Not Necessarily This Day In Knickerbocker Village History, August 12, 1936

This brings to mind interesting historical questions. Was the opposition to this a true
defense of housing for the working class or was it a "false flag" to prevent any gvt money to be spent on subsidized housing. Later in NYC there would be projects for lower income people, but there was a definite need for housing for lower middle class folks like my family.
The plan of the city administration to withdraw tax. exemption from the Knickerbocker Village model housing project on the East Side, if successful, will bankrupt virtually all the low rental housing created in New York. City under the State Housing Law in the last ten years, Aaron Rabihowitz, vice chairman of the New York State Board of Housing, said yesterday. Mr. Rabinowitz made this state- ment as a result of the ruling Monday by Supreme Court Justice Samuel I. Rosenman, denying an application for summary judgment on behalf of the operators of the Knickerbocker Village project. The operators maintained that the property was exempt from taxation and that the Board of Taxes and Assessments was in error in acting otherwise. Mr. Rabinowitz declared the withdrawal of tax exemption would wipe out the investments of hundreds of workers' families and millions of invested capital representing both equities and a substantial part of the underlying mortgages. Sees Confidence Destroyed "Furthermore, it will discredit all public effort to bring about decent housing within the reach of low- income families," he said. "If the city can repudiate its obligations after it has induced wage-earning families to invest their all in better housing under government protec- tion, it must destroy all confidence in the sanctity of government contract? Mr. Rabhowitz pointed out that total investment. in the cooperative dwellings under the law was $5,805,183. Of the non-cooperative dwellings the total investment affected by the action of the city, he said, was $12,436.277. Of approximately $36,000,000 invested under the Housing Law, projects valued at $18,241,462 were now threatened by the action of the city, he added. Discussing. tax exemption as ap- plied to the property built under the State Housing Law, Mr. Rabinowitz said a primary purpose of the law was to invite organizations and individuals to invest private and trust funds in housing projects. These projects, he asserted, produced the lowest possible rentals under conditions necessary to insure self-liquidation and proper maintenance.