New York Skyscraper’s Separate ‘Poor Door’ Called a ‘Disgrace’ : NPR
This is pretty freaking disgraceful but it’s worse when you consider that the builder got tax credits.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is under fire for signing off on a building plan that allows a new luxury high-rise on Manhattan’s western edge to have a separate entrance for low-income residents.
About 20 percent of the units in the 33-story tower will be reserved for low- and middle-income residents. But all the affordable units will be grouped in one area, and those tenants will have to enter through a separate door.
“This developer must go back, seal the one door and make it so all residents go through the same door,” City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal said. “It’s a disgrace.”
Civil rights attorneys say a significant number of tenants in the subsidized apartments could be minorities. Lawyer Randolph McLaughlin says that makes the building’s design more than disgraceful — but possibly illegal.“To permit developers or encourage them to create separate and unequal buildings and take tax credits and benefits from the city,” he said, “I think that’s a constitutional violation.”
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