Posted on 08/07/2013 1:09:48 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(CNSNews.com) – As part of his ongoing campaign to transform New York City into what he calls “Fit City,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg is promoting “active design” for low-income housing developments being built there, including plans to prompt residents to use the stairs and rooftop gardens for growing “healthy” foods.
In 2010, the Bloomberg Administration and other public and private sector groups issued the “Active Design Guidelines,” which promotes car-free neighborhoods, encourages “physical movement” inside buildings and “improves access to nutritious food.”
The Center for Action Design was launched next as a resource for architects and developers who sign on to the idea of “promoting health through the design of buildings, streets, and neighborhoods,” as stated by David Burney, Board Chairman for CAD.
In March, the 124-unit, $37.7 million Arbor House was opened in the Bronx, according to a July 31 Newsday report.
The article stated that the “affordable housing” development features murals and music along the stairway, with elevators located farther away from the front door that are “programmed to move at a slow pace.”
“One witty slogan posted on a staircase door reads: ‘If your dog is fat, you're not getting enough exercise,’” the Newsday article stated.
The Arbor also features a 10,000 square foot, rooftop hydroponic garden where vegetables will be grown, the article stated.
"If this building was five miles south in Manhattan it would be a luxury building," Les Bluestone, co-founder and partner of Blue Sea Development, owner and developer of the Arbor House, told Newsday.
"Affordable housing doesn't have to look like public housing," Bluestone said, adding that some low-income housing "scares people."
The Arbor House “is part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, a multi-billion dollar initiative to finance 165,000 units of affordable housing for half a million New Yorkers by the close of the 2014 fiscal year,” stated an article in the New York City Housing Authority Journal.
In an article for Marketplace Morning Report, Stan Alcorn asked the director of innovation for Otis Elevator what he thought of the idea.
“Fundamentally, we agree,” Daryl Marvin said. “It makes a lot of sense to take the stairs if you can.
“At the same time, there’s lots of times where that’s not a practical solution,” Marvin said.
The Arbor House’s 124 units are located on eight floors – three floors less than Bloomberg’s own residence on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The New York Daily News reported on July 17 that the billionaire mayor has an elevator in his $30 million townhouse.
“I have five floors,” Bloomberg said in the report. “I take the stairs.”
CNSNews.com asked Joanna Frank, executive director of CAD, several questions about CAD, including how the non-profit was funded.
The email request was not answered.
Last year he was demanding all landlords submit to him a list of all the tenants in their building who smoke. That’s Nazi tactics “Submit to us a list of all ze Juden in ze building”.
Great...... The Paramedics will be delayed getting to your door, and getting you out of the building and to the hospital after you have a medical emergency.
Emergency services and the people waiting for their help will love it too.
Yeah! What you said. lol
People will get more exercise if we just go back to stone age or beyond, and we have to chase down our food.
This is what they do, eliminate all efficiency and productivity for their stupid ideas.
I am sure the paramedics and their emergency patients will appreciate this.
He is nuts..I can remember the big high rises..ugly, concrete, square in the former Yugoslavia..
My friend who lived there told me they didn’t have elevators.. Some of them were probably over 20 stories..
New job for Bloomberg: StairMaster?
And to think, “name that Wienie” would probably be an improvement of the Czar of NYC!
“”If this building was five miles south in Manhattan it would be a luxury building,””
Give it a few years,,,, and it will look like Cabrini Green. But with pot gardens on the roof.
I had a 5th floor walkup on Brady St., in Milwaukee. First 10 days were kinda tough. After that no problem. But I’m someone who prefers the stairs. Used to run up and down them before skiing season started.
Wow, what’s next...we’re rounded up, shoveled into stockades and branded?
Then shipped to a vet who vaccinates us?
Screw him, Il Douche.
Ed
This is a gazillion heart attacks waiting to happen. This is a fact. There is no way I could make it past the first one and a half floors without dropping dead.
This should be called the “Bloomberg Torment the Cripples Campaign”.
It is based on the idea that the time of people who are handicapped is not important, so they should have to use slow elevators.
It's interesting to watch and see just how much batshtt New Yorkers will eat.
Could provoke a lawsuit from the elderly and/or the disabled - people who cannot walk up lots of flights of stairs. Violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Also, would make it harder for EMT workers who are carrying special equipment to get to people who are having a medical emergency.
Bloomberg is why so many liberals think ALL Republicans are fascists.
Thanks for the ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.