1370
at no cost to the city
Converting office space into apartments has a cost, it will be easily recouped but there is a cost.
Seems like a good idea though.
this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2026
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It appears funding is coming from private sources and upkeep labor is being organized by the 32BJ Union, a massive local union that specializes in affordable housing that’s populated with people who work and specialize in “cleaners, property maintenance workers, doormen, security officers, airport workers, window cleaners, building engineers, school and food service workers, factory workers, etc”.
The conversion costs and labor appear to be funded and plan to be performed by GFP Real Estate and city partners, no doubt in exchange for good favor for future permit approvals and project integration by the Mayor’s administration.
Pretty smart if you ask me.
Having trouble finding any real info on this, but it appears that the city isn't actually performing the work, just changing rules and providing incentives to do the conversion.
So the "no cost" is really just that the city isn't paying for it.
Seems like the setup is that the developer gets paid back via the market rate housing revenue, while the city gets a guarantee a minimum number of the new residences are rent controlled. So the developer self funds (or take loans) to start the project, it seems. And the city is still the landowner as far as I can tell, so the developer pays the city a share, which is how the city funds getting new office buildings for agencies to replace these.
I had to dig into what they mean by cross-subsidy to figure that out
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to the city
Vacant buildings have a cost too. A vacant high rise building that gets repossessed becomes a massive cost to the city.
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its why most democrats are against him too.
Cause hes setting a dangerous precedent of an elected official serving people, not money.
Slavoj Zizek calls the Democrats “capitalism with a kinder face - LGBT rights and so on and so on.”
That’s really it. They think the core economic system is working. They’re fine to greenlight social policies that don’t challenge it, especially if they think it will win them votes. And that’s all they are.
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My thought is that for many many years politicians didn't really have to do anything to re-elected. And when they were asked to do something they would always say "we can't afford that." or they would write a bill that would promise "thing" will get funded 10 years from now. So these lifelong politicians have turned into lazy fucks just there for the money and are pissed at these younger officials that are actually doing the job they were elected to do.
I have to admit I had been lulled into a sense of nothing will change attitude and now that I see how wrong I was I've become quite pissed off.
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It's why the corporate neo-libs hate him too. They truly are in the business of managing decline instead of doing their fucking jobs.
They'd rather support a sexual predator that they said should resign from being Governor a few years earlier.
I can't remember who said it, but it's like he got in office and saw the "Get Shit Done" button an jus for the life of him couldn't understand why previous Mayors weren't usin it
DeBlasio was pretty good about hitting it. Bloomberg could hit it, but only for Evil. Adams was just an incompetent shithead who only knew how to take bribes and do photo ops.
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Next, convert Trump Tower into affordable housing.
I wouldn't wanna live in that gaudy hellhole even if you paid me
Nah, convert it to a pile of ash.
Shit no. That would be like living in Mordor. No, to hallow that place turn it into the Trump library with every floor an exhibition of the lies, stupidity, evil and crimes he committed, with the penthouse dedicated to the Epstein Files.
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I live in Harlem. He really has been great! He's just a genuine and nice guy too!
Edit: word
Edit: word
You don't have to add "word!" just because it's Harlem
It's ok, we speak jive.
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Civilization is expensive and can only be paid for on the installment plan.
When you see what good your taxes can do, it makes you question why the rich don't pay their fair share. They do not like this.
Yep.
They are going to reach into your pocket no matter what. The only question is if your money goes to a bunch of rich guys or back to people like you.
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How does converting an office building have zero cost?
No cost to the city. Sounds like some other entity foot the bill.
They rent them out, so likely had a contractor do the conversion and then woth the rental income cancels out the cost. "No cost" is also just what that post used, doubt official documents say no cost.
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The reason the right are so anti Mamdani is obvious: they don’t want you to see what your tax dollars being put to work the right way would actually look like.
More like the left way 🥁
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The answer is simple: Capitalism has outstayed it's welcome. Its time to go for Scientific Socialism. You ever watch star trek's society in tng and go "huh, that would be nice..."? Well thats Scientific Socialism.
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I live in CA, and our tax dollars get squandered. Gotta be progressive and know what your doing. We have one but not the other
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BUT HOW ARE THE LANDLORDS (I am not one) GONNA AFFORD TO LIVE????!! THE POOOR LANDLORDS
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Office buildings are generally unfit for apartment conversions since they have so much interior space that isn't really appropriate to use as homes - there's usually a requirement that you get an actual window in your apartment, something I don't think is particularly unreasonable.
A great podcast episode on the topic: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/551-office-space/
Lies.
Office space is easily remodeled. Most high rise commercial buildings have windows. they are designed for it to be changed every few years.
Older buildings regularly get turned into housing and sell well exactly for their unique characteristics.
I lived in a converted building that had an enormous industrial crane structure inside of it. They had retrofitted a pool, hot tub, and basketball court on the roofs. It even had two stall parking.
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The real solution is to have the municipality build low income housing. The people responsible for the housing crisis should not be involved at all.
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I wish I could shake this man's hand. We need somebody to do this in Canada as well. But our politicians are equally as spineless as the rest of them, just with a fresh coat of paint covering their faces like the clowns they are.
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We can see how using taxes better helps people in many other countries and states, and like this where he can do good work that helps people and society, as public servants are supposed to do. People see it but don't care. Just look up how much is spent per person for healthcare in countries and their health outcomes. Basic things are getting worse in us due to unhealthy policies they chose. It's too hard to pass the big changes we want w/o supermajority and for long enough to maintain them. Even if things are passed that they want, they swing the other way a few years later due to propaganda, and it gets destroyed again. Stop doing that, support unions and the politicians that actually do too.
When basic competent governance is seen as radical, you know how bad things have been/are. I'm so jealous of the city right now. I'm seeing videos pop up every day about some new project. Meanwhile my town wont fix potholes unless you very specifically ask them to do so, and then they will only fix THAT ONE even if there are others nearby. There are not nearly enough trees and basically no functional public transportation, so getting anywhere without a car is a pain. I can't get anyone in the town gov to answer my emails and while I haven't been to a board meeting yet, I've been told by someone else who has gone that they're so disinterested in what people have to say some of them have literally fallen asleep on the job. But we've just been stuck with them because my town are a bunch of NIMBYs who don't care as long as their taxes don't go up.
Corollary: where did those tax dollars go previously?
Politician pockets via dark money and obfuscation, as is always has. The reason most people hate taxes is they go right into corrupt pockets. I wouldnt mind taxes if they actually did shit like this.
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