BLAST THE BUILDER
The candidates vying for mayor could bulldoze his only real achievement: developing NYC
NEW Yorkers who loathe Mayor de Blasio’s “progressive” shtick, indifference to quality of life and hostility to profit-making might have been flummoxed over his celebration of new skyscraper One Vanderbilt this past week.
Damn if he didn’t sound like a card-carrying capitalist when he cut the tower’s ribbon with a sword. He thanked developer SL Green for putting up “an extraordinary building” and reminded the crowd that he was proud to have been at the groundbreaking four years ago.
This seemed awfully peculiar from a mayor driven by a bias toward poorer New Yorkers and disaffection for the “rich.” But for all our mayor’s egregious failings — budget-bloating, sabotage of the NYPD, and wretched “management” of schools, homelessness and child-support services — de Blasio was often a surprisingly decent steward of the city’s real-estate agenda.
Maybe it was for the wrong reasons, such as to keep contributions flowing from real-estate moguls who hated him from day one. And it’s hardly a perfect record. Letting the streets turn violent and filthy isn’t the way to boost property values.
Even so, much of the mayor’s drive to promote new construction and the tax revenue it brings was unexpectedly sane, especially during his first term.
Over objections from anti-gentrification zealots, de Blasio rezoned underdeveloped residential neighborhoods such as East New York and East Harlem to allow desperately needed, larger and modern new apartment buildings. His first city planning commissioner, Carl Weisbrod, engineered two huge achievements that eluded former Mayor Michael Bloomberg — a Vanderbilt Avenue rezoning that made the new office tower possible and, later, a rezoning of all of East Midtown, which suffered from obsolete office buildings that were on average 70 years old.
His inclusionary-housing program, which required a certain number of affordable units in new residential buildings in rezoned areas, didn’t create that many cheaper apartments — under 2,000, according to estimates — but it did bring new mid-priced homes and new investment. Local crazies accused him of promoting gentrification, a sure sign that he was doing the right thing.
This is all worth noting because — panic alert! — the people vying to succeed him would happily let our mostly antiquated buildings rot for good. Prospective mayoral candidates such as Comptroller Scott Stringer, Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams stand to de Blasio’s left (if that’s possible) on lots of issues. None has shown much enthusiasm for new development.
Even if one proposal or another were to pass their identity-politics-driven litmus tests, their tepid endorsement would wilt in the face of any bang-the-drums opposition from politicians and the courts. Some council members regard the possibility of a few more Starbucks on their turfs as a racist conspiracy to chase out longtime residents. Other lawmakers who have a large say in Big Apple land-use matters — e.g., state Sen. Mike Gianaris, who helped kill the Amazon deal in Long Island City, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — are also on board with the “hell, no” mood.
Recently, de Blasio has turned chicken. He punted, backed down on or inexplicably stalled a number of sound initiatives (including plans to develop a splendid Halletts Point complex in Astoria), and the lunatic fringe now holds sway.
It’s a preview of what’s in store when he’s gone: a city where pols, protestors and the courts will torpedo legitimate progress. Bill, I almost miss you already.