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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: The Top 10 Stories of 2019 in New York Politics

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    December 25, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: The Top 10 Stories of 2019 in New York Politics

    PodcastThe hosts break down the 10 biggest stories of 2019 in New York politics, from all-Democratic control in Albany to Mayor de Blasio's short-lived presidential campaign, from a federal monitor for NYCHA to a 'transformative' year at the MTA, Corey Johnson's quest to 'break

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  • What’s Really Been Missing from the Democratic Presidential Debate Stage

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    (photo: NYCHA)


    Another Democratic presidential primary debate is now behind us, and once again not a single question has been asked about how our next President will address one of the federal government’s biggest failures of the last half-century – the neglect and divestment in our nation’s public housing.

    Candidates across the board are developing new and exciting progressive policies that have energized the Democratic electorate (including many around affordable housing). But this central issue of restoring public housing, once a

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  • NYCHA Open Space: The Next City Park Frontier

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    Samuel N. Bennerson 2nd Playground could be a model (Google, 2019)


    New Yorkers have been building parks in the most unexpected places. Popular parks have risen over rotting piers on the waterfront; on an elevated and abandoned rail freight line; and even in the middle of busy traffic intersections in Times Square. Many skeptics doubted that anyone would want to sunbathe along the East River, eat a snack in the middle of Times Square, or walk on a rickety steel structure 30 feet above the streets. The skeptics were wrong. Millions have flocked to new spaces in

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  • Financing the Restoration and Repair of NYCHA Property

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    (photo: NYCHA)


    In his recent column, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Billions in Potential Revenue for NYCHA” (Dec. 2), one of the nation’s leading housing experts, Nicholas Dagen Bloom, writes in support of a study by the Regional Plan Association proposing to finance the repair and rehabilitation of NYCHA public housing properties by selling unbuilt-upon open space in those properties. Those air rights would be sold to real estate developers who

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  • Hidden in Plain Sight: Billions in Potential Revenue for NYCHA

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    (East Harlem NYCHA superblocks possess massive amounts of unbuilt air and ground space, as illustrated in the HOUSING DENSITYshow currently on view at the Skyscraper Museum.)


    NYCHA developments full of high-rises seem massive from a distance, but on closer examination their visual bulk disguises a deeper truth: they are dominated by open space. What to do with all this unbuilt space has inspired competing and controversial plans for infill and redevelopment. A growing number of policy

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  • What's The [DATA] Point? 90%, The City's Initial Progress on 'NYCHA 2.0'

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 80 -- 90%, The City's Initial Progress on 'NYCHA 2.0' - with Sean Campion of CBC [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    sean campion wtdpMayor de Blasio launched a new "NYCHA 2.0" plan in December 2018, with initiatives to help the struggling public housing authority bring in roughly $25 billion over the

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  • As New NYCHA Chair Takes Over, the Future of Public Housing Hangs in the Balance

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    Chair Gregory Russ visiting a NYCHA complex (photo: @NYCHA)


    “These first few months of our work have revealed NYCHA as an organization fraught with serious problems in structure, culture, and direction, and perhaps even worse,” wrote Bart Schwartz, the new federal monitor of the city’s public housing authority, in his first progress report, released July 22.

    Three weeks later, this past Monday, Gregory Russ arrived in Manhattan for his first day of work as NYCHA’s new Chair and CEO, with an enormous task in front of him.

    NYCHA’s short- and long-term futures

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  • Assessing Alicia Glen's Impact on the City’s Physical Space - Part I: 'We have completely changed the housing landscape'

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    Alicia Glen (photo: Paige Polk/Mayor's Office)


    This is part one of a two-part series on former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen's impact on the "built environment" of New York City. Find part two -- on economic development, transit, and more -- here.

    It’s the year 2026 in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of new units of rent-restricted apartments have been added to the city’s housing stock as the

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  • Protecting Aging New Yorkers Amid Growing Threats Posed by Extreme Heat

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In a city where flooding is the face of climate change, extreme heat is a silent but growing threat. Every year, extreme heat in New York City causes, on average, more than 450 emergency room visits and 150 hospital admissions, and results in the deaths of 115 New Yorkers from heat stroke and heat-related exacerbation of chronic health conditions. Older people are at the most risk.

    For the first time in human history, our planet has more people over 65 than children under five, and the world’s global population is

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  • The Root NYCHA Problem: A Culture of Disengagement & Dysfunction

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Last week the federal NYCHA monitor issued his first quarterly report. It was a scathing indictment of the agency, describing “putrid liquid” spilling into a laundry room and rats scurrying through a 14-floor high garbage compactor. As one resident explained, “we are hostages in our own homes at night…due to rats that are the size of cats.”

    But as disturbing as these examples are, the most important finding was less graphic but ultimately more dangerous:  A systemic culture of failing to take

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  • Advocates See Irony in Cuomo's Thinly-Veiled Shots at De Blasio Over City Problems

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    Cuomo & de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo believes in action, rather than rhetoric, and rarely shies away from criticizing those who he believes fail to live up to their promises, including his fellow Democrats. He’s also appeared particularly irritated by the ascendent progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which has challenged him, unfairly he argues, and offers what he says are pie-in-the-sky talking points over the types of achievable results he’s delivered.

