Affordable housing tops Stringer agenda.Manhattan Borough President Borough President (informally BP, or Beep in slang) is an elective office in each of the five boroughs of New York City. The offices of borough president were created in 1898 with the formation of the City of Greater New York. , Scott Stringer, addressed the Associated Builders and Owners of Greater New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of (ABO ABO See: Accumulated Benefit Obligation ) at its March 15 luncheon at The National Arts Club The National Arts Club is a private club founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J. . Stringer discussed affordable housing and the importance of maintaining and building new housing throughout all five-boroughs in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . Stringer began by discussing how the situation of affordable housing has changed dramatically over the last 40 to 50 years. He emphasized that since the 1980's, no vacant land lots or tax-delinquent properties have been available to build affordable housing on in the city. Realizing there is a need to identify new lots for construction of affordable housing, Stringer called for the city to do a borough-wide survey to identify new locations to build. "The information on the vacant lots will be very helpful to our city," said Stringer. "Those lots need to be utilized for the development of affordable housing, schools and daycare facilities. The next development phase is zoning and rezoning. This will be our new reality." Stringer predicts that the city's population will increase by one million in the next 25 years. With this population growth, Stringer stressed that improving transportation infrastructure is a paramount. He believes that new developments being constructed will have a big affect on the city's transportation and lead to increased congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. city-wide. "The borough can't be gridlocked grid·lock n. 1. A traffic jam in which no vehicular movement is possible, especially one caused by the blockage of key intersections within a grid of streets. 2. , or it will stop developments from being built," said Stringer. "If you think about it, we need those millions of truck trips in order to redevelop areas like Ground Zero and the enhancement of Penn Station. We need to apply for federal grants to help us study congestion and us help alleviate the problem." Stringer talked about different strategies and programs that will help the zoning and rezoning of the city. One change the borough president felt strongly about is to help community boards establish better communication with developers who are building in the community. Stringer also mentioned the zoning program for graduate students from CUNY CUNY City University of New York , Columbia and NYU NYU New York University NYU New York Undercover (TV show) that his office helped create. This program will give students the opportunity to connect communities with developers for more affordable housing. Stringer also spoke about the city's need to develop more affordable housing similar to the Mitchell Lama Program, created in 1955 during the World War 11 housing crisis. Developing a new program just like the Mitchell Lama will give New Yorkers and U.S. citizens with no money an opportunity to start a new life. "We want to create the next Mitchell Lama program in this city," said Stringer. "With this new program; people will have the opportunity to afford housing and continue to pursue their careers or dreams." In his closing remarks, Stringer thanked ABO members for their support in his campaign for Manhattan borough president. He also brought to their attention of his fight on "Go Green East Harlem," a project that will help residents from East Harlem have clean air to breathe in. |
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