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TESTIMONY

Ryder Kessler, Manhattan Community Board 2 member, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and the urgent need for increased housing supply in NYC

14:51:20

·

147 sec

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Ryder Kessler, a lifelong West Village resident and Manhattan Community Board 2 member, speaks in support of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. He emphasizes the urgent need to address New York City's housing affordability crisis by increasing housing supply across all types and neighborhoods.

  • Kessler highlights personal experience with rising housing costs in Manhattan, citing a 1.4% vacancy rate and average rents over $5000.
  • He argues that the current zoning regime, in place for over 60 years, has contributed to the housing crisis and displacement of residents.
  • While supporting the City of Yes initiative, Kessler suggests that more comprehensive measures are needed to ensure New York remains affordable, equitable, and sustainable.
  • The current housing crisis is due to not creating enough homes to keep up with population and job growth
  • The city is stuck in a 60+ year old zoning regime that needs to change
  • There is a crisis of housing affordability, not just affordable housing
  • New York needs to add housing of all types across the city
  • The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is necessary but not sufficient to address the crisis
  • Dense, walkable neighborhoods are important for fighting climate change
  • Making the city affordable, equitable, and sustainable is crucial for maintaining New York's vitality

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

I was not able to tie quotes from the testimony back to specific elements of the proposal. Check out another testimony here.


About this analysis:

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All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.

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When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.

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↗ Why are there transcription and diarization errors?
Ryder Kessler
14:51:20
Hi there.
14:51:21
Can y'all hear me?
Dan Garodnick
14:51:23
We can.
Ryder Kessler
14:51:24
Wonderful.
14:51:24
Thank you for the Herculean work you all been doing all day.
14:51:29
I'll try to be brief.
14:51:30
My name is Ryder Kessler.
14:51:32
I live in the West Village.
14:51:33
I'm a member of CB2 Manhattan, but I'm speaking just for myself.
14:51:36
I was born just down the street at St.
14:51:38
Vincent's Hospital.
14:51:39
I've lived in this neighborhood for almost 40 years, and that's because my family basically won the lottery.
14:51:46
My parents bought an apartment about 45 years ago that now would be far out of reach in price for them or for me.
14:51:54
What was once affordable housing in this community is now luxury, and that's a function of the fact that we have not created enough homes to keep up with population growth and job growth, and that is a status quo that we must break.
14:52:09
We are stuck in a sixty plus year old zoning regime And that status quo is what is leading to the crisis.
14:52:15
We are all feeling to the 1.4% vacancy rate, to average rents in Manhattan that are over $5000.
14:52:22
To rents rising seven times faster than wages to a 100,000 New Yorkers sleeping in shelter to 9% of the city's black population lost over the last 20 years to displacement.
14:52:33
We know that we need to build affordable housing, income restricted housing, but we are not just facing a crisis of affordable housing, but a crisis of housing affordability.
14:52:43
And to address that crisis, we must add housing of all types all across the city.
14:52:47
Frankly, the CDBS for housing opportunity is necessary, but it is not sufficient.
14:52:53
We must do much more to address this crisis and make New York a place where folks like my parents can could could live today, where people who are fleeing other parts of the country or the world for a place like New York where they can live their full identity and find belonging and find opportunity can have that once again.
14:53:12
So I urge approval of CDS for housing opportunity in its strongest possible form to address the affordability crisis, but also to promote the dense walkable neighborhoods that are our superpower in fighting climate change, which is also an existential threat to the city over the long term.
14:53:30
If we don't make the city affordable, equitable, sustainable, We will lose the vitality that has made New York special over 100 years.
14:53:38
And it is that not the current built environment, the current look or feel of any particular street that is New York's promise.
14:53:46
So let's keep it.
14:53:47
Thank you.

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