Hochul’s housing plan: Reality check for propagandists

Long Island as we know it would cease to exist if Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Housing Compact passes. So say its opponents on Long Island.

It’s fair to ask if these people are genuinely hysterical or simply dishonest. After all, the plan requires downstate localities to add 1 percent annually to their housing supply for three years.

One percent more housing is not a lot. One percent more anything is not a lot. Over three years, it’s 3 percent.

If that makes you want to throw the kids and dog into the SUV and move to the Ozarks, by all means, go. But don’t try to infect others with your “thinking,” if this level of brain function can even be considered that.

Of course, the alarmist fliers being circulated to defeat the plan don’t mention 1 percent growth. That would undermine their message of impending doom.

Oyster Bay officials, for example, using local taxpayer dollars, sent every homeowner in town a letter that began:

“We write to you regarding the governor’s latest plan to eliminate single-family home neighborhoods across Long Island. Her plan would create high-density housing zones around every Long Island Rail Road station and allow apartments to flood single-family home neighborhoods throughout the Town of Oyster Bay. This means that THOUSANDS of new apartments, people and cars could flood YOUR neighborhood and YOUR block.”

We interrupt your currently scheduled propaganda to inform you that Hochul is not eliminating single-family housing or flooding blocks with thousands of people.

Rather, she’s asking for 1 percent more housing supply annually for three years. For 80 percent of communities, that’s 50 or fewer new homes. If you are fortunate enough to have a (state-subsidized) LIRR station, the governor would concentrate the new housing around it so residents could walk to the train and other places.

Hochul is trying to persuade legislators to include the plan in the state budget. It’s easier to get controversial measures passed if they are wrapped in the budget, which is due April 1, than as standalone bills. But this one will be a heavy lift regardless.

Not because it’s extreme, though. Not only does it seek very modest housing growth, it gives localities flexibility in how to achieve it. That hasn’t stopped opponents from saying the Housing Compact is being forced down their throats and will turn their communities into the Bronx.

The Oyster Bay flier says it will dramatically increase crime, traffic, school overcrowding and property taxes, while destroying the environment and straining emergency services. The dog-whistling to racists is barely concealed: The apartments will attract Black and Latino tenants who will break into your car, drag down your school’s test scores, drive their beaters through your village and trigger constant 911 calls.

Reality check: Hochul’s plan doesn’t require a single unit of affordable housing.

So even if you’re a Neanderthal unaware that mixed-income housing in middle-class and high-income areas has historically fit in seamlessly, you can’t fall back on the ugly trope that a few apartment buildings will turn your idyllic, white town into a slum.

The plan does allow for less than 1 percent annual growth if some of the new homes are affordable, but leaves that choice to local governments.

The fact is, nearly all of the apartments recently developed around LIRR and Metro-North stations are too expensive for low-income people. For this reason, progressives are unhappy that Hochul did not mandate affordable housing in her plan. But if they kill it for that reason, they will be playing into the hands of the racists and the Nimbys.

The plan is moderate by any definition, if not tame. Hochul calls it bold, which may be true in the context of past governors doing nothing, but that could be a mistake. Perhaps if she branded it as the 1 Percent Growth Plan, New Yorkers would see letters like Oyster Bay’s as the ridiculous propaganda that they are.

The Hochul housing drama is a classic case of how politics now works in America. One side tries to sell a new policy and the other side distorts it with falsehoods and exaggerations, prompting their frightened constituents to pick up pitchforks and march to City Hall.

Leave your garden tools in the garage, Long Island. Check out some of the apartment buildings in Westchester County’s downtowns and see if criminals, vagrants and traffic jams are wreaking havoc, or rather if well-dressed people are walking to fun restaurants and shops. Imagine a miniature version of this development, proportional to each locality, where young adults and empty nesters could live.

And when a fast-talking politician or bulging-eyed protester tries to tell you 1 percent housing growth for three years will destroy your town, just say, “Thanks, but I’m smarter than that.”