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TESTIMONY

Denise Fabiano, resident of Howard Beach, Queens, on concerns about City of Yes for Housing Opportunity enforcement and implementation

14:14:14

·

3 min

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Denise Fabiano, a resident of Howard Beach, Queens, expresses respect for the need for affordable housing in New York City but voices concerns about the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. She questions the ability to enforce permanent affordability and suggests a more gradual approach to implementing the proposed changes.

  • Highlights that 35 community boards have voted against the initiative, while 24 have voted in favor
  • Proposes focusing on areas that have approved the changes and evaluating the results after a year or two
  • Raises concerns about potential abuse of the system and impacts on infrastructure, particularly mentioning flooding issues in her neighborhood
  • Suggests renaming the initiative to 'City of Those That Said Yes' to reflect a more targeted implementation approach
  • Cannot enforce permanent affordability
  • Concern about potential abuse of the system
  • Lack of trust in the mayor's all-or-nothing approach
  • Migrant and illegal immigrant problem exacerbating housing situation
  • 35 community boards voted against, while 24 voted in favor
  • Suggestion to implement changes in areas that have approved and evaluate results
  • Concerns about infrastructure, particularly mentioning water issues in basement
  • Proposal to rename initiative to 'City of Those That Said Yes' and allow others to wait and see if it works

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP

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

"I respect the need for housing. And affordable housing in New York City. By far, the need is there. But I do not see how the city of yes can enforce permanent affordability."

The speaker acknowledges the need for affordable housing, which is a key aspect of the UAP proposal. They also express concern about enforcing permanent affordability, which directly relates to the UAP element.

"If there was a way for you as the commission to be able to give some sort of way that it will only be used for affordable housing, then that would be one thing."

This quote shows the speaker discussing the concept of ensuring that new housing remains affordable, which is a core component of the UAP 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?
Denise Fabiano
14:14:14
How are you this evening?
14:14:15
I should say this morning.
Dan Garodnick
14:14:17
Yes.
14:14:18
We're we're hanging in.
14:14:19
Welcome.
Denise Fabiano
14:14:21
I can see that.
14:14:22
I can see that.
14:14:23
And I wanna say thank you very much for all that you have done today and all that you have sent it to today.
14:14:34
I respect the need for housing.
14:14:38
And affordable housing in New York City.
14:14:44
By far, the need is there.
14:14:47
But I do not see how the city of yes can enforce permanent affordability.
14:14:55
If there was a way for you as the commission to be able to give some sort of way that it will only be used for affordable housing, then that would be one thing.
14:15:10
But as for the 35 districts that have voted no, it is because we feel that there is going to be abuse of the system.
14:15:23
And what you're asking us to do is to trust a mayor who is giving us an all or nothing with the city of yes.
14:15:36
I understand that the housing problem has been going on for years, but you cannot say that the migrant problem and over almost 200,000 illegal immigrants is not exacerbating the situation.
14:15:51
And I've heard a lot of great things here about vacant low income housing that can be used programs to make home ownership affordable.
14:16:03
And I do believe that those can be used, but I also believe that we need to make changes as well.
14:16:10
35 community boards have voted no.
14:16:14
And 24 have voted.
14:16:16
Yes.
14:16:17
There are many areas where they are giving you clear access to come in and make the changes that you want to make and that you believe in, sir.
14:16:28
And that gives the rest of us an opportunity to see how it'll go.
14:16:33
Mister Levine this morning said that he can create over a 100,000 of these units for you.
14:16:39
Well, I say have added then.
14:16:41
I say use those 100,000, and then a year or 2, we'll check back with you.
14:16:46
We'll look.
14:16:47
I live in in in Howard Beach.
14:16:49
I get water in my basement all the time.
14:16:52
In 2 years, I'll check it out with you, and I'll see how many of these builders really did use it for affordable housing.
14:16:59
How many of them did not ruin the already very shoddy infrastructure that we're left with?
14:17:07
And the general happiness of the residents that have said yes to you.
14:17:13
My my take on it would be change the name of this to the city of those that said yes, and the rest of us waiting to see if it works out.
14:17:24
So that we can do the same.
14:17:25
I think that every New Yorker wants to be able to help the situation.
14:17:32
We recognize the situation.
14:17:34
Hi.

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