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TESTIMONY

Carin Bail, President of Hollis Hills Civic Association (Queens), on concerns about City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and affordable housing definitions

10:56:02

·

3 min

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Carin Bail, representing the Hollis Hills Civic Association in Queens, questions the definition of affordable housing and expresses concerns about the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. She challenges the beneficiaries of the plan and its potential impact on existing communities, particularly in Queens.

  • Raises concerns about the lack of clarity in the city's definition of affordable housing
  • Questions why existing empty apartments and nitri units are not being utilized for affordable housing
  • Argues that Queens residents do not want increased density in their communities
  • Requests more meaningful dialogue with city officials and a public health review of the initiative
  • Questions the definition and effectiveness of 'affordable housing'
  • Criticizes the lack of detail in the City of Yes initiative
  • Suggests the initiative benefits real estate industry and developers rather than communities
  • Points out existing empty apartments that could be used for affordable housing
  • Argues that Queens residents don't want to live in a more dense community
  • Questions why Eastern Queens should handle the city's affordability housing crisis
  • Highlights the community's existing contributions to other city issues (homeless shelters, migrant shelters)
  • Calls for more meaningful dialogue and public health review of the initiative

[EXPERIMENTAL]

Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?

  • UAP
  • Residential Conversions

The following are AI-extracted quotes and reasoning about which elements of the proposal were discussed in this testimony.

This is a quick, close approximation. Occasionally, the connection between a testimony's transcript and specific elements of City Planning's proposal is tenuous.

Read about this AI-generated analysis here.

UAP

"So the affordable studios where I work, going for about $28100 a month in Jamaica, So I'm just wondering, is that affordable housing?"

The speaker is questioning the definition of affordable housing, which is directly related to the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) element of the proposal. While not explicitly mentioning UAP, this quote demonstrates that the speaker is discussing the concept of affordability, which is central to the UAP element.

"Because after listening to a day of affordability needs, I'm not really sure what affordable means. I'm just wondering what the definition is by the city because it seems like there is severe lack of detail in that."

This quote further emphasizes the speaker's concern about the definition of affordability, which is a key aspect of the UAP element. The speaker is questioning the city's definition and implementation of affordable housing policies.

Residential Conversions

"Because there are thousands of apartments that we know are empty, folks left due to COVID, nitri units are empty and distraught. So why hasn't the city put some attention there?"

While not directly mentioning residential conversions, this quote touches on the issue of empty apartments and underutilized spaces, which is related to the concept of converting unused spaces into housing. This aligns with the residential conversions element of the proposal.


About this analysis:

This analysis is done by AI that reasons whether or not a quote from the testimony discusses a particular element of the proposal.

All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.

You can search for testimonies that mentioned a specific element in the table on the main meeting page.

When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.

But the connection between a quote from the testimony and an element of the proposal is sometimes implicit.

In these cases, the AI might eagerly label a testimony as discussing a proposal when the connection is tenuous, or it might omit it entirely.

↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Carin Bail
10:56:02
Thank you.
10:56:04
My name is Karen Bail, and actually, Queen's resident, and I'm also the president of the Hollow Hill Civic Association.
10:56:10
Thank you for taking the time for me today.
10:56:14
Wow.
10:56:14
It's been a long day.
10:56:15
So the affordable studios where I work, going for about $28100 a month in Jamaica, So I'm just wondering, is that affordable housing?
10:56:25
Because after listening to a day of affordability needs, I'm not really sure what affordable means.
10:56:31
I'm just wondering what the definition is by the city because it seems like there is severe lack of detail in that.
10:56:38
So I'm just curious, Who does the city of yes benefit?
10:56:42
It doesn't seem to benefit the environment or public health or those seeking affordable housing, the homeless population, it doesn't benefit the existing communities that threatens to destroy.
10:56:53
So who does it benefit?
10:56:55
Because it seems like gonna benefit the real estate industry, the developers, the elected officials, maybe the mayor, maybe some of the city planning commission, Who is it really benefiting?
10:57:08
Is there enough affordable housing?
10:57:09
Because there are thousands of apartments that we know are empty, folks left due to COVID, nitri units are empty and distraught.
10:57:17
So why hasn't the city put some attention there?
10:57:20
Because that is affordable housing, but folks can't live there affordably.
10:57:25
So, yes, New York City has faced sorting issues dating back to 48, a challenge that it no requiring a lot of strategic solutions.
10:57:35
And the intention to address this is commendable, but this, like, blanket statement of a little bit every way.
10:57:41
Find it sounds like a one size fits all.
10:57:44
And in Queens, a lot of the community boards and civic associations and residents and business owners have consistently been voicing their disapproval of this blanket zoning change.
10:57:53
So people who chose to live in Queens just don't want to live in a more dense community.
10:57:59
So it was it was simple for the city to accommodate a 180,000 people but couldn't come up with housing for a 100 1000 homeless after the migrant crisis, and now we're seeing impacts of all of this on our communities.
10:58:12
So the mayor actually said in an interview back in January, that the city shouldn't be handling a national crisis of this magnitude.
10:58:19
And I'm just wondering why Eastern Queen's is supposed to be handling an affordability housing crisis that our city faces.
10:58:26
So we've done our part to try and help with other issues that are city of spaces like the migrant issue.
10:58:34
We have many homeless shelters and migrant shelters in our community.
10:58:40
So who is this a house affordability housing for?
10:58:44
I'm just wondering.
10:58:46
If New York City can't afford to create more housing, then maybe more housing is not necessarily a good thing.
10:58:53
I'm just wondering after a day of Zoom is how you're planning to engage with us in more meaningful dialogues.
10:58:58
And is there gonna be a public health review of this if it hasn't been done?
10:59:02
We'd love to invite you to our community to talk to

