City building a few apartments for teachers

Posted by Philissa at 1:33 PM

The big news for teachers last week -- that the city is planning to build two low-rent apartment buildings in the Bronx for teachers only -- will ultimately affect only a very few of them. The 234 units will start at about $800 for a studio and will be available by lottery to middle-income teachers and their families. Unlike other union-backed housing development efforts, however, the Bronx development will stay small because expanding it would cost the city and the teachers union retirement plan too much. If only the city had invested in this solution years ago, it wouldn't have had to compete with deep-pocketed developers for land in the Bronx and Brooklyn!

The Times' Elissa Gootman asks whether teachers will really want to live with the same people they work with all day. The UFT's Randi Weingarten says she isn't concerned about demand. Teachers work so hard and are home so little, though, that the development seems ripe for a resurrection of the (possibly apocryphal) New York City apartment time-share.