PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Tom Duane, Former State Senator and City Council Member
5:26:58
·
3 min
Tom Duane, a former State Senator and City Council Member, provided testimony on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal, expressing a mixed stance. He shared insights from his experience with the Chelsea Plan and discussed various aspects of urban planning and affordable housing in New York City.
- Highlighted the need for community board planners to even the playing field
- Criticized a missed opportunity for affordable housing in Chelsea due to community opposition
- Expressed concerns about parking requirements and the impact of congestion pricing
- Emphasized the importance of considering affordability in different neighborhoods
Tom Duane
5:26:58
Thank you very much.
5:27:01
I'm going to just go through a bunch of stuff.
5:27:04
You could say I'm neither totally opposed, no totally for this.
5:27:09
I am one of the authors of the Chelsea Plan.
5:27:11
I also shepherded it through the city planning commission and then through the city council.
5:27:16
It has been modified through the years but I just wanna give one example of something that happened because I heard the woman from VOA saying that they were placed to do anything.
5:27:24
They actually put the development with supportive housing.
5:27:29
We permitted them to put in an extra floor and the mechanic does on top, and Hell's Kitchen does the same thing.
5:27:34
Very accommodating, not every neighborhood is, but to people who could use supportive housing.
5:27:44
I Okay.
5:27:50
In a perfect world, even if this does go through it, well, I understand the council's gonna do its own, but really, it would be I don't the the community boards don't have planners.
5:28:00
They don't get planners paid to be on their staff.
5:28:03
Do they?
5:28:04
No.
5:28:05
That would even the playing field.
5:28:07
So, I mean, I could tell you every building, every lot, every place you could build housing, my neighbors.
5:28:11
I'm gonna tell you a terrible story.
5:28:13
We rezoned flatiron which was garages and factories.
5:28:20
We kept commercial on the bottom floor, but it allowed residential buildings to be built and to have the manufacturing converter.
5:28:28
At the time, there was no program when this was with Joe Rosa City Clinic or should there was no program for affordable housing, but written into the Chelsea Plan was should there ever be a city on-site that becomes available, it'd be made available for low income people.
5:28:43
And what happened was there's sanitation, garage, and lot, which they didn't wanna use anymore.
5:28:48
And housing should've gone there.
5:28:51
But instead, people who because of changing the zoning and living live in those buildings, passed around a petition that said, do you wanna park?
5:29:00
Like, really disingenuous, do you wanna park?
5:29:02
So now there's a park there where there should be housing, man.
5:29:05
I went I haven't vandalized it or anything, but it breaks my heart every time I go by there.
5:29:10
Because it was supposed to be for affordable housing.
5:29:12
There is no way to build affordable housing.
5:29:14
I mean, as far as I know, the state legislature has not given any incentives to to build affordable housing.
5:29:19
And, also, one last thing.
5:29:20
There are 2 less things.
5:29:21
One is okay.
5:29:22
But they're doing Chelsea Elliott in front of
Bruce Rosen
5:29:24
the house is can that's not being
Tom Duane
5:29:25
done in East New York?
5:29:26
I mean, let's look at where affordability matters.
5:29:29
And also, now you've made it so that someone who lives in East New York will have a more difficult time an apartment in a new building because of the way the community board.
5:29:39
Now I understand that it doesn't work that way the network's everywhere.
5:29:42
The other thing is, New Yorkers are Americans.
5:29:45
They drive.
Bruce Rosen
5:29:49
I think you have to have garages where people have cars.
5:29:53
They want to get out of the city.
5:29:55
Uber and Lyft, you know, is not enough.
5:29:57
And
Tom Duane
5:29:59
if congestion pricing comes in, how I can't wait to see what 61st street looks like?
5:30:04
Are they gonna have to, like, turtle park in there?
5:30:05
It I mean, you have to give people with police assistance.
Lynn Schulman
5:30:08
Well, people
Paul Graziano
5:30:09
are Americans.
5:30:10
Thank you.
Tom Duane
5:30:10
And The plaintiffs who already should have built a place where buses could go after they drop dropped off tours to go to shows so that the bus drivers didn't have to sit around idling.
5:30:20
They could have eat food and, you know, relax till they had to bring people back.
Cassandra O'Hearn
5:30:25
Oh, it's it's Senator.
Tom Duane
5:30:26
I give you more than that.
5:30:27
As you know, Lynn, but look at me.
5:30:29
I'm stopping now.
5:30:30
Thank you.
Lynn Schulman
5:30:31
Thank you very much.
5:30:32
Okay.
5:30:33
Does does anybody have questions for this panel?
5:30:35
No.
5:30:36
Okay.
Cassandra O'Hearn
5:30:36
Thank you very much.
Lora Tenenbaum
5:30:37
Okay.
5:30:37
Thank you
Charles Ny
5:30:37
very much.
Michael Sutherland
5:30:37
Okay.
5:30:38
Thank
Adrienne Adams
5:30:38
you very much.
Tom Duane
5:30:38
Question.
5:30:39
That was very fast,
Charles Ny
5:30:40
Lynn.
Adeola Deloatch
5:30:40
That's okay.
5:30:40
Maybe they
Lynn Schulman
5:30:43
Now, that's okay.
5:30:44
We have a lot of folks today.
MacKenzie Fillow
5:30:46
I could stay and do the next one.
