Kudos on Ray Smith’s article on affordable housing last week. It seems that our city officials have chosen a preferential option for an elite group of developers to the detriment of those who need affordable housing and those who think Hoboken’s economic diversity is one of its great virtues.
We have been told that, say, requiring Maxwell Place to conform to our own laws and build 120 units of affordable housing – or pay into a never-established housing fund – in return for variances that would have enabled them to build 680 units of luxury, waterfront housing was too risky because the developer might sue, and because a judge might not laugh their case out of court and say that getting variances essential to building the entire project didn’t constitute just compensation.
But many of these same City officials had no problem running up vast legal bills in order to avoid answering public information requests – many filed by the current Council President. And they now have little trouble risking litigation concerning the municipal garage.
Am I the only person who smells bull excretion?
I wonder if the “counsel” advising the City Council on this has given thought to the potential cost of a class action suit brought by those denied access to all this affordable housing that was never built?
So, now that pretending the law doesn’t exist won’t work, the next move is to kill the law before people can organize.
Pay attention to who votes to repeal this law. They will be acting as tools of the aforementioned elite and they will be harming the interests of the less fortunate – regardless of the happy talk they use to cover their tracks. Once repealed, this law will never see the light of day again.
Michael Evers