user: Problem: City Slows Plan for Market-Rate Units on Public Housing Land

Marcus Yam for The New York Times

âThis isnât quite a white flag of surrender, but itâs pretty close.â CHRISTINE C. QUINN, the City Council speaker and a mayoral candidate, who has raised concerns about a lease proposal.

Facing fierce opposition from tenants in public housing projects, the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is slowing down plans to lease land in some developments for market-rate apartments.

Officials with the New York City Housing Authority announced on Friday that instead of requesting formal proposals to build on the grounds of eight housing projects in Manhattan, as previously envisioned, they would first solicit ideas from private developers â so-called expressions of interest â before choosing any construction projects.

Also, while the agency initially focused on leasing the land for residential units, officials are now encouraging proposals that would incorporate retail stores, community facilities and other uses on the ground floors, which many public housing residents favor. These nonresidential uses would require broad community and city review, as well as approval by the City Council, because they deviate from existing zoning guidelines in seven of the eight housing projects, officials said.

The plan was Mr. Bloombergâs major initiative to generate revenue for public housing, but it has instead generated widespread concern among public housing residents. Although housing officials said they could still select developers by the end of this year, it is unclear what the announcement on Friday means given the change in administrations after the November election.

âThis isnât quite a white flag of surrender, but itâs pretty close,â Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and a mayoral candidate, said, adding, âIn essence, what they put out was a request for information for the next mayor.â

Ms. Quinn and most mayoral candidates raised objections to the original plan, but have yet to put forth specific revenue raising plans of their own to help the financially strained public housing system and its more than 400,000 residents. The chairman of the housing authority, John B. Rhea, said he expected to get from developers âcompellingâ designs that would give any administration âa better hand to play in making a decision.â

âThis has never been about speed,â he said. âWe want to get it right, and we want to maximize the opportunity before us.â

The authority wants to raise more than $50 million a year on long-term leases for 14 parcels within eight housing projects in some of the cityâs most desirable areas, including Lower Manhattan and the Upper West Side. It is trying to cope with severe cuts in federal financing. There is no state or city money forthcoming to replace it to help meet the agencyâs $6 billion in unmet capital needs.

But the plan, which needs final approval from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, has met resistance from many residents, community groups and local elected officials, who accused the authority of rushing to put it in place without enough public consultation.

Even as the city shifts from its original plan, the concept of leasing land for mostly market-rate apartments â with 20 percent of the 4,000 new units in the plan designated as affordable to lower-income households â is still being resisted.

Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh of Manhattan, a critic of land leasing, said there was still the basic question of what the impact would be of âbuilding thousands of new residential units in the middle of densely populated neighborhoods.â

Mr. Kavanagh added, âTodayâs announcement may be a welcomed slowdown in the process, but it doesnât change that basic fact.â

And many residents remain suspicious, even as housing officials have tweaked the plan to limit the height of the new buildings and make the eight projects leasing their lands first in line for public housing repairs and upgrades of facades, plumbing and electrical and heating systems.

âWe need decision-making together,â said Jane Wisdom, president of the tenants association at Douglass Houses on the Upper West Side. âWe still need to know what the ending is.â

At least one legal challenge to the proposal looms for the city. Steven Banks, attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society, said he was planning a lawsuit on behalf of public housing residents, arguing that âthe housing authority canât dispose of property thatâs intended to be used for low-income New Yorkers and instead provide luxury housing.â

Write a one or two sentence summary.

Summary: The Bloomberg administration faced criticism for its plan to lease to developers some of the land at eight housing projects and has shifted the plan to allow more time for discussion.


Problem: 8-week-old kitten euthanized after being shot by pellet gun on Long Island

A sick creep shot an 8-week-old kitten with a pellet-gun on Long Island, leading to the defenseless animal having to be euthanized, authorities said Friday.

Nassau County SPCA Spokesman Gary Rogers said the agency will pay $1,500 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person who shot the small kitten.

“We’re having flyers printed up and putting them in every mailbox in Massapequa,” Rogers said.

“You’re talking about an 8-week-old kitten — that’s like shooting a baby,” he said.

The black-and-white kitty was first spotted by a resident of the Harbor Green neighborhood on July 30. The resident, in turn, alerted Joanne Monez, founder and president of the group All About Spay Neuter.

RELATED: 50 FELINES FROM WHICH TO CHOOSE

“We were working on this job on Sunset Boulevard,” Monez said. “A woman told us there was a kitten there and it was dragging its back leg.”

Monez and her team trapped the animal on Aug. 2 and took it to a veterinarian, who said the furry kitty would have to be put down.

“It was paralyzed from the waist down,” she said. “It also had no use of its bladder. There was nothing that we could do to save it, unfortunately.”

She said the veterinarian showed her the X-ray and the pellet retrieved from the tiny animal.

“It’s shocked me,” she said. “If they’ll shoot a kitten, who knows what they’ll shoot next.”

Write a one or two sentence summary.

Summary:

assistant: The black-and-white kitty was paralyzed from the waist down from the sickening attack.