The next New York City mayor will inherit a mammoth housing crisis if elected, and nearly every candidate vying to oust Mayor Eric Adams agrees that City Hall must loosen restrictions on building apartments to meet demand.
Their rush to embrace development in a Democratic primary marks a change in tenor for these candidates, some of whom on the left flank of the party once swore off campaign cash from the real estate industry to meet the zeitgeist of the time.
“I don’t remember another campaign where candidates were looking to match or even leapfrog one another in terms of the amount of housing they think should be built here,” said Howard Slatkin, executive director of the Citizens Housing & Planning Council. “That is a baseline difference between the way I hear candidates responding to today’s environment and what we’ve heard in the past.”
