Submitted by Bruce Rosen, Sep 1, 2007 00:59

The city - with the state's help - has put all it's eggs in high end real estate speculation. The assumption is this ultimately raises tax revenues. But what it really does is distort comparable values for all real estate in surrounding areas & of similar types, rendering the city ever more expensive for residents, businesses & not-for-profit institutions of all types. All development is now geared to "market rate," i.e. where less than 1-in-10 households count as the market. That is lunacy. The policy is citywide & in desporation, even advocates of affordable housing have bought in. This follows upon creating a totally hostile environment for industrial activity - including port activity - while deeply subsidizing big corporate development that has been shown to yield the least numbers of jobs & multipliers of additional economic activity. So why is there a surprise? The Business Council , particularly its real estate investment, construction, sales, management & marketing constituency have gotten everything they wanted. The city's real estate is becoming so valuable as to be rendered valueless. Has everyone forgotten that Tokyo real estate - as the Japanese banking system approached its meltdown - exceeded the value of all real estate & improvements in the continental US? With all due respect, that made no sense nor does this.

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