NY Times Comment, Caitlin Cahill, July 14, 2026

Let’s get the facts straight: 1st, Related Companies won the 2021 RFP to renovate—not demolish—the FEC buildings. Replacement is now estimated at $2.4 billion, nearly 5 times NYCHA’s first  renovation estimate. Mr. Mihiri does not report that the proposed demolition is a no bid contract. This blatant land grab is opposed by CB 4 and the majority of residents. Over 1,000 residents have signed a petition against demolition. Civic leaders and tenants from public housing across the city are coming together to oppose the demolition.   

2nd, Related has a track record as a bad actor misusing tax dollars and extracting wealth from public housing across NYC and the country. It is not hyperbolic to suggest that they are real estate oligarchs bulldozing through our democracy. Why would Mamdani support Related whose CEO was the major donor to the “Fix the City” super PAC to support Cuomo? 

Demolition is a racist Robert Moses urban renewal 2.0 move. What James Baldwin called Negro Removal. Public land will primarily serve corporate interests. The majority of new units would be market-rate housing (where 2-bdrm rents are upwards of $9K in new buildings). Public housing residents would be segregated into 3 buildings on each campus. Luxury housing would outnumber public housing on land originally set aside for working class New Yorkers. 

Finally, to characterize Section 8 as stable is misleading. Tenants in RAD/PACT developments have experienced eviction rates 3 times higher than the NYCHA average.   

This is destabilizing and displacing the NYC we know and love.

—Caitlin Cahill, Professor, Pratt University