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TESTIMONY

Karen Argenti from the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality on concerns about the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal and its impact on affordability and environmental issues

1:38:54

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3 min

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Karen Argenti, representing the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, expresses opposition to the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. She argues that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is flawed and that the initiative does not address the real issue of affordable housing in New York City.

Highlights that a majority of Bronx community boards, along with many in Queens and Staten Island, have voted against or conditionally approved the proposal
Argues that there is no housing supply problem, but rather an affordability issue in rentals, citing the loss of rent-controlled units over the past decades
Emphasizes the need to consider environmental impacts, particularly regarding impervious surfaces and climate change goals, in any housing initiative

The DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) is severely flawed
The proposal is not building any affordable units
There is no supply problem, but a problem with affordable rentals
The market is being manipulated by private entities
Zoning changes cannot solve the affordable housing problem
Need to meet the city's 2030 climate change goals
Concerns about impervious surface area and its impact on runoff volume
Need for affordability, clean air, and water simultaneously

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

I was not able to tie quotes from the testimony back to specific elements of the proposal. Check out another testimony here.

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?

Karen Argenti

1:38:54

Hi.

1:38:54

I'm Karen Argenti, and I represent the wrong council for environmental quality, 501c3 nonprofit organization formed in 1971 or 53 years ago.

1:39:05

Our mission is to establish with an inherent human right, a sound, forward looking environmental policy regarding an aesthetic, unpiluted environmental environment protecting a natural and historic heritage.

1:39:17

We are made up of volunteers and have no staff between our board of directors and our membership, we represent every part of the Bronx who live here and vote.

1:39:27

We will be sending in comments on the DEIS.

1:39:30

Along with the Broadway community alliance, we are cofounders of the protect Bronx neighborhoods from over development, and I wanna report that a majority of our 12 Bronx community boards 7 voted no or voted yes with conditions.

1:39:44

This is in line with some of the outer boroughs.

1:39:46

We had 12 with 14 queen, boys, voters.

1:39:48

No.

1:39:49

And 3 Staten Island voids voted no.

1:39:52

And many of the I can't tell what's going on in King's County, but it looks like it's kinda even, but not really.

1:39:59

But there's a lot of nose in the outside burrows.

1:40:04

The DEIS is severely fadely flawed.

1:40:08

We urge you to start over as the proposed action, housing supply and affordability is wrong.

1:40:14

I do not know why you are arguing with council members who have a low low number of affordable units when this proposal is not building any.

1:40:23

According to the city's records, in addition to the 30,000 rent control units, which gave you that 1.4%, there are 230 empty, decontrolled units.

1:40:35

Issues to be included in an EIS housing EIS would include the history of the regulations how we got what are the exact numbers in the survey today, which is not there.

1:40:47

There is no supply problem.

1:40:48

There's a problem in rentals that are affordable.

1:40:51

We are tired of the games of risk played with our friends and neighbors' lives.

1:40:55

For instance, over the last 3 decades, the rent guidelines board removed 330 allowed the removal of 330,000 units and only replaced a 184,000.

1:41:08

Which gave us a net loss of 153,000.

1:41:11

The market is being manipulated by private entities beyond our control, and this really has to stop.

1:41:18

We need housing.

1:41:19

Yeah.

1:41:20

But we need affordable housing.

1:41:22

This cannot be solved by zoning.

1:41:24

It needs an action plan.

1:41:25

We also need to meet the city's 2030 climate change goals.

1:41:29

New York City is more than 72% Bronx County is 59%, and the Sned in Riverdale is 30% impervious.

1:41:40

Research indicates that watersheds that are not only degraded by impervious surface area increases, but its threat dramatically impacts runoff volume.

1:41:50

We can no longer afford the decades of catering to the development community.

1:41:54

We need affordability.

1:41:56

Housing now, and we also need clean air and water at the same time.

1:42:01

Let's not be free.

1:42:04

Thank you.

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