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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcezqqz wrote

Reply to comment by Main_Photo1086 in Douglaston residents come out against Hocul’s affordable housing plan by Russianb0t1

Apartments block light, create density (less street parking, more anonymous neighbors in buildings, more garbage on curbs). I know every person on my block by name. I know their cars. There's no strangers. It's safe. I enjoy the familiarity. Swathes of buildings destroy that. And I paid dearly for a house that has those features. Fundamentally altering my community would rob me of what I paid for and do nothing to benefit or improve me in any way. You bet I'd be against it- regardless of who moves in to the buildings.

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Main_Photo1086 t1_jcf1hy9 wrote

The apartments getting built here come with parking and are garden-style, so still plenty of light. I also know apartment dwellers’ names too! Amazing how that works when you get to know people who might not be exactly like you. Don’t be such a snob.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcf43c3 wrote

What are you, the mayor of your block? Anyway, I don't believe you for a minute.

I live in Queens, the most diverse county in America. My block has people from all over the world, so I don't know what you're implying about "exactly like me". The Chinese, Korean, Azerbaijani, Indian, Russian and Secular Jewish families nearby aren't much like me, never mind "exactly" like me, but yeah, man.

You're the duke of diversity, the maharajah of multifariousness... /s

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Main_Photo1086 t1_jcf4ict wrote

Awwww, did I trigger you with my comments?

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcf7lc7 wrote

Hardly. You sound like 90% of the posters on this site. Nothing new, clever, unique or original; just banal and jejune sloganeering. "Look at me. I'm more diverse/anti-racist/Progressive than you". Quite boring, really.

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Silvery_Silence t1_jcgfccr wrote

And you sound disturbingly like so many of the white racists i grew up with, that I was so fortunate to escape from. I wouldn’t raise my kid around people like you if someone gave me an entire free house in whatever suburban queens neighborhood you lord over.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jchg5qp wrote

Is this your alternate account?

First of all, I live in Queens, which is a part of NYC. Therefore I am not "suburban". Second of all, if I have said anything that is "racist" please by all means report me. Third, my kids did great being in a secure neighborhood with a great sense of community. We had Scouts, Little league, CYO baseball and basketball, and the ability to play unsupervised in the streets, not cooped up in an apartment.

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Neckwrecker t1_jcf8u53 wrote

>I live in Queens, the most diverse county in America. My block has people from all over the world, so I don't know what you're implying about "exactly like me". The Chinese, Korean, Azerbaijani, Indian, Russian and Secular Jewish families nearby aren't much like me, never mind "exactly" like me, but yeah, man.

I swear I'm not racist I have neighbors

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcfayrk wrote

What have I said here that is in any way "racist"? If it is, please report me and have me banned and/or muted. If not, mind your business.

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Stringerbe11 t1_jcjhikd wrote

Daring to preserve the character of your neighborhood is racist. Let’s make the whole borough look like South Richmond Hill it’ll be so nice! Funny enough if this was a state led initiative where the government was actually developing housing and investing in communities, and updating and modernizing the derelict run down LIRR stops in Eastern Queens I’d support it. You know actually accommodating proposed booms in population like how they used to develop the borough at the turn of the century.

But it’s not. These developers will be selling their units at market rate. This is made quite clear in both the proposals and discussions taking place at Albany. There is no mention of building new schools, increasing public transit, expanding walkways and pedestrian safe zones ZERO. The state gives a paltry “we will work alongside developers” yeah ok, sure. How about a little more detail than we will get to that bridge when we cross it? Hochul is giving a gift to private developers under the guise of equity. These idiots are eating it up. Also, a lot of residents and civic associations in SE Queens are against this proposal as well, but that would not fit with the “how dare you be racist!” narrative in these comments.

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Rottimer t1_jcfikdk wrote

There is a housing crisis in NYC. You’re going to be affected. It sucks for you. It sucks even more for people that can’t find affordable housing in a city where their family lives and where they grew up. If there is one thing that is constant in this city, it’s change. Every neighborhood changes, and there will always be people that hate that happening.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcfnfgt wrote

The housing crisis may suck for you, Comrade. Not me. The ROI on my house is nice.

