Uncertainty, Skepticism Abound At Heights ‘City Of Yes’ Briefing
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY – A sizable crowd, including many Spanish speakers, showed up at P.S. 48 Michael J. Buczek in the Heights on Tuesday night, listening attentively as city officials provided an in-the-weeds outline of Mayor Eric Adams’ “City of Yes” zoning proposal.
Essentially a package of zoning changes designed to boost the construction of new housing citywide, City of Yes is – depending on who you ask – either an essential step in addressing the city’s housing crisis, a developer-friendly giveaway that will actually deepen that crisis while destroying the city’s character in the process, or something in between.
‘It’s Important That We Understand The Impact’
Council Member De La Rosa, who represents Washington Heights and Inwood, hosted the event, and described the evening as both an information session for residents and a community forum designed to inform her own position as the City Council moves toward a vote on City of Yes. She remains undecided.
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“This council will not be the council that will say no to the development of housing,” De La Rosa said. “But that housing has to speak to the wide needs that exist here in District 10. And also, how do we preserve the affordable housing that already exists and bring that housing into the twenty-first century?”
Ryan Cote, a senior city planner who works with City Council, gave an hour-long presentation highlighting some of the zoning changes included in City of Yes, in English, with translation services provided.
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High-density provisions are applicable in Washington Heights and Inwood, and in Manhattan more broadly. Although numerous shifts are included in the proposal, much of it hinges on something called Universal Affordability Preference (UAP), a voluntary program that enables developers to build higher – usually one to two more stories, Cote said – with the stipulation that this additional build is permanently affordable housing at 60 percent of area median income (AMI), currently $93,180 for a family of four.
Just How Affordable Is Affordable?
Those who spoke were skeptical, to put it mildly.
“Now that I’ve heard Ryan’s presentation, I understand why the developers and landlords are delighted by this proposal,” said the first commenter, a man who introduced himself as Dave.
“What I heard is a proposal to encourage developers to build, as of right, with a little bit of an incentive for affordable housing – and the affordability of that affordable housing is not really affordable for people in our community,” he said, to loud applause.
“There should be no building in New York City that does not provide deeply affordable housing for working-class people.”
‘Do You Know What That Does To Our Neighborhoods?’
John Mangin, head of the Housing Division at the NYC Department of City Planning, responded, beginning with the scope of the problem.
“[The city has a] 1.4 percent net rental vacancy rate. Do you know what that does to our neighborhoods? It means that tenants have no options, it means that rents keep going up, it means overcrowding, it means street homelessness, [and] it means gentrification and displacement pressures in your neighborhood as people go father and farther up Manhattan looking for housing that they can afford,” he said, noting later that City of Yes is designed to reduce this gentrification pressure by forcing neighborhoods like the Upper West and Upper East Side to build.
“Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) is by far the biggest affordable housing program, in zoning, in city history. In 10-15 years it will create more affordable units than all of our inclusionary programs have created since the 1980s, since [these programs] came along. This proposal did not come from developers, it did not come from [the Adams Administration]…and we are extremely proud to put forward a set of proposals that is finally up to the daunting task that this housing shortage creates for New York City.”
Out of the roughly 100,000 units that City of Yes is expected to generate, about 25,000 of these will be affordable, Mangin said later, “income restricted at an average of 60 percent of AMI.”
‘Deepest Affordability Possible’
De La Rosa highlighted a key item that she said is currently being negotiated: exactly how affordable the housing created by City of Yes ought to be.
“We’ve really been going back and forth about the income bands,” she said. “The people coming into our offices looking for housing services are making anywhere from as low as $17,000 a year to about $25,000 to $30,000 at the high end. You have my commitment that I am at the table, calling for the deepest affordability possible.”
De La Rosa, Mangin, and Cote fielded more than a dozen questions, most of which were statements of opposition to City of Yes made by well-informed community members.
As the Q&A continued, hushed whispers grew into a voluble murmur throughout the auditorium.
Aside from advocates and activists, who made their positions clear, Patch was struck by the number of attendees who were unfamiliar with or new to the proposal and its implications for them and their neighborhood – attendees, of all ages, who took the time to attend a two-hour-long zoning presentation in a language that may not have been the one they speak, on a work night.
A majority – 66 percent – of District 10 residents (Washington Heights and Inwood) identify as Hispanic, according to recent data.
‘We Can Put On Our Working Shoes’
A vote on City of Yes may be imminent – an initial committee vote is Thursday – and the time to make your voice heard is now, right away, De La Rosa emphasized.
“This is an active and ongoing negotiation, which means that a proposal has been put on our desks and we have the responsibility to respond to this proposal with the needs of our communities,” she said.
“Tonight was about presenting to you all the facts, as they stand, and where there are opportunities for change. What we need from you in the coming days is to reach out to us and tell us specifically what are the changes you would like to see. We can close our eyes and pretend this is not happening, or we can put our working shoes on and start working and mobilizing and organizing, and that’s the call to action for us here tonight.”
More information is available here. For the city’s position, try this site.
What do you think about City of Yes? Email [email protected].
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