The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper
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News Analysis & Opinion: Stop Driving Us Out of Our Homes
Why Parity Is a Parody of Affordability
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The author marches in support of housing affordability in Lower Manhattan.
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If you live in Battery Park City, you likely received a letter in the mail recently from the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), spreading a false narrative about how the Authority is “keeping Battery Park City affordable.” The truth is that the BPCA appears to be doing everything in its power to create and preserve luxury housing, along with a token number of low-income rental apartments. This is forcing out moderate- and middle-income homeowners and renters—who have built Battery Park City into the vibrant, thriving community it is today. And it is worth noting that 40 percent of owner-occupied homes in Battery Park City fall into the moderate- and middle-income categories.
The BPCA claims that “parity” is their goal. Sadly, it appears that, in the eyes of the BPCA, “parity” consists of increasing ground rent for all 18 condominiums to the highest level possible.
Thus, the BPCA’s approach will decrease the value of units in most condominium buildings, where the ground rent would increase from its current range of $3 to $5 per square foot, jumping instead to between $11 and $12 per square foot. Any resident unable or unwilling to pay these exorbitant increases would be forced to sell their homes, often for less than they originally paid for them. (That’s assuming such owners are able to sell their units at all.)
Don’t be fooled. “Parity” is the antithesis of affordability in Battery Park City. And it is not a fiscally responsible option, as it will destroy the fabric of the community, impoverishing homeowners, triggering a wave of evictions and foreclosures, and (in the best case) making Battery Park City an enclave in which only the wealthiest can afford to live.
If you are a condominium owner, this matters to you, as six of the 18 condo buildings are facing step-ups in their ground rent in 2026 and 2027, which will amount to increases of 25 to 65 percent over the ground rents they will be paying at that time. And all 18 condominiums are facing “fair market value” (FMV) resets of their ground rent in 2042, which will boost their annual costs to six percent of the value of the land on which each building sits, as if that land were being sold for development, rather than leased.* The BPCA admits that such FMV increases would be catastrophic and impossible to collect. But to date, they have dragged their feet and done nothing to change these apocalyptic terms, which currently remain in the ground leases for all condominiums in the community.
If you are a renter in one of the 18 condominium buildings, this matters to you, as every increase in ground rent is passed along to tenants as an increase in your annual rent. It also may mean that you will be asked to leave your home in the near future, as common charges for these units exceed market rents, leaving apartment owners “under water” and desperate to sell.
If you are a tenant in one of the rental buildings in Battery Park City, you also have reason to worry. The BPCA has consistently made deals with landlords that protect a small number of (usually low-income tenants) in rental buildings, but offer no affordability provisions for moderate or middle-income residents.
And landlords (who are themselves facing step-ups and FMV resets) are heading for the exits, by converting their rental buildings to condominiums or cooperatives, or else selling those buildings to developers who specialize in such conversions. In either scenario, this process drives out longtime residents and transfers catastrophic financial risk to homeowners.
The Battery Park City Homeowners Coalition represents the 18 condominium buildings in Battery Park City, and through its Negotiating Committee is attempting to work out a deal with the BPCA, addressing the ever-escalating ground rents that are forcing condominium owners from their homes. In October, 2021 the Coalition presented a proposal to the BPCA that is fair, fiscally sound, and will keep most condominium owners in their homes. The proposed terms would:
1) Eliminate all step-ups and FMV resets; and
2) Extend the ground lease to 2168; and
3) Limit ground-rent increases going forward no more than one percent annually.
For context, other local advocacy groups, such as the Battery Park City Neighborhood Association, have proposed far more aggressive remedies, such a ten-year freeze on ground rent increases, followed by annual increases of no more than one percent thereafter.
Either of these options would be a giant step in the direction of saving this community, which is faced with the imminent threat of financial disaster.
The Authority says it is looking for a solution that keeps moderate and middle income condo owners in their homes. The Homeowners Coalition and the Neighborhood Association have presented viable solutions. To date, the BPCA has not responded to either of these proposals. What are we waiting for?