    Cuomo brought the

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  • Seize the Albany Opportunity to Do More for NYCHA

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    Danny Barber, left, is the author; with Gov. Cuomo & others (photo: the Governor's office)


    I stood with Governor Cuomo last year when he showed how bad conditions in public housing have gotten after decades of federal neglect. With the governor’s leadership, NYCHA was allocated $250 million in last year’s state budget. While that money was held up due to the appointment of a federal monitor, the need for additional funds remains again this year.

    Major capital repairs are needed to keep residents safe and healthy in all five boroughs. Leaks, mold, pests, broken

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  • Interim NYCHA CEO Kathryn Garcia on the Federal Monitor and Future of Public Housing in New York

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    Mayor de Blasio & Kathryn Garcia, right (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Four months on the job, NYCHA Interim Chair and CEO Kathryn Garcia remains optimistic and determined about the future of the New York City public housing authority, home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers and several major crises. Garcia, who was the city’s sanitation commissioner for about five years until taking leave to fill in as the head of NYCHA, appeared on

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: NYCHA Interim CEO Kathryn Garcia

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    May 29, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: NYCHA's Future, with Interim CEO Kathryn Garcia

    kathryn garcia wbaiKathryn Garcia, the city's sanitation commissioner for most of Mayor Bill de Blasio's tenure, was recently named interim chair and CEO of NYCHA, tasked with steering the public housing authority through tumultuous times,

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Lessons from London for How to Fix NYCHA

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    May 29, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Lessons from London for How to Fix NYCHA

    sarah watson wbaiSarah Watson of Citizens Housing & Planning Council joined the show to discuss how London dealt with its crumbling public housing decades ago and what lessons may be informative as New York City tries to chart its path ahead in saving

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  • What's The [Data] Point? 5, with former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 69 -- 5, with former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen[You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    Alicia Glen was Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development under Mayor Bill de Blasio for more than five years, until she recently left the administration after being the chief architect of its signature affordable housing plan, a broad variety of economic development initiatives, and more. Glen joined the podcast (for the second

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  • City Council Public Housing Chair Weighs in on HUD Deal, NYCHA’s Future

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    Alicka Ampry-Samuel (photo: Jeff Reed/City Council)


    As Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced his “NYCHA 2.0” plan to secure the future of the city’s public housing authority, an agreement with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that includes a new federal monitor of NYCHA, and a new interim chair to lead the authority, the City Council member charged with oversight of NYCHA has some questions.

    Alicka Ampry-Samuel is the chair of the City Council’s public housing committee and represents parts of central

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: The Future of NYCHA with City Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    February 7, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: City Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel

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    City Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel chairs the Council's public housing committee and represents a Brooklyn district with a large NYCHA presence. She joined the show to discuss NYCHA's future,

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  • Private Sector Failure Requires NYCHA’s Preservation

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    (photo: Mayor's Office)


    Many New Yorkers likely wonder why Mayor de Blasio wants to spend $24 billion on saving the aging towers of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Much of this public housing consists of plain brick towers, which the city built rapidly from the 1930s to the 1960s, in a dated “towers in the park” design, now worn down from decades of hard use. In Singapore and much of Europe, government policy has targeted public housing of this age and type for billions in spending to remake projects to match changing urban tastes, family size, and

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Top Stories of 2018 & What to Watch in 2019

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    December 26, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Top Stories of 2018 & What to Watch in 2019

    This is part of AGENDA 2019, a joint Gotham Gazette-City Limits project
    Find the rest of the series

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  • NYCHA Follows the Money

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    NYCHA RAD announcement (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Had the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Congress, and various Presidents funded public housing at a level equivalent to its needs for the past two decades, NYCHA would still have problems, but not at the scale it does today. Nor would a progressive Mayor be wholeheartedly embracing private management of about one-third (62,000) of the city’s precious, low-cost, public housing units. The only way to understand why the Mayor, NYCHA leadership, and many local politicians endorse increasing the

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  • What's The [Data] Point? 90%, with NYCHA Interim Chair Stan Brezenoff

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 56 -- 90%, with NYCHA Interim Chair Stan Brezenoff [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    Stan Brezenoff

    90% is the share of NYCHA units CBC estimates may not be cost effect to repair by 2027 under the current trajectory of deterioration. NYCHA Interim Chair and CEO Stan Brezenoff joined CBC

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  • At Brooklyn Town Hall, Angry NYCHA Residents Told to Vote as a Bloc

    superstorm sandy aftermath

    (photo via NYCHA)


    The myriad issues plaguing the New York City Housing Authority came to the fore at a town hall on Wednesday night, with NYCHA residents excoriating public officials and officials scrambling to respond.

    The town hall, hosted by BRIC TV at its downtown Brooklyn studio, featured an audience mainly consisting of NYCHA residents and a panel of City Council Members Alicka Ampry-Samuel and Ritchie Torres, NYCHA tenant leader Lisa Kenner, New York Daily News reporter Greg Smith, and NYCHA historian Nicholas Dagen Bloom, along with

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  • Politics Created NYCHA; Only Politics Will Save It

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    (photo via the Governor's office)


    The New York City Housing Authority’s first developments in the 1930s rose from the frustrations of a massive working class tired of sweating and suffering in crappy tenements. NYCHA grew in the decades that followed, to about 175,000 apartments, thanks to consistent support from politicians under tremendous pressure from everyday New Yorkers, housing advocates, and the media.

    Politics saved NYCHA multiple times from the fate of public

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  • What's The [Data] Point? $31.8 billion in NYCHA need, with Sean Campion

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 47 -- $31.8 billion, with Sean Campion [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

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    NYCHA needs

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