In First Town Hall, de Blasio Works to Sell His Housing Plan

After 20 months in office, Mayor Bill de Blasio held his first town hall meeting on Wednesday night, and he focused it on the topic of tenant protections. He chose a high school gymnasium in Washington Heights, a neighborhood with more than 53,000 rent stabilized apartments.

The mayor answered questions from an audience of 250 people from local tenant organizations and community groups. Some wanted to address specific problems, such as a building's need for roof repair. And the mayor had several agency heads on hand to provide answers.

He also got some scrutiny over his ten-year plan to address the city's housing crisis. It calls for building both affordable and market rate housing, a source of angst for a tenant activist named Jeane who is worried that gentrification will only get worse in Washington Heights.

"We all know there are stores that are closed, bigger things are coming soon," she said.

The mayor listened, but said market rate housing needs to be part of the equation for the economics of his plan to work.

"I could do affordable housing only, but I'd be doing a lot less," he said.

City Hall said the mayor is planning to do more town halls, a move that will increase his face time with regular New Yorkers — and 2017 voters.