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TESTIMONY

Theresa Kaplan, architect and Prospect Heights resident, on supporting City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and transit-oriented development

11:45:22

·

138 sec

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Theresa Kaplan, a Brooklyn-based architect and Prospect Heights resident, expresses strong support for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. She speaks from her perspective as a renter and her family's multi-generational history in New York City, emphasizing the need for increased housing options and affordability.

  • Kaplan highlights the difficulty of affording to stay in her current neighborhood due to high rental prices
  • She supports the transit-oriented development proposal, which would allow residents to remain in their communities as their housing needs change over time
  • Kaplan sees City of Yes as a real solution to address the severe lack of housing across New York City, creating opportunities for New Yorkers to live where they want, not just where they can afford
  • Support for City of Yes to increase housing affordability and availability
  • Personal struggle with rising rental prices in the neighborhood
  • Contrast between high investment in brownstone renovations and limited housing stock increase due to outdated zoning policies
  • Enthusiasm for transit-oriented development proposal
  • Benefits of allowing people to remain in their neighborhoods as housing needs change
  • Creating housing that fits residents rather than selecting residents who fit the housing
  • Fostering stable communities through diverse housing options

[EXPERIMENTAL]

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

  • 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.

Transit-Oriented Development

"Speaking more broadly, I am particularly excited about the transit oriented development proposal."

The speaker directly mentions the transit-oriented development proposal, indicating that this element of the City of Yes For Housing Opportunity initiative is being discussed.

"Which will make it feasible for New Yorkers to stay within their communities as their housing needs change."

This quote elaborates on the benefits of transit-oriented development, showing that the speaker is discussing this element of the proposal.

"Transit oriented development, in particular small apartment buildings scaled for low density neighborhoods, allows people to remain in their neighborhoods even as their housing needs change."

This quote further discusses the transit-oriented development element, specifically mentioning how it can accommodate changing housing needs within existing neighborhoods.

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?
Theresa Kaplan
11:45:22
Great.
11:45:23
My name is Theresa Kaplan, and I am a Brooklyn based architect.
11:45:27
I arrived in prospect types for the past 4 years and did New York City for 11 of the past 14.
11:45:33
While my credentials as a city resident are not particularly impressive, My family has lived in New York City since arriving in the US over a 100 years ago.
11:45:42
Moving from Manhattan Tenements to Brooklyn Apartments, to a house in Queens, and back to Brooklyn again.
11:45:49
I'm calling in today to support the city of yes for housing opportunity initiative, not as an architect, but from my immediate perspective as a renter and from the perspective of my family's history in the city.
11:46:01
Perhaps selfishly, I support city of yes because when I move, I would like to stay in my neighborhood.
11:46:06
But with current rental prices, I cannot afford to do so.
11:46:10
Frankly, I would be lucky to find a place within several miles of my current apartment.
11:46:15
My work as an architect, I see how many 1,000,000 of dollars routinely go into purchasing and renovating single family brownstones in states of severe disrepair.
11:46:24
Seeing the amount that individuals will invest to live in Brownstone, Brooklyn, it is particularly disheartening to know that even modest increases to the housing stock or hamstrung by outdated zoning policy.
11:46:37
City of Yes is a real proposal to address this severe lack of housing across the city.
11:46:41
And while I cannot hope to benefit from it in the immediate future, I'm optimistic about the opportunities it will create in years to come.
11:46:49
For New Yorkers to live where they want, not just wherever they can.
11:46:53
Speaking more broadly, I am particularly excited about the transit oriented development proposal.
11:46:59
Which will make it feasible for New Yorkers to stay within their communities as their housing needs change.
11:47:05
A single young adult has different housing needs from a family of children.
11:47:09
Or an elderly couple who no longer drive.
11:47:11
In my own family, when my relatives needs changed, they moved to different neighborhoods.
11:47:16
Transit oriented development, in particular small apartment buildings scaled for low density neighborhoods, allows people to remain in their neighborhoods even as their housing needs change.
11:47:26
Fostering stable communities by creating housing that fits the residents rather than selecting residents who fit the housing.
11:47:33
For these reasons and many others, I support the city of yes for housing opportunity initiative in its entirety.
11:47:39
Thank you.

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