Raul Rivera on opposition to City of Yes and criticism of Mayor Adams and City Council
12:36:04
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3 min
Raul Rivera, a 54-year-old homeless New Yorker, expresses strong opposition to the City of Yes initiative and criticizes Mayor Adams, the City Council, and local politicians. He argues that the initiative will not help people like him and raises concerns about political corruption and lack of support for struggling New Yorkers.
- Accuses City Council member Rafael Salamanca Jr., chair of the Land Use Committee, of benefiting from nepotism
- Criticizes minority council members for blaming white supremacy while failing to address issues affecting their own communities
- Expresses frustration with being unable to afford housing in renovated buildings in the Bronx where he grew up
- Mentions his advocacy for taxi drivers and criticizes Mayor Adams for not supporting a petition to reform the Taxi and Limousine Commission
- Opposes the City of Yes initiative
- Criticizes city council members and the mayor for not supporting New Yorkers
- Claims the initiative will not help homeless or low-income individuals
- Argues that renovated buildings in the Bronx are now unaffordable for long-time residents
- Criticizes the mayor for perceived alignment with wealthy developers
- Mentions issues with the Taxi and Limousine Commission and a petition to reform it
- Expresses disappointment in the mayor for not lifting mandates (likely referring to COVID-19 related mandates)
[EXPERIMENTAL]
Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?
- Residential Conversions
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
"There's plenty of buildings in the Bronx that are renovated. I used to play in those buildings. I should play in those building as a kid. That was my playground, and I can't afford to live in those buildings now."
While the speaker doesn't directly mention residential conversions, he's discussing renovated buildings in the Bronx that he can no longer afford. This could be indirectly related to the residential conversions proposal, as it touches on the topic of repurposing existing buildings, though the speaker is using it to argue against affordability rather than in support of the 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.