We regularly hear complaints about a closely divided Congress where "nothing ever gets done." Of course, that's the problem with an actual democracy, right? Unless consensus can be reached, you frequently wind up with a logjam. Not so in the New York State legislature, however. While Republicans have made some inroads lately and threw a scare into the Governor during her last election, the Democrats still hold both legislative chambers and the Governor's mansion. That means that they are fully able to "get things done." The problem here is that a lot of people don't wind up liking those "things" very much once they are unveiled. Take for example the "landmark housing package" that currently appears to be in the final stages of negotiations. Housing has remained a major issue, particularly in the Big Apple, so it seemed clear that something like this was coming. But most of the details have been revealed now and, as the New York Post put it, "Nobody’s happy about housing!"

A reliable sign that a landmark housing package is inching closer to reality is that many stakeholders are crying out in a last minute push to get their priorities including in a final plan to grow the number of Big Apple homes and apartments.

Negotiators have come to preliminary agreements on many significant components of a complex multifaceted plan to build new housing, signaling that a deal may be within reach.

Exclusive Post reporting revealed that Gov. Kathy Hochul and leaders in the state Senate and Assembly are in general agreement to include key parts of the progressive “Good Cause Eviction” bill.

Assuming this housing package is rammed through, there is already plenty not to like about it. To be sure, Gotham in particular faces significant housing challenges and they are not quick, easy, or cheap to address. The five boroughs are already extremely crowded, so finding space to put up new buildings is quite challenging. Tearing down and replacing dilapidated structures is costly. So the Democrats are going to need to think outside the box here, and that's not good news for anyone.

The envisioned plan would begin work on building new housing and refurbishing other structures. But some of that new housing will have to be what's referred to as "high-density" housing. That's a polite way of referring to the towering public housing projects that no property owners want in their backyards. In other areas, this package would incentivize the repurposing and refurbishing of mostly empty office towers. That might make sense at first glance, but if you do that, you're basically throwing in the towel in terms of any of those businesses returning or new businesses setting up shop. The Big Apple is only "big" because it became a magnet for the business world, capital, and investment. The more you chip away at those aspects of the culture and convert it to low-income housing, the more rapidly the apple will begin to rot.

There is an even bigger poison pill hiding in this package. In order to get the hard left to go along with this, they decided to include something called the Good Cause Eviction Bill. Most legislation is given a name almost entirely the opposite of what it actually does and this measure is sponsored by a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, so you can probably see where this is going. It would place caps on how high rent can go without consideration of increased management costs or higher demand. It would also make it much, much harder to evict people who are not paying their rent. Who wants to risk investing in a new housing project under those conditions?

This entire package is looking more and more like a trainwreck waiting to happen. One representative from a group of small-business landlords described Good Cause Eviction as "a disaster for New York State" and "unacceptable in any form." But those are just some of the real New Yorkers who actually provide housing for people and have to deal with the results of bureaucratic incompetence on a daily basis. What would they know, right?