PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Laura Sewell, Director of East Village Community Coalition, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
7:23:31
·
120 sec
Laura Sewell, Director of the East Village Community Coalition, expresses concerns about proposed changes to residential building standards in the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity plan. She emphasizes the importance of maintaining current light and air standards in tenement buildings and warns about potential displacement of long-term residents.
- Criticizes the proposal to reduce the distance between windows from 30 feet to 20 feet and allow more building into backyards
- Argues that many residents still rely on natural ventilation due to lack of air conditioning or inability to afford its constant use
- Warns that allowing taller and deeper buildings could encourage landlords to demolish existing structures, leading to gentrification and displacement of long-term residents
Laura Sewell
7:23:31
Good afternoon.
7:23:32
My name's Laura Sewell.
7:23:33
I'm the director of the East Village Community Coalition.
7:23:36
I'm a longtime resident of the lower east side.
7:23:40
I want to highlight today something that I'm not hearing much about, which is the residential building standards.
7:23:48
That would reduce the distance between windows from 30 feet to 20 feet and allow more building out into backyards.
7:23:58
City planning said that we don't need the distance that we used to have for the tenement buildings in my neighborhood because we all have air conditioners now.
7:24:08
I wish we all had air conditioners, but we don't.
7:24:11
We have a lot of residents who live without them even or can't afford to keep them turned on 247 for 6 weeks in a row, which is the way we're living these days.
7:24:23
So the way those buildings, those tenement buildings were designed to bring light and air into the apartments is really, really critical and important.
7:24:31
And I'm just not really hearing anything about that from other panelists, and I'm asking you to look into it, please, and think carefully about what it means.
7:24:39
We're also concerned that adding height, the potential to add height and depth to these lots will encourage landlords who have buildings that are not in great condition to begin with, to knock them down.
7:24:56
And further gentrify and displace what's going on in the neighborhood already.
7:25:01
I mean, I've lived in the East Village for 40 years, and it the change has been enormous, but there is still a lot of residents who've lived there for a very, very long time and really have no place else to go if they're to be displaced.
7:25:16
When our rent stabilized tenants are displaced, they they end up nowhere near where they grew up and where they lived.
7:25:26
So that's just something that's very important to me.
7:25:29
Thank you very much for listening.
