Submitted by Scott Baker, May 21, 2007 10:38

The idea that people in public housing could turn around and sell their apartments at something like market rates is wrong. People who could afford 200-300 thousand dollars would not want to live in what is, essentially, a building full of tenants from public housing. Instead, developers, backed by rich leanding institutions, would swoop in, buy out everyone, then raze the delapidated half century old buildings and build new high rise luxury condos in their place. The pressure to sell, from a tenant's personal financial point of view and from a legal and peer pressure point of view, would be immense. Eventually, lower income housing stock would be permanently taken off the market, and the people who could live there, permanently pushed off Manhatten. The outer boroughs would have to absorb these people, lowering the tax base and leading to deterioration of services in the outer boroughs and to the predictable downward cycle. We would become a bifarcated city. No, mixed income neighborhoods in ALL the boroughs have to be encouraged, along with the necessary supporting services, especially mass transit, so we can remain one New York, with a satisfactory living space for all.

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