New Yorkers are fighting to save their city’s soul

Posted Thursday 2nd April, 2015 Text by Alex King

Gentrification is suffocating New York’s creative culture. We spoke to #SaveNYC campaign founder Jeremiah Moss to find out why it’s time to fight back.

A strange force is spreading across New York, turning the city’s chaotic, technicolour mass of humanity and culture a dull corporate beige. It’s called gentrification, and it plays out on many levels: from the closing of mom and pop stores, attempts to hide (but never solve) social ills such as homelessness and the expulsion of the poor and minorities, to the unstoppable spread of bougie brunch spots and the tearing apart of long-established communities.

New York City is devouring its children and all we have to show for it are chains: endless hotel, restaurant and store chains.

Full article on Huck

NYU Furman Center Brief Examines Tenant Characteristics in NYC's Stabilized & Market-Rate Housing

According to the brief, rent-stabilized housing serves many low-income New Yorkers. In 2011, roughly 66% of tenants living in rent-stabilized units had ‘low incomes’ (less than $58,950 in 2011) compared to roughly 54% of tenants of market-rate units.

In Manhattan, the difference in income levels of households living in rent-stabilized units and those living in market rate rental units was striking. The typical household living in a market-rate rental unit in 2011 had an income more than double that of the typical household living in a stabilized unit.

Rent-stabilized units also house a greater share of households led by seniors. Citywide, over 23% of rent-stabilized households are led by a senior, compared to just 7% of market-rate households. In addition, citywide, stabilized units house a greater share of minority households, though the shares range significantly by borough. In Manhattan, for example, 52% of rent-stabilized households were non-white, compared to just 27% of market-rate rental households.

The brief also finds that contract rents for stabilized units were significantly less than contract rents for market-rate units in 2011. In 2011, stabilized units rented for about $1,235 per month less than market-rate units in core Manhattan (which includes community districts MN 01-08) , but only $228 less than market-rate units outside of core Manhattan.

Full introduction to the Brief and the Document here