June is primary month ahead of this Fall’s elections in New York City. One of the more hotly contested districts appears to be District 1 in lower Manhattan, where incumbent Christopher Marte is being challenged by three Community Board 1 members: Lawyer Jess Coleman, Gotham Park Chair Elizabeth Lewinsohn and MTA Director of Expense Analysis for Service Delivery Eric Yu.
And, as in many other districts across the five boroughs, housing is the hottest of hot button issues. Marte, during his time at City Hall, has fought displacement and pushed back against luxury development — earning the title of “anti-development” both in some media and with one of his opponents — and he famously (or infamously, depending on who you ask) was the only Manhattan councilperson to vote no for the “City of Yes” which he saw as a “giveaway to real estate developers.”
The city seeing historically low vacancy rates, in particular among affordable units (in 2023, the vacancy rate for units under $1,100 was 0.39%). At the same time, while fewer-than-ideal apartments for all income groups, it is significantly easier for middle-class New Yorkers to find an apartment within budget. The city’s “housing crisis” is more specifically an “affordable housing crisis”; according to estimates from the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development, the city would need seven times as many units renting under $2,400/month as above it to reach a city-wide vacancy rate of 5%, considered the lower limit for a “healthy” vacancy rate.
“There’s market rate development happening all over my district. But for affordable housing, true affordable housing, that’s what we’re lacking. And so we’ve been happy to support 100%, affordable housing developments in my district,” Marte told the Village Star-Revue.
Marte’s record on new affordable housing is bleak, however. While he supported the development of 196 affordable units on Broome Street, his campaign website does not include a single example of affordable developments he’s successfully fought for. Rather, his work in the district has largely focused on protecting current residents, in particular those from lower-income communities.
“On housing, I would say he’s categorically against it,” Coleman speaking about Marte. “It’s easy to say you’re pro-affordable housing, but when it actually comes up to say “yes,” it’s hard. It’s hard because there’s going to be opposition, no matter where you put it, and if we keep having leaders who just cater to the loud minority, we’re just never going to have progress.”
Coleman is running on a pro-housing platform, both affordable and market-rate. (Notably, he hasn’t received support from Jobs for New York, an independent expenditure run by the Real Estate Board of New York, REBNY.)
“By and large, we need to go into each proposed development, not just saying no, but looking for a way to get to yes.” In reference to the 940-foot tower planned for Independence Plaza in Tribeca, he said, “If there’s no affordable housing in there, I wouldn’t support that. But if there’s affordable housing, they provide improvements to the streetscape and we can get a community center or even a new school out of it, or something like that, I would support it.”
Coleman said he doesn’t understand the argument that new development would price out current residents. Neighborhoods like Chinatown and the Lower East Side, he said, have seen little development in the last 50 years, all while being extremely attractive neighborhoods to live in. He argued that the people in finance in big law that want to live in lower Manhattan can’t find a new, market-rate apartment. “There’s no new housing developments for them to go to, so they bid up the existing housing supply.”
Marte questioned this approach.
“I don’t believe in trickle down economics, especially when it comes to housing in New York City. The Real Estate Board of New York controls many facets the housing market, but also the political interests and maneuvering that happens in regards to housing,” he contended. “And I think we see that with the “City of Yes” plan. It was a developer-driven proposal. That’s the group that’s trying to push the supply side. Yes, we need supply of affordable housing, because that’s what’s going to end this homelessness issue and make New York City a working class community, but building an abundance of luxury is not going to help everyday New Yorkers.”
The council member insisted that he isn’t anti-development. “What I care about is that when we have leverage, when a development is either on a city-owned lot, or if they need our approval to build higher and bigger, we advocate for what the community wants. And that’s affordable housing, and so that’s where I draw the line. And we’ve been able to negotiate really good deals and bringing a lot of affordability to our district.”
Democratic crisis
The Democratic Party is going through a bit of an identity crisis, both nationally and in places like New York. Even here, where voters are generally as blue as the water surrounding them, the mayoral race is a tug-of-war is between Democratic moderates like Andrew Cuomo, pro-growth progressives like Brad Lander and anti-displacements like Zohran Mamdani. The same is true in this city council election, where, in this burgeoning divide within the progressive halls of the Democratic Party, Marte and Coleman each stand on one side of the cleft. Marte, on his part, believed his side will come out ahead.
“I think if we continue to use the language that pro revenue candidates use, we’re going to lose working class families,” he said. “There was a time when the Democratic Party was extremely strong, when we as a city, as a state and as a nation built our own housing. Right now, we’re subsidizing developers and praying that they have goodwill to build true affordable housing. And that’s when you see people walk away from our party.”
