New York City will invest $200 million in affordable housing, new infrastructure and job creation initiatives in the southwest Bronx, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday in his annual State of the City address.
The expense is part of his continued citywide affordable housing push, de Blasio said at Baruch College in lower Manhattan.
"If we fail to be a city for everyone, we risk losing what makes New York New York," said de Blasio in his second State of the City speech. "And nothing more clearly expresses the inequality gap the opportunity gap than the soaring cost of housing."
Affordable housing stands out as the focal point of de Blasio's agenda for 2015, said Anthony Figliola, vice president of Empire Government Strategies in Uniondale, N.Y. "There is no doubt that Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn have left middle class and economically disadvantaged residents with little affordable housing options," he said.
Figliola called the $200 million Bronx investment "very ambitious" and an about face from the Manhattan-centric attention of de Blasio's predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. "Given the new [state] Assembly speaker, Carl Heastie, is from the Bronx, I would look for additional investments into the borough as well," said Figliola.
De Blasio also said the city would work with communities in Queens to develop "a new vision" for the Sunnyside Yards.
He also called for $36 million to provide free legal defense for tenants in all areas undergoing rezoning, and $30 million from the Department of Cultural Affairs for 1,500 affordable live/work spaces for artists.
Additionally, he said the city would launch a citywide ferry service that would blend existing East River routes with new landings and services to Astoria, the Rockaways, South Brooklyn, Soundview and the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Pegged to the cost of a bus and subway fares, the service would launch in 2017. City operating support and a $55 million capital commitment would backstop it, he said.
Further expansion to Staten Island's Stapleton neighborhood and Coney Island would constitute a second phase of expansion, he said, pending additional funding.
State Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder, D-Queens, called for advanced timetable on Rockaway service. "While I am encouraged by the news and what it means for the future of Rockaway, our families and small businesses are suffering today and need service implemented immediately," said Goldfeder. "Our ferry dock at Beach 108th [Street] was disassembled and shipped away overnight. It should not take two years to bring it back."
Goldfeder last fall proposed a fare for non-residents on the Staten Island ferry to raise funds to restore the Rockaway service.
"An outer-borough ferry system sounds like a good idea, given that a train ride from the Rockaways to Manhattan takes a millennium," said Figliola. "However, the devil will be in details including how much will it actually cost."
De Blasio also said the city would develop 13 new bus rapid transit routes through 2017, targeting Woodhaven Boulevard and Flushing-to-Jamaica in Queens, Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, and 86th Street in Manhattan during the next immediate expansion wave.
The city, he said, will partner with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York State and U.S. Department of Transportation to secure multi-level support for the select bus service program, starting with a $295 million commitment from the city.
