Another opulent Manhattan skyscraper has a special, crappier door reserved specifically for affordable housing residents, because it's important to protect the wealthy from the sight of those wearing less expensive pants.
According to New York YIMBY, the new development at 1 West End Avenue will feature 365-units divided into two sections—118 units will be affordable, with the lower eight stories embedded with stone. An additional 247 units of market rate (unaffordable) housing will sit atop that portion, though the drab stone will be replaced with luxurious glass. Naturally, the affordable portion will feature its own inauspicious entrance, located around the corner at 10 Freedom Place.
Obviously this is not the first time this has happened. According to Native New Yorker Jake Dobkin, "poor doors" exist because "developers hate paying property tax, and are willing to enter into deals with the state to build affordable housing to avoid or reduce these taxes. Under the Bloomberg administration, the developers were allowed to segregate these affordable units in undesirable parts of the building (for instance, facing a highway, or another building very nearby) and built in this way, the developers could hide behind the fire code and say that these separate areas required separate entrances."
The development is expected to be completed in 2017.
