Former Lehman Brothers banker to head New York City’s Housing Authority

[Hannah Bell]

New York City’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has appointed a fellow Wall Street veteran, former Lehman Brothers top executive John B. Rhea, to head the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the largest administrator of public housing in the Untied States.

Rhea, 43, managed strategy and budget for the failed investment bank. After it collapsed in September, he continued to work for its new owners at Barclays. Previously, he had worked for JP Morgan Chase... He has no experience whatsoever in managing housing, public or otherwise.

Rhea served on Barak Obama’s Presidential Campaign, working as a “bundler,” gathering more than $500,000, primarily from Wall Street...The social chasm separating Rhea from the working-class residents of public housing was revealed by a remark he made after Bloomberg announced his appointment to the job last week. According to the New York Times, he joked, “Well, obviously I’m not taking the job for the pay.” His new position includes a $189,700 a year salary, nearly nine times the income of the average family living in New York City public housing.

(discussion of problems in nyc public housing follow...)


None of these are the problems that Rhea has been appointed to solve. For the wealthy elite, of which he is a member, there is an entirely different problem: how to release a vast amount of publicly owned housing stock onto the rental market...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/nych-m26.shtml

[mdmc]

1. I wish I could have bundled millions to OBAMA!

Then I could have this job - and actually help the poor and working class get quality housing.

[Hannah Bell]

2. you might not last long in the position. looks like he's been put there to

privatize & "ethnic cleanse".

poor people aren't welcome in nyc.

[mdmc]

3. I agree I wouldn't last

but at least I would have done the job as expected. THEN they could have put in their axe man... :mad: