PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Tony Malone, Member of Brooklyn Community Board 6, on Arrow Linen Site Rezoning
5:07:16
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Tony Malone, a local resident and member of Community Board 6, testifies in support of the Arrow Linen site rezoning project. He emphasizes the need for more housing in Brooklyn to address affordability issues and prevent displacement of families.
- Malone shares personal experiences of friends and community members moving out due to high housing costs
- He cites the borough president's report, which indicates that Windsor Terrace can accommodate new growth without risking displacement
- Malone argues for the immediate development of 63 affordable units rather than waiting for potentially better but uncertain future proposals
Tony Malone
5:07:16
Thank you.
5:07:18
My name is Tony Malone.
5:07:19
I live 9 blocks from the Arrow Linen site, in Council District 39.
5:07:23
I'm a musician.
5:07:24
I'm a volunteer in a local democratic club, and I'm a member of community board 6, which is just a few blocks north of this project.
5:07:31
My wife Leah found our rent stabilized apartment 26 years ago, and that is the reason we've been able to stay and raise our family in this wonderful neighborhood.
5:07:40
But other families are getting pushed out every day by the cost of housing.
5:07:44
When our twins were born in 2012, we joined a local group for parents of twins, and now nearly all the other families in that group have moved out of the neighborhood because of the cost of housing.
5:07:54
I was talking to a friend last weekend in the Little Pakistan section of Kensington, and he told me that many immigrants have moved their families to New Jersey or Connecticut while one parent stays behind and works in New York City.
5:08:06
We need to build more housing here and everywhere in Brooklyn so families can stay together and grow and contribute to our community.
5:08:13
The Arrow Linen site is a block from the subway, and there's plenty of capacity for more riders, at my f and g station.
5:08:20
Other cities have brought rents down by allowing more housing to be built.
5:08:24
The research on this is clear.
5:08:26
Borough president Reynoso's report on this project states Windsor Terrace is marked as having the lowest level of risk on the city's displacement risk index, making it a place that can accommodate new growth.
5:08:36
New housing options will help alleviate rather than create additional market market pressure in Windsor Terrace.
5:08:42
And one other quote from the borough president's report, Catholic Charities at no point has made an offer to purchase the site.
5:08:48
It is difficult to imagine that such a proposal would only result in the loss of 44 units without requiring unit mix and average unit side to shift downwards.
5:08:58
So you can read the whole report.
5:08:59
It's great.
5:09:00
But the upshot is that if we wanna see, more affordable housing units, and we're expecting someone to come in and come up with the funding for that, we might be waiting 5 years or 10 years or it may never happen.
5:09:13
So I'd much rather see 63 affordable units soon than hope for something better down the road.
UNKNOWN
5:09:20
Thank you.