* Given that the sale value of each building lot in Battery Park City is currently well in excess of $100 million (and is likely to be much higher in 2042), this will inevitably translate into ground-rent increases of millions of dollars per year for every building, which will trickle down to each homeowner as tens of thousands of dollars per year in additional common charges. And all of that comes well before homeowners and renters are all evicted in 2069, when the ground lease expires.
By Justine Cuccia
Editor’s Note: Justine Cuccia, a founder of Democracy for Battery Park City, is also a candidate for the New York State Assembly seat representing Lower Manhattan, parts of the Financial District, and the north shore of Staten Island. Ms. Cuccia is related to the editor of the Broadsheet.
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The Week’s Downtown Calendar
March 14 – 18
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Monday March 14
6PM
1. Agenda to be determined
Tuesday March 15
10:30AM
6 River Terrace
Join in on the fun featuring easy-to-follow Latin dance choreography while working on your balance, coordination and range of motion. Come prepared for enthusiastic instruction, a little strength training and a lot of fun. Participants are encouraged to bring their own equipment: weights, water bottle, hand towel etc. Proof of vaccination required. Free
12:30PM
LMHQ
Join Erin Andersen, Career Transition Coach & LinkedIn Marketing Strategist to learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and increase your visibility on the platform. Erin has helped 200+ clients take their LinkedIn presence to the next level. Not only will you create your most eye-catching profile yet, you’ll also learn all of the new features you should be utilizing to help your career take off. Free
2PM
Museum of Jewish Heritage
In the century between 1847 and 1947, a handful of men and women changed the world. Many of them are well known—Marx, Freud, Proust, Einstein, Kafka. Others have vanished from collective memory despite their enduring importance in our daily lives. Without Rosalind Franklin, for example, genetic science would look very different. Without Fritz Haber, there would not be enough food to sustain life on earth. What do these visionaries have in common? They all had Jewish origins. Norman Lebrecht has devoted half of his life to researching the mindset of the Jewish intellectuals, writers, scientists, and thinkers who turned the tides of history and shaped the world today as we know it. His conclusions are featured in his book Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947. Join the Museum for a conversation between Lebrecht and Museum Trustee Matthew Goldstein, former chancellor of the City University of New York, about Genius & Anxiety. Read the book ahead of time and submit your questions for the program’s Q&A session to pubprog@mjhnyc.org. Free; suggested $10 donation, 6PM
AGENDA
1. Battery Coast Guard Building Operations – Discussion with Micah Bonner, Director of Auxiliary Southern Region, First Coast Guard District
2. Hudson River Park – Update by Robert Atterbury, Executive Vice President of Park Relationships and Programs, Hudson River Park Trust
3. Brooklyn Bridge Banks – Update by Rosa Chang, Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan & Community Board 1 Member
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Wednesday March 16
6PM
AGENDA
1. New Policy for New Yorkers Experiencing Homelessness on NYCT – Discussion
2. Cobblestone Street Repairs and Reconstruction – Discussion & Resolution
3. Introduction to the DSNY Director of Community Affairs – Discussion with Joan Byrnes-Daly, Director, Bureau of Community Affairs, New York City Department of Sanitation
6:30PM
China Institute
Watch the film at home, then enjoy a free virtual talkback with Columbia University Film Professor Richard Peña, former Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Sure to be remembered as a landmark in Chinese cinema, this intensely felt epic marks a career cut tragically short: its debut director Hu Bo took his life in October 2017, at the age of 29. The protagonist of this modern reworking of the tale of Jason and the Argonauts is teenage Wei Bu, who critically injures a school bully by accident. Over a single, eventful day, he crosses paths with a classmate, an elderly neighbor, and the bully’s older brother, all of them bearing their own individual burdens, and all drawn as if by gravity to the city of Manzhouli, where a mythical elephant is said to sit, indifferent to a cruel world. Full of moody close-ups and virtuosic tracking shots, An Elephant Sitting Still is nothing short of a masterpiece. Free
8PM
Gibney
3A Chambers Street
Seven new works choreographed by Gibney Company Artistic Associates: Alexander Anderson, Zui Gomez, Jesse Obremski, Kevin Pajarillaga, Marla Phelan, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, and Jake Tribus. Also at 2pm on March 18 and 19. $20-$50
Thursday March 17
6PM
Howard Hughes Corporation
Today: Iron Buddha
Reservations are released at 10AM every Monday the week before class.
