Buying Airspace?

[Bear Stearns]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the same kind of luddite who opposed skyscrapers in the first place when art deco came in, or glass towers when postmodernism began.

As a non-NYC resident, these pencil towers completely ruin my image of NYC. They're extremely ugly. No wonder IKEA wallpapers don't even include them. My utopian view of NYC will forever be held in images of 2007 or GTA 4 or wallpapers, and never in reality. Shame.

Peak NYC was September 10th, 2001.

[Loben]

This is exactly why we need zoning laws and construction restrictions. Housing is a right not a privilege.

Sure, but location is not.

You want affordable housing? Live in a place that's affordable. Not Midtown.

or times square, or a scenic view of central park, the hudson or any other rich area.

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

Worst of all, this violates the Roman legal principle that ownership extends from Hell to Heaven. That's reason enough to bring it down.

[Bear Stearns]

Sure, but location is not.

You want affordable housing? Live in a place that's affordable. Not Midtown.

or times square, or a scenic view of central park, the hudson or any other rich area.

The American Gardens Building on W. 81st.

[Telconi]

No one is renting these places out. Its merely a place for uber rich to park their massive wealth. No one lives in these towers. They are eyesores and a waste of space.

The owners pay property taxes on them, and they employ people to maintain these. What's it to you what someone does with their building? That isn't harming anyone.

People are liking things he doesn't like.

[Trumptonium1]

The poor can't live there anyway, so what?

No matter if you even let them live rent free there's still extremely high food costs, transport costs .. why should everyone subsidise them?

Much cheaper and better to move them out to suburbs. Or other cities in NY.

Why not just ban towers like this by fixing the loophole? Suburbs are bad for the environment anyway

Ban it for what reason?

Suburbs are not bad for the environment, and if you don't like suburbs there's plenty of cheap cities in NY State. It should be legal for NYC to just pay homeless people to move to Buffalo and get a place to rent for 2 months. It's cheaper for everyone, NYC taxpayers included, and good for "the poor"

[Bear Stearns]

The poor can't live there anyway, so what?

No matter if you even let them live rent free there's still extremely high food costs, transport costs .. why should everyone subsidise them?

Much cheaper and better to move them out to suburbs. Or other cities in NY.

Why not just ban towers like this by fixing the loophole? Suburbs are bad for the environment anyway

You want to ban towers?

[Bear Stearns]

Why not just ban towers like this by fixing the loophole? Suburbs are bad for the environment anyway

Ban it for what reason?

Suburbs are not bad for the environment, and if you don't like suburbs there's plenty of cheap cities in NY State. It should be legal for NYC to just pay homeless people to move to Buffalo and get a place to rent for 2 months. It's cheaper for everyone, NYC taxpayers included, and good for "the poor"

We could conquer some tropical island nation and send all homeless people there and provide them with monthly food and equipment supplies, and it'd still be cheaper than our current welfare state.

[San Lumen]

No one is renting these places out. Its merely a place for uber rich to park their massive wealth. No one lives in these towers. They are eyesores and a waste of space.

The owners pay property taxes on them, and they employ people to maintain these. What's it to you what someone does with their building? That isn't harming anyone.

And it takes away land area for the average citizen

[Loben]

The owners pay property taxes on them, and they employ people to maintain these. What's it to you what someone does with their building? That isn't harming anyone.

And it takes away land area for the average citizen

that they wouldnt afford anyway?

[Wunderstrafanstalt]

Ban it for what reason?

Suburbs are not bad for the environment, and if you don't like suburbs there's plenty of cheap cities in NY State. It should be legal for NYC to just pay homeless people to move to Buffalo and get a place to rent for 2 months. It's cheaper for everyone, NYC taxpayers included, and good for "the poor"

We could conquer some tropical island nation and send all homeless people there and provide them with monthly food and equipment supplies, and it'd still be cheaper than our current welfare state.

But it will bloat the defense budget and strengthen the military-industrial complex since we tropical islanders will try to kick them out

[San Lumen]

Why not just ban towers like this by fixing the loophole? Suburbs are bad for the environment anyway

Ban it for what reason?

Suburbs are not bad for the environment, and if you don't like suburbs there's plenty of cheap cities in NY State. It should be legal for NYC to just pay homeless people to move to Buffalo and get a place to rent for 2 months. It's cheaper for everyone, NYC taxpayers included, and good for "the poor"

So make some cities gated communities for the rich?

[Saiwania]

This is exactly why we need zoning laws and construction restrictions. Housing is a right not a privilege.

It can't be a right if there exists less housing than people and if land is finite.

The concept of owning airspace is ridiculous to me because no one can really enforce a right to any particular space of air like is the case for land or real estate. Wildlife or planes, etc. will obviously fly over it. But provided if an improvement on an existing building doesn't violate any zoning which makes it structurally unstable or if the zoning is reasonable, I'm not against new construction if it'd increase the supply of housing.

Most zoning laws have the net effect of reducing or making the supply of housing less and not more affordable, in that it directly reduces the supply via preventing certain types of new construction. If housing is so expensive in NYC, it is because so many people want to live there and there are enough tourists or wealthy types that bid the price up.

It goes without saying that not everyone can afford to live wherever they might want. Every locale is relative in terms of how cheap or expensive it is in terms of cost of living and its real estate market.

