The Mayor of New York - Is He Trying to Get More Affordable Housing?

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He takes a lot of responsibility for personally because he believes that the zoning in new york was archaic and tried to really rezone much of the city so that redevelopment could happen. He argues that he took what i believe to be a record amount of either the preservation or the creation of affordable housing but it can be very strongly argued by some of his opponents that he didn't do enough. Even though he had a number of positives towards working towards affordability and densification in new York he left a lot of frustrating people in his way.

Paris Marx is joined by Josh O’Kane to discuss how Sidewalk Labs decided to build a city “from the internet up” in Toronto, the concerns that existed with the project, and why it ultimately fell apart.

Josh O’Kane is an award-winning technology reporter at the Globe and Mail and the author of Sideways: The City Google Couldn't Buy. Follow Josh on Twitter at @joshokane.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

An excerpt of Josh’s book was published in the Globe and Mail.
Josh wrote about how Canada’s Liberal government under Justin Trudeau isn’t as friendly with tech companies as it was earlier in its time in power.
Around the time of Sidewalk Toronto, opponents were able to defeat Amazon’s HQ2 project in New York, Google’s Berlin startup hub, Apple’s planned central Stockholm store, and its planned store in Melbourne’s Fed Square.
Bianca Wylie was one of the prominent critics of the project, and was called the “Jane Jacobs of the smart city.”
In 2019, documents leaked showing Sidewalk Labs wanted a lot more power and access to more land than was agreed upon, and that further fueled opposition.
In May 2020, Wylie wrote about the cancelation of the project and the lessons that should be learned.