New York Condo has Separate Entrances for Rich and Poor

Upper West Side condo has separate entrances for rich and poor

Well, this is disgusting but hardly surprising. With the continues stratification between the rich and the poor it was only a matter of time. What's next, separate entrances and parking lots for grocery stores, theaters with special areas to keep the unwashed masses at bay?

The poor will use a separate door under plans for a new Upper West Side luxury tower — where affordable housing will be segregated from ritzy waterfront condos despite being in the same building.

Perhaps it would just be easier to round up the 1% and keep them in a segregated location so they no longer have to worry about accidentally rubbing shoulders with the poor. Mods please move to the Rant forum if needed.

Well dont like it dont live there. Its private land and its the land lords decsion. Yeah its snoby and i dont like it but its not my land.

It's already a segregated society but it's not forced from above. People segregate by choice (privatizing). What would be interesting is if non-segregation was forced from above.

One way to do that would be to cap salaries so the richest person might only make 200,000 per year. The money allows them to live in another world. By capping it, they can't segregate themselves.

You also need to require that everybody works and/or gets public exposure. This way people who lock themselves up in their homes or on their property have to get out and intermingle.

One method is to force everybody to work in community events or activities or jobs. You can't allow them to stick to one role, either, since that could be a route to segregate themselves. So perhaps they'd have to make it trendy for workers to shift from one job to another.

The differences between the sexes would have to blur because oftentimes females think they have to dress like females or act like females. In a society that has forbidden segregation, females have to be able to wear male clothes and act like a male without negative connotations. The same applies to males. They should be able to wear dresses without being ridiculed. A guy should be allowed to cry like a girl and a girl can pull herself up by her bootstraps. There should be no sexism.

This really would change society because it's such a segregated thing. Republicans and democrats would no longer be able to live in their own republican or democrat world. You could no longer only read conservative books or go to conservative websites. Same for liberals. It would be required reading for every republican to read democrat books and every democrat to read republican books.

Don't get me started how this might change religion.

Balance Is Life might be the slogan. Another could be Tolerance Not Hate.

Originally posted by jonnywhite
It's already a segregated society but it's not forced from above. People segregate by choice (privatizing). What would be interesting is if non-segregation was forced from above.

This really would change society because it's such a segregated thing. Republicans and democrats would no longer be able to live in their own republican or democrat world. You could no longer only read conservative books or go to conservative websites. Same for liberals. It would be required reading for every republican to read democrat books and every democrat to read republican books.

This story appears to be elitist induced forced segregation. If people want to segregate it's really not the business of anyone else. When the poor people who live in the same building as the rich are forced to use an alleyway entrance that's just wrong.

As far as trying to force people to to read things they disagree with, good luck with that. Past forced desegregation in the US resulted in a questionable outcome at best.

I would feel lucky to live under the same roof. Generally condos have "common areas" that serve the interests and needs of the residential constituency. So even subtle thematic differences in the common areas might utilize different entrances. A low income entrance might be located closer to public transportation and affordable shopping for example.

I agree with the feelings of the OP, but they are being a bit overzealous when it comes to this example.

Planes have first class seating. One could say "Airlines have separate seating for rich and poor" and get all bent out of shape. The thing is, you don't have to be rich to fly first class. You just need to buy a ticket. If you have a billion dollars in the bank, or only a few hundred, you can still sit in first class. You aren't being segregated for being poor, they are simply offering different levels of quality and service at different price points. Some don't want to waste money on first class (even many people who are not poor) should we force them to fly and pay first class so everything is equal?

I don't see this as being any different. Some people live in mansions, some live in rented apartments. Should all housing be identical to keep everything equal?

If this was two separate buildings there wouldn't even be an issue. This is simply a matter of logistics. It made sense for them, from a business perspective, to use a single property for both lower and higher income housing. The people who pay more get a nicer building, the people who pay less get a less-nice building. This is nothing new or controversial.

Considering the whole point of this property is to combine two SEPARATE purposed buildings into one, wouldn't it only make sense to have a separate entrance for the two separate sections of the building?

Originally posted by Cauliflower
I would feel lucky to live under the same roof.

Now thats just sad

Can I shine your shoes sir

reply to post by Bassago


FWIW, if i come to a door in NY, i first check for the doorman. If there is one, i try to find another way in. I think tipping some schmuck for opening a door is preposterous.

The tipping culture in NYC makes it hard for me to want to visit.

I'm kind of stumped even after rereading the article. The lower income people are being served (at the cost of a 21 million dollar tax break from New York). The fat cats get their waterfront lifestyle unencumbered which is what you would expect if you plopped down 15.9 million for a condo.

The story seems less about segregation than it is about getting tax breaks for providing housing to those unfortunates making less than $55,000 a year.

Besides the repugnant social class implications, if I read it right, the developer is doing this strictly to get subsidies in order to fund the project. So.. a defacto caste system subsidized by Corporate welfare. WTH? Can't make this stuff up.

reply to post by kosmicjack

A similar thing (not exactly the same) happened in an area close to where I used to live. Big developer moved in on some prime real estate to build a housing development. Houses were from $300k - $800K if I remember correctly. They built some "affordable housing" to placate the city counsel and activist and most likely got the tax breaks as well. They made sure the "affordable houses were out of sight, crammed in an out of the way spot away from the "good" houses. The poor houses even had their own entrance streets to keep them away from everyone. Same old, same old.

Edit - Thank you kosmicjack!

Why is everyone against this. Look, I would take a 2 bedroom ANYWHERE in NYC, 2 bedroom, for less than 1200 bucks especially if new let alone the Upper West Side. This is not an attempt to segregate people but to get a tax break. A REAL big one no less.

So, what will happen in the end is because someones is complaining, the units will not be subsidized and those people will be put out. Where does Mrs Rosenthal live? The Upper West Side. This is also someone who did not champion the poor but made sure pets could not be tattooed...

Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Democrat who represents the Upper West Side, told The Post that Extell’s plans “smack of classism,” and feared they could set a dangerous precedent for other developers.

Maybe it is her who does not want the 'lower class' in her neighborhood. Condos are going for 20-30 million in NYC like hotcakes. The developers do not 'need' this to build it is just business savvy.

Soon the middle class will be on the poor side and eat the rich.