@RobertaGratz profile picture
Roberta Gratz @RobertaGratz

writer. author. New Yorker. urbanist. jane jacobs follower and friend. second home is New Orleans.

Joined September 2008
  • Tweets 552
  • Following 59
  • Followers 546
2 Photos and videos
It's getting tiresome refuting those who would use Jane Jacobs to validate City Of Yes. My one reply does not seem enough. More to come.
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Between this and Air B & B is it any wonder there's a housing crisis? commonedge.org/how-private-e…

How Private Equity Is Making the Housing Crisis Even Worse

Residential properties have been transformed into an asset class to be traded among institutional investors.

commonedge.org
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If we reall want to stem the loss of affordable housing, ban Wall Street equity firms from buying up whole blocks of houses, doing nothing to improve them and then renting them at huge profits making them out of reach to most.
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Taller does NOT mean more housing units. Height and density are not the same thing. A shorter building can have more units depending on design. Many of the new tall towers are replacing shorter, older buildings with more units. That's just a fact.
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Par for the course. Lawyer Mark Silberberg has been standing in the way of protecting landmarkable interiors for decades. The city has lost great treasures.
Paul Goldberger@paulgoldberger
31 Aug 2023
An unforgivable failure on the part of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. They claim designation would get in the way of public use of the public space and its evolution—a disingenuous and totally absurd claim. They have the right to approve of any reasonable changes.
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mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#in… Landmarks Commission is a joke. They do the developer's bidding always!!
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Amazing hubris of $men who think they know the first thing about how cities begin or function. I won't live to see this fail. nytimes.com/2023/08/29/busin…

A California Land Mystery Is Solved. Now the Political Fight Begins. (Published 2023)

Tech industry investors spent roughly $900 million buying land to build a dream city in a rural part of the Bay Area. It could be years, though, before they can do anything with it.

nytimes.com
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Trying to reach Chris Cooper about New Orleans (Roberta.Gratz@gmail.com) #ncpol
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Barclay's in Bklyn dsplacd mixd, midle and low incom comunty in 2005. Most promised benefits hav not materialized. no enforcement. What maks anyone think same won't be true of the Penn Station plan. When truth emerges, it will be too to save 2200 smal businesses 6000 residts.
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I totally agree and wrote about the Barclay's disaster in New York In the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs.
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Roberta Gratz retweeted
Mark Ruffalo
@MarkRuffalo
11 Jun 2023
Fellow New Yorkers & those who love NYC, please sign up to oppose the demolition of the West Park Church on the corner of 86th & Amsterdam. Theater, music, dance, art & worship happen here every day. Save the Upper West Side’s “Public Theater.” @nyclandmarks @galeabrewer @bradhoylman @NYCMayor forms.office.com/pages/respo…

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Roberta Gratz retweeted
Gale A. Brewer
@galeabrewer
11 Jun 2023
Rally to save West Park Church. Historic churches should not be judged as commercial ventures. The mayor recently committed to strengthen protections for designated landmarks. I join him in the effort. @WestParkCenter is the perfect place to start. @MarkRuffalo said same thing.
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Roberta Gratz retweeted
Gale A. Brewer
@galeabrewer
10 Jun 2023
Today at 1PM: Rally to Save West Park Presbyterian Church from LPC Wrecking Ball! Join us at 165 W. 86th St. (Amsterdam Ave.)
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Landmarks Commission replacing all current commissioners including the two who are restoration experts and aren't swayed by LPC contrivances.
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nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-o…

Landmarks agency failing its job

How many private meetings between a developer applicant and the chairman, lawyer and staff of the Landmarks Preservation Commission does it take before the pattern is considered corruption? As part...

nydailynews.com
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Roberta Gratz retweeted
Gale A. Brewer
@galeabrewer
18 Dec 2022
@galeabrewer 88 St/Bway. Yrs ago it was Duane Reade; then vacant; then JOKR, a “dark store”/micro-fulfillment ctr that I said was a warehouse delivering too fast, covering windows & did not belong in a retail area, & they went away; now it is to be a grocery store-Key Food! YEAH!
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can't happen soon enough. enewspaper.nydailynews.com/h…
It’s the largest dip in 15 years, according to our analysis of property tax bills.
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A report notes: landlords keep tens of thousands of rent-stabilized units off market, according to stat agency obtained by THE CITY. mor than 61,000 rnt-stabilzd homs vacnt last yr, and n three yrs city saw 8% drop in nmbrs of aprtmnts regstrd as rent-stabilized.
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This is not about new affordable housing. Developments like this always disrupt a community. It's inevitable, what Jane Jacobs called cataclysmic development. Developers are flooding elected officials with donations; that's what it's about.enewspaper.nydailynews.com/h…

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Excellent piece reminding the world of the loss of Municipal Art Society as an important civic leader and advocate.commonedge.org/in-honoring-p…
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