good morning. It's Monday. Today we'll explain why some apartment buildings are replacing amenity spaces like regular rooms with child care centers.
There is a new alliance between real estate, one of New York City's most powerful industries, and parenting, one of the most difficult sectors. why? New York City lacks kindergarten programs, and real estate developers have discovered that providing day care in buildings is a good fit for business. I asked Eliza Shapiro, who covers the city's affordability crisis, to tell us why he united such an unlikely alliance.
You wrote that there is mutual benefit from having David and Goliath on the same team. Why?
For developers, incorporating parenting into a project achieves several goals at once.
First, there is the big picture book issue where the lack of affordable and accessible childcare appears to be really bad for urban economic health. It's clearly a problem for real estate, one of the city's biggest industries.
So, if the developer can help solve the problem, the idea is ultimately to make the city stronger and therefore the business stronger.
Also, there is the fact that childcare is so popular, so if you have a community that is skeptical about new buildings coming to your neighborhood, adding kindergarten can really help you gain support.
What about childcare businesses?
Their calculus is even easier. They really need space. There are many real estate developers. Developers can help build playrooms and office spaces for staff and provide rent transactions until they reach full registration.
The top officials of the New York Daycare Council hope that building owners will consider subsidizing the pay of childcare workers within the building. Many such workers are above the minimum wage and people are leaving the childcare industry in large numbers.
The daycare council's argument is that the real estate industry can create all the space it needs, but without the workforce, that's pointless.
Are kindergartens opposed to ejecting populations? Does having kindergartens in apartments provide as many places for children as cities need the rising costs of childcare?
There is no way for developers to add some parenting space here. There, you can solve the childcare crisis and stabilize costs. But if many developers start to catch up with this trend, it can create dents.
I think the broader issue here is that it is very important that the private sector engage in what is considered a public sector issue. I think more developers can plant seeds to get involved in the game. When the industry with the most money and power begins to worry about the least amount of industry, it is always worth paying attention.
Can adding parenting to a flashy new building really beat your neighborhood opponent?
In some cases, I think it can be done.
For example, on Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn, there was a major controversy over whether developers should be allowed to build new apartment towers in largely low-rise communities. At the last minute, local elected officials and developers signed a contract to include childcare facilities on the first floor.
There is little doubt in my mind that it helps to ease the blow of the fact that these new buildings are moving forward. It is something that local officials can claim trustworthy as a victory and then help sell to their constituents.
The real estate industry and powerful unions agree to something here. What and why?
The Real Estate Board in New York, a lobbying organization in the real estate industry, and District Council 37, a number of unions with many low-wage childcare workers as members, are less likely to be worth the same sentence. But their teams will help push local politicians to streamline the creation of new child care centres, showing how much profit both sides will benefit when childcare and real estate join forces.
Both groups have real power in themselves with local elected officials. I'm looking to see what their campaign can achieve.
What about the existing buildings? You wrote about the developer who spent $100,000 to convert the common space in his new apartment home into kindergarten. Does that mean that the buildings with regular rooms and amenity spaces are not keeping up with the tenants?
This problem actually manifests itself in existing buildings.
I found a developer who converted an existing common space into kindergarten in one of his rental buildings. He really didn't use the flashy lounge space he included when he built the building, so he did that. And when I spoke to developers and people in the real estate industry, many of them told me they really see the lack of amenity space in existing condominium buildings.
So you might see other developers thinking about converting unused spaces in amenities that can help the whole neighborhood, such as kindergartens and childcare facilities.
weather
Expect a partially sunny day with low temperatures in the 60s. It features showers and potentially thunderstorms in the evening, dropping to about 50.
Alternate parking lot
It is hung for Passover.
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Sculptures to hear: Artist Jenny C. Jones has transformed minimalist sculptures for the annual roof garden committee from the Metropolitan Museum of Art into a sound “wind” instrument. It is the final committee before the Met section was demolished to make a path to the new wing.
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I lived there: Brad Holland, strict and brilliant pieces for Playboy, The New York Times and Manhattan's underground paper, have heralded a new era of conceptual illustration. He was 81 years old.
Metropolitan Diary
Loose vegetables
Dear Diary:
I was in New York City for the New York Presbyterian summer program. After classes were finished for a late lunch in Chinatown, I often went downtown and bought some groceries before returning Q and 1 back to my Upper West Side apartment.
One day in the swell of July, when I was very ambitious about grocery shopping, I had to wait 45 minutes for one train and then narrow it down to a completely packed car.
When the train left Times Square, I struggled to balance myself, failing to surround a bag of grocery around my feet.
By the time I left Columbus Circle, my tomatoes had surpassed several pairs of legs. My lettuce was under someone's seat and I was more annoyed than I had been in for a long time.
The gentle faucet on my arm pulled me out and myself. It was a young mother sitting nearby. She called the toddler to her lap and then nodded to the newly empty stroller in front of her.
From there we were in a companionable silence as the stroller was overflowing with watermelons, two melons and three bags of vegetables.
