[observer987]

New York now has the lowest apartment vacancy rates in 50 years. But there’s a lot of empty storefronts and office space for lease - especially in the older office buildings. One could say that those should be fast tracked for conversion to residential properties - but those are a multi-year projects. So no help for housing in the short term.

[anonuser123456]

A lot of commercial property can’t be converted efficiently due to regulatory requirements in how the structures are constructed. It would be better to tear it down in many cases.

[SoftTalker]

Or change the regulations? That seems a lot easier and cheaper?

[dexterdog]

The problem is that those regulations are written by people who have vested interests in keeping the supply of residential real estate where it is.

[AnthonyMouse]

Right, and the solution is to have them written by someone else, e.g. at the state rather than local level.

[dexterdog]

Do you think those same people don't have the same kind of influence at the state level? If anything they have even more.

[AnthonyMouse]

In order to have a vote in local elections you have to live there. Then all the people who own property there vote for things that make housing scarce and increase their property value. The people who want to live there but can't because they can't afford it thereby don't get a vote there and can't vote to make it more affordable. But they do get a vote at the state level.