Q&A
Addressing infrastructure concerns in New York City districts
1:57:44
·
115 sec
Council Member Mercedes Narcisse raises concerns about infrastructure issues, particularly water backup problems, in her district. Borough President Antonio Reynoso acknowledges the need for comprehensive planning and criticizes the current approach to city planning and budgeting.
- Narcisse highlights the anxiety her community faces during rainstorms due to water backup issues.
- Reynoso emphasizes the need for prioritizing infrastructure improvements in city budgets, even if they're not 'sexy' political issues.
- Both agree on the importance of comprehensive planning, with Reynoso criticizing the Department of City Planning for focusing on zoning rather than holistic planning.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:57:44
But how do we because my community is outraged because when there's a rain.
1:57:51
We all have to cross our finger and pray.
Charles Ny
1:57:53
Yeah.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:57:53
We are back up from the bottom.
1:57:54
We are back up from from from from from from the water.
1:57:58
So how do we do that?
1:58:00
Because the government have we, the government, have to address the infrastructure for some area that we know is a problem.
1:58:07
Yeah.
1:58:07
So how do we do that?
Paul DiBenedetto
1:58:09
Yeah.
1:58:09
How do we do that?
Antonio Reynoso
1:58:10
So I would just say a couple of things to that.
1:58:13
The first thing is we are government there's a budget that's gonna come down very soon.
1:58:18
And the choices we make are reflection of the the the ideas or the goals that we wanna set forth.
1:58:24
In what time in the city council have we made it popular to push for the reconstruction of our sewer system in the city of New York in a meaningful way.
1:58:32
We don't have those conversations because we're more induced to to push for fluff stuff that got us reelected versus things that are not sexy, that nobody's gonna pay attention to where no one's gonna see, that can actually make a difference.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:58:44
And that's the problem.
1:58:45
I I'm not sexy when you come to those things because I talk out of Yeah.
1:58:49
Because we need to address the infrastructure problem that we have.
1:58:52
So I will and we need to address housing.
1:58:54
It's a crisis.
1:58:55
And the
Antonio Reynoso
1:58:55
thing is I think this all comes down to comprehensive planning.
1:58:58
We don't do it in the city.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:58:59
That's the problem.
Antonio Reynoso
1:59:00
The Department of City Planning doesn't plan.
1:59:02
What it does is zone, and it's a problem.
1:59:05
That it doesn't make this proposal bad.
1:59:08
Right?
1:59:08
So two things could be true.
1:59:10
DCP's done a terrible job at planning.
1:59:12
The city of New York doesn't plan.
1:59:14
We tried to pass a charter revision commission proposal to include comprehensive planning, and DCP was the number 1 per group or agency standing against it.
1:59:23
So I would just say asking for legislation to be pushed through the city council.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:59:27
I don't want much here to
Antonio Reynoso
1:59:28
be able
Mercedes Narcisse
1:59:29
to punish my today, but plenty have to be comprehensive.
1:59:32
That's how we're gonna leave it.
Kevin C. Riley
1:59:33
I agree.
1:59:34
Thank you, council member.
1:59:35
We're gonna have council member.
1:59:36
I need 5 by council member, Brewer, and council member, Jose.
