One of my favorite things to do when I’m bored in NY and don’t want to spend any money is just pick a city park I’ve never visited and go check it out. They’re all pretty unique.

My deep cut pick: Marine Park in Brooklyn.

It’s like a beautiful wetland sanctuary with some nice recreation facilities. I think they redid everything recently too because it used to have a pretty bad reputation for abandoned junk being dumped there.

Forest Park also has that disused train line that they’re thinking of reactivating or turning into another High Line.

You can walk along the old tracks and even find the old station platforms if you go far enough.

Do you have opinions on the best pizza in Staten Island? Does it hold its own with the rest of the boroughs?

Staten Island has some things worth seeing/doing.

There's a big Sri Lankan community with a cluster of great restaurants pretty close to the ferry.

Snug Harbor is a really beautiful botanic garden with fun events.

Staten Island is also full of Italians so there's lots of good pizza. I've heard some of the beaches are nice too but I haven't been.

It’s nice! I’ve walked around it a few times. Orchard Beach has a real party vibe in the summers too.

Pretty nice way to spend a day in the Bronx is to go to Pelham Bay Park and walk around then go to Orchard Beach for a swim and then hit up City Island for seafood after.

>!it’s the Bronx!!<

Isn’t it just tennis lite?

Yes but my understanding is that that project only went before the council because it involved rezoning.

It probably seems like I’m splitting hairs here but just wanted to explain that you can build without council approval if it meets existing zoning.

The reason so many of these projects involve the council is because they’re in former industrial/commercial areas and the developers are asking for permission to change that zoning to residential.

It worked great in suburban NJ when they passed a similar law. Now most train stations there are surrounded by big new apartment buildings.

What does anything you said have to do with increasing density?

When people talk about zoning and the housing crisis, they’re primarily talking about arbitrary limits on density, not rules that prevent factories in residential areas. Or they’re talking about converting former industrial areas to residential like what happened on the Williamsburg waterfront.

There are not lots of empty housing units. This is a widely propagated myth. The city’s vacancy rate is extremely low.

So what? That can and should change. The state is likely going to pursue a law in the near future that would force increased density near transit anyway. So all those areas (including Long Island) would have to allow apartments within walking distance of trains.

Agreed. Cities like Minneapolis and Portland managed to end single-family zoning. Yet NYC still has it in places like Staten Island and East Queens.

Luxury apartments still take pressure off the market. Those rich people will just outbid you for your next apartment if they don't get built.

And vacant apartments are a vastly overstated problem. The city's vacancy rate is extremely low.

The state tracks housing vacancy rates. I don’t know the exact criteria but they’ve tracked it for decades.

The rent stabilization law has a stipulation that stabilization ends automatically when vacancies reach a certain percentage that’s considered healthy for a housing market. That has never happened, obviously. They came close during 2020 but still short.

And we saw what happens to rents when vacancies actually increase significantly.

You’re conflating two different things.

Jacob Riis inspired basic rules around safety and crowding in apartments and light/air.

Zoning in the US absolutely started as a way to keep poor and black people out of certain areas.

> Zoning determines what can be built where, and is ubiquitous in the United States. Low-density residential zoning predominates in US cities far more than in other countries, limiting housing opportunities for those who cannot afford large homes. These zoning regulations have racist and classist origins, make housing more expensive, and reinforce segregation patterns.

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-030420-122027

And NYC’s first zoning law was not inspired by Riis. It was inspired by the massive Equitable Building which was just a giant cube that blocked light on the street below. The first zoning law was primarily focused on requiring setbacks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1916_Zoning_Resolution

The vacancy rate is at historic lows and decreases every year.

What you’re describing only happens in noteworthy numbers on Billionaires Row.

Everywhere else, landlords are renting out as many units as they possibly can to take advantage of high prices.

Also, people who repeat this never seem to be able to explain why rents went down substantially in 2020. Did landlords withholding things not work then? Surely that would’ve been the ideal time to do it, right?

Which safety rules are being removed?

Most of what I've read so far has said it's about removing environmental impact studies for smaller developments, removing/reducing parking minimums, and consolidating existing rule enforcement under the DOB.

That's because developers know the rich neighborhoods have a much higher chance of stopping projects. So they don't even try there.

Developers go for poorer neighborhoods because a) property is cheaper and b) the locals are far less likely to have the time/money to organize opposition to projects.

Rich neighborhoods will often pool their resources to hire lawyers, lobbyists, and preservationists to fight changes around them.

Hell, the UES has successfully blocked an accessibility elevator at an existing subway station for 10 years now... because of "neighborhood character."

The Seaport area has kept a parking lot from becoming housing through similar efforts.

That's already how it works. The community boards mostly get involved when the developer wants to rezone something.

Zoning is the issue where local politicians get to play NIMBY.

You mean redesigning the same bike lane 3 times in 5 years isn’t a sign of efficiency?!

Amazing. The idea that anything with “environmental” in the name could be used to mandate parking for cars is the height of irony.

Many cities in Europe have the opposite system… parking maximums. And the few spots that are allowed typically have to be reserved for people with mobility issues.

Yep. Zoning was first invented to keep apartments from being built near rich people’s homes. Before that, the rich actually had to buy up property around them to prevent development.

And then zoning replaced de facto segregation in the suburbs when that was banned. “Poor people aren’t banned here… we just ban any housing they could actually afford.”