How many of us knew this? Perhaps it was obvious to many, but that we are actually zoned this way?
Read more about a new report that says the Town of Mamaroneck (as well as Pelham Manor, Harrison, Croton-on-Hudson, Lewisboro, Ossining town, and Pound Ridge) have little or no land designated for multifamily housing, no incentives or mandates for affordable housing and slow progress in adopting a model fair housing ordinance.
The report by James Johnson, who is a lawyer appointed Monitor in the County’s Fair Housing, says this leads to discrimination and segregation.
Actually The TOM has very little property on the shore for which they they control the zoning and have jurisdition. Most of the waterfront is in the Village of Mamaroneck and the Village of Larchmont.
The TOM is responsible for the zoning in the unincorporated area – the areas north of I95 and the train tracks that includes the new Cambrium building and the small stretch between the Villages. The lawsuit and settlement makes clear, there are SPECIFIC census tracts throughout the county that were seen as not diverse enough, some were in The Village of Larchmont and some were in Unincorporated Mamaroneck. (Each community is made up of several Census Tracts). The remedy that has been devised whether you or I agree is that new affordable housing has to be created WITHIN these specific census tracts that were found to be the least diverse.
Like most of the other reports from the people who are pushing “affordable housing” concepts, this one is largely inaccurate.
The Town of Mamaroneck, including the “unincorporated area,” has numerous apartment buildings, and they have apartments in them that sell for as little as around $100,000, and for as much as $1,000,000+. Some people want, and can afford, apartments at one end of the spectrum, others at the other.
A new apartment building is being built across the street from where I live. 10% of the apartments in it are “affordable housing.”
The only discrimination around here is economic, and that exists everywhere. I cannot afford an apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan similar to the one I can afford in the Town of Mamaroneck–how does that translate into discrimination, and why are the same people pushing for “affordable housing” here not pushing for it there?
What gives one person to right to live in a home he or she cannot afford, with a subsidy paid for by the rest of us, when the rest of us have to pay full freight, plus the subsidy for the person living in the “affordable housing”?
Why is that “fair”?
“Affordable housing” seems to mean that those of us who work our butts off so that we can afford to live here have to subsidize others, some of whom also work their butts off, who cannot afford to live here. That just makes it even more expensive for us to live here. Why should we be expected to do that?
I have lived in the Town of Mamaroneck for over 40 years. Yes, it’s expensive to live here.
The alleged discrimination does not exist. As an illustration, a few years ago I had a house for sale in the Town of Mamaroneck. It was advertised, and we had an open house. A lot of people came to see it, including some who were not “white”. One black couple, very well dressed, came over to me and asked me how much the house cost, even though the price was in the ad. I told them the price in the ad, the same price at which the house was offered to everyone else. The response was, and I paraphrase: “I guess now I know why no black people live around here.”
The same house was offered to the everyone at the same price. If the highest bidder had been black, or hispanic, the house would have been sold to someone who is black or hispanic. There was no discrimination, except in the imagination of people like the black couple that responded to me as set forth above.
People, of whatever group, if you want to live in the Town of Mamaroneck you can, if you can afford it. That is
I respectfully submit this anonymously as thisis a very emotionally charged issue and I know little about housing mandates etc. But…it seems to me that Mamk is a town on the water making real estate prices soar. It is close to NYC making prices soar even higher. It has many lovely amenities and many, many lovely homes of the “one percenters” so prices really max out. Taxes are among the highest in the nation yet they are paid by residents with only a fair amount of grumbling due to the lovely amenities enjoyed by the residents – great schools, parks, entertainment, restaurants, etc. It strikes me as Ayn-Rand ish that folk who cannot afford to live here would demand to live here just beause they cannot afford to and so expect the town to accomodate and support them. What happened to work ethics, to educating ourselves to acheive better circumstances, to “you get what you pay for”? I never got a free ride and i doubt that most other residents did either. The prices here are based on market supply and demand. Work hard and live here. I must be missing something. Perhaps the view is that kids cannot become well rounded individuals if sheltered from seeing the less fortunate? That is a point but not enough of a point in my opinion to create a low income housing development.
again, i feel thqt i must be missing something for which i await to be enlightened. Atlas shrugged.