"Let 'em eat spinach."
Posted on 02/19/2019 1:08:06 PM PST by Red Badger
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., recently moved into a luxury apartment complex in Washington, D.C. that does not offer the affordable housing units that were a key plank in the New York congresswoman’s campaign platform.
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, who said in November that she was concerned about being able to afford rent in D.C., now earns a $174,000 annual salary and is living in a newly built high-rise in the city’s Navy Yard area, the Washington Free Beacon reported last week.
The freshman congresswoman, a self-described socialist, campaigned on a platform to expand affordable housing, and her controversial Green New Deal proposal promises “Safe, affordable, adequate housing” for all.
But Ocasio-Cortez’s new building — built by leading D.C. developer WC Smith — is part of a luxury complex whose owners specifically do not offer affordable units under Washington, D.C.’s Affordable Dwelling Units program. The Washington Examiner is not naming the building or complex.
In 2018, a civil rights attorney sued the Washington, D.C. government for allegedly discriminatory gentrification policies, claiming that development in Navy Yard area and other parts of southeast D.C. encouraged an influx of affluent “millennial creatives” who displaced minority residents.
Ocasio-Cortez, commonly referred to as "AOC," repeatedly criticized luxury real estate developers during her campaign, claiming that their buildings hiked up rent prices and pushed low-income residents out of their neighborhoods.
“We need to kick luxury real estate lobbyists to the curb and defend working people’s way of life,” Ocasio-Cortez said last March. “Skyrocketing cost of living is a national crisis that CAN be addressed. It’s not just an NYC issue - it’s happening in every US metro area.”
Ocasio-Cortez also promised not to take campaign contributions from luxury developers during her campaign. “It’s time we stand up to the luxury developer lobby,” she said in a speech last April. “Every official is too scared to do it - except me.”
Her new apartment complex — which boasts on its website that it “promises to take luxury apartment living to a new level” — offers over 100,000 square feet of amenities for its residents.
These include: two private massage rooms with state-of-the-art hydrotherapy beds; men’s and women’s saunas; a full-scale demonstration kitchen with wood-fired pizza oven; a 25-meter indoor lap pool; a rooftop infinity pool with panoramic views of the Capitol; a Peloton cycling studio with over a dozen bikes; and a fireside lounge featuring a Steinway & Sons player piano.
Also included is a PGA-grade golf simulation lounge with a wrap-around screen and viewing bar that allows residents to play virtually at dozens of the world’s most exclusive golf courses with the touch of a button. Last week, Democrats mocked President Trump for installing a new golf simulator at the White House — updating with his own money one originally installed by former President Barack Obama.
Apartments in the building currently start at $1,840 per month for a 440 square foot studio, and range up to $5,200 for a three-bedroom. The average rent in Washington D.C. is $1,340 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,550 for a two-bedroom, according to the most recent data from Apartment List.
W. Christopher Smith, 66, the Annapolis-based CEO of WC Smith, is a Democratic donor who contributed to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and the Senate campaigns of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-M.D., Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA., and Jane Raybould, who lost a 2018 Senate race in Nebraska.
Smith donated to Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., in 2017, and 11 employees of WC Smith gave $6,900 to the campaign of Muriel Bower, the Democratic mayor of D.C. In 2018, WC Smith's vice-president of communications Ann-Marie Bairstow gave over $1300 to Act Blue earmarked in small amounts — $100 or less — for various candidates, including $50 to Ocasio-Cortez.
Gentrification
Commies NEVER want to be around the common folk..its why they love communism so much, it only benefits THEM not anyone else..the rest of us have to use leaves to wipe our asses
Two things. One, leftists are the biggest hypocrites. Two, luxury apartments still cost half what they’d fetch here in Silicon Valley. Nuts!
Did I dream about reading of Congress critters who sleep in their office because they can’t afford a place to live? How is AOC able to do it? Do the media care? You know they would if she was a freshman Repub....
I wish people would let up on AOC a little bit. I’m becoming worried that she’ll be primaried out of her seat in 2020. She is the arguably the best spokesperson for conservatism that the GOP has ever had.
They just can’t stand the stench of the “unwashed masses”, but it’s A-OK to milk em every April 15th for all they’re worth.
I agree.
Would like to know who’s paying for it?
Some
Old
Really
Onerous
SOB.......................
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” Don’t you understand - she needs a luxury apartment.
With her $178K salary after DC and fed taxes is probably takes up about $100K. Most congressmen take home a few hundred $K per year in additional insider trading proceeds and graft so she should be fine once she learns the ropes. After a couple of terms she'll have a mansion in the hamptons and a brownstone in DC like everyone else in congress.
Second bottle of 2015 Crane Lake Sangiovese comin'up.....
You beat me to it. That neighborhood was a war zone 20 years ago. I know, I do business at the navy yard and USCG HQ which is also nearby and it was always an adventure. These new buildings all went up in the last few years and she is absolutely taking advantage of gentrification of the neighborhood (known to non-leftists simply as improvement). I wonder if she’s ever made any public statements on the evil of gentrification?
$11 an hour in 1978 I would have been wealthy beyond my wildest dreams......................
She could fit a few homeless families in her place.
Hah. Some people on this forum know what that 'hood was like before it got cleaned up ...
but some animals are more equal than others."
(George Orwell, Animal Farm)
Thats disgusting... I’m sure it aint that worn out yet
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