When Being Involved Mattered
I recently read that Richard Ravitch had died at the age of 89.
I had met Ravitch several times, and though I can’t say I knew him well, I admired the man. He was a developer who refused to abandon New York in the 1970s. Instead, he built thousands of affordable housing units using various government programs. Without those programs, he could never have been as successful.
Ravitch came from an old New York real estate family. At one time, there were many such family firms around the Big Apple. They grew up in the business, built and managed their own properties, and took pride in passing the baton to their sons and eventually daughters.
They believed in New York. The city that welcomed their fathers and grandfathers as immigrants and allowed them to become some of the wealthiest families in the country. Their properties were not viewed as an asset class that was like any other asset class in any other place. One building in Queens was not interchangeable with one in Kansas City. They were New Yorkers first and real estate moguls second.
Ravitch became chair of the MTA. He began bringing back the subways from their darkest days. He was someone who was born in Manhattan; ran the family business; saw public service as a noble calling; was lieutenant governor; and lobbied, cajoled, and reasoned with politicians of both parties to enact policies for a better city and state.
Today there are fewer real estate families and more corporate ownership. Today’s titans never walked on Sutphin Boulevard, Arden Avenue, or Herkimer Street. Most wouldn’t know what subway train went where. Even Donald Trump was familiar with the “F” train as a boy and young man. Without a sense of place, it is hard to fight for a city’s sense of purpose.
New York City is ceasing to grow. It is nearly impossible to build the 800,000 housing units that have been estimated to be needed in the entire state. NIMBYism is alive and well. Rents have reached an average of $4400 in Manhattan. Since there is no new supply of housing, the semi-attached home I bought in 1976 in Queens for a little more than $48,000 just sold for over a million dollars.
Many believed that Miami was going to become the new hedge fund financial capital of the country. During Covid that was the buzz. There is no income tax in Florida as compared to New York and California.
Yet both New York and California have seen a recent surge in people moving there who make more than $1 million and, in California, explosive growth in those making $50 million or more. Obviously to the super earners, taxes may be a consideration but not a deciding factor. Then what is it? To them it is what the place offers its residents, from restaurants to entertainment.
It is different for people making less. In the case of the “working stiff,” those families earning up to $200,000, it is affordability. In that case taxes, housing, schools, transportation, and civic life make people want to live somewhere different. For both groups it is quality of life.
If it becomes just too hard to live in a place? People leave. Miami with all the promise of the next financial capital has the same problem as New York…there is no place to live for most people.
Nimbyism is preventing enough housing from being built in the Miami Metro Area. That is why the recent Miami Metro Affordability Report stated that 81% of the average homeowner’s income is being consumed by placing a roof over the family’s head. Only 17% of the population can afford a median priced home which is $460,000.
Miami has lost population since 2019. And there doesn’t seem to be any quick solutions. It isn’t much different on the Treasure Coast, which is suffering the same problems. In Martin County, our elected leaders are just as unwilling to do more than follow the NIMBY crowd. This does not solve our problem of inadequate housing for people who want to move here.
It stops businesses from opening because of the shortage of employees. Our tax base erodes, and our public amenities can’t be maintained. We end up as a stratified community with only richer and richer people able to live here.
When Martin County folks continuously speak of the need for affordable housing, it is stating the obvious without a solution. On the local or the state level, we don’t have enough funds to build or even provide sufficient rent subsidies to make a dent in this crisis. Building 20 or 70 or 200 affordable units will not solve anything. It will just allow a few fortunate families to have some relief. All the other thousands are still in the same position…not being able to afford shelter or paying too much for it.
The only way to solve the problem is to build many more units…several thousand in Martin County alone. The market will then operate to make the less desirable older units less expensive since residents that can afford to pay more will trade up.
However, if there is not a continued supply of new inventory, housing costs will continue to rise. It is truly supply and demand. By NIMBYism, we have artificially held down supply thus increasing prices for the limited units available.
The recent Martin County Commission debacle of spending $4 million of taxpayer money to prevent 90 units from being built is the height of political NIMBYism. Not only are they taking money away from spending on parks, fire houses, and deputies, they are removing a property from the tax rolls that would have contributed millions of dollars over its economic life.
The Florida Legislature enacted the Live Local Act for a reason. This is a blatant attempt to thwart the law’s intention, which is to have more housing. I can’t believe this has not come to their attention.
Today New York has fewer citizens like Richard Ravitch. Miami maybe never did have any. Martin County has none with the vision of public service regardless of political party or trying to fatten their own checkbook. Elected officials are too busy being elected to have a vision of any sort.
New York, Miami, and Martin County believe they are something they no longer are and maybe never were. Instead of controlling their destinies, they are rudderless. In Martin County, the vaunted lifestyle we keep hearing about could soon be for the very rich only. They will be the only ones who can afford to live here.
