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TESTIMONY

Cormack McKay, visitor and possible future resident of NY, on addressing vacant properties and promoting housing conversion in NYC

14:23:08

·

3 min

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Cormack McKay, a visitor to New York City, supports the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal with additional amendments. He argues for measures to combat deliberately vacant properties and promote housing conversion, citing the negative impact of empty buildings on the city's housing market and economy.

  • Proposes a vacancy tax or fine of $1 per square foot per day or 100% of expected rent for empty properties
  • Suggests incentivizing prefabrication and off-site construction methods for new developments
  • Recommends converting vacant offices and commercial properties to emergency residential or tourist accommodation within 30-90 days
  • Support for the City of Yes proposal with additional amendments
  • Concern about deliberately leaving property empty and its negative effects on the city
  • Proposal for a vacant property tax or fine of $1 per square foot per day or 100% of expected rent
  • Suggestion to encourage rapid renovation and development of empty sites
  • Promotion of prefabrication and off-site construction methods
  • Proposal for a citizen reporting program for vacant properties
  • Suggestion to convert vacant commercial properties to emergency residential or tourist accommodation within 30-90 days
  • Recommendation for short-term tourist accommodation in buildings not suitable for long-term residential use

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • 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.

Residential Conversions

"Office vacancy rates are expected to rise from the current 1 in 5 to 104 by 2026 according to Moody's, and they can resonate using their units probably could be much higher than the estimate of 100,000 or 1.4 as reported."

This quote indicates that the speaker is discussing office vacancy rates, which relates to the residential conversions element of the proposal. The high vacancy rates mentioned support the idea of converting unused office space into residential units.

"All sites, offices, and commercial property should be converted to emergency residential at accommodation, our tourist visitor accommodation within 30 days of becoming vacant, with allowances of up to 90 days for refurbishment in a 15 year period."

This quote directly addresses the concept of converting office and commercial properties into residential or tourist accommodations, which aligns with the residential conversions element of the City of Yes 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?
Cormack McKay
14:23:08
Hello.
14:23:09
Can you hear me?
Dan Garodnick
14:23:11
Yeah.
14:23:11
And
Cormack McKay
14:23:13
good evening, commissioners.
14:23:14
Thanks very much for hanging up evening.
14:23:16
I've been here here since the start.
14:23:19
I'm a visitor and possible would be future resident of New York, and I would like to support this proposal with a couple of add on amendments to do this proposal.
14:23:30
Thank you for your time and consideration.
14:23:33
As you may be aware, the practice of deliberately leaving property empty is a highly socially destructive practice and a scourge on the city.
14:23:42
It is also a practice of market manipulation to limit availability.
14:23:46
Which drives up the price of property and rents.
14:23:50
Office vacancy rates are expected to rise from the current 1 in 5 to 104 by 2026 according to Moody's, and they can resonate using their units probably could be much higher than the estimate of 100,000 or 1.4 as reported.
14:24:09
Until we have a highly regressive Bacon property or vacant underutilized, empty tax are fine.
14:24:17
This practice will continue.
14:24:20
I propose that these fines or tax should at least be a minimum of $1 per square foot per day or a minimum of 100% of the expected rent until reduced and occupied.
14:24:35
To be added, to this city of yes proposal.
14:24:40
To prevent this practice of leaving residential, office, commercial buildings, and land or sites deliberately empty.
14:24:47
Denying this much needed space for housing and visitors accommodation, now and in the future.
14:24:53
And yes, there shall be some grace and considerations for minimums for open space landscape gardens or community gardens.
14:25:01
This could encourage rapid renovation and development of these sites and properties.
14:25:07
We should also promote the practice of prefabrication and off-site construction methods which should be the preference for all new construction and developments to allow for future proofing and adaptability.
14:25:19
Another proposal to this will be anyone who reports socially destructive practice of vacant property should get a commission for doing so.
14:25:28
Demonstrated citizens' air complaint program.
14:25:32
All sites, offices, and commercial property should be converted to emergency residential at accommodation, our tourist visitor accommodation within 30 days of becoming vacant, with allowances of up to 90 days for refurbishment in a 15 year period.
14:25:50
If buildings might not be suitable to become long term residential units, they may be suitable to be used for short stay tourist accommodation.
14:26:00
This could free up the current short term tourist accommodation that would be suitable for long term accommodation.
14:26:10
And this would qualify them for 75 percent reduction of the fine until occupied.
14:26:16
But
UNKNOWN
14:26:17
Time.
Cormack McKay
14:26:19
Like to talk with you for your time.

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