The citymeetings.nyc logo showing a pigeon at a podium with a microphone.

citymeetings.nyc

Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.

TESTIMONY

Randy Plemel, resident of Long Island City, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and its potential to address NYC's housing crisis

7:58:56

·

157 sec

Report an issue

Randy Plemel, a Long Island City resident, expresses strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative, citing personal experiences with high rent and frequent moves due to the current housing crisis. He believes the proposed zoning changes will allow for more diverse and affordable housing options across New York City.

  • Supports ending parking mandates, promoting transit-oriented development, and allowing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and shared housing
  • Emphasizes the need for a wider range of housing types to accommodate different family structures and income levels
  • Argues that the initiative will enable incremental housing growth across all neighborhoods, rather than concentrating development in specific areas
  • Support for City of Yes for Housing Opportunity due to need for more housing and wider range of legal housing types
  • Personal experience with high rent and frequent moves due to housing crisis
  • Support for building neighborhoods that resemble traditional New York City
  • Emphasis on incremental change across the city rather than dramatic shifts
  • Support for distributing new housing across all neighborhoods, not just Long Island City
  • Approval of provisions for various types of housing, including affordable and market-rate homes
  • Support for ending costly parking mandates
  • Endorsement of transit-oriented development and main street provisions for sustainable, walkable neighborhoods
  • Support for ADU and shared housing provisions to accommodate diverse living arrangements
  • Need for a wider variety of home types and sizes to support different families and income levels

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • UAP
  • Town Center Zoning
  • Parking Mandates
  • ADU
  • Transit-Oriented Development
  • Small and Shared Housing

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

"The city of yes, for housing opportunity allows new homes to be built across the city so that no one neighborhood like my neighborhood in Long Island City is asked to carry all the new homes. And the proposal allows all kinds of homes to be built across the housing spectrum, from deeply and permanently affordable homes through UAP, all the way up to market rate homes."

This quote directly mentions UAP (Universal Affordability Preference) as part of the proposal, indicating that the speaker is aware of and discussing this element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity proposal.

Town Center Zoning

"The provisions to allow for transit oriented development and main streets also make sense because it's the best kind of new development It creates sustainable and walkable neighborhoods, provides places for jobs, encourages transit ridership, and reduces the demand for car ownership, and associated traffic from driving."

While the speaker doesn't explicitly use the term 'Town Center Zoning', they discuss the concept by mentioning 'main streets' and describing the benefits of mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods, which aligns with the Town Center Zoning element of the proposal.

Parking Mandates

"I support the end of costly parking mandates. If builders want to build parking, they can. Let's just not require them to build that parking. Even though I own a car forcing New Yorkers to build car housing when we could rather build space for people housing doesn't make sense to me."

This quote directly addresses the removal of parking mandates, which is a key element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity proposal. The speaker expresses support for ending the requirement to build parking spaces.

ADU

"The ADU and shared housing provisions also allow New Yorkers the freedom to live in the way that they desire."

This quote directly mentions ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) as part of the proposal, indicating that the speaker is aware of and discussing this element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity proposal.

Transit-Oriented Development

"The provisions to allow for transit oriented development and main streets also make sense because it's the best kind of new development It creates sustainable and walkable neighborhoods, provides places for jobs, encourages transit ridership, and reduces the demand for car ownership, and associated traffic from driving."

This quote directly mentions transit-oriented development and describes its benefits, which aligns with the Transit-Oriented Development element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity proposal.

Small and Shared Housing

"The ADU and shared housing provisions also allow New Yorkers the freedom to live in the way that they desire. Not in some antiquated notion for long ago of what a family unit might look like. We not only need more homes, but we need wider types of homes in different types, different sizes to support all the different families and income types already found here in Nursing."

This quote mentions shared housing provisions and the need for a variety of housing types and sizes, which aligns with the Small and Shared Housing element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity 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?
Randy Plemel
7:58:56
Alright.
7:58:57
Good evening, commissioners, and thank you for listening to all this testimony.
7:59:00
I wish you all the bagels and coffee to keep going for the rest of the day.
7:59:04
Hello.
7:59:04
My name is Randy Plimmel.
7:59:05
I live with my family here in Long Island City.
7:59:08
I'm speaking to you in support of Citi for yes for housing opportunity because we need way more housing and a wider range of legal housing types.
7:59:18
I live in New York City and pay too much for rent, and I have been forced to move three times in the last 5 years due to the current housing crisis.
7:59:27
I support the overall goals of this tax amendment.
7:59:30
Believe that this will allow New Yorkers the ability to build neighborhoods which look a lot like New York City.
7:59:38
While this text amendment might not solve all the housing issues that we face, we need the ability to build all types of homes.
7:59:45
And this isn't some city.
7:59:47
We're not gonna flip this switch all this on and we'll have dramatic change.
7:59:51
This change will provide a little bit of housing incrementally everywhere built in a way we used to allow homes to be built in New York City.
7:59:59
The city of yes, for housing opportunity allows new homes to be built across the city so that no one neighborhood like my neighborhood in Long Island City is asked to carry all the new homes.
8:00:11
And the proposal allows all kinds of homes to be built across the housing spectrum, from deeply and permanently affordable homes through UAP, all the way up to market rate homes.
8:00:20
We need more and different zoning to allow this wider range of homes to be built.
8:00:27
I support the end of costly parking mandates.
8:00:30
If builders want to build parking, they can.
8:00:33
Let's just not require them to build that parking.
8:00:35
Even though I own a car forcing New Yorkers to build car housing when we could rather build space for people housing doesn't make sense to me.
8:00:45
The provisions to allow for transit oriented development and main streets also make sense because it's the best kind of new development It creates sustainable and walkable neighborhoods, provides places for jobs, encourages transit ridership, and reduces the demand for car ownership, and associated traffic from driving.
8:01:06
The ADU and shared housing provisions also allow New Yorkers the freedom to live in the way that they desire.
8:01:13
Not in some antiquated notion for long ago of what a family unit might look like.
8:01:18
We not only need more homes, but we need wider types of homes in different types, different sizes to support all the different families and income types already found here in Nursing.
8:01:31
Throughout our city.
8:01:32
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
8:01:34
I hope the Planning Commission approves the Texas Amendment, and good day.

Subscribe to the citymeetings.nyc newsletter

Highlights of meeting moments and curious claims every 1-2 weeks.

Read previous issues

Citymeetings.nyc pigeon logo

Is citymeetings.nyc useful to you?

I'm thrilled!

Please help me out by answering just one question.

What do you do?

Thank you!

Want to stay up to date? Sign up for the newsletter.