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Good for you. So why the concern about NYCHA? If the projects were filled with mostly working class/ moderate income families and low crime, would you or anyone else complain about them?
People care about it because taxpayers subsidize that housing. So if you work and pay for someone to live in the Smith houses near the seaport for 600 bucks a month get ready to hear some gripes.
Those businesses are UNDERPAYING people, plain and simple. What you're describing is welfare sustaining certain business models. Why does the city have to sustain these businesses and defacto indirectly pay wages for them? These businesses need to pay their workers a living wage.
In fact. welfare and the housing projects did two things.
It caused a lot of people from not trying to get higher paying jobs (all the better to keep welfare benefits) and it prevented people from fighting for their rights.
I know a number of young whites from out of town, even from other countries who can come here and easily make a lot of money. It simply will not happen for those you speak of, who have become content for whatever scraps liberals throw them. Instead of fighting for their chance at a better life.
Not everyone is going to have a high paying jobs. But I do agree with you that low wage employers should pay workers living wage income, sadly living wage income in NYC is pushing 13 dollars and yet the city is still becoming increasingly unaffordable.
People care about it because taxpayers subsidize that housing. So if you work and pay for someone to live in the Smith houses near the seaport for 600 bucks a month get ready to hear some gripes.
NYCHA should charge tenants for electric, gas and water. NYCHA needs to reform this, residents who live there ahould pay their fair share.
People care about it because taxpayers subsidize that housing. So if you work and pay for someone to live in the Smith houses near the seaport for 600 bucks a month get ready to hear some gripes.
And...? So basically because it's "unfair"? That's what I'm getting from these gripes.
Not everyone is going to have a high paying jobs. But I do agree with you that low wage employers should pay workers living wage income, sadly living wage income in NYC is pushing 13 dollars and yet the city is still becoming increasingly unaffordable.
I never said everyone is going to have a high paying job. However, it does not make sense to subsidize large numbers of people to work in delis, fast food, or other retail jobs.
Its getting to the point where its increasingly unviable for people in these positions, anyway. The fast food workers going on strike shows the housing project system is breaking down. It would take many years to get a place in the housing projects, and if you are reliant on that, what do you do in the meantime? Live here and there? Starve?
People in said positions will need to either fight for pay and benefits, go out for better jobs, or consider leaving town.
Its one thing to stay in NYC for a career job, but to stay in the city to work part time in a deli just to live in the housing projects? Come on.
NYCHA should charge tenants for electric, gas and water. NYCHA needs to reform this, residents who live there ahould pay their fair share.
I don't see a problem with that. A bulk of their debt comes from the operation of the buildings itself, so making residents pay their share of utilities would be a start to off some of that debt(every little counts). But there's probably some HUD rule that prohibits them from doing so...
I'm sure this thread will bring people who agree with me and those of whom will slam me.
I see so many people spend so much time, energy, work, and years of their lives waiting to get into Nycha apartments. My thought is why not spend all the energy, time and work to better your life so you don't need Nycha?
I know how hard and expensive this city is. I don't make much money myself but the thing is I do work hard for what I do make and provide for myself. I've been in great neighborhoods/apartments and had to move because I couldn't afford the apartment anymore since now it was a "hot neighborhood". And of course it sucks but thats the way NYC is. I'm not an owner so I'm not entitled to live their cheaply for the rest of my life. So I research a new area, that I can afford and move there. Happened several times and I don't count it won't happen again out either.
I'm not trying to put people down who need Nycha. I'm just saying take a look at your life and could you make it without it cause odds are you could. I easily qualify for Nycha and could live in one of their buildings if I so choose. But that is not my choice.
You obviously have not spent time in any project to make a statement like this. If you did you would understand why things are the way they are...this is how the world works.
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
I agree. The thing is that so many people in this city are tied down to their low wage jobs as well as tied to close family support system while waiting to get an apartment in NYCHA, at that same time it might be beneficial for one to learn a trade and or attend a community college to obtain an GED or an AA degree to get an leg up. For some NYCHA might be their next hope. If it was me to be honest and I wanted to upgrade myself I would rather be looking for oppurtunities outside of NYC or the state entirely instead of looking and waiting for an NYCHA apartment. The cost of living and the quality of life in certain parts of America like PA, FL, AZ, NC have better quality of life, and cheaper cost of living compared to all of the housing projects located in the most expensive city in the U.S. I would rather be a Footlocker employee and live in states like FL or NC compared to living in the Bronx or Brooklyn in some crime filled housing project or even worse living in an housing project were one can not afford necessities due to gentrification around it.
I know some people want housing projects of NYC to be demolished due to the fact its the last bastion of failed urban renewal and poverty within the city. But what if NYCHA is removed from the equation? Who is going to stock food in supermarket shelves, clean up aisles at Duane Reade, Whole Foods, care for your ailing mother during home visits, fix subway tracks overnight, watch over your condo when you sleep at night, babysit your kids. For the wannabe elitist and I know some of you post on here, are you willing and prepared to do jobs that working class folks that live in NYCHA do? If NYC did not have projects and still kept tenement slums, parts of the city would have looked similar to Soweto or a Favela.
Immigrants who work harder for less and don't expect handouts. Technically my family qualified for all these benefits when they arrived in this country but never signed up for it because NYC doesn't cater to Asian Americans yet we somehow still survived. NYCHA is an excuse for the lazy to never strive for better and expect someone to give them a reason to accept mediocrity.
Immigrants who work harder for less and don't expect handouts. Technically my family qualified for all these benefits when they arrived in this country but never signed up for it because NYC doesn't cater to Asian Americans yet we somehow still survived. NYCHA is an excuse for the lazy to never strive for better and expect someone to give them a reason to accept mediocrity.
Do you drink starbucks? For everytime you pay for a 5-7 dollar latte, your money goes to a billionaire who was raised in a NYCHA building, his name is Mr. Shultz the CEO of Starbucks. Anyone can do without NYCHA. Historically and culturally Asian people have great collective family support system. I dont think NYCHA is an excuse for the lazy but I can say its an excuse for those who have generational entitlements and dependency syndrome which hurt in the longrun in the game of life. There are plenty of people who are working class who dont live in NYCHA. I even know working class folks who own homes in this city who try their very best to maintain a decent living for themselves and others.
Last edited by Bronxguyanese; 04-11-2013 at 11:05 PM..
Bronxguyanese, there's plenty of middle class and even low-wage workers in this city who do not rely on NYCHA to get by. If you cannot afford to live in NYC, then you shouldn't. Period.
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