Broadway apartments good start

To the editor:

(re: “Apartment building could tower over Broadway,” June 8)

Applause, please, for the Yaghoubi family and their brass tacks idea to build affordable housing on Broadway and West 231st Street. The proposal has a new wrinkle, adding the excellent idea of subsidizing housing with parking fees paid by public use.

We need more innovative ideas today to break the back of high housing costs. It is the number one problem facing citizens today. Far too much income goes toward housing: decreasing quality of life and adding stress as folks work more and more hours to keep up.

We need reform. We need innovative ideas such as zoning reform. Nothing will change until we think outside the box.

Dependable Community Board 8 — or more like Community Blockers 8 — voices opposition. Zoning reform? Red flag Rosemary Ginty sees ”spot zoning” and doesn’t like it. Mayors across the country are looking at zoning reform, including Mayor Adams. This is the kind of innovation we need.

Charles Moerdler sees too many SRO studios in the Yaghoubi solution. As a North Riverdale resident, I welcome studio apartments more than I do the 130-bed men’s shelter that will be built a block from my home of 30 years.

Bob Bender worries about flooding of the parking garage rather than seeing it as an income subsidy toward achieving affordability. Engineering Bob, we have the technology.

Do these stagnant views represent our community? Doubtful. It’s as if CB8 gatekeepers are unaware of the national homeless problem. They discourage innovation and want to keep things as they are.

Unacceptable.

So thank you to the Yaghoubi family for their thoughtful community-oriented proposal. It is a good and welcome start.

Don Angst