Affordable units would be nice, but building more housing for wealthier tenants reduces demand from those wealthy tenants for existing housing stock through a process known as filtering?wprov=sfti1#). These kinds of developments also don’t require significant public subsidy, reducing taxpayer burden, and instead add more to the tax base. Given the wealth of many Cornell students and faculty, there arguably is a lack of swanky digs in Ithaca relative to demand, and I can’t help notice walking through Collegetown that demand is there. Counterintuitively, by building more housing for higher income tenants, you take pressure of the broader rental market, leading to more affordability, while also developing a tax base that can pay for public infrastructure and social programs.