One more try for One45
New Harlem Councilman Yusef Salaam is the man of the moment, and not because he was pulled over while driving his car by a cop for basically a non-incident, but because he can make a real difference for the lives of his constituents. Famous for a member of the so-called Central Park Five, having been falsely convicted of a heinous rape decades ago and eventually cleared as one of the Exonerated Five, Salaam is in a position to do much more to be remembered by, including serving as a conduit for much-needed new housing in his community, starting with the revamped One45 project.
As a reminder, the lot at W. 145th St. and Malcolm X Blvd. has since 2021 been the site for mixed-use development proposed by landlord Bruce Teitelbaum. The towers would include almost a 1,000 homes — half of which would be designated affordable — some retail space and space for events and offices.
After months of back-and-forth, Salaam’s predecessor, Kristin Richardson Jordan, tanked the deal by demanding 100% affordability, which was in effect a kill shot, and she knew it. The decision rightfully played a big part in drumming her out of office, and now Salaam might get a do-over.
Building affordable housing, the thing everyone agrees is absolutely crucial to the very viability of this city, requires two parts working in tandem. The government and its elected representatives must act to approve and regulate its construction, and someone has to actually build. The construction falls to private developers, most of whom have at least some profit motive. Is a different system conceivable? Can we come up with other ways to provide this essential resource? It’s the subject of much debate over politics and economics, and we’ll be glad to keep having it. That doesn’t change the fact that right here, right now, the only real and actionable way to put up the homes that we desperately need is for elected and appointed officials to clear the way for developers to build, and then incentivize those developers in reasonable ways so their efforts still serve the public good.
It’s good that Salaam seems to understand what his predecessor didn’t. We can’t fault Richardson Jordan for having demanded more; if anything, that’s what her voters elected her to do, and we could certainly have faulted her for not pressing Teitelbaum at all. Where she went very wrong was in losing sight of what this process was about in the first place: getting good, affordable homes built in Harlem. A dead project helped no one.
Instead, the community ended up with some underutilized retail space and a polluting truck depot. Now, the project seems to have new life, with a mosque on the site voluntarily relocating and Teitelbaum announcing renewed interest. If everyone plays their cards right, this turns from a loss-loss to a win-win.
Let’s hope Salaam doesn’t get too distracted by a squabble around a cop who pulled him over last weekend and makes this one part of a legacy now defined by support for housing. That should also include voting in favor of regulatory and zone changes that will make it easier for developments to move forward all over the city and not be derailed by often pointless hurdles.