Moving This Summer? Consider a Hard Hat

This is great news, but the city needs far more construction. The only way to produce greater affordability is to create more homes, and the city is still woefully short. The city should upzone every major avenue near transit, no exceptions.

A simple solution to the tax haven luxury buildings: a insanely high tax on any condo or coop that is not proven to being occupied by the owner less than 180 days of the year, put the onus on the owners to prove occupancy. LLCs and shell companies forbidden to own residential units. When I lived in the USVI I had a small airplane and often rich people taking advantage of a tax dodge that required their living 180 days a year on island would approach me to sneak them off island as they would avoid TSA detection.

As I look out my window at the skeleton of a 35 story monstrosity NYU is putting up in Greenwich Village, I wonder what type of city we will have in 20 years. There have been times during holidays when it is impossible to move around the city and even as developers build up, we're not building more land so congestion will simply increase (you may want to look at an old Scientific American study to see what follows) making NYC less livable. The problem is the city leaders are dependent on taxes from the sale of properties (which begs the question, why is the mansion tax still at the 1988 level of $1 million), taxes included in monthly common charges and taxes on (construction) workers salaries. I'm sure the campaign contributions from real estate developers and unions are an inducement as well. How about a simple law, the new building can't be larger than what it's replacing. You can put me in the camp of people that will be moving.

Living in downtown Manhattan, I am only too familiar with the "living with construction" phenomenon. However, one line in the article really struck me, it was the one about additional housing in ones neighborhood making it even harder to find street parking. Why are we still assuming that there is a basic right to a free parking space, provided by everyone else's tax dollars (public street), in some of the most congested area codes in this country? Other big cities like Tokyo have long required proof of an off-street parking space before allowing residents to register their car. And, yes, I know the K-car exception, but those cannot be longer than 11 feet. In downtown Manhattan, the city approached the problem like this: street parking, where permitted, costs money, in many places, 7 days a week, day or night. Maybe that's the future for other, congested areas in the City, too?

But the downside is that when these construction projects get held up--for whatever reason--blight follows. The garbage piles up on the street and the sites become unsafe. If the developers had left the projects as they were and had people living in the homes that were there--for example if they had remodeled but not torn down--the problem of blight would not persist.

I find it hard to believe that Downtown Brooklyn did not make the list in that chart. There’s new construction on almost every block.

The population of New York City has been growing for a number of years and thus needs more housing built. The article has things backward. New construction does not drive the prices up. They are built because the need for housing drives the prices up. The new units mere show the reality of new pricing.

First, I really like the old houses and am sorry to see many of them go. That said, WE NEED HOUSING. New York is predicted to gain up to a million new residents. Why this paper never addresses that is confounding. Its all supply and demand - this so called "housing crisis" is due in large part by the city , state and media demonizing the landlords and developers (why build or own here unless it is profitable (I know, blasphemy in the socialism). I don't want to see historic pre-wars torn down, but there is also plenty of bad stuff that can and should be replaced. Perhaps we need to up zone on blocks near mass transit - why stop at. 7-8 stories? and yes the subway needs to be vastly improved (and that means money into the actual system - not employee retirement pension plans where you make more then when you actually worked - all never addressed by our "progressive" legislature.) For those of you who every time write about the evil of new towers on places like the waterfront replacing (one or two story underused buildings or parking lots), what you fail to realize is that without that additional housing, the pressure is even greater on these single family areas - and yes the revitalization will go further into Brooklyn to meet demand. Also, Mr. Chen, there is another name for these old time homeowners - its MILLIONAIRE - after being overlooked for so long , isn't that a good thing that true wealth is being created for these homeowners and their families.

Exact same issues in Denver. Shoddy construction, structural issues, and developers pulling in building violation fees into their loans. Denver just reelected our "sell-out" mayor after the developers and Realtors contributed millions to his campaign. Older sturdy housing scraped for tall apartment shoddy buildings. The Denver historic landmark commission is overburdened with requests. We have lost our city.

“We have too many out-of-scale luxury towers..." No kidding. Long Island City's infrastructure was never built nor intended to support development on the massive scale that's taken place in the last 30 years. (Full disclosure: my family didn't move to LIC until 1888. Mom sold the family home to the first gentrifying buyer she ran into in the early 1980s, so I've had to watch much of the development from afar.) There were reasons why Long Island City didn't build up vertically as soon as residential elevators became common in the early 1900s. And they didn't all have to do with the technology for supporting 30-story buildings being nonexistent when we became a city in 1870. Seeing all the high-rises going up, I keep thinking, "Didn't anyone tell these developers this town has lousy drainage and water-in-the-cellar problems, and has had them since the 1800s - especially when you get closer to the waterline?" Some of my great-grandfather's pre-1937 Fire Department records as Captain were lost to flooding in the local firehouse years ago; it's not as if the tendency towards soggy basements and settling into the ground is breaking news.

On Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, old two-family houses are being razed and the new construction seems aimed squarely at middle-class Russians and Georgians, many buildings with first-floor doctors' offices sporting Russian and Georgian names. These buildings go up fairly quickly. They are near good shopping and restaurants. On Ditmas Avenue, an old red Victorian, once a synagogue, has been open to the elements for almost three years. The new owner didn't get his way with renovations -- the city shut him down because he wanted, evidently, sub-basement apartments -- and so he's demolishing by neglect and he'll build whatever horror he wants. The house is by now home to all manner of vermin, and it's a wonder it hasn't succumbed to fire. Just wait.

It's too bad so much of the new construction is so cheaply and shoddily built (but that's par for the course in NYC these days - from new and newly remodeled subway stations to high-end and more affordable residences). A lot of these developments - including the "luxury rentals" all over the city - have hollow walls, badly constructed fixture, and cheap plumbing and electrics. This in a city where the older housing stock is sturdy, well-crafted and built to last. It's sad to see classic New York buildings give way to such mediocrity. But that's kind of the state of the city these days.

If you want to see a city overwhelmed with construction, come visit Seattle. And the effect on pedestrians is horrible - one can't get anywhere without requiring multiple detours. It never goes away, just keeps moving around; as one project finishes another one or two begin.

The amount of construction going on is nuts! I just checked Localize.city and found out there's new building that's going up right near me... Nice 3D on that site.

You can t hank DeBlasio and Bloomberg for giving out permits and zoning variances for the asking. This gives the wealthy a tax shelter with little or no taxes and no benefits to NYC except the Mayor when he gets contributions. When are New Yorkers going to learn?

It's a city. A huge city. If you want quiet, go back to the farm im Iowa....or Michigan, Ohio, WI, MN,etc., etc., etc.

I live across from a building that's been under construction for close to 2 years now. Every day, jackhammers and 100dB idling trucks, nonstop. I would love to see a total ban on construction in the city. It would also keep the construction workers off the trains, who have a tendency to rub their filthy work clothes/equipment on other people's business attire.

One of these days when they finish the place New York City will be a heck of a place to live.

millions of families have managed to raise their kids on smaller footprint. spoiled Americans, including the Chans....

I'm sick of the construction. Before one building is even finished, another gets started. Can we not have peace for even one month? I live in South Williamsburg right by the Williamsburg Bridge. I have more than 10 active construction sites within a 3 block radius. I'm so angered by how much dust and pollution I have to breathe just to walk to the subway. I'm scared of what health effects this may have down the line. My clothes are covered in city filth. I can't leave the windows open because of the noise. Even with the windows closed I'm woken up at 7am by jackhammers. And how are all these people that will live in these mammoth buildings get around? Is the MTA adding more trains? Doesn't seem like it. Another point of contention is how utterly UGLY these new buildings are - the disgusting monstrocity going up next to the lovely old Williamsburgh Savings Bank will destroy the skyline and the beauty of that block. I've been here 20 years and am ready and planning to move because of this.

I live on Lenox Road and wasn't surprised to see this article, especially since something brand new is going up what seems like every month. I am happy about some of the changes and happy to see there are holdouts, but I am worried about our train lines in the neighborhood. They are already overcrowded and I am not entirely sure the MTA is going to be able to handle the influx of residents.

I blame most of our local politicians, who don't seem to be saying a word, or speaking out one bit, about how the characters of our neighborhoods are being ruined, one by one.

It's all about adding "density." Because the subways aren't yet dangerously crowded enough.

since 1989, i've moved up from brownstone apartments in fort greene to clinton hill to bed stuy and each move was driven by the desire to escape gentrification construction. i'd move and things would be quiet for a few years, then bam! there'd be major gut renovation construction going on on multiple buildings. i'd hold on as long as i could, then move on. in my last apartment i was beset by a plague of roaches, rats and bed bugs when the rundown building next door was bought (cash deal) gutted and redone. we never could get rid of the bed bugs and the landlady didn't seem to be in a hurry to help us out. i finally just moved to a 60-unit pre-war in flatbush (or prospect lefferts gardens, whatevz). it's an established neighborhood with pre-wars on one side of the street and well-tended houses on the other. while i was apartment hunting, i made sure to avoid all of the "new build" blocks. that type of transition is even more disruptive than the gentrification construction i witnessed in the brownstone area i just left.

How many construction permits are allowed at any one time in New York City? Is there no limit? The city needs to have regulations about how much construction is allowed at any one time, and accountability about how the permits are given.

This is absolutely the most essential and useful piece of news and should be continued and expanded. There have never been as many people in the 5 Boroughs at any time before in history. The expansion or renewal or sprawl or whatever it is that is happening needs to be documented in the fullest and detailed reporting as a new kind of New York City that is developing. A remarkable change in the landscape and atmosphere of this city deserves an army of full time reporters, statisticians and historians because nobody ever dreamed the Fun City of 60's urban renewal would go this way.