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Jennings Speaks the Truth Again | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
Housing and Votes (none / 0) (#2)
by Roscoe on Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 07:40:32 AM EST
If a portion of the Harriman campus were non-exempt, non-subsidized housing, and a few hundred more non-bought votes were in that area of the city, it could fundamentally change the politics of the city. They might be smart votes, not sheep votes. That's bad news for politics as usual.

Reminds me of Corning's ultimately unsuccessful, but very expensive, opposition to student votes years ago.

If housing, rather than office space, is built, development profits could be lower. That's bad news for the developer in the short run, perhaps, but in the long term would increase the city's population and increase the viability of commericial development elsewhere, as these voters would also be consumers.

There is a polite word for this: shortsighted.  I am trying to be polite today.

Who's going to live there? (none / 0) (#3)
by ObnoxioTheClown on Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 08:32:11 AM EST
The problem with housing is that you're going to get another mini-ghetto in Albany that will poison the surrounding neighborhoods.

Nobody is going to buy a high-end house in the Harriman campus, because people with $350,000+ for a house aren't sending their kids to Albany schools or want to pay $7,000/yr in taxes versus $5,000 three miles up the road in Guilderland.

You need to bring businesses to the area to improve the economy and push the rif-raff out of the city. There's plenty of good housing stock -- you just need a cash infusion to clean up.

[ Parent ]

Jennings Speaks the Truth Again | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
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