NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management urged New York City to invest $1 billion annually on subway-line extensions to incentivize housing construction. The initiative, detailed in a January report, aims to prioritize affordability while increasing New Yorkers’ accessibility to public transportation. 

In its proposal, titled “A Better Billion,” the Marron Institute detailed plans to extend subway lines and build 64 new stations across the city over the next four decades — which it said could simultaneously drive the private sector construction of roughly 167,000 affordable housing units. The plan would cost around $48 billion over 40 years, including $34 billion from the city and New York state and $14 billion from projected federal contributions. 

In his pledges to increase New York City’s affordability, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has set goals to build 200,000 rent-stabilized housing units over the next 10 years. The Marron Institute framed its proposal as a way to “tie the mayor’s affordability agenda together,” stating that the initiative would cost about the same amount to execute as Mamdani’s push to make citywide bus services free. 

Franklin Tang, a lead author and student fellow at the Marron Institute, said that his team used public data sets to construct a blueprint that would effectively build on Mamdani’s affordability plans. 

“We have been trying to expand our outreach beyond professional circles, urban planning and transportation research,” Tang told WSN. “Making the city more affordable has always been part of our group’s ideology.”

Tang explained that the Marron Institute publishes a major research report around every six months, several of which focus on public transportation systems’ efficiency and affordability. One of the institute’s previous reports, titled “Momentum,” examined passenger rail electrification in metropolitan areas. Last March, the Marron Institute collaborated with the state advocacy group Reinvent Albany to author a report that analyzed the funding per rider for public transit systems in New York state. 

“Our administration at the director’s office are very supportive of our publication — we are excited to see this report gain around 15,000 views after 12 or 13 days,” Tang said. “In terms of a regional report aimed at regional scale being highly technical, I think it’s a very good result.” 

Contact Noah Kim at [email protected].