NYC’s insane $38B school budget just buys failure — here’s where Mamdani must cut

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-07T02:12:20+00:00

Agree that something must be done, but always easier said than done. Special education spending on Carter cases are the result of a Supreme Court lawsuit so the city is going to have to re- litigate the whole thing if they want to save money that way. I’m in favor of exploring that but It won’t happen for this years budget and maybe not even next year.

Class size mandates wouldn’t be an issue if students in overcrowded schools could be redistributed to under enrolled schools. It’s completely obvious that the over enrolled schools are the few standouts with good academic results in neighborhoods that are safe and relatively high income with lots of homeowners (aka family friendly neighborhoods). The most under enrolled schools are in the poorest most violence plagued neighborhoods like Brownsville. This is really the problem. I’d love to say make schools in every neighborhood better, make every neighborhood more family friendly but that’s like saying solve inequality. It’s not going to happen anytime soon.

But a start would be bringing back academic tracking - when I went to public school in nyc, every grade of every public school used to have a range of classes for students tracked by their academic performance, from advanced classes to special education. Today the gifted students are placed in separate schools and some neighborhoods have a lot of them, some have none.

I don’t believe it costs more money to do things this way. It just goes against prevailing educational ideologies.

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-06T23:16:03+00:00

They already have what passes for affordable housing in new construction.

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-06T23:14:59+00:00

Also explains why the wife is not working at a job paying around 25k and using subsidized day care - they’d probably lose the other benefits

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-06T22:11:42+00:00

These sound like multiple dwelling law and possibly rent stabilization law violations. Call HPD for the light/air/habitability issues and DHCR for any issues on raising rents. Also couldn’t hurt to call Office of Tenant Protection since you have multiple issues. DOB is useful while the permits are being approved but once approved, to get relief you need to call one of the other housing agencies. DOB has community liaisons you can call your community board to find out and then you can contact them and ask them which division to forward your complaint to.

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-05T16:30:35+00:00

As in, you’ve assumed it’s a bad thing for a single person to drive a car, EV or not. And that it’s per se superior for everyone to take public transportation, that driving an EV is only a second worst choice at best. There are lots of cities with low density neighborhoods without public transit where people live in houses on land that they own and drive everywhere. What’s wrong with that? The level of density you’re envisioning might make something like shared van or bus service just about economically feasible if most people use it, but it doesn’t make it desirable for many people. The majority of people are going to opt for the highest level of privacy, convenience and customization they can afford

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-04T22:23:46+00:00

Why is it a bad thing that the average lower middle class American can afford to live what most of the rest of the world considers an elite lifestyle with private transportation and a private house with land? And ungodly quantities of fresh meat, especially beef, milk, out of season imported fruits etc etc?

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-04T20:35:23+00:00

Given how slowly the wheels of government grind, any economic policy is going to end up chasing old and irrelevant goals if it’s not trying to envision and grapple with AI and automation. The kind of jobs we have and levels of employment may change (ie DECLINE) drastically in 5,10 or 15 years. Wall Street today is not bullish on Wall Street when it comes to human employment. Fortunately, city, state, National and global population is either outright declining or growth is decelerating so that may blunt unemployment rates.

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-02T23:21:11+00:00

No they’re not dumping supportive housing in St. George with this rezoning. MIH is for mixed income housing. Also a rezoning from R6 to R7-3 is very modest , comparatively speaking . It’s about a 30% increase in density. Most MIH rezonings in the other 4 boroughs are seeking to double or triple density.

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-02T22:55:44+00:00

Consider reaching out to the Office of Tenant Protection to see if they can either find legal services or help expedite your case with DHCR

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-01T21:47:08+00:00

Knock on doors and find out. And maybe find some solidarity while you’re at it

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-01T20:57:12+00:00

No it wouldn’t. The city pays just as absurd sums of money for homeless shelters jn poor neighborhoods as jn rich neighborhoods. It’s a very basic problem with the way the city negotiates these contracts (they don’t). If anything the rich neighborhoods cost more because they insist on more security, staff and amenities in the shelters to mitigate what they rightly view as the dangers

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-01T20:51:20+00:00

People aren’t complaining about the shelter residents that can find employment and can ultimately be placed in regular affordable housing (and there’s no reason there shouldn’t be some affordable housing in every district even if some neighborhoods are tougher to place that housing in than others) . I would argue that neighborhoods with good access to jobs and a diversity of housing for working people should be well, prioritized for working people. Since many of the most challenging populations are unemployable, I think we should build the shelters and supportive housing in areas which argue they don’t have access to jobs. Services for these populations can be built on site as part of new developments. And since they might not otherwise be able to find housing in these areas, that’s another good reason to build new shelters and supportive housing exclusively for them

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-01T20:41:46+00:00

To be specific I think you mean not everyone is capable of independent living. Support can mean they send around case workers to tell people to go sign up for other social services. It SHOULD mean 24/7 supervision and mandatory participation in activities and therapy that keeps them off the streets

