THE BRONX — Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. ripped NYCHA's plan to build developments on green spaces at city housing projects Thursday, saying it amounts to residents of public housing being treated like second-class citizens.
"These green spaces play a critical role in the everyday life of building tenants, especially children, and should be preserved," he said in a statement. "NYCHA’s housing stock is already poorly maintained. Taking away light, air and green space from these tenants—taking away safe spaces where children play—would be an outrage."
Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYCHA Chairwoman and CEO Shola Olatoye released a 10-year plan for the agency in May that aims to help solve what de Blasio described as the worst financial crisis in its history.
One component of that plan is leasing NYCHA's open space to developers who would build private housing on it, similar to a plan by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg that faced criticism from NYCHA residents and de Blasio himself.
Although de Blasio said his plan differed because it created 10,000 units of completely affordable housing, Diaz remained upset about this housing going on green spaces in NYCHA developments.
“I understand the need to build more affordable housing,” he said. “But this development should not be at the expense of the quality of life of NYCHA tenants.”
He was also very critical of comments that Olatoye made in a recently published interview with Politico New York, in which she referred to NYCHA's open spaces as "strewn with trash" and vacant because they are gated off.
"We should not trivialize the significance and the value of green spaces and what they mean to the tenants here in NYCHA," Diaz said in a phone interview. "So when they say, well, these green spaces, they have trash in them, well, let's pick up the trash."
A NYCHA spokeswoman stressed that the agency's precarious financial situation had forced it to make some very difficult decisions.
"NYCHA has undergone a $1.16 billion capital loss since 2001, and as we work to make up for this loss and improve our aging infrastructure, we have to make tough choices and refocus on our primary responsibility of housing low-income New Yorkers," she said. "We owe that to our residents."
Diaz advocated looking for more creative solutions to NYCHA's financial crisis, such as possible advertising or air rights projects.
"We've got to get more creative than to say, look, let's put in a giant concrete structure where children play," he said.
