Market power at New York's Trinity School

The motto of Manhattan's elite Trinity School is "Labore et Virtute"--work and virtue. While we now think of virtue in terms of moral purity, it can be useful to remember that in Latin, virtus can also connote power, especially in reference to abstractions or inanimate objects.

Take, f'r instance, real estate. For decades the Trinity School has taken advantage of a New York subsidy program to keep the apartments in the building it owns accessible to the less than rich. Property values have escalated, however, and so the School has announced that it will opt out of the program and sell the building.

Which points to a dilemma facing a number of charitable property owners in areas with escalating property values. On the one hand, selling property or raising rent would seem to be the best way for the board to fulfill its fiduciary duties & fulfill the organization's mission. Yet it can also lead to the reverse Robin Hood effect, handing lower-to-middle-class apartments to the rich or kicking out a historic local club.