My mother's house in Brooklyn went for well over 7 figures in an area that's going to seed. You're right about change. And when the neighborhood declines, I leave and take the home value with it.

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Rottimer t1_jcfzaax wrote

Then sell now and take that value instead of ranting on Reddit about denser housing “fundamentally altering” your community.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcgb1td wrote

My when my property value keeps increasing? That'd be nuts. Also, I don't live in Douglaston. The fanatics haven't come for my area yet.

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Silvery_Silence t1_jcgeh71 wrote

“Fanatics” lol. You mean people who think more people should have a better shot at home ownership or affordable rent? Also not shocked at all your moms house sold for so much. People with generational wealth often like to protect it at all costs while denying the chance to build it for those they deem undeserving.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jchgc3h wrote

No one helped her family when they came. They worked, deferred, saved and planned. So why is someone entitled to something that my family had to work for, hmm?

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Silvery_Silence t1_jcho8ml wrote

Lmao. Yes because when granny Maria from Sicily bought her house for $50k it was exactly the same as the burden on working Americans now to come up with a $300k down payment. Give me a fucking break.

You’re in over your head with someone much smarter than you please stop.

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[deleted] t1_jchymvs wrote

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcjthqg wrote

I saved and scrimped and bought a shitty dump and lived crowded with my kids in an iffy area, and worked my ass off to improve the property. I later sold, taking the profit to enable purchase of a better property. No government programs assisted me! My parents were retired for 12 years and were on a fixed income. No help there, either!

I didn't look to the government and don't want to be taxed for something that isn't a necessity. Some people rent. They always have. You can't possibly suggest that everyone should be a private homeowner, so what gives?

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[deleted] t1_jcjzp4x wrote

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcms14o wrote

I didn't understand your question. Perhaps if you tried proper English I could have a go.

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[deleted] t1_jcndnz7 wrote

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcoi8jq wrote

You were given an opportunity to be articulate and that's what you have? Sorry, I don't waste my time on dullards.

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AnacharsisIV t1_jcfn42q wrote

I grew up in an apartment complex with thousands of residents. I'd see them every day in the elevator, in the lobby, and in our shared spaces like the gym or mail room. We weren't strangers, hell, it had the feeling of a small town within the city. I find it very strange why you think that apartments somehow ruin social bonds.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcfql96 wrote

Have at it. I'm not stopping you.

I am a native New Yorker. I lived in a multi family apartment for 2 years in the late 90s; everything else has been a single family.

Between the arguing couple, the old dude who played the tv too loud, the guy who cooked stinky food, the guy who kept off hours and slammed doors and the constant potsmoker, I resolved to never repeat.

The experience actually motivated me to raise my income so I would never have to put up with other people's rudeness and bullshit at home. I do enough of that sharing the city with 8 million people.

The more people, the more chances that someone will be a douche. So you do your thing and I do mine. Isn't that the city vibe- Live and let live?

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AnacharsisIV t1_jcfsp8s wrote

That's the thing; single family housing zoning doesn't "let live." Single family zoning says "there's only one way to live, and fuck you if you try to do it any other way." If your way of life is so self-evidently better, then developers would be falling over themselves to build suburban houses when they have other options for the lots.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcfu195 wrote

I don't wish ill on anyone who lives another way. I just resent when they want to force me to take on their way; especially if it might devalue my property or rob me of the peace and calm that I paid for. Wouldn't you?

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AnacharsisIV t1_jcfuu9c wrote

I am not so selfish to think that the "value of my property" is more important than efficiently using the land and infrastructure of the world's greatest city to ensure that more people can afford to live here and contribute to what makes it great.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcgajr4 wrote

Why do I owe you or anyone a god damn thing?

I look out for my family and my community. If everyone did that we'd all be a lot better off. Don't blame me that things suck. I do my bit.

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AnacharsisIV t1_jcgebdr wrote

You don't "owe" me a thing, but you're also not owed a neighborhood that conforms to your desires, and it's unethical to use regulatory capture to enforce it. Your community is a single neighborhood, my community is an entire city.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jchh72j wrote

Was are you- the "globalist" version of a New Yorker? Please!!! Do you get your groove on in Boro Park with the Hasids? Or in Richmond Hill with the Punjabi Sikhs? I doubt it. Stop bullshitting and virtue signaling. Its lame.

