© Getty ImagesRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes working-class New Yorkers are leaving the Big Apple because it’s too expensive.
The thing is, it's the policies that she and her progressive allies want more of that have made the city so expensive.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, is, after all, a Democratic Socialist.
Look at what occasioned the digital town hall where she spoke: recently announced cuts across city agencies.
Why are these needed?
To pay for the migrants AOC and her ilk demand we admit in infinite numbers, and house and feed forever at a cost of more than $12 billion through fiscal 2025 (and that's a conservative estimate).
What about housing? A recent survey shows a third of New Yorkers are paying over half their income for rent.
Lefties used that fact to call for even more rent control — which in fact is a huge reason city housing is so limited.
Beyond that is the way progs have done so much to reduce the amount of housing, from blocking renewal of the 421a tax break for developers (responsible for the vast majority of new affordable housing in the past two decades) to 2019's Tenant Protection Act, which has taken 43,000 units off the market because it doesn't let landlords cover the costs of bringing old apartments up to code.
Now the city's on track to see only 11,000 new units built this year, half the number from 2022.
And this is to say nothing of the state's "Green New Deal" climate laws that are already sending power prices for New Yorkers skyward.
Or the billions of dollars stolen by shoplifting thugs from retailers big and small thanks to the criminal justice "reforms" AOC and her compatriots back.
AOC offered her usual prescription on this issue: Tax the rich!
But they're fleeing the state and city in droves, also thanks to our progressive overlords.
AOC and her fellow leftists simply don't care what their ideas actually mean for the people whose interests they claim to represent.
And if progressive ideology continues to rule New York, it'll get ever more unaffordable — and the exodus will accelerate.
Reader Comments
Tenant “protection” act passed by NY legislature in their infinite wisdom without consulting one landlord or real estate professional ironically made housing unaffordable and unattainable for too many. The law prevented landlords from collecting more than 1 month security deposit making tenants with the insufficient income or credit issues unable to qualify for housing since without an extra deposit and strict eviction laws (that make landlords fight for months in courts to evict for non payment) landlords aren’t willing to take a chance. And the 43,000 rent stabilized units that require gut renovation will never see the market ever again because that stupid law allows for only $10k of the renovation cost to be added to a ridiculously low registered rent, so who in their right mind would drop $80-120k on renovating an apartment that they’ll never see a return on? They also stipulated that real estate agents and brokers couldn’t collect broker’s fee from the tenants passing it to landlords and therefore increasing the monthly rent per department of state interpretation of the law. Luckily, the Real Estate Board on NY sued them in 2020 and won. Of course the media was quick to come up with titles like “No more brokers fee in NY!” but when the interpretation was blocked, there were crickets and then Covid came 😂