6PM
AGENDA
1. Community District 1 Demographics Update – Presentation by James Wilson-Schutter, Fund for the City of New York Community Planning Fellow
2. Officially Empaneling the Co-Naming Task Force & Public Restroom Working Group – Discussion
3. Comprehensive Resiliency Project Coordination to Preserve Open Space and Quality of Life – Discussion & Resolution
4. Committee Highlights
7PM
McNally Jackson 4 Fulton Street
Book launch
From the host of NPR’s Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever. Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school. The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing.
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Safe Space for Teens
Starting today Monday, March 14, Trinity Church’s Youth Afterschool program will offer everything from basketball and mindfulness to test prep and use of a teaching kitchen.
All activities, which are free and open to students in grades six through 12, will be hosted in the teens-only space on the fifth floor of Trinity Commons (the new community building behind Trinity Church), located at 76 Trinity Place.
Trinity Youth strives to practice “radical welcome” by including not only parishioners and students from Trinity’s school partnerships, but youth from across New York City, and the inclusion all people regardless of background, beliefs, or experience. (Proof of vaccination against COVID-19 is required.)
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The Colors of Empathy
Manhattan Youth Calls Upon Hue to Brush Aside Violence
Manhattan Youth will bring local children and their families together tomorrow (Saturday, March 12) to paint a Mural of Hope in front of the Downtown Community Center (120 Warren Street, near the corner of West Street), from 10:30 am through noon.
The Mural of Hope will honor the families of Ukraine, who have reason to fear for their lives during the current invasion by Russia, explains Manhattan Youth executive director Bob Townley, who says, “we must never let hate have the last word. We must pursue peace as much as we can. If everyone wanted peace, we would have peace.”
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‘By the Grace of God’
Reverend Phillip Jackson Installed as Trinity Church’s Nineteenth Rector
Lower Manhattan has a new spiritual leader: The Reverend Phillip A. Jackson was installed as the 19th Rector of Trinity Church on February 26, in a ceremony steeped in tradition. The observance began outside the front door of the Church, where Rev. Jackson was ritually handed the bronze keys to Trinity and nearby St. Paul’s Chapel, as he recited, “I accept the keys and with them the temporalities, profits, and appurtenances of the Rectorship.” His voice catching, he continued, “and by the grace of God I will faithfully perform the duties of my office, so long as it may please God to continue me in it.” To read more…
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Esplanade or Espla-Nada?
City Says Planned Improvements to East River Waterfront Are On Hold
The February 22 meeting of Community Board 1 (CB1) included an update about long-planned improvements to the East River Esplanade, some of which are being cancelled.
Paul Goldstein, the chair of CB1’s Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee, said, “we got a report from Economic Development Corporation [EDC] regarding some of their waterfront assets and projects that are ongoing—or not.” (The EDC is a not-profit corporation controlled by City government, which oversees development of assets, such as publicly owned property.)
“Unfortunately, a lot this project is not moving ahead for a variety of reasons,” Mr. Goldstein explained, “the biggest one being that the City is focusing much more on resiliency, and they don’t want to go ahead with improvements that may interfere with that.” To read more…
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Hometown School Makes Good
Community College in Tribeca Honored as Top School for Hispanics
The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) has been named one of the nation’s top ten two-year schools (by region) for Hispanic students, in rankings compiled by Hispanic Outlook on Education Magazine. Separately, BMCC (which is located on Chambers Street) has also been designated as the top-ranking City University of New York (CUNY) college in terms of awarding the highest number of degrees—a total of 2,062—to Hispanic students, and the highest-ranked college in the northeastern United States as measured by the same metric.
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CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS
Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found
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SEEKING LIVE-IN ELDER CARE
12 years experience, refs avail. I am a loving caring hardworking certified home health aide
Marcia 347 737 5037
AVAILABLE
NURSES’ AIDE
20+ years experience
Providing Companion and Home Health Aide Care to clients with dementia.Help with grooming, dressing and wheelchair assistance. Able to escort client to parks and engage in conversations of desired topics and interests of client. Reliable & Honest
FT/PT Flexible Hours
References from family members. Charmaine
NOTARY PUBLIC IN BPC
$2.00 per notarized signature.
Text Paula
@ 917-836-8802
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HAVE MORE FUN PARENTING
Learn how to raise a capable child and reduce friction at home.
Come learn parenting
the Positive Discipline way!
ML Fiske is a
Certified PD Parent Educator.
NANNY WITH OVER 15 YEARS EXPERIENCE
Reliable, nurturing and very attentive. Refs Avail.
Full or Part time
Maxine 347-995-7896
SEEKING LIVING/
WORK SPACE
Ethical and respectable gentleman, an IT Wizard, seeks a living/work space in BPC. Can be a Computer help to you and your business, or will guarantee $1,500 for rental. Reciprocal would be great!
Please contact:
914-588-5284
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HAVE SPACE?
Folk dance group seeks empty space of 400+ sq feet for 2 hours of weekly evening dance practice.
Average attendance is 10 women. This is our hobby; can pay for use of the space.
Call 646 872-0863 or find us on Facebook. Ring O’Bells Morris.
NURSES AIDE
Kind loving and honest Nurse’s aide seeking FT/PT job. Experience with Alzheimer’s patients
Excellent references available please call Dian at 718-496-6232
HOUSEKEEPING/ NANNY/ BABYSITTER
Available for PT/FT. Wonderful person, who is a great worker.
Refs avail.
Worked in BPC.
Call Tenzin 347-803-9523
PERSONAL TRAINING,
REFLEXOLOGY,
PRIVATE STUDIO
917-848-3594
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Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets
Tribeca Greenmarket
Greenwich Street & Chambers Street
Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm
Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm
Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round
Bowling Green Greenmarket
Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green
Broadway & Whitehall St
Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round
Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Compost Program: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.
The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan’s historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season’s freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.
The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market
91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.
Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.
Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.
SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.
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Today in History
March 14
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1800 – James Bogardus, US inventor/builder of cast-iron facade buildings
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1489 – The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.
1558 – Ferdinand I appointed Holy Roman Emperor
1743 – First American town meeting (Boston’s Faneuil Hall)
1757 – On board HMS Monarch (his own flagship), British Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty “Pour encourager les autres”.
1794 – Eli Whitney patents cotton gin
1812 – Congress authorizes war bonds to finance War of 1812
1918 – First concrete ship to cross the Atlantic (Faith) is launched
1933 – Civilian Conservation Corp begins tree conservation
1939 – Nazi Germany dissolves Republic of Czechoslovakia
1964 – Jack Ruby sentenced to death for Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder
1965 – Israeli cabinet approves diplomatic relations with West Germany
1992 – Soviet newspaper “Pravda” suspends publication
1998 – An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran.
2013 – Xi Jinping is named as the new President of the People’s Republic of China
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1879 – Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate
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Births
1681 – Georg Philipp Telemann, Magdeburg Germany, late baroque composer
1800 – James Bogardus, US inventor/builder (made cast-iron buildings)
1864 – [John] Casey Jones, RR engineer (Ballad of Casey Jones)
1879 – Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate
1903 – Adolph Gottlieb American painter (d. 1974)
1948 – Billy Crystal, Long Beach, New York, actor, writer, producer
Deaths
1883 – Karl Marx, German philosopher (Communist Manifesto), dies at 64
1932 – George Eastman, US industrialist (Kodak-camera), suicide at 77
1933 – Balto, husky dog who brought back the antitoxin in 1925
1969 – Ben Shahn, US painter, dies at 70
2006 – Ann Calvello, Roller Derby Queen (b. 1929)
Credit: Wikipedia and other internet and non-internet sources
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395 South End Avenue NY, NY 10280
212-912-1106
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No part of this document may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher © 2022
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