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TESTIMONY

Neil Miller from Manhattan Community Board 5 on support for City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative

7:08:13

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156 sec

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Neil Miller, a member of Manhattan Community Board 5 speaking in his personal capacity, expresses strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal. He emphasizes its potential to make housing more affordable and accessible in New York City, drawing parallels to his family's history and his experience as a former NYC public school teacher.

  • Specifically supports the Universal Affordability Preference (UAP) provision, office conversions, town center and Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) proposals
  • Highlights the benefits of the initiative for congestion reduction and improved building designs
  • Appreciates the potential for creating homes at various income levels, including those affordable to starting teachers
  • Support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal
  • Endorsement of UAP (Unified Affordability Percentage) to create homes at various income levels
  • Support for office conversion provisions
  • Approval of town center and EDU proposals to add homes across the city
  • Belief that the proposal will improve congestion in the city
  • Support for legalizing additional building types, such as buildings with courtyards
  • Personal connection: grandparents and great-grandparents found affordable housing in NYC
  • Experience as a former New York City public school English teacher

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP
  • Residential Conversions
  • Town Center Zoning
  • ADU
  • Transit-Oriented Development

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 specifically support a couple of provisions, UAP, to create homes at a range of income levels averaging 260 percent of AMI, which is affordable to a starting teacher."

This quote directly mentions UAP (Universal Affordability Preference) and discusses its aim to create affordable housing at various income levels, which aligns with the proposal's description.

Residential Conversions

"I'm also supportive of the provisions for office conversions with incentives in the state budget. Many of these conversions will have a quarter of their units being affordable to a range of New Yorkers."

This quote directly refers to office conversions, which is a key aspect of the Residential Conversions element of the proposal. It also mentions that these conversions will provide affordable housing, aligning with the proposal's goals.

Town Center Zoning

"The town center and EDU proposals are important too to add homes all around the city including in neighborhoods like Whitestone and Jamaica where my parents grew up and not just in neighborhoods. That are already building."

This quote explicitly mentions the 'town center' proposal, which refers to the Town Center Zoning element. It discusses the importance of adding homes in various neighborhoods, which aligns with the proposal's goal of creating vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods.

ADU

"The town center and EDU proposals are important too to add homes all around the city including in neighborhoods like Whitestone and Jamaica where my parents grew up and not just in neighborhoods."

While not explicitly mentioning ADUs, the speaker refers to 'EDU proposals', which likely stands for 'Accessory Dwelling Units'. This indicates that the speaker is discussing this element of the proposal in the context of adding homes throughout the city.

Transit-Oriented Development

"As a resident of Midtown, it will also approve congestion during the city. In the middle of the city if more people are able to take trains into the downtown core instead of needing to drive."

While not explicitly mentioning transit-oriented development, this quote discusses the benefits of people being able to take trains instead of driving, which aligns with the goals of transit-oriented development to support convenient lifestyles and reduce car dependency.


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?
Neil Miller
7:08:13
Great.
7:08:14
Thank you.
7:08:15
My name is Neil Miller.
7:08:17
I live in Midtown.
7:08:19
I'm a member of Manhattan Community Board 5, but I'm speaking only for myself.
7:08:26
I did sit through hours and hours of meetings, really extensive presentations from DCP and an outside consultant.
7:08:35
And we got written responses from DCP and the consultant.
7:08:39
And after sitting through all of that, I strongly support this proposal My grandparents and great grandparents were able to lay down roots for my family in this country because they could afford because they found a home that they could afford here in New York City.
7:08:57
And this is impossible for too many families today.
7:09:00
City of yes, for housing opportunity is one step.
7:09:03
Towards writing this wrong.
7:09:06
I specifically support a couple of provisions, UAP, to create homes at a range of income levels averaging 260 percent of AMI, which is affordable to a starting teacher.
7:09:20
Like both my friends and like my grandmother.
7:09:23
I was a New York City English teacher, public schools.
7:09:27
I'm also supportive of the provisions for office conversions with incentives in the state budget.
7:09:35
Many of these conversions will have a quarter of their units being affordable to a range of New Yorkers.
7:09:43
The town center and EDU proposals are important too to add homes all around the city including in neighborhoods like Whitestone and Jamaica where my parents grew up and not just in neighborhoods.
7:10:00
That are already building.
7:10:02
As a resident of Midtown, it will also approve congestion during the city.
7:10:09
In the middle of the city if more people are able to take trains into the downtown core instead of needing to drive.
7:10:17
And finally, I wanted to highlight support the changes in city of yes that we legalize additional building types like buildings with courtyards, and the city of yes does this by changing rules to allow more courtyards and modifying synthetic rules.
7:10:35
I strongly support this change in order to increase New Yorkers' access to buildings with great light and air.
7:10:43
So thank you so much for hearing my commentary, and I appreciate you having this hearing.

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