NYC Apartment Building Set to Have Separate ‘Poor Door’

[andrew8798]

Entrance for The Low-Income

The City of New York approved a proposal by one of the largest real estate developers in the city to build in a 'poor door', or a separate door for residents living in affordable housing to enter their building.
According to a Saturday report from the New York Post, the city approved the application of Extell, one of the most prominent developers in New York, to install this separate set of doors into a high-rise located on 40 Riverside Boulevard, a location situated next to the Hudson River.
Extell's proposal allows them to force affordable housing tenants to walk through an entrance located in a back alley behind the building to enter, leaving the more prominent front entrance for tenants paying for nicer apartments.

Under the Inclusionary Housing Program, for which the city approved Nextell's application, larger properties are allowed to be built as long as they include a portion of affordable housing units.
For the 40 Riverside Boulevard location, 55 units will be designated as affordable housing, all units facing the street. Another 219 units will face the river.

A spokesman for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development confirmed that the agency had approved Extell’s application for the Inclusionary Housing Program.
Despite the approval of this application, the New York Post reports that Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer vowed to reject future developments with separate entrances.
Extell applied to the Inclusionary Housing program in August 2013, which drew the ire of many critics, including Christine Quinn, who was running for Mayor at the time. Quinn called for a change of laws to force developers to provide common entrances for all occupants.
However, some developers dismiss the outcry over the 'poor door' concept.

'No one ever said that the goal was full integration of these populations,' David Von Spreckelsen, senior vice president at Toll Brothers, another developer specializing in luxury residencies, told The Real Deal in 2013. 'So now you have politicians talking about that, saying how horrible those back doors are. I think it’s unfair to expect very high-income homeowners who paid a fortune to live in their building to have to be in the same boat as low-income renters, who are very fortunate to live in a new building in a great neighborhood.'
Toll Brothers developed the high-rise at 1 Northshore Pier, a luxury building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This building purpotedly includes a 'poor door.'

-myfoxny

What year is this again

[Deleted]

Rich people are just better than all of us.

[kidglov3s]

Lurching toward The Purge Anarchy

[Sephiroth]

Of course now people will know which door to wait behind with a sock full of pennies when this smug, rich creeps come waltzing in

[Evil Homer]

this is not something that should be happening in the 21st century- Especially in NY of all places

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Wiat, Donald Trump didn't propose this?

[Kevin Hamilton]

I think it’s unfair to expect very high-income homeowners who paid a fortune to live in their building to have to be in the same boat as low-income renters, who are very fortunate to live in a new building in a great neighborhood.'

[Deleted]

I'll bet you that the "Poor Door" is going to be a screen door with one hinge already out, just to rub it in.

["I'm Batman..."]

[Deleted]

#occupyapartment

[Kevin Hamilton]

[HMARK Center]

This has actually been in and out of the news around here for awhile now; it's really yet another indication of how Manhattan (and, increasingly, the other boroughs as well) has become a madhouse of economic inequality.

The notion of affordable housing in newer, nice buildings is great; the rest is nuts, and just reaffirms so many negative things about separating people based on, well, almost any societal marker (class, ethnicity, etc.).

[Sephiroth]

And not to get all socio-political, but the part that genuinely annoys me is that if certain people get heckled coming out of "rich doors," you can be 100% certain some social commentators will insist the hecklers are "envious" of them rather than considering the possibility that a "rich door" is simply a grade A douche move and actual deserving of heckling

[Deleted]

This is horrible...unless they re-name it the "Po' Do'." Then, I might reconsider.

[Deleted]

This is both the funniest and most asinine thing that I've heard lately.

Walking through the same door as someone from a lower tax bracket is a real bitch!

[Digital Witness]

This is seriously a thing? In 2014 we need separate doors based on income brackets?

Really?

This reminds me of that "Pitchforks Are Coming For Us" article. Now we know which door to go through when carrying said pitchforks and torches.

[Deleted]

I really hope ALL the rich people in the apartment wear top hats and monocles with walking canes and exotic fur coats. And the monocles makes them see poor people having leprosy and scurvy

[Cyno]

I guess nobility and peasantry really do exist in the US.

[Rolent Tex]

I like how the developers just go complete douche and make the affordable housing face the street while the higher rent ones get a river view. Way to go out if your way to be dicks. Sure, we'll include affordable housing but were gonna be as shitty as possible about it.

[Deleted]

Look, I get it. A lot of people are born into wealth or get wealthy and don't want to associate with common riff-raff. Its not like I can't understand where they're coming from, as entitled and elitist as it is, from their world view, it at least makes sense they'd want something so ... 18th Century Paris... for their building.

What is more disappointing is how much this signals a fundamental failure by the local government to maintain the basic tenants equality and fraternity amongst its people. If there ever was an indicator that local government is just as susceptible to the influence of wealth as its national counterpart, this is it. Though I'm sure there are more egregious examples out there, this one is so SPOT ON literal in its favoring the rich over the poor.