I thought it was really interesting how Jaime Rubin has been a part of so many different industries before his current position at the NYCHA. Jaime Rubin has been a lawyer, a member of a presidential political team, a member of the federal communication division, an investment banker, in charge of Hurricane Sandy recovery in NY and NJ, the head of the governor’s office for storm recovery, director of the state of operations, ran a fund involved with government infrastructure project and a fund involved with environment infrastructure. As he mentioned, being a part of so many professions gives him a unique outlook that others in his industry don’t have.

It was staggering to learn about the state of public housing, and that it would require around 80 billion dollars to update, and yet the NYCHA is only given approximately 5 billion dollars a year. It was gratifying to learn, however, that the NYCHA has methods to make the most out of what they have. Not only do they spend their budget towards the most timely needs, but they have other methods of getting money, such as investors.

Further, it was interesting to learn how these improvements to public housing, at least in Chelsea can be made without disrupting (too much) those within them. The developers build a new building in an open space for 300 people, move people into an exiting building, then tear down their old building. This process will be repeated until all of the buildings in this area are replaced, which may end up taking about 10 years, but at least progress is being made.