Is the Rejection of the Sale of Hip-hop's Birthplace Just a Coincidence

Here's an iconic twist on the symbolic importance of hip-hop; the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in New York City has rejected the sale of the Bronx apartment considerd by many to be the birthplace of hip-hop, the old residence of D.J. Kool Herc. Not only is hip-hop tied to something of importance and significance for a change, but it found a strange way to actually help empower the same people it set out to uplift over 30 years ago, which is awesome. However this new development is actually the latest in New York's long history with affordable housing, more specifically, the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program, or rent control.

In 1955 New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblyman Alfred Lama signed into law this housing subsidy, which provided for the development of affordable housing throughout the city. On the one hand, the city was taking over housing and land that the poor already lived on and rebuilding mixed income housing. On the other some of the tenants eventually improved their economic situation and helped out a lot of the Mitchell-Lama housing through paying a surcharge, which increased property values at the end of the day.

Tenants in buildings built before 1974 had the benefit of rent stabilization forever, only if and when the property owners or landlords did not seek to privatize the buildings. Over time many did and as of now more than a third of those original buildings are no longer operating under the current guidelines. So basically gentrification changed those neighborhoods; well that Bronx apartment Kool Herc lived in would have been such a property had it not been for the Departments rejection of the sale.

Seeing that hip-hop started out as a way to speak to the impoverished and provide some representation to those unspoken for, you have to appreciate the irony here. On the other hand there is still a serious need for affordable housing, which is all but disappearing in New York City. It isn't that the city isn't creating affordable housing, but a lot of people are getting shifted around and priced out of their neighborhoods. It is understandable why landlords would not want to continue to participate in Mitchell-Lama or any other affordable housing program; it is great initially, to raise revenue, but there is a cap on the real profit that can be made on the real estate. The government is offering affordability, a continuous stream of income but no real prosperity. It may be time for the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program to be replaced by something else; since it appears to be going by the wayside, and rent control may be a distant memory for New Yorkers. Whether hip-hop plays an inadvertent role in it in the future remains to be seen ...