Dudes I knew from the Heights were into being from the Heights. Just like Bensonhurst guys are into being from B'hurst, Harlem guys are into being from Harlem, Bronx guys are into being from the Boogie down, etc.

Who wants to live in a city of sameness? I like it that Forest Hills has nice big houses, that Rockaway has a different climate and housing style, that Ditmas Park has those old Victorians. Celebrate diversity, man!

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AnacharsisIV t1_jchib06 wrote

> Or in Richmond Hill with the Punjabi Sikhs?

Yeah? I went to high school with a few of them. I'd probably have done so with the Hassids if they didn't segregate their kids into religious schools, too. Why are you so perturbed by someone being from the globe's capital being... a globalist? Why live in the most diverse city on the planet if you're not going to engage with that diversity? I'd rather go to Richmond Hill to experience Sikh culture than fly out to Punjab.

>Dudes I knew from the Heights were into being from the Heights. Just like Bensonhurst guys are into being from B'hurst, Harlem guys are into being from Harlem, Bronx guys are into being from the Boogie down, etc.

My family has been in washington heights for over a century. I am proud of my origins. I also acknowledge that my neighborhood changes; I am a descendant of successive waves of immigration to the neighborhood. My bloodline literally communicates the notion that times change. Expecting the city to stay the same just because that's what I got comfortable with in my youth is ridiculous.

>Who wants to live in a city of sameness? I like it that Forest Hills has nice big houses, that Rockaway has a different climate and housing style, that Ditmas Park has those old Victorians. Celebrate diversity, man!

You're not celebrating diversity. You're advocating for a single style of house to be built under penalty of law. Simply because zoning for other types of residences can be opened up in your neighborhood doesn't mean they will all be the same, and other cities with lots of mixed-use zoning are still architecturally diverse, like Tokyo. Different wards of Tokyo look entirely different while still having dense multifamily housing.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jchlbcu wrote

Bloodlines? What are you...a horse? What the fuck is that?

This isn't Tokyo. Neighborhoods change demographically but architecturally less so. That's a good thing. There's some nice houses out in Cambria Heights whose residents likely like as it is....

Let people who want to live in high rises be free to do so. Let those who like a more bucolic setting be able to as well. It's called choice; something you don't seem to like. Rather, you prefer nameless bureaucratic outsiders wielding power. It worked great for the Bronx when they put a road through the middle of it. Why learn from that? Why stop there? /s

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AnacharsisIV t1_jchplun wrote

>This isn't Tokyo. Neighborhoods change demographically but architecturally less so.

Really? How much 18th century architecture can you find in NYC? 19th century? Go to Williamsburg or Flushing and tell me with a straight face that architecture doesn't change.

>Let people who want to live in high rises be free to do so. Let those who like a more bucolic setting be able to as well. It's called choice; something you don't seem to like. Rather, you prefer nameless bureaucratic outsiders wielding power. It worked great for the Bronx when they put a road through the middle of it. Why learn from that? Why stop there? /s

You're literally preventing that. As it stands, we cannot build more high rises because large swaths of the city are zoned solely for low-density housing. Simply opening up the zoning for mixed-use and mixed-densities doesn't mean that single-family housing would disappear, either in NYC or America as a whole. Furthermore, "bucolic" living is literally the opposite of what is offered in a city. Do you also expect to raise cattle in Queens?

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jchwyjr wrote

My childhood home in Brooklyn was built in 1919. My current home in '35.

Both are bucolic. In both I'm on Wall Street in 35 minutes. The bet of both worlds.

Build all the high rises where people who live there like that sort of living- tall buildings and such. Let those who enjoy the sun, clouds and sky enjoy that too. I don't raise livestock, but I have lovely garden. I raise heirloom tomatoes, collards, kale, spinach, beets, potatoes, herbs, zucchini, eggplants and squash. I have pear, crabapple and fig trees. My friend who keep bees nearby reports a change in the honey's flavor since my trees fruited. I have had great conversations with old dudes about gardening- Puerto Ricans, Poles, Italians, West Indians, Russians. Gardening brings people together. Everybody eats and most of the world were farmers at some point.

