National
NYC Approves ‘Poor Door’ Proposal
A luxury condo building in the Upper West Side neighborhood in Manhattan has received approval to have a separate entrance, or a “poor door,” for low-income tenants, according to the New York Post.
Extell introduced a plan last year to have separate entrances for a 33-story luxury property. The development will have 219 units overlooking the waterfront and 55 affordable units in a “building segment” facing the street.
“No one ever said that the goal was full integration of these populations,” David Von Spreckelsen, senior vice president at Toll Brothers, another developer specializing in luxury residencies, told The Real Deal in 2013. “So now you have politicians talking about that, saying how horrible those back doors are. I think it’s unfair to expect very high-income homeowners who paid a fortune to live in their building to have to be in the same boat as low-income renters, who are very fortunate to live in a new building in a great neighborhood.”