Roman Mars

There was a period during and after the rent strike when Co-op City was looked at as a failure.

The state had subsidized the building of this massive and many thought ugly cluster of skyscrapers.

And then its residents refused for over a year to pay their own mortgage.

There were politicians and pundits during the strike that suggested that government should foreclose on the mortgage and evict the residents.

Walk away from this expensive project and cut its losses.

Speaking of ambition, the new mayor of New York, Zoran Mamdani, has a plan to build 200,000 units of affordable housing over 10 years.

It's a goal that former Mayor Bill de Blasio also had, but failed to accomplish.

It won't be easy.

99% Invisible was produced this week by Katie Minkle and edited by Christopher Johnson.

This episode was mixed by Martín González with music by Swan Real and George Langford.

Fact-checking by Graham Heysha.

Some audio from this episode came from the Municipal Archives in New York City and the Oral History Archives at Columbia.

Thanks to Michael Rohattan for help finding archival material.

Thanks also to Linda Lutton, Bernie Seilich, Andy Riker, Richard Heitler, and Roseanne Boone, all of whom provided invaluable insights to this reporting.

Kathy Tu is our executive producer.

Kurt Kolstad is the digital director.

The rest of the team includes Chris Berube, Jason DeLeon, Emmett Fitzgerald, Delaney Hall, Vivian Leigh, Lashima Dawn, Kelly Prime, Joe Rosenberg, Jacob Medina-Gleason, Talon and Rain Stradley, and me, Roman Mars.

The 99% of his logo was created by Stephan Lawrence.

We are part of the SiriusXM podcast family, now headquartered six blocks north in the Pandora building in beautiful Uptown, Oakland, California.

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