I am contributing to biodiversity and cleaning up the air. Pollinators and birds eat the fruits and/or get nectar from flowers. Moreover, gardening kept me sane during the pandemic. I'm harming no one, helping the planet and getting sunshine and exercise. All your buildings won't contribute to that for anyone and might rob it from me.

Why are people like you so envious and spiteful?

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isowater t1_jcfijof wrote

This right here is the problem. It's not racism, it's money. It's always money. We'll never solve this issue until we stop treating real estate as an investment. Other countries have been successful to combat this

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcfnls7 wrote

Devaluing real estate is akin to devaluing social Security. It's an electoral 3rd rail. Have at it. Whoever votes for that will be out of a job comes next election cycle.

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isowater t1_jcfs8w7 wrote

That might be the case now, but as more property is bought out and rented and home ownership declines, the pendulum will swing the other way electorally. If we don't pass sensible legislation now we will have radicalized legislation later. For example see California's state wide zoning changes last year

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intjish_mom t1_jcfdd2y wrote

So i lived in brooklyn which most of the housing was 2 and 3 family housing. You can still have all of what you like aboutnyour neighborhood with more than just single family houses. The buildings in queens are two story two family housing that take approxiamitely the same footprint as a single family house. Nimby people like you expect things to just stay the same which is ridiculious. Maybe we should tear down all the dense housing andbbring ny back to being open land because nothing should change?

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcfnssi wrote

As long as so many people have the wealth tied up in property, whoever moves to devalue it will face electoral backlash. Democracy rules!

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intjish_mom t1_jcfq8i5 wrote

YEAH!! F**k everyone if it affects my wealth! Being rich is what matters, the poors shouldnt have been poor. its not my problem! /s

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcfubu3 wrote

I'm not rich. I'm middle class. And I intend to stay that way and help my children do the same or better. I won't apologize for that.

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intjish_mom t1_jcfxc4x wrote

assuming you own a home you may not be rich but your doing far better off than a lot of people. even the poorest americans are richer than the majority of poeple in the world. also the middle class really isn't a thing.

people need to learn to live with people that make less than them. you and your children can still do well if there happen to be lower-income people living in an apartment building next to you. if your whole argument is "but we've never had anything other than single-family housing here, my property values may change" is a weak argument.

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Infinite_Carpenter t1_jcg279s wrote

Don’t waste your time with this troll. He gets his information from Tucker Carlson. His username is literally boot licker.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcg1eqc wrote

Why do I have to learn t live any way that I don't want to? Who made you boss?

I learned in college that poverty is a factor in crime. Fewer poor people means less crime. I wish them well but don't want myself or my family to be sacrificed for someone else's ideals. Sorry!

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intjish_mom t1_jcgnbfx wrote

Well leave then.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jchfkqo wrote

I don't have to. I live in a safe, clean, quiet neighborhood. And besides, my property is getting sweet ROI!.

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intjish_mom t1_jchh6ew wrote

Good for you. Then deal with the multifamily properties when they come. Enjoy!

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Silvery_Silence t1_jcgfm6w wrote

Except the people who need access to affordable housing outnumber your kind. That’s why change is coming. Time to move south grandpa.

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jchfqyz wrote

I don't care what anyone but my immediate family needs. Therefore I will be an impediment to change that doesn't suit my interests. I don't owe you a thing!!!!

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Silvery_Silence t1_jchovpz wrote

“I don’t care about anyone but myself! I am the definition of a selfish asshole!!” Lol.

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[deleted] t1_jchy8fa wrote

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Dont_mute_me_bro t1_jcjtnrg wrote

I am a citizen and I vote. That's still my right, yes?

So you're in favor of nameless unexcited out of area bureaucrats setting standards for places of which they know nothing. It sounds like what Moses did to the Bronx when he put a highway through the place.

Yeo. It works really well to have. system like that. /s

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