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TESTIMONY

Jody Corry, Resident of Glendale, Queens, on opposition to City of Yes zoning changes and their potential impact on her neighborhood

6:05:26

·

175 sec

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Jody Corry, a resident of Glendale, Queens, strongly opposes the City of Yes zoning initiative, arguing that it will negatively impact her neighborhood and quality of life. She describes Glendale as a beautiful middle-class community with a strong sense of community, which she fears will be disrupted by the proposed changes.

  • Corry emphasizes her personal journey of working hard to achieve homeownership in Glendale, which she sees as fulfilling the American dream.
  • She expresses concerns about potential overcrowding, increased crime, and strain on infrastructure if the zoning changes are implemented.
  • Corry suggests converting empty Manhattan office buildings into apartments as an alternative solution to address the housing shortage without disrupting existing neighborhoods.
  • The City of Yes initiative is wrong and will hurt innocent people
  • Glendale is a beautiful middle-class community with a strong sense of community
  • The quality of life in the neighborhood has been declining
  • The initiative will lead to overcrowding, loss of neighborhood character, and infrastructure problems
  • The city should focus on converting empty office buildings in Manhattan into apartments instead
  • The initiative is an assault on homeowners who have worked hard for their homes
  • The proposal is not equitable and will disrupt the lives of millions of people
  • Concerns about increased crime and safety issues in the neighborhood

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • Residential Conversions
  • Town Center Zoning
  • Parking Mandates
  • ADU

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

"We all know that office buildings in Manhattan are practically empty. And are never going to be full again due to remote work. Invent, convert the empty office space into apartments. You can create many, many new wonderful homes."

This quote directly addresses the residential conversions element of the proposal. The speaker suggests converting empty office buildings in Manhattan into apartments as an alternative solution to the housing crisis, which aligns with the residential conversions aspect of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal.

Town Center Zoning

"My once quiet beautiful neighborhood will become filled with apartment buildings, rented out basements, rented out garages, stores on each corner, super overcrowded schools, nowhere to park"

This quote indirectly addresses the town center zoning element of the proposal. The speaker expresses concerns about the neighborhood becoming filled with apartment buildings and stores on corners, which is related to the mixed-use neighborhoods and commercial corridors that the town center zoning element aims to create.

Parking Mandates

"My once quiet beautiful neighborhood will become filled with apartment buildings, rented out basements, rented out garages, stores on each corner, super overcrowded schools, nowhere to park"

This quote indirectly addresses the removing parking mandates element of the proposal. The speaker expresses concern about there being 'nowhere to park,' which relates to the proposal's aim to remove parking mandates for new housing developments.

"They want to take away our cars, force us on unsafe subways to get victimized by criminals."

This quote indirectly relates to the removing parking mandates element. The speaker perceives the proposal as an attempt to discourage car ownership, which aligns with the goal of removing parking mandates to reduce car dependency.

ADU

"My once quiet beautiful neighborhood will become filled with apartment buildings, rented out basements, rented out garages, stores on each corner, super overcrowded schools, nowhere to park"

This quote directly addresses the Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) element of the proposal. The speaker mentions 'rented out basements' and 'rented out garages,' which are examples of ADUs that the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal aims to legalize.


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?
Jody Corry
6:05:26
Okay.
6:05:27
Thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of you today.
6:05:29
And I live in Glendale, Glendale, which is located in Queens.
6:05:34
The city of yes is wrong.
6:05:36
You are hurting innocent people who did nothing wrong.
6:05:39
Our neighborhoods don't want this.
6:05:42
I lived in Forest Hills Regal Park Area my whole life.
6:05:45
I scrimped and I saved for many, many years.
6:05:48
We're going vacations and being frugal with my money.
6:05:52
9 years ago, my husband and I bought a house in Glendale.
6:05:55
We have a happy home with 3 beautiful children and 2 dogs and are living the American dream.
6:06:00
Glendale is a beautiful middle class community.
6:06:03
We have tree lined streets.
6:06:04
My home is almost 100 years old with plaster walls, high ceilings, original hardwood floors and has tons of old century charm.
6:06:12
There was a special character that all the homes in this neighborhood.
6:06:15
I have a backyard.
6:06:16
I know everyone who lives on my block.
6:06:17
Go for walks, I see the same people over and over.
6:06:20
My kids play with the other kids.
6:06:22
People who don't even know me smile and say, hi.
6:06:25
This is a great sense of community here.
6:06:27
I feel like I finally achieved the American dream.
6:06:30
In recent years, the quality of life in this neighborhood has been on a decline.
6:06:34
Nobody will do anything about it.
6:06:35
A young thirteen year old woman was just raped in Casino Park, but not far from here by someone who crossed our border illegally.
6:06:42
These are the problems our cities should be focusing on.
6:06:45
Not shoving this zoning amendment down off throats.
6:06:48
At the ring, the city is going, nobody will even want to live in these so called new affordable rental units.
6:06:55
We did not create this housing problem.
6:06:57
This was created by our politicians, and we're supposed to trust them to fix it Look at what they did to our city.
6:07:03
It's falling apart.
6:07:04
The end result is they want to control us.
6:07:06
They want to take away our cars, force us on unsafe subways to get victimized by criminals.
6:07:11
My once quiet beautiful neighborhood will become filled with apartment buildings, rented out basements, rented out garages, stores on each corner, super overcrowded schools, nowhere to park, It will become dirty, filthy, riddled with crime, just like everywhere else this was trying.
6:07:26
Our hundred year old infrastructure cannot handle this.
6:07:29
We already have flooding.
6:07:31
Due to streams underneath our homes, lighting will only get worse due to the loss of green space, and these communities are going to get hurt financially by these changes.
6:07:40
Glendale will look like every other neighborhood.
6:07:42
This is not what I work for my whole life.
6:07:45
We all know that office buildings in Manhattan are practically empty.
6:07:49
And are never going to be full again due to remote work.
6:07:51
Invent, convert the empty office space into apartments.
6:07:55
You can create many, many new wonderful homes.
6:07:57
Wouldn't that be a practical solution without disrupting lives of millions of people?
6:08:01
Why hurt us?
6:08:02
We did nothing wrong.
6:08:04
We go to work every day.
6:08:05
Pay our taxes.
6:08:06
This is an absolute assault on us.
6:08:09
Equity means that all sides receive equally.
6:08:12
We're giving everything and getting nothing in return.
6:08:15
There is nothing equitable about this.
6:08:17
Please vote no.
6:08:18
No.
6:08:19
No.
6:08:19
No.
6:08:20
Thank you.

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