Like most New Yorkers who live in close quarters, tenants in mixed-income buildings rarely socialize beyond a polite nod of the head or a brief wave. And while they may live in the same neighborhood, they tend to patronize different stores — Mr. Omar, for example, does his food shopping at Western Beef, a grocery store on West 16th, where prices are a far cry from the $5 iced coffees at the Chelsea Market across the street. Yet while they may not overlap often, there is occasional friction between the two groups. At the Westminster, for example, Mr. Amico said he has heard some grumbling about the tenants hanging out in the lobby, and notices have been posted reminding residents of proper lobby etiquette, although a spokeswoman for the building’s owner, the Related Companies, said she knew of no complaints.... In most of these 80/20s, the affordable and market-rate units are interspersed throughout the same building, and the two groups of tenants live cheek by jowl. At some mixed-income developments, however, the affordable apartments and the market-rate units are in separate buildings. And then there is the so-called poor door, a separate entrance for nonmarket-rate tenants. That setup has come under fire in recent months, and the city says it is working to revamp a 2009 change in the zoning regulations that allowed 40 Riverside Boulevard, for example, to have the separate entrances.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 12:02:02 +0000
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