[warfangle]

A lot of the new housing going up (and the reason for the NIMBYism) typically has these attributes (a close friend was in a similar building in BK):

* Extremely shoddy construction (2 years after being built, severe water damage from leaking windows)

* Blank concrete walls with giant leaky windows

* Extremely poor soundproofing

* Overpriced for their size and quality

* Thus, attracting more affluent, less intelligent, and typically more dickish yuppy types

The "simple solution" you propose would be terrible. It would ghettoize Jamaica even more than it already is - even if not done for racist reasons (I'm convinced that's not your reasoning), it would come across as this and get an immense amount of backlash from the council, the population, and community boards throughout the city.

[yummyfajitas]

Thus, attracting more affluent, less intelligent, and typically more dickish yuppy types

Therein lies the real reason. "If we allow new construction, people who are different from us will move in!"

By the way, companies building rental buildings rarely construct them poorly. It's just bad business - once the building starts to leak, renters will move out, and it's the responsibility of the management company to fix it.

As for shipping projects out to jamaica, I didn't mean to single out Jamaica. You could spread it around all the cheapest areas in NYC. But yes, you are correct that it is unfeasible, since people will fight it for cultural reasons.