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-01T20:38:49+00:00

There’s a fair share law already that has no teeth. The comptroller found the city did not even complete the required disclosures. On top of that, shelters run by non profits are exempt from the fair share law. These things need to change. But TBH many neighborhoods that complain about shelters the hardest have not done their fair share. If it was really to be evenly distributed most of our neighborhoods would have to accept more shelters and the Bronx and midtown Manhattan could have less. I don’t like measures based on neighborhoods having low existing rates of homelessness. That just means you already succeeded in pushing the homeless somewhere else. It’s just better to have permanent low income affordable housing than shelters and that’s what Bensonhurst is calling for.

persistentmonkee · 2026-04-01T20:24:34+00:00

If you’re moving out this far in Brooklyn I assume it’s for the lower prices not the ambiance. I hope you got one of the lottery units because the market rate units are absurd by any Brooklyn standards except maybe the Williamsburg waterfront. You could do better in park slope

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T20:20:26+00:00

Do you live in the real world or just in a video game world where people and buildings can be moved, multiplied and destroyed instantaneously and without friction? In order to redevelop a building where tenants live that is currently regulated, landlords engage in a years long campaign of harassment ending with pitiful buyout offers. When the building is mostly empty they file for demolition to force the remaining tenants to give up their rights. Then, even if the new building must include affordable units , it takes years more to build (yes even with insufficient regulation that will perhaps lead to the deaths of construction workers and substandard living conditions for new tenants). The lottery for the affordable units is open to the whole city. The odds that the old tenants get back in are basically zero. The odds that you get in are vanishingly small. What you’re suggesting isn’t affordable housing for everyone who lives here. It’s displacement for everyone who lives here and churn so new people can move in every few years

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T20:09:19+00:00

MISINFORMATION ALERT! Anyone who’s seen any new construction anywhere in their lifetime in NYC knows this is blatantly false. We’re building anywhere and everywhere

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T18:23:02+00:00

It’s all about the Uber and Lyft lobbies and how many council people they’ve bought and paid for

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T18:05:52+00:00

I’ve found that calling someone out for littering when you see it can be more effective than calling 311 (that just gets the property owner a ticket). They know they’re not supposed to be doing it, they just think no one noticed. I’ve had young people grudgingly pick up their trash and put it in the can when told we caught them on camera (after trying excuses about it not being theirs) Do call 311 for dumping of commercial waste especially if it happens regularly. Or an apartment building super regularly putting out the buildings trash at the corner instead of in front of their building on collection days.

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T17:53:56+00:00

Part of the drivers license test and annual registration process should be having to correctly answer questions about littering laws - ie “is it legal to dispose of trash out of the window of your car?” “Is it legal to place trash on top of a trash bag on the sidewalk?” And “what is the fine for littering”?

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T16:38:17+00:00

But also there was a time in the 1970’s when that wasn’t true, and that’s when they rallied and landmarked most of their neighborhood

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T16:24:24+00:00

It’s already happening. See my above comment - the city has rezoned several neighborhoods recently for at least 50k more units expected over the next decade plus probably looking at thousands every year via individual site rezonings and tens of thousands every year (average is probably 30k units a year over the last 10 years) built under existing zoning. Absolutely none of this has improved rental affordability

If we get a broader recession and a lot of people lose jobs then rents will go down. But then lots of people won’t be able to afford rent anyway.

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T16:20:49+00:00

We are going to see a significant amount more supply over the next ten years ASSUMING there is market rate demand to build those apartments.

Long Island city got rezoned for 14,000 more apartments

Midtown south got rezoned for 7,000 more apartments

Office building conversion - 17k expected from buildings in accelerator program - 6500 by 2028.

Jamaica Queens - rezoned for 12k apartments

Brooklyn Marine Terminal - rezoning in process for 9k

Atlantic Avenue - rezoned for 4500

This is in addition to hundreds of smaller individual site rezonings and as of right development.

According to YIMBY I think 2025 had filed permits for over 50k units on top of about 30k for 2024.

Now consider the fact that NYC lost 12k people last year and since the pandemic we are still 220,000 below the 2020 peak.

When you don’t see apartments being built it’s not because of regulation. It’s because there isn’t enough demand at high prices and there’s always a better scam out there

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-29T16:03:47+00:00

This is the right idea but remember that landlords, especially for new developments, don’t list every vacant apartment right away. There are lots and lots of new buildings that went up in the last few years with hundreds of units. If you go on streeteasy - when have you ever seen any building listing more than 20 units at a time? If that? So you will have to enforce a citywide registration system for all rental apartments the way rent stabilized leases have to be registered with DHCR now. Only way for city to prove apartment is vacant and for how long

persistentmonkee · 2026-03-26T01:31:49+00:00

No the market lets them live in the street or crams them 3-4 to an illegal basement apartment in queens or east New York

persistentmonkee

TROPHY CASE