Posted on 12/15/2009 6:50:34 AM PST by reaganaut1
Bronx advocates said that the City Council vote on Monday to reject a $310 million project to build a mall inside the Kingsbridge Armory provided an opportunity to come up with a more community-oriented plan for the massive red-brick castle.
City Council members who voted down the project 45 to 1, with one abstention, said that the plan, proposed by the Related Companies, would have created hundreds of jobs that would have paid at or around the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, pay that they called too low to support local families.
They wanted Related to pledge that every job at the mall would pay at least $10 an hour, arguing that the company was set to receive more than $50 million in tax credits and exemptions. Many cities across the country have similar requirements for projects built using public money.
But Related said that any requirement to pay above minimum wage would make it impossible to attract tenants or secure financing.
The two sides negotiated through Sunday night, but with neither willing to bend, the Council voted to kill project, quashing plans that the developer said would have created 1,000 construction jobs and about 1,200 permanent ones.
The Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, a coalition of labor, religious and community leaders, said it would seek to work with a developer that would turn the building into a community resource that offers space for recreation, cultural and educational activities.
“We want development that will improve the community but not at the expense of pushing poor people out,” said Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, a longtime Bronx advocate.
The vote was a surprising defeat for the Bloomberg administration, which championed the project as a valuable investment that would spur much-needed economic development in the city’s poorest borough.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Freepers have valid reasons to dislike Bloomberg, but they should accept that in NYC most alternatives are worse.
New York has a special problem; the cost of living is high, even if you live in squalor, and their decades-long adventure in progressive education means there are a lot of people in the work force who cannot learn the skills needed for better employment. The cost structure and margins of retailing mean there are no $10/hour entry level jobs available.
Better improve those computer skills.
47 members of City Council? It’s amazing that anything ever gets accomplished.
So instead of hundreds of jobs paying at least $7.25 an hour they will have ZERO jobs paying ZERO.
The insane liberal mind.
There are no "low rent" neighborhoods, in the sense that most Americans would understand it, here. You can get a one bedroom for $1,100 around the armory in question. If you are working a crappy retail job, your choice would be to move in with other people or get on the waiting list for section 8 (the projects are full).
The best thing the folks of the west Bronx can do is to go to technical or clerical school while living at home or with others to save money. Retail is not a path toward personal financial independence, unless you have the skills and initiative to make assistant store manager.
A beautiful building, right next to the Kingsbridge stop on the Jerome Avenue 4 train.
Not to mention the design and construction jobs required to retro-fit the building. I guarantee those jobs pay way better than 7.25.
This has squat to do with jobs. I has to do with control. Same reason they won't let Walmart build in Chicago.
Of course they could just build the mall and hire all the people, and then have Zero wave his magic wand and make businesses pay $10 an hour.
Personally, I can't see how people can live at $10 an hour. I think $50 an hour would be much better.
Zero should wave his wand and proclaim that from now on everybody makes at least $50 an hour.
Oh yeah, and make it retroactive to his inauguration.
Yay! Rainbows and unicorns for everyone.
Its idiots who have these jobs and expect/demand that they provide them their daily sustenance... and more.
And Chicago GETS NADA!!!!
The insane liberal mind.
Sounds like they are actually hoping for yet another government-run "community center" that will employ a smaller number of underqualified local minority "counselors" at higher wages - worse for the average Bronx citizen, but much better for Democrat activists with ties to the City Council.
Cunning, not insane. There's always a "How can I get paid?" angle with liberals.
a) Those $7.25 an hour jobs are better than nothing.
b) Those $7.25 an hour jobs can develop into or lead to $10, $15, $25 and up an hour jobs?
c) If $7.25 is not a living wage in the area, the retailers would probably have trouble filling the jobs at that wage, and the market would compel them to raise it.
d) Young people, (mostly minorities in that area) trying to put themselves through college, could sure use that $7.25 an hour, that could be earned on evenings and weekends, therefore not conflicting with their classes.
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