Follow-up discussion/remarks

QUESTION

Chair Garodnick responds to concerns about City of Yes beneficiaries

10:59:12

·

85 sec

Dan Garodnick, Chair of the City Planning Commission, addresses the questions raised about who benefits from the City of Yes initiative. He emphasizes that the proposal is intended to help all New Yorkers struggling with housing affordability and availability.

  • Garodnick clarifies that the initiative aims to assist those who cannot find affordable housing options or face long commutes
  • He stresses that the housing crisis has been decades in the making and should not be conflated with the migrant crisis
  • The Chair asserts that inaction is not an option, as the lack of housing is causing widespread problems and driving up costs for everyone
  • Questions the definition and effectiveness of 'affordable housing'
  • Criticizes the lack of detail in the City of Yes initiative
  • Suggests the initiative benefits real estate industry and developers rather than communities
  • Points out existing empty apartments that could be used for affordable housing
  • Argues that Queens residents don't want to live in a more dense community
  • Questions why Eastern Queens should handle the city's affordability housing crisis
  • Highlights the community's existing contributions to other city issues (homeless shelters, migrant shelters)
  • Calls for more meaningful dialogue and public health review of the initiative

[EXPERIMENTAL]

Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?

  • UAP
  • Residential Conversions

The following are AI-extracted quotes and reasoning about which elements of the proposal were discussed in this testimony.

This is a quick, close approximation. Occasionally, the connection between a testimony's transcript and specific elements of City Planning's proposal is tenuous.

Read about this AI-generated analysis here.

UAP

"So the affordable studios where I work, going for about $28100 a month in Jamaica, So I'm just wondering, is that affordable housing?"

The speaker is questioning the definition of affordable housing, which is directly related to the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) element of the proposal. While not explicitly mentioning UAP, this quote demonstrates that the speaker is discussing the concept of affordability, which is central to the UAP element.

"Because after listening to a day of affordability needs, I'm not really sure what affordable means. I'm just wondering what the definition is by the city because it seems like there is severe lack of detail in that."

This quote further emphasizes the speaker's concern about the definition of affordability, which is a key aspect of the UAP element. The speaker is questioning the city's definition and implementation of affordable housing policies.

Residential Conversions

"Because there are thousands of apartments that we know are empty, folks left due to COVID, nitri units are empty and distraught. So why hasn't the city put some attention there?"

While not directly mentioning residential conversions, this quote touches on the issue of empty apartments and underutilized spaces, which is related to the concept of converting unused spaces into housing. This aligns with the residential conversions element of the proposal.


About this analysis:

This analysis is done by AI that reasons whether or not a quote from the testimony discusses a particular element of the proposal.

All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.

You can search for testimonies that mentioned a specific element in the table on the main meeting page.

When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.

But the connection between a quote from the testimony and an element of the proposal is sometimes implicit.

In these cases, the AI might eagerly label a testimony as discussing a proposal when the connection is tenuous, or it might omit it entirely.

↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Dan Garodnick
10:59:12
And before you do, I just I know there were a lot of rhetorical questions there.
10:59:19
But most importantly, a question about who this is intended to help.
10:59:25
Is any New Yorker who is looking for housing, who today can't find a reasonable option for themselves, can't find something that they can afford, has to travel an unreasonable distance to their job, can't bring an elderly relative in to live with them, has to travel too far to be able to access what they need for goods and services.
10:59:54
The absence of housing here is causing a world of problems for all New Yorkers.
11:00:02
It's driving the cost up for everyone.
11:00:06
So inaction is just not an option here.
11:00:11
And the idea of conflating The migrant crisis with our housing crisis, which has been decades in the making, is a fallacy.
11:00:21
And I think we should just all be very clear about that.
11:00:25
So I know there are a lot of rhetorical questions.
11:00:27
The speaker probably did not intend for me to actually answer any of those questions, but I did wanna make the the point about who this is intended to benefit and why we have proposed it.
11:00:36
Okay.

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