PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Richard Gibbs, Real Estate Broker on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
10:55:06
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121 sec
Richard Gibbs, a real estate broker with over 50 years of experience, primarily in Queens, testified against the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. He shared his personal experience of moving to St. Albans in 1976 and how buyers typically settle for areas they can afford near their desired locations.
- Gibbs expressed concerns about devaluing properties by allowing conversions of garages, basements, and backyards into living spaces.
- He emphasized the importance of parking availability, contrasting his current situation with previous experiences of difficult street parking.
- Gibbs criticized the proposal's lack of consideration for parking needs and suggested it might be intentionally pushing residents towards using city bikes.
Richard Gibbs
10:55:06
Hello?
10:55:07
Yes.
10:55:07
Alright.
10:55:07
Good evening.
10:55:08
This is Richard Gibbs.
10:55:10
Yep.
10:55:11
Okay.
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First of all, let me say, I am a real estate broker.
10:55:14
I've been doing real estate for over 50 years, mostly instead of over the queen.
10:55:19
I moved out to St.
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Albans in 1976.
10:55:22
And when I went out to St.
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Albans, I looked at Ashley Park.
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That's really where I wanted to move into.
10:55:28
I went by putting the Ford to Ashley Park, so What I did was look around the neighborhood and an area that's close to Abdi Park, and a place that was nice, then I could afford.
10:55:38
So I moved it to Saint Augustine.
10:55:40
That's what all of my buyers do.
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For over 50 years, I take my buys to whatever they wanna go to, but they buy it.
10:55:47
They can't afford what they see.
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They buy in the area close to it, but they can't afford.
10:55:53
So I'm saying that to say is that This is what all buyers do.
10:55:58
This is what you do.
10:56:00
It would say that we should down down I get down by a a a some value our properties is really what it amounts to.
10:56:08
When you say that we should start turn it out the they can turn the garage into an apartment to visualize the basement, put a a bundle on your backyard.
10:56:20
What kind of property is that?
10:56:22
I mean, when we move that to Saint Albans, I know when I did, it was moving out to the country of the living inside the city limits, and I moved from the apartment building to Brooklyn where I had to deal with officer side and street parking for myself and my wife.
10:56:37
Many times, I had to park four or five blocks from the parking good.
10:56:42
Oh, yeah.
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No.
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I have a driveway and a garage.
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The city of yet has no accommodations about parking, and I'm not sure if they even cared about the parking that was as intentional because there's forced these city bikes on it.
10:56:56
So I made me supposed to use that.
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It says it's gone.
10:57:00
I got the other thing I want to say is when you start overbuilding in a neighborhood, it becomes crowded and fucking
