Archinect - News

FAA approves $2.1 billion LaGuardia AirTrain

2021-07-23T16:39:00-04:00

Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the estimated $2.1 billion LaGuardia AirTrain, an initiative to connect New York’s LaGuardia Airport with Manhattan. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will now be able to pursue federal funding for the project.

The 1.5-mile transit link will connect the airport’s Delta Airlines terminal to Willets Point Station, which borders Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, and is served by the Long Island Rail Road and the Number 7 subway line. The Port Authority has claimed that the trip length will be 30 minutes from Midtown Manhattan to the airport. The project is expected to create 3,000 construction jobs and generate $500 million in contracting opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses, along with jobs for local residents, according to projects made by the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

Previously on Archinect: Construction on LaGuardia AirTrain Planned to Start this Summer

The approval comes...

Opportunity Zones program is under fire

2020-07-28T14:15:00-04:00

Lawmakers created the program in an effort to help low-income communities, and the provisions in the 2017 tax law on opportunity zones were based on bipartisan legislation. But Democrats have become increasingly critical of the program in recent months, following news reports about how wealthy people are benefiting from the program.

Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib are hoping to repeal the controversial Opportunity Zones program that brings certain tax breaks to investments in new development projects that are located in designated economically-distressed areas, The Hill reports. Though passed with bipartisan support in 2017, the program has faced criticism in recent months as some of the projects funded by these investments, including luxury apartment towers, have come to light.

Clinton-era federal public housing ban one step closer to repeal

2020-07-02T17:29:00-04:00

The United States House of Representatives has passed a substantial infrastructure bill that includes an addendum from New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez repealing the Faircloth Amendment, a 22-year-old regulation that caps the overall number of public housing units that can be built in the United States.

Previously on Archinect: "AOC and Bernie Sanders unveil "Green New Deal for Housing" plan."

The Moving Forward Act brings much needed funding to surface transportation initiatives, including public transit, provides for rural broadband infrastructure, and aims to spur the creation of green collar jobs.

Among these initiatives is Representative Ocasio-Cortez's amendment, which would begin to allow the federal government to expand the nation's public housing stock after a two decade hiatus.

Currently, federal authorities are limited in how many public housing units can be built and cannot add to the supply of public housing in the country above the number of public hous...

AOC and Bernie Sanders unveil "Green New Deal for Housing" plan

2019-11-14T10:05:00-05:00

New York City Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders have unveiled a bold initiative aimed at rejuvenating and decarbonizing the nation’s public housing stock.

The visionary Green New Deal for Public Housing Act aims to bring sorely needed maintenance upgrades to America’s 500,000 public housing units through a series of repair, weatherization, and retrofitting efforts. The improvements will come via seven grant programs aimed at addressing specific design and material shortfalls currently plaguing public housing complexes across the country.

Triple bottom line plan

The plan is expected to cost somewhere between $119 billion and $172 billion over the next decade, according to a study conducted by progressive think tank Data for Progress and the University of Pennsylvania’s McHarg Center and Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative research centers. The Data Progress study estimates that the plan could create up to 240,723 jobs per year. Those jobs, u...

National rent control takes a step forward as AOC unveils housing-focused poverty amelioration plan

2019-09-26T20:00:00-04:00

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has unveiled a series of sweeping legislative proposals that could, among other things, reshape access to housing in America.

The so-called A Just Society: Uplift Our Workers Act plan is made up of six separate legislative proposals that each addresses a different facet of ameliorating poverty in the United States.

Among them, The Place to Prosper Act would, for example, institute nationwide rent control, regulate corporate landlords, and provide federally-mandated tenant protections. The bill would cap rent increases at three-percent per year while also mandating that landlords keep rental units in good repair, and includes $10 billion over a decade to remove building-borne toxins like lead contamination.

The bill would also hold back highway funding from areas that do not actively support equitable development strategies. Along this vein, the bill takes aim at the imposition of parking and lot size minimum requirements by municipalities, a...