Sell the Projects
One of the lessons we have learned in newspaper work is the importance of the long view. It often takes dozens of editorials, written over years, to get a law passed. We thought of that yesterday when we read a headline in the Daily News, "Feds eye bldg. sale at housing projects." The news was that the regional administrator of the federal department of Housing and Urban Development, Sean Moss, said the New York City Housing Authority should consider selling some of its buildings in the city's expensive neighborhoods.
It's an idea this paper and its columnists have been pushing for five years. In an August 8, 2002, column in The New York Sun, J.P. Avlon had suggested opening up to private development some of the waterfront property along the East River between the Brooklyn Bridge and Houston Street that is now occupied by housing projects. A December 13, 2002, New York Sun editorial reported that "Across the country, far-sighted political leaders are destroying public housing projects. From the Pruitt-Igoe projects in 1972 in St. Louis, to the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago in 1998, to the New Brunswick Homes destroyed in New Jersey in August 2001, to the Christopher Columbus Homes in Newark in 1996 ... the failed vision of government run housing projects is being demolished in a puff of concrete dust. Everywhere, that is, but here in New York City." The editorial suggested "Selling off some of the city's housing projects in Manhattan."
We returned to the theme on May 15, 2007, with an editorial headlined "Paupers to Millionaires," suggesting simply giving the public housing apartments to the residents to own and to sell if they so choose. We wrote that the plan "offers a chance to reclaim hundreds of buildings of housing projects on hundreds of acres of prime real estate in the city, land now locked in stagnation, that could be integrated with the surrounding neighborhoods and become part of the cycle of dynamism and improvement and transformation and building that makes New York City today such an exciting and vibrant place." The editorial was followed up with front-page news article on May 21, 2007, reporting, "A Nobel-prizewinning economist, three former officials of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the head of one of the city's largest social service agencies, and the chairman of the tenants council of a Harlem public housing project are among those offering at least guarded support for the idea of turning apartments in the city's public housing projects over to the tenants to own or sell." Our columnist Alicia Colon followed up that with a June 5, 2007, column, "New York's Housing Plight."
So now, five years after we first took up the issue, and after we've published about a half-dozen pieces on the topic, the idea is being voiced by the Bush administration official responsible for the city's housing projects and is being reported on by one of the city's other dailies. The Daily News reported that one union official who represents employees of the Housing Authority says "developers are already eying authority projects in valuable neighborhoods."
We're under no illusions that the housing projects on upper Park Avenue, in Chelsea, and along the East River in Lower Manhattan are going to be sold off and turned into luxury condominiums tomorrow. These things take time. But the comments from Mr. Moss are a welcome new indication that the debate is headed in the right direction.
