My commute from Nostrand to lower Manhattan was under 30 minutes even including the 10 minute walk to the subway. That's exactly why that area is gentrifying.
I used to commute from Nostrand to the UES and it involved taking the G train to the E train to the 6 train plus lots of walking. Easily over an hour.
Theoretically, increased taxes shouldn't affect the cost of living, because the supply is fixed, and the market price is way above maintenance costs. The revenue will simply shift from the banks and landowners to the public. At least that's the theory, but it should work for a gradual tax increase.
I favor a tax increase on the wealthy but I'm just saying implementing such a policy is more difficult than it sounds, especially because NJ and CT are so close by.
Source: Me. I used to represent high-wealth individuals.
> instead channel the revenue away from the rent-seekers and into the hands of the public (i.e. by increasing property taxes)
Good luck getting that passed. And while I'm in favor of higher taxes on the land-owning elite almost half of NYC's income tax revenue is made up from 1% of its residents (https://nypost.com/2014/04/15/citys-one-percent-pay-larger-i...), about 35K people making > 600K. And income tax is about 2/3 of how NYS collects revenue (https://www.tax.ny.gov/research/collections/fy_collections_s...).
Raise taxes on them enough and they move to NJ or CT and it's actually a net loss for the city.