[Trumptonium1]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the same kind of luddite who opposed skyscrapers in the first place when art deco came in, or glass towers when postmodernism began.

As a non-NYC resident, these pencil towers completely ruin my image of NYC. They're extremely ugly. No wonder IKEA wallpapers don't even include them. My utopian view of NYC will forever be held in images of 2007 or GTA 4 or wallpapers, and never in reality. Shame.

Peak NYC was September 10th, 2001.

I remember seeing a postcard my uncle (now NJ resident) sent my grandmother in earlymid 90s with himself in NJ Terminal facing Lower Manhattan. Twas beautiful.

[San Lumen]

This is exactly why we need zoning laws and construction restrictions. Housing is a right not a privilege.

It can't be a right if there exists less housing than people and if land is finite.

The concept of owning airspace is ridiculous to me because no one can really enforce a right to any particular space of air like is the case for land or real estate. Wildlife or planes, etc. will obviously fly over it. But provided if an improvement on an existing building doesn't violate any zoning which makes it structurally unstable or if the zoning is reasonable, I'm not against new construction if it'd increase the supply of housing.

Most zoning laws have the net effect of reducing or making the supply of housing less and not more affordable, in that it directly reduces the supply via preventing certain types of new construction. If housing is so expensive in NYC, it is because so many people want to live there and there are enough tourists or wealthy types that bid the price up.

It goes without saying that not everyone can afford to live wherever they might want. Every locale is relative in terms of how cheap or expensive it is in terms of cost of living and its real estate market.

It wouldn’t be so expensive if buildings like this were illegal

[San Lumen]

And it takes away land area for the average citizen

that they wouldnt afford anyway?

The rich can take their money elsewhere

[Trumptonium1]

Ban it for what reason?

Suburbs are not bad for the environment, and if you don't like suburbs there's plenty of cheap cities in NY State. It should be legal for NYC to just pay homeless people to move to Buffalo and get a place to rent for 2 months. It's cheaper for everyone, NYC taxpayers included, and good for "the poor"

So make some cities gated communities for the rich?

More like not wasting taxpayer money.

Why should a carpenter in Albany pay his state taxes so some stubborn arsehole in Midtown gets protection from being moved away to places he can actually afford?

[Trumptonium1]

that they wouldnt afford anyway?

The rich can take their money elsewhere

So turn NYC into a cesspit like it was in 1970s round two?

[Wunderstrafanstalt]

Ban it for what reason?

Suburbs are not bad for the environment, and if you don't like suburbs there's plenty of cheap cities in NY State. It should be legal for NYC to just pay homeless people to move to Buffalo and get a place to rent for 2 months. It's cheaper for everyone, NYC taxpayers included, and good for "the poor"

So make some cities gated communities for the rich?

So if we kill those vertical bourgeois Versailles will God order affordable housing to grow out of the ground next to the Central Park?

[Trumptonium1]

It can't be a right if there exists less housing than people and if land is finite.

The concept of owning airspace is ridiculous to me because no one can really enforce a right to any particular space of air like is the case for land or real estate. Wildlife or planes, etc. will obviously fly over it. But provided if an improvement on an existing building doesn't violate any zoning which makes it structurally unstable or if the zoning is reasonable, I'm not against new construction if it'd increase the supply of housing.

Most zoning laws have the net effect of reducing or making the supply of housing less and not more affordable, in that it directly reduces the supply via preventing certain types of new construction. If housing is so expensive in NYC, it is because so many people want to live there and there are enough tourists or wealthy types that bid the price up.

It goes without saying that not everyone can afford to live wherever they might want. Every locale is relative in terms of how cheap or expensive it is in terms of cost of living and its real estate market.

It wouldn’t be so expensive if buildings like this were illegal

that's not how economics works san lumen

[Bear Stearns]

Ban it for what reason?

Suburbs are not bad for the environment, and if you don't like suburbs there's plenty of cheap cities in NY State. It should be legal for NYC to just pay homeless people to move to Buffalo and get a place to rent for 2 months. It's cheaper for everyone, NYC taxpayers included, and good for "the poor"

So make some cities gated communities for the rich?

How does this make cities gated communities for the rich?

[San Lumen]

So make some cities gated communities for the rich?

More like not wasting taxpayer money.

Why should a carpenter in Albany pay his state taxes so some stubborn arsehole in Midtown gets protection from being moved away to places he can actually afford?

So in others words the government should get to decide who lives where?

The rich can take their money elsewhere

So turn NYC into a cesspit like it was in 1970s round two?

Banning ugly towers like this would not bring a return to that by a long shot

[San Lumen]

So make some cities gated communities for the rich?

How does this make cities gated communities for the rich?

Look at San Francisco

[Bear Stearns]

The owners pay property taxes on them, and they employ people to maintain these. What's it to you what someone does with their building? That isn't harming anyone.

And it takes away land area for the average citizen

What average citizen can afford to buy Manhattan real estate?

The average citizens all live in the suburbs.

[Bear Stearns]

How does this make cities gated communities for the rich?

Look at San Francisco

A city wrecked by anti-development policies and zoning laws.

Also it doesn't help the ultra-progressive government has a tolerance for sidewalking defecation and shooting galleries.