![]() ![]() The first of Co-op City's 35 buildings went up in 1968 on the site of an American history theme park called Freedomland USA. Meanwhile, Netzer also noted, "there are widespread violations of the income limits set in the Mitchell-Lama law." Thus, despite the "splendid history" of some Mitchell-Lama projects, Netzer concluded, given the exorbitant cost to taxpayers, "it is hard to make much of a case for a new Mitchell-Lama program." Taxpayers in effect footed some of the resulting bill, and for years afterward, large subsidies continued on some Mitchell-Lama projects, including Co-op City. They simply refused to pay what was required." By 1975, there were some $1.8 billion in such bonds, virtually all defaulted. ![]() "The main reason that the program ended was that it actually required very large subsidies, for some (but not all) projects." The city had tried to finance some of these subsidies by a kind of short-term bonds, Netzer said, which were to be paid off by the mortgage payments on the Mitchell-Lama buildings, but rising interest rates increased the mortgage payments and "project after project defaulted on the required payments. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. "The Mitchell-Lama program was supposed to be one in which there were minimal subsidies from state or city funds," said Dick Netzer, professor emeritus of Economics and Public Administration at NYU's Robert F. Others say the reason is clear: it wound up costing taxpayers a great deal more money than anybody had imagined. "I think we should ask ourselves, why isn't Mitchell-Lama being repeated?" ![]() Can you imagine what the city would be like without the Mitchell-Lama program? For people who work for city government, low to middle income people, this has been an incredible success," said Tom Angotti, a professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College. "From the point of view of providing affordable, moderately priced housing, it is a smashing success. The program, named for New York State Senator McNeil Mitchell and State Assemblyman Alfred Lama, is often championed by city planners and housing advocates. At Mitchell-Lama buildings the government has control over rents and co-op prices, and developers have to charge prices that middle class New Yorkers can afford. The state gave developers tax exemptions and low-interest mortgages in exchange for what they hoped would be the public good of affordable housing. "We are never going to build as much affordable housing as we are going to lose." DREAM HOUSING WAKING UPĬo-op City is the largest complex built under the state's Mitchell-Lama program, which ran from 1955 to 1978 and was intended to encourage developers to build housing for the middle class. "We are in a hemorrhage kind of situation," said Michael McKee, associate director of the New York State Tenants & Neighbors Coalition. The city is planning new affordable housing initiatives, but critics say that new buildings will not be able to make up for what is being lost. While Co-op City crumbles, Mitchell-Lama, the state-sponsored middle class housing program that created it and hundreds of other developments, is eroding in other ways. Many other maintenance problems, along with an enormous mortgage debt, have caused Co-op City to go from a symbol of the promise and success of affordable housing in New York to a sign of its woes. It was paved over to provide emergency parking after one of Co-op City's parking garages collapsed and engineers ordered five more closed immediately. It is because the Greenway is filled with rows of cars the park has been turned into a parking lot. But that is not why children no longer play in its largest park. More than three decades later, few youngsters are playing in the Greenway, the largest park at the Bronx cooperative housing complex, which has become what social service providers call a "naturally occurring retirement community." Indeed, with more than 8,000 residents over the age of 65, Co-op City is considered the largest such retirement community in the nation. It's perfect for the family with children… the wide open spaces of a 300-acre residential park (200 city blocks). "Family-sized apartments at a price you can afford. City," read a promotional poster in the 1960s. “It's a young family's world at Co-op City, the new town being created in N.Y. ![]()
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