#new-york-city-affordability

#new-york-city-affordability

One resident of Princeton's Western Section told the room, 'Those of us who own historic homes are subsidizing the community' - and was met with applause.

Brooklyn is known for brownstones, churches and - in recent years - lots of rental apartment construction. When combined, Brooklyn and Queens became a larger rental market than Manhattan in 2025, with Kings County's busy developers at the tip of the spear. The data comes from StreetEasy's most recent market report, which compiled the top 10 New York City neighborhoods for new rental construction. Powerhouse Brooklyn took seven out of 10 slots.

When you think of rent-stabilized bankruptcies, you probably think of overleveraged buildings in Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx not conservatively financed ones in white-ethnic Brooklyn neighborhoods. Think again. Consider the bankruptcy that Samuel Hertz filed in late January for 420 Avenue F and 320 Ocean Parkway in Kensington and 2302 85th Street in Bensonhurst, which have 145 apartments in all.

In his four years as director of the New York City Department of Planning, Dan Garodnick oversaw one of the most sweeping changes to the city's zoning rules in decades. The policy, called City of Yes, initiated a collection of revisions to boost housing, including updates that allow new apartment projects to add bulk used for affordable housing, homes to convert basements or add backyard cottages as accessory dwellings, and more office buildings to be converted into residential space.

Rowynn Dumont, a curator, painter, photographer and writer, lived in about 25 places around the world before settling in New York in 2017. It's where my community and the art world infrastructure already were, said Dumont. Exhibits in Union Square, the Flatiron District, Long Island City and the Lower East Side featured her work. She also co-founded a popular monthly new wave dance party, Black Rainbow, on the Lower East Side that would go until 10am.

His monthly rent has climbed to more than $11,000 a month, from roughly $2,000 when he first opened. Produce costs have spiked under new tariffs. Utilities and fees keep rising. And customers already drained by soaring housing costs are buying less.

The report, published Tuesday, calls for NYCHA to keep better tabs on its vacant homes, the majority of which are awaiting-often extensive, and legally required-remediation work after the prior tenant moved out and before they can be rented again.

I was shocked at how vividly the contrast of the city's low and high density came to life when I visited the new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. What the model most powerfully shows is that most of the city is actually a suburb of one and two-story buildings. The New York of our minds, towering structures and vast numbers of people, is really quite limited.