In a victory for white, ‘middle-class’ people (that is, Manhattanites who can only afford to own their country home, but cower in fear of the losing their rent stablized apartment), the West Village Houses will become an ‘affordable co-op.’ The West Village Houses, located in the Morton/Bank Street area (west of Washington Street), were apparently developed thanks, in part, to an effort by Jane Jacobs to bring low-density housing that is as ugly as your average suburban apartment campus or HUD project to one of the most beautiful urban landscapes in the country. Even as I am a vociferous proponent of rent control, because: A. I need it, and B. I think it is best market control mechanism possible that balances design and development interests (how does that work? Well, take a look at SoHo, where a large number of units are still rent controlled, and many more made the transition to market rate, bringing extraordinary returns to the property owners with almost no capital risk, all while retaining almost all its existing building stock, scale and character), which is what I have to say now that saying ‘I’m a socialist’ is unfashionable, I think that place should be razed, on the most elitist of aesthetic grounds. Even it is means that Vincent Gallo gets to sprawl in an even larger, leakier, Richard Meier apartment. Go see for yourself (or better yet, don’t), it is a black hole of design quality.
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And I’ve always been afraid of what a Christopher Alexander house would look like.
In a victory for white, ‘middle-class’ people (that is, Manhattanites who can only afford to own their country home, but cower in fear of the losing their rent stablized apartment), the West Village Houses will become an ‘affordable co-op.’ The West Village Houses, located in the Morton/Bank Street area (west of Washington Street), were apparently developed thanks, in part, to an effort by Jane Jacobs to bring low-density housing that is as ugly as your average suburban apartment campus or HUD project to one of the most beautiful urban landscapes in the country. Even as I am a vociferous proponent of rent control, because: A. I need it, and B. I think it is best market control mechanism possible that balances design and development interests (how does that work? Well, take a look at SoHo, where a large number of units are still rent controlled, and many more made the transition to market rate, bringing extraordinary returns to the property owners with almost no capital risk, all while retaining almost all its existing building stock, scale and character), which is what I have to say now that saying ‘I’m a socialist’ is unfashionable, I think that place should be razed, on the most elitist of aesthetic grounds. Even it is means that Vincent Gallo gets to sprawl in an even larger, leakier, Richard Meier apartment. Go see for yourself (or better yet, don’t), it is a black hole of design quality.