RG LLC v CB

kinda lame, but I wrote a scene to try and sum up the opposing views of development:

Realty Group LLC: Hey guys, just here to give you a heads up that we’re going to build you this incredible 40-story tower. All of the housing is going to go high-income families couples. These people are going to be living the sweet life. We’re going to build them a work out room, a pool, 24-hour doorman, private parking, private terrace and private courtyard space. The whole works. Rents in the area are going to have to go up as a result. I mean, do building owners have a choice? If everyone else is charging more and the neighborhood is hot shit, why wouldn’t they? Some people will be directly displaced, but most long-time residents will feel the brunt of this project indirectly—through the increased costs and prices of a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. You guys are going to enjoy this gem of tower until it displaces you. Anyway, just letting you know this project is gonna be totally sweet. We’ll start some bizarre ad campaign soon. It’ll use misuse uncommon adjectives to describe the place…something like “arousing new urbania, well-lubricated into the beautifully hip environs, a diamond in the industrial shadow of the past”…oh man. I am so pumped.

Community Board: Rabble rabble rabble. Not in my back yard. Rabble rabble rabble. We want blood.

Realty Group LLC: Hey, easy there guys. I’m helping you out. You’re neighborhood was crap! Thanks to folks like me crackheads don’t sleep at your door anymore. Chill out. We’ll give you 10% affordable housing and a big tree that is open to the public.

Community Board: You didn’t fix our neighborhood we did, asshole. You just showed up when it was on it’s way up. 40-stories?!? Rabble rabble rabble.

Realty Group LLC: Alright, we know it’s high. We know no building in your neighborhood is higher than 6 stories. We know all that low-height zoning bullshit. But the more housing that’s built, the cheaper it’s all gonna be. This neighborhood will explode without more housing. Plus, for all you home owners, now you can sell your shit brownstone for millions! Fine, as a token of goodwill, we’ll give 20% affordable, retail space on the ground floor, and a day care center in the building.

Community Board: That’s better. Rabble rabble rabble. But this deal is still shit. The affordable isn’t even affordable to our residents. It’s affordable to middle-income households and with inflated NYC AMI #s that’s practically market rate! Rabble rabble rabble.

Realty Group LLC: Hey, I can’t change city-wide AMI (but I can change citywide zoning). Gimme a break. I’m building a tower in your neighborhood that’ll give you a day care center, retail space—and a tree—mind you. I could have just demo’d all the existing houses on my new property and built market rate homes without your consent. The low height would’ve made it way lamer. And what are you guys complaining about anyway. This is gonna bring some well-educated young professionals into your neighborhood and now you’re neighborhood will be safe and have culture. And you know the city pays attention to neighborhoods like this.

Community Board: Rabble rabble. I guess. There’s some good stuff, but a lot of it sucks ass. This really doesn’t benefit the community that much. A tower blocks out the sunlight, it brings more density to an already over-dense neighborhood, it displaces long time residents who rent their homes…Our subways are already some of the most crowded in the city. We haven’t had a hospital in 30 years. Now you want to build this monster tower, which is gonna strain the neighborhood and give private luxuries to new residents. We’re getting next to nothing…At least we get a tree.

Also thought this rendering for the Quadriad site was kinda interesting. I think it was pre-Quadriad. It's as-of-right, but boy is it pugly.