easiest way to lower the cost of living is:

- Eliminate all unions. Unions unfairly inflate salary, etc beyond market rate and the end user (subway rider, apartment dweller, department store shopper, etc) ends up paying more to support the higher salaries and entitlements negotiated in union contracts

- Eliminate rent control/ rent stabilized apartments and let all apartments be market rate. Apartments cost $2,000/mo to rent because the landlord has to pay his bills & salaries & taxes and the inflated rates on the non-control/non-stabilized apartments help equalize all of the units where he's only collecting $200/mo because the tenant has been there for 35 years. There are not enough people who can pay today's "market" rate for the huge amount of stable/control apartments, therefore market rate would fall if all of those units were on the open market.

Yes, SOME people would be financially hurt by these two moves. But NYC on the whole would become more affordable for the majority of residents with these moves.

[R3ALTAWK718]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Wow. You're pretty off-the-mark with your ideas. The easiest way to lower the cost of living is:

- Eliminate all unions. Unions unfairly inflate salary, etc beyond market rate and the end user (subway rider, apartment dweller, department store shopper, etc) ends up paying more to support the higher salaries and entitlements negotiated in union contracts

- Eliminate rent control/ rent stabilized apartments and let all apartments be market rate. Apartments cost $2,000/mo to rent because the landlord has to pay his bills & salaries & taxes and the inflated rates on the non-control/non-stabilized apartments help equalize all of the units where he's only collecting $200/mo because the tenant has been there for 35 years. There are not enough people who can pay today's "market" rate for the huge amount of stable/control apartments, therefore market rate would fall if all of those units were on the open market.

Yes, SOME people would be financially hurt by these two moves. But NYC on the whole would become more affordable for the majority of residents with these moves.

There would be more units on the market but eliminating the social programs in NYC would only lead to mass displacement, even more disparity, and therefor more social problems. The city needs the underclass. Rent control can stay, the problem is that developers are creating low density developments in a high density city. Limiting supply to keep demand (and price) high.

[loratliff]

Originally Posted by JKFire108

I don't know if the new law passed (which ironically was started by a New Yorker herself) would especially disallow it because it would ban the growing of your own food under penalty of law because it would be considered a "safety hazard" and thus you need to spray it with latent toxic chemicals and it wouldn't be "organic" anymore.

Your post has so many holes in it that others have already begun to point out, but I just wanted to say that this in particular is not true. The proposed law would do no such thing. snopes.com: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

[bill83]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

.....

- Eliminate all unions. Unions unfairly inflate salary, etc beyond market rate and the end user (subway rider, apartment dweller, department store shopper, etc) ends up paying more to support the higher salaries and entitlements negotiated in union contracts.

....

Support Walmart in NYC. Screw Unions.