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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Broadway Triangle Spat Heads for Court 

The Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council’s experience in building may indeed have won them the right, along with the United Jewish Organizations, based in Williamsburg, to contract the building of hundreds of units of subsidized housing at the Broadway Triangle.

But those who lost out, especially the main opponents like St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation and Los Sures — the latter connected to Diana Reyna — are suing over the award and planned design. They argue it is a snub to blacks and Latinos in favor of Hasidic Jews because of the building heights and apartment sizes. This ignores somewhat the role of RBSCC as a builder and renovator of housing for the decidedly non-Jewish.

The charges expose the fact that these properties are not intended for random residents to apply for from around the city, even if they are otherwise qualified. It is intended to be a permanent base of power for the winning organizations. That is why a certain lifestyle is built into the plan — shorter buildings so the faithful don’t have to use the elevator on the Sabbath and many-bedroomed apartments to accommodate lots of children, for example. No doubt the RBSCC “side” will be just the right setup for the typical families of their constituency.

Through a complicated application process, housing non-profits can ensure that they fill the housing they develop at public expense from the private ranks of their supporters. This process is described by Prof. Nicole Marwell in her book Bargaining for Brooklyn, written after years of immersive research in several organizations.

“Applications for government-subsidized housing are quite complicated, and those that are incomplete in any way are excluded from the lottery. Assistance from Ridgewood-Bushwick staff helps to increase the number of valid applications submitted by individuals affiliated with the organization. The informational and assistance benefits offered by Ridgewood-Bushwick, and other CBOs, thus ensure that its clients are overrepresented in drawings for any subsidized housing development it builds.” (Bargaining for Brooklyn, Pg. 116)

It’s reminiscent of how housing is built in a West Bank settlement — on ethnic lines and at about the same rate of subsidy. One assumes bulldozers will be used more properly here in Brooklyn.

http://bushwickbk.com/2010/03/16/broadway-triangle-spat-heads-for-court/

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