Thread by @jbarro

Rather alarmingly, both Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang say they want to rely on converting newly-depressed hotel and office properties into housing as a key part of a housing strategy. Shouldn’t Plan A be to reboot the economy so those hotels and offices are busy again?

I don’t think conversions should be prohibited but those investments are based on a timeline of many years and I certainly hope we will be getting occupancy back up. Office and hotel uses are essential to our economy and our tax base.

Also a lot of office buildings don’t even work well as residential conversions because the footprints are too large. Yes, you can convert a hotel, but that doesn’t mean you should.

I continue to look at this field and be surprised at my increasing conviction that Eric Adams is the best choice.