We welcome the recent announcement that the city is upzoning SoHo and NoHo for affordable housing. For too long, higher-income, majority-white neighborhoods have been able to stymie development and affordable housing, shifting the burden onto other, lower-income neighborhoods. We need affordable housing in every neighborhood, especially ones without it.

In our Fourth Regional Plan, RPA called for affordable housing to be built in every community, including affluent areas. In February, we suggested that rezoning the SoHo/NoHo neighborhood for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing could contribute to this goal. 

This effort is starting with SoHo/NoHo, but shouldn’t end with it. Another higher-income, majority white neighborhood — Gowanus — is also due to start the rezoning process early next year after several years of community visioning and planning. But more could easily follow. Many neighborhoods in New York City where rezoning could help with housing equity have been left out of the conversation altogether.

However, the recent release of the New York City’s Where We Live Plan indicates that this could be changing, with a new focus on expanding affordable housing opportunities in low-density and amenity-rich areas. Below are five neighborhoods, one in each borough, which could rezone for mixed-income housing: These are neighborhoods with good access to jobs and transit, are majority white and have significantly higher incomes than average, and which are much lower-density than surrounding neighborhoods.

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