New York Post Upper East Siders fume as playground set to be replaced by mixed-income housing by Jennifer Bain and Linda Massarella

New York Post
Upper East Siders fume as playground set to be replaced by mixed-income housing
Jennifer Bain and Linda Massarella
Jennifer Bain
05/31/2017

“You’re taking their light and air and playground,” she said, standing in the play area alongside parents.

Maloney said the proposed project — for which the city would receive a $25 million payout from the developer in exchange for a 99-year lease — is short-sighted.

“We need more green, not greed, in the city,” she said.

Councilmember Ben Kallos said he has attended dozens of meetings where the details of the lease and the construction plans are being hashed out.

Although half of the units in the new building are intended to be affordable housing, Kallos says he suspects the project would not benefit the existing community.

“I don’t think the NYCHA residences should be trapped in the shadows of the wealthy,” Kallos said.

“I want to save this playground.”

Protestors vowed to fight the plans.

“We’ve been given so few details, we can fit them on one hand,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, calling the project a “cash cow” for the housing authority, which plans to spend it on needed renovations to Holmes Tower.

City housing spokeswoman Jasmine Blake said the site is being developed to raise “critically needed revenue at a time when ­NYCHA is facing over $17 billion in unmet capital needs.”