Chrysler's Perks

Our tale this week of university real estate woe left out a lot of worthwhile research from the City Project paper on which we reported. One bit of that is how the Chrysler Building has been standing there, all 1,048 tall of it, for 76 years without it contributing any property tax to the city. That's because a court decision exempted the owners of the land beneath it, Cooper Union, from real estate tax liability. The commercial tenants in the building pay what are called "tax-equivalency charges, but that money goes to Cooper Union instead. Neil deMause has more details.