Albany Post Mortems
June 24th, 2007
As the state legislature goes home, at least for a few weeks, Newsday looks at the last six months in the state capital and deems it “disappointing.” And the paper blames Governor Eliot Spitzer, saying his administration “proven to be more self-righteous than effective and too arrogant by half.”
And the News aims its ire at a bill passed in the closing hours of the session that puts limits on the tax abatement for developers who build housing in the city. While most coverage of this has focused on the gift the bill bestows on Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards developments (see our earlier posting), it’s the rest of the measure that the News doesn’t like. Contrasting it with the version of the so-called 421-a program passed by City Council late last year, the News claims this bill, intended to encourage construction of affordable homes, “will stop production of middle-class housing in neighborhoods across all five boroughs.” The requirements the bill sets are, in the News’ eye, “wonderful… [but] economically impossible.”
By Gail Robinson on June 24, 2007, 8:40 pmIn category: Albany, Gotham City, Housing | No Comments »
