FYI: Despite the city’s vast budget deficits, Mayor Bloomberg told a housing conference yesterday that his administration is rapidly rolling out his five-year, $3 billion plan to build or preserve more than 65,000 units of housing. “The big question is, ‘How are we doing?” Bloomberg asked attendees at the fourth annual New York State Affordable Housing Conference. “The answer is–great!” For example, the mayor said, a coalition of banks has helped the city create a $200 million fund that will help housing developers to pay for “pre-development” costs, like buying and cleaning up a contaminated piece of land. Bloomberg ended his talk by taking a rare jab at one of his Republican colleagues, calling on the White House to modify its dividend tax cut proposal so that it doesn’t make “the low income housing tax credit less effective,” as some studies have argued it would do. Check out Matt Pacenza’s breakdown of the mayor’s plan and the future of affordable housing in New York City in the City Limits archive. [5/2/03]