Bronx Gentrification
Rep. Joseph Crowley lost his seat to the House for the 11th term in Congress. Crowley stood for the 14th District of New York which covers the Bronx and Queens. In 2015, Joseph Crowley and Rep. Kevin Brady brought to the floor a revision for Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act. FIRPTA was a long-standing law on foreign real investment from the 1980's. The revision increased the amount of tax-withholding for foreign investors but does not protect American's from tax hicks. It turned out that Crowley received large sums of money from real estate moguls like Barnett, Roth and Ross prior to bringing the bill to the floor. The bill passed the House and Senate in 2016 as Protecting American's from Tax Hicks Act and The Real Estate Investment and Jobs Act. Big Real Estate companies jumped at the new provisions and Bronx and Queens paid the price with 30 new developments along the Hudson River. Gentrification of Bronx and Queens rest on the shoulders of one-person Rep. Joseph Crowley and now his incumbent Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may finish the job.