Rev. Carlene Thorbs, representing Queens Community Board 12, expresses strong opposition to the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. She cites lack of environmental impact studies, insufficient infrastructure considerations, and inadequate community engagement as major concerns.

• Highlights the need for parking in South Jamaica, characterizing it as a driving community
• Points out that some new apartments in the downtown area of CB 12 are empty with rents starting at $3000
• Suggests that community conversations should have occurred before the initiative was developed
• Expresses concern about the fate of existing shelter residents and questions if they will have priority in new housing

• No environmental impact statement has been conducted
• Lack of infrastructure considerations (sanitation, schools, water, sewage lines)
• Parking is necessary in South Jamaica, which is a driving community
• The proposal would destroy the neighborhood
• Insufficient community engagement and awareness about City of Yes
• Existing apartments in downtown area are expensive and some are empty
• Community Board 12 and other Queens Community Boards do not support City of Yes
• The area is already carrying the weight of shelters
• Affordable housing is not truly affordable
• Concerns about prioritizing new New Yorkers over existing shelter residents
• The proposal is not a one-size-fits-all solution and should be considered community board by community board

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

• Parking Mandates

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.

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.