PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Darrick Borowski, Architect from New York Housing Committee
4:44:02
·
136 sec
Darrick Borowski, an architect and member of the New York Housing Committee, testified in support of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. He emphasized the need to change the outdated zoning code to address the current housing crisis and make New York City more affordable for diverse income groups.
- Borowski highlighted key elements of the proposal, including bonuses for affordability, densifying town centers and transit zones, legalizing shared living and ADUs, and eliminating outdated parking requirements.
- He shared personal observations about rising housing costs in Ridgewood, Queens, and the struggle of students and mid-career professionals to find affordable housing in the city.
- Borowski argued that changing zoning regulations is crucial for maintaining New York City's vitality and ability to attract young people, creatives, and immigrants.
Darrick Borowski
4:44:02
Good afternoon, chair and council members, and thank you for this opportunity.
4:44:05
I'm an architect and a member of the New York Housing Committee where with colleagues about the opportunity to study key elements of this plan and its impact on neighborhoods.
4:44:13
I also teach research, lecture, and write on the future of cities and housing.
4:44:17
What both my practice and academic work have shown is that our zoning codes establish what is possible and as a result help shape what we get.
4:44:24
And the current zoning code written to address a very different crisis in 1961 as as a result, help shape the crisis we face now.
4:44:33
And the possible fixes for this crisis are limited by the possibilities written into this code.
4:44:38
If we want a city where people of diverse incomes can afford to live, we must change this code.
4:44:44
In this proposal, my colleagues, students, and I that have studied have found that the changes proposed to be modest, but important tools to help dig us out of the current crisis, including bonuses for affordability, densifying town centers, and transit zones, legalizing shared living, small apartments and ADUs, and importantly eliminating outdated parking requirements.
4:45:02
But I'm also here as a constituent, as a small business owner and as a resident of Ridgewood Queens.
4:45:07
In the last 20 years, I have seen housing plus skyrocket, forcing friends and fellow creatives to leave or to hang on by a threat to an apartment.
4:45:15
They and their family have long outgrown.
4:45:17
My students, when they graduate struggle to find an apartment they can afford on a starting salary and design, and mid career architects who hoping to start a family must consider leaving because even with 10 or 15 years experience, they find it hard to find a home that they can afford.
4:45:30
So it's great city seeing its ups and downs, but always it's been the people who historically can least afford to live here.
4:45:36
Young people are just creatives, immigrants who have kept the city vital, and those who have nothing to lose, who have the courage to move here and reinvent themselves, and in the process, reinvent New York City.
4:45:46
I don't think New Yorkers are generally opposed to new housing.
4:45:49
Understandably, they we are worried about the impacts of higher density on our already tenuous cold on our quality of life, and we must address those issues as well for right now.
UNKNOWN
4:45:59
Utah has expired to make housing a priority.
Darrick Borowski
4:46:02
That means changing what's possible.
4:46:04
That's
Lynn Schulman
4:46:04
No.
4:46:04
Your time your time is up.
UNKNOWN
4:46:06
Tom is expired.
4:46:06
Yep.
Lynn Schulman
4:46:07
If you if you wanna submit testimony, you have 72 hours to do that, to give us your entire testimony.
4:46:13
But we need to keep it short.
4:46:14
We have we have several hundred people that are signed up to testify today.
4:46:18
Thank you very much.
