“Seek help.” Aaron Carr to opponents of senior housing

Two volunteers for Assembly member Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral race knocked on Nina Roberts’ door seeking her vote. She engaged the canvassers in conversation but rejected their candidate.

Why? Not because Mamdani is a socialist who promises to freeze rents. Roberts posted her objection on X: Mamdani does not support the Elizabeth Street Garden’s refusal to vacate city land designated for an affordable housing project.

This might be the one issue that the real estate industry and Mamdani agree on.

As for Roberts, the voter’s reasoning disturbed Housing Rights Initiative’s Aaron Carr — the rare tenant activist who is also a vocal YIMBY.

“Of all the things to make your #1 issue in a NYC mayoral race, imagine going with ‘blocking 123 units of affordable housing for low income seniors in one of the richest neighborhoods on planet earth, Soho’ and then bragging about it on the internet,” he tweeted. “Seek help.”

Carr’s comment has received 1,800 likes and counting (eclipsing Roberts’ post, which currently has a little over 450 likes).

I wasn’t aware that Mamdani had sided with low-income seniors over the statue garden’s advocates, or that he was even involved in the controversy. Why would he be? He’s a state legislator, and this is city property. He represents Queens, but the development site is in Manhattan (in Nolita, three blocks east of Soho).

It turns out, Mamdani wasn’t involved. Rather, garden backers had sent a questionnaire to all mayoral candidates, then categorized them as “supports saving Elizabeth Street Garden” or not.

The city is trying to evict the garden, a private tenant, so developer Pennrose and nonprofits RiseBoro Community Partnership and Habitat for Humanity can do the project, which includes 16,000 square feet of accessible green space.

The garden folks posted this on Instagram:

(via Instagram/elizabethstreetgarden)

Two things surprised me about the chart. The first: Someone named Corinne Fisher is running for mayor?

The second surprise was that even one significant candidate, former Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, is in the pro-garden camp (or two, if you count Jim Walden). In city politics, if there’s one thing that trumps a statue garden, it’s affordable housing where seniors can gracefully age in place. Stringer’s campaign declined my request for comment.

Note that Andrew Cuomo didn’t return the questionnaire. No reason to take chances when you’re leading in the polls.

Every candidate in the race considers himself or herself pro-housing, but the proof lies in the positions they take on specific projects and rezonings. Curtis Sliwa, for example, opposed City of Yes, which is projected to add 82,000 homes over 15 years. And now he’s siding with the garden. So he’s not really pro-housing.

The city’s effort to build housing at the Nolita site dates back to the Bloomberg administration. After 13 years and three mayors, the city still doesn’t even have access to the property. That says a lot about why there’s a housing shortage and why some developers don’t have the time, patience, resources or stomach to try to build in the city.

Read more Politics New York The Daily Dirt: Setback for city as it readies for housing fight Development New York Developer plans 98 apartments, thanks to Soho rezoning Development New York Judge halts Elizabeth Street Garden development — for now