Taxing the city's empties
HIKING VACANT-LOT COSTS
Before Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio raises empty-lot taxes ("Lot owners: Put up or pay up," Nov. 25), he needs to understand the many types of zoning and how zoning affects each vacant parcel. Why should owners of a house with a lot being used for parking or gardening be pushed to sell or develop it? What if the zoning makes building impossible?
Some communities, such as Centreville in Ozone Park, Queens, may lack proper sewer connections. Some developers hold land because they can work on only a certain number of projects at once. Also, many residential areas of the city have been downzoned, limiting large-scale development. Tax increases on such lots would be a hardship for homeowners trying to maintain their quality of life, and would reduce their property values.
—Carl P.
The incoming mayor's plan makes sense. Why should the owner of a 3-acre plot in the middle of the city pay just $8,000 per year to sit on land that appreciates disproportionately with its tax burden? Granted, there are a host of complex issues, but it makes no sense unless you're holding onto the land for purely speculative reasons and using the tax loophole and zoning laws to increase the cost basis of a future transaction.
WHY IMPORTERS WILTED
In "Giving Brooklyn a business focus" (Nov. 25), Carlo Scissura laments, "Why aren't companies that do their business through JFK, import/export companies, for example, doing business out there already? Because we need to attract them."
Good luck with that. I have seen firsthand entire import-based industries that were based at JFK, in the surrounding boroughs and on Long Island shut down or consolidated because the costs were too high. The wholesale flower and produce industries used to employ thousands, importing from Europe and South and Central America directly into JFK for distribution throughout the tristate area. Those businesses are gone because it is actually cheaper to import those items to Miami International Airport, warehouse them, and truck them to New York. I have not been involved in these firms but have had relatives who were. They lost their jobs because of the changes. Every politician and talking head speaks of the need to create jobs, but I have yet to see one with a feasible program to generate decent-paying jobs for residents already here, rather than for the thousands of transplants who come from other parts of the country.
—Glenn Krasner
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