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TESTIMONY

Luke Lavanway, resident of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and the need for more housing units in New York City

9:48:36

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3 min

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Luke Lavanway, a long-time renter in New York City, testifies in support of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. He emphasizes the severity of the housing crisis in NYC, sharing personal experiences of competitive and stressful apartment hunting.

  • Lavanway specifically highlights the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) aspect of the initiative, which he believes will result in more units being built and help vulnerable groups through permanently affordable housing.
  • He argues that those opposing development are inadvertently causing gentrification, displacement, and homelessness, and stresses that every neighborhood must evolve to meet the city's changing housing needs.
  • While supportive of the plan, Lavanway notes that the estimated 90,000 additional units may not be sufficient to address the housing gap, which he suggests could be closer to 200,000 units or more.
  • Supports City of Yes with no conditions due to severe housing crisis
  • Personal experiences with competitive and stressful rental market
  • Need for more housing units to stop displacement and gentrification
  • Supports Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) for permanently affordable housing
  • Criticizes those opposing development as causing gentrification and displacement
  • Argues that neighborhoods must evolve to meet changing needs
  • Supports the plan for adding more housing in every neighborhood
  • Suggests that the plan may not go far enough to address the housing crisis
  • Urges approval of City of Yes in its strongest form

[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'd like to specifically highlight the universal affordability preference or UAP aspect of City of Yes for housing opportunity, which if adopted should not only result in significantly more units being built, but will also help the groups that are most vulnerable. By adding permanently affordable housing units."

This quote directly mentions and discusses the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) element of the City of Yes proposal, highlighting its potential benefits in terms of increasing housing units and helping vulnerable groups.

"Let's get as many of those as we can and we should provide incentives for anyone who's willing to build them."

This quote, following the discussion of UAP and permanently affordable housing units, shows support for the UAP element and suggests providing incentives for its implementation.

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?
Luke Lavanway
9:48:36
Hi.
9:48:37
Are you able to hear and see me?
Dan Garodnick
9:48:40
Yes.
9:48:40
We can hear you.
Luke Lavanway
9:48:42
Awesome.
9:48:43
Thanks for the opportunity to testify today.
9:48:46
Really appreciate everyone being here.
9:48:48
My name is Luke Le Van Weng.
9:48:50
I have lived in New York City as a renter for 11 years.
9:48:54
I lived on the Upper West Side for 5 years, the Lower East Side for 2 years.
9:48:57
I've lived in Brooklyn for the last 4 years.
9:48:59
I currently live in Four Green on the edge of downtown Brooklyn, and downtown Brooklyn is one of the neighborhoods which has done the most in recent years.
9:49:07
To meet the housing needs of the city.
9:49:11
I fully support city of yes with no conditions because the city I love is in a severe housing crisis and we must act now to solve it.
9:49:20
I personally am shocked at what I have witnessed as a renter in recent years.
9:49:25
Including having to bid on rental leases, bidding wars to rent an apartment.
9:49:30
Okay?
9:49:31
And attending capped open houses with 40 or more people viewing a single unit at the same time.
9:49:38
Finding an apartment should not be so competitive, and it shouldn't be so financially stressful.
9:49:43
Other great cities of the world have much healthier housing markets.
9:49:47
And here in New York, we deserve the same or better.
9:49:51
Housing experts agree that the fundamental problem is we don't have enough units of housing, so we need to reform our housing rules to allow 100 of 1000 of additional units to be built.
9:50:02
That's the only way we can stop displacement and gentrification and reduce the burden of rent.
9:50:08
I'd like to specifically highlight the universal affordability preference or UAP aspect of City of Yes for housing opportunity, which if adopted should not only result in significantly more units being built, but will also help the groups that are most vulnerable.
9:50:24
By adding permanently affordable housing units.
9:50:27
I wanna say that again, permanently affordable housing units.
9:50:31
Let's get as many of those as we can and we should provide incentives for anyone who's willing to build them.
9:50:36
Right?
9:50:37
I do wanna call out that today, we have heard the voices of people who, well, meaning though they may be, have caused the housing crisis.
9:50:45
We got into the crisis because we didn't build enough, and we didn't build enough because some people were overly concerned with preventing their neighborhoods from changing.
9:50:54
And this ultimately prioritize the interest of people who are housing secure over the interest of people who are housing insecure.
9:51:01
To those who are trying to stop development, let me be clear.
9:51:05
You are causing gentrification, displacement, and homelessness, and you are doing grave damage to the future of New York City, whether you own property or not.
9:51:15
I understand the desire to preserve neighborhoods as they are, but a city cannot sustain itself that way.
9:51:21
Neighborhoods must be able to evolve to meet the changing needs of the city they exist in.
9:51:27
Every neighborhood must do its part to meet the housing needs of our city, and that is exactly what city of yes for housing is all about.
9:51:34
A little more housing in every neighborhood.
9:51:37
It's a good plan, though, I must say the estimates I have seen suggest that the plan may not go far enough to address the housing crisis.
9:51:46
I've seen some informal estimates that City of Gas for housing would result in around 90,000 additional units and housing gap we have in New York City is closer to 200,000 units or possibly even more according to some of the analyses that I personally have seen.
9:52:01
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
9:52:04
I urge the city planning commission to approve city of yes in its strongest possible form, and I urge New York to continue organizing to solve our housing crisis.
9:52:14
Thank you.

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