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TESTIMONY

Cathy Seibek, City Island resident, on concerns about City of Yes for Housing Opportunity's impact on unique communities

7:04:36

·

172 sec

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Cathy Seibek, a resident of City Island in the Bronx, expresses strong opposition to the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. She argues that the blanket zoning change would eliminate community voices and fail to account for the unique characteristics and needs of different neighborhoods, particularly those in transit deserts like City Island.

  • Highlights City Island's special district zoning, limited infrastructure, and vulnerability to climate events as reasons why the proposal is unsuitable for her community
  • Emphasizes the importance of City Island's charm and character for tourism and local businesses, which could be negatively impacted by increased density and reduced parking
  • Suggests alternative approaches, such as allowing communities to opt-in or focusing on homeownership and single/two-family homes instead of blanket zoning changes
  • City Island is a unique, low-density residential community with special district zoning
  • The proposal is a blanket zoning change that will eliminate community voices
  • City Island has infrastructure and geographical limitations (one road in/out, flood zone)
  • The community attracts visitors for its quaint, nautical village atmosphere
  • Concerns about increased density and lack of parking affecting local businesses
  • Climate change and flood risks need to be addressed before increasing density
  • Urges a common-sense approach to zoning that considers each community's uniqueness
  • Suggests focusing on homeownership and single/two-family homes for more housing

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • Parking Mandates
  • 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.

Parking Mandates

"I'm a car owner like most here in the northeast Bronx that live here in a transit desert."

This quote indicates that the speaker is discussing the importance of cars and parking in their area, which relates to the proposal's element of removing parking mandates.

"I don't think people wanna come here to look at big buildings and no place car."

This quote directly addresses the concern about removing parking mandates, suggesting that it would negatively impact visitors to the area.

Transit-Oriented Development

"I'm a car owner like most here in the northeast Bronx that live here in a transit desert."

This quote indicates that the speaker is discussing the lack of public transit in their area, which is relevant to the transit-oriented development 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?
Cathy Seibek
7:04:36
Good morning.
7:04:38
Good afternoon.
7:04:38
7 hours later.
7:04:40
Chair and commission.
7:04:41
I'm a resident of the Bronx City Island.
7:04:44
I'm a car owner like most here in the northeast Bronx that live here in a transit desert.
7:04:49
I'm I'm very happy that the borough president recognized that and listened to us.
7:04:53
Caron is all good people.
7:04:55
I'm a board member of our civic and active member of my district.
7:04:58
I attended many meetings on the city of yes.
7:05:01
Our community board voted no after hearing from civic associations, residents, and business.
7:05:06
Please don't eliminate the voices of our residents.
7:05:09
This is a blanket.
7:05:11
It's a blanket zoning change.
7:05:13
And we'll eliminate our voices in the future through our elected, you know, for projects in our neighborhood.
7:05:20
It's not very democratic.
7:05:21
When each community does a little more, What is the stop gap to a little more?
7:05:25
Every community is unique.
7:05:27
The Bronx is not Manhattan.
7:05:28
Manhattan is not the Bronx.
7:05:30
The process in place now for zoning changes will be eliminated.
7:05:34
City Island, at this time, has special district zoning.
7:05:38
It it is a low density residential community and actual island that is a mile and a half long.
7:05:44
We have one road in and one road out over 2 lane bridge.
7:05:48
A bridge that at times has not been accessible during storms hurricanes or accidents?
7:05:53
Are infrastructures outdated?
7:05:54
Services have been caught from your flood zone?
7:05:57
Will infrastructure and city services be increased or addressed?
7:06:01
Before building more.
7:06:02
These are valid concerns due to our unique geography.
7:06:06
City Island has been called the New England seaport, the gym or the Bronx.
7:06:10
We announced secret restaurants, and welcome tens of thousands of visitors from Spring to Fall, to Dine and stroll a beautiful community.
7:06:17
It's unique.
7:06:18
That's why New York has come to visit.
7:06:20
They come to enjoy the quaint, charm, nautical village atmosphere.
7:06:24
I don't know why anyone wanna change that, and no parking.
7:06:28
Our community business generate many tax dollars for New York City.
7:06:32
Do you I don't think people wanna come here to look at big buildings and no place car.
7:06:37
Our residential dead end streets cannot fit more buildings.
7:06:40
Are you planning to build an evacuation site here to house people during hurricane storms flooding and blackouts?
7:06:46
Address the climate change.
7:06:48
You can build, flood us, and then build back.
7:06:50
I urge you to vote now to the city of yes housing opportunity proposal.
7:06:55
In its current form and stick with a common sense approach to zoning in each community.
7:07:00
Let the community boards in both of this have the plan.
7:07:03
Let them be the pilot program, let us that don't opt out or redirect it more to homeownership and sing on 2 family homes to provide more housing.
7:07:13
We know we need more housing.
7:07:15
But I I think to be fair, you have to recognize who are different communities.
7:07:20
Thank you very much for allowing me to testify and I'd appreciate if you'd listened to the people of the Bronx and that some of the points theboro president made.
7:07:28
Thank you.

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