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TESTIMONY

Carina Nieves on opposition to City of Yes for Housing Opportunity in low-density communities of Queens

2:46:00

·

3 min

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Carina Nieves, a resident of Richmond Hill, Queens, expresses strong opposition to the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative, particularly its impact on low-density communities. She argues that the proposal, including Transit Oriented Development and Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), threatens the character of neighborhoods like Richmond Hill and may lead to harassment of property owners by developers.

  • Nieves contends that lower-density zones have historically kept rents lower for low and middle-income residents compared to larger buildings.
  • She cites previous rezoning efforts in Community Board 9 that aimed to preserve low-density areas while upzoning certain avenues, noting limited development results from these changes.
  • The speaker criticizes the framing that low-density communities are 'the problem' in the housing crisis, arguing that residents chose these areas for quality of life reasons.
  • Low density communities are being targeted for transit-oriented development
  • Residents chose these communities for light, air, space, and tranquility
  • The proposal may lead to harassment of property owners by developers
  • Lower density zones have helped keep rents lower for low and middle-income residents
  • Community Board 9 preserved lower density zoning in 2009 after a diligent rezoning process
  • Previous upzoning along Jamaica Avenue and Atlantic Avenue has not resulted in significant affordable housing development
  • New apartment buildings in the area are not affordable for the local community
  • The community is against the City of Yes proposal

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • ADU
  • Transit-Oriented Development

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.

ADU

"This, you know, this proposal the proposal of an a ADUs in transit oriented and is one way to force property owners in these areas of the city to be harassed by developers to sell our our properties to build, baby, build, or build back better for use of political jargon."

The speaker directly mentions ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) in the context of the proposal, indicating that this element of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is being discussed. The speaker expresses concern that this proposal will lead to pressure on property owners to sell or develop their properties.

Transit-Oriented Development

"Low density community that is targeted for transit oriented development because we have the J train and the A train to ourself."

The speaker directly mentions transit-oriented development and relates it to their community's proximity to subway lines (J train and A train). This indicates that the speaker is discussing the Transit-Oriented Development element of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal.

"This, you know, this proposal the proposal of an a ADUs in transit oriented and is one way to force property owners in these areas of the city to be harassed by developers to sell our our properties to build, baby, build, or build back better for use of political jargon."

The speaker again mentions transit-oriented development in conjunction with ADUs, further emphasizing that this element of the proposal is being discussed and criticized.

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?
Carina Nieves
2:46:00
Yes.
2:46:00
I am here.
Dan Garodnick
2:46:02
Great.
2:46:02
Welcome.
Carina Nieves
2:46:04
Thank you.
2:46:05
Hello, everyone.
2:46:06
Thank you for allowing me to speak and for
Katherine Winters
2:46:10
the work that you've been doing.
Carina Nieves
2:46:13
So my name is Karina Nieves.
2:46:15
I'm a resident of Richmond Hill And Queens.
2:46:17
Low density community that is targeted for transit oriented development because we have the J train and the A train to ourself.
2:46:29
So I think one thing that is is very concerning for those of us who live in these low density communities is that The framing from city planning and all these other advocacy groups for housing development is saying that our communities are the problem.
2:46:48
That we have not developed any housing.
2:46:51
People have moved into these communities for a reason for for light, air, and space, and for tranquility to get away from this from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan or other areas that have a lot of apartment building.
2:47:07
This, you know, this proposal the proposal of an a ADUs in transit oriented and is one way to force property owners in these areas of the city to be harassed by developers to sell our our properties to build, baby, build, or build back better for use of political jargon.
2:47:31
The only reason New York City has been able to keep lower and middle income residents is because due to the low these lower density zones, owned by families have been able to have kept their rents a lot lower than larger buildings.
2:47:49
But now with the ever increasing cost of higher taxes, the insurance utilities, of course, cost This the costs have gone up, so rent has gone up.
2:48:00
Community Board 9 has preserved lower dense cities zoning back in 2009 after they did a very diligent rezoning process.
2:48:08
At that time, 1 to 2 families zones were being targeted and demolished to be rebuilt into 3 to 4 family zones.
2:48:15
So they were forced to put to address this issue.
2:48:20
The Zona Long Jamaica Avenue, Atlantic Avenue were up zone for 7 stories, and not much development has come out of that.
2:48:27
Only one large senior housing development has been completed back in with about on a 130th Street in Jamaica Avenue.
2:48:35
And 1 medium sized affordable housing unit was built around 126 Street in Jamaica Avenue.
2:48:41
There's even a property sitting in Woodhaven on Jamaica Avenue that's an apartment parliamentary buildings has basically left vacant for close to a decade because it needs a variant to actually even have anyone to sit to live there.
2:48:57
On Atlantic Avenue, only a few properties have been built with this rezoning.
2:49:01
In cue gardens, there have been multiple homes that have been knocked down due to the rezoning.
2:49:07
And none of those apartment buildings are actually affordable for the people in my community.
2:49:11
So I'm against the city of yes, and our our communities are against the city of yes.
2:49:18
Thank you.

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