Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Richard R. Buery Jr. opens the inaugural Charter Revision Commission meeting
0:01:41
·
4 min
Chair Richard R. Buery Jr. opens the inaugural meeting of the Charter Revision Commission.
He expresses gratitude for the opportunity and outlines the commission's goal to review the city charter, particularly concerning housing and planning, amidst New York City's affordability crisis. Buery emphasizes the commission's commitment to transparency, openness, and independence in seeking solutions for a more inclusive and affordable city.
- The commission will review the entire charter, asking what's working and what's not.
- Mayor Adams asked the commission to particularly focus on housing and planning.
- The commission is independent, bound only by judgment and values.
- The process will involve listening to New Yorkers across the five boroughs through public hearings and testimony.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
0:01:41
I'd like to welcome you to the inaugural meeting of the Charter Revision Commission.
0:01:45
My name is Richard Burey, and I have the honor of serving as the chair.
0:01:52
This is my first time serving in a commission like this, but, I am a lifelong New York resident.
0:01:58
Grew up in East New York, Brooklyn, and I spent my career working on issues related to equal opportunity for New York families.
0:02:04
I had the honor of serving as deputy mayor under mayor Bill de Blasio where I worked on a number of initiatives including pre k for all and currently serve as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, which is a foundation here in New York focused on fighting poverty, and elevating New Yorkers out of poverty into opportunity.
0:02:23
So I wanna start by thanking mayor Adams for giving me this opportunity to serve on this commission.
0:02:29
Certainly, the timing could not be better.
0:02:32
Our city faces significant challenges, but, of course, overcoming challenges is part of our city's DNA.
0:02:39
So what makes New York City great?
0:02:41
And so despite these challenges, I am bullish on the city.
0:02:45
I will never underestimate the resolve of New Yorkers or our capacity to accomplish great things when we do them together.
0:02:52
And that's what we're here to do.
0:02:55
As New York City celebrates its four hundredth anniversary, it's a fitting moment to take a fresh look at our city's governing charter and ask ourselves what's working, what's not working.
0:03:05
How can we ensure that city government is delivering the results that New Yorkers expect?
0:03:10
And how can we ensure that New York City remains a cradle of opportunity as it was for my parents when they immigrated to New York from Panama about sixty years ago?
0:03:19
How can we revive the charter to make it more and more effective tool for building the more inclusive and affordable city that New Yorkers deserve?
0:03:28
You know, this is a city of multitudes.
0:03:30
We have old New Yorkers and young New Yorkers, New Yorkers of every race and from just about every country.
0:03:35
We have recent immigrants and people whose family go back to the city for generations.
0:03:40
We are gay.
0:03:41
We're straight, cisgender, and transgender, and non binary.
0:03:44
We have literally every political persuasion.
0:03:48
We're about 8,000,000 people with 80,000,000 opinions, and that diversity can make it hard to do work like this.
0:03:55
But it's also diversity that makes the city so strong.
0:03:57
And so it's ultimately our responsibility if we review the entire charter, suggest changes.
0:04:03
And, of course, all changes that we recommend, have to be agreed to by the voters to have any effect.
0:04:09
But we know as we do this work, it's our job to really make sure that we're listening to the diversity of opinions.
0:04:15
And I know I speak for my commissioners when I say that we will approach this work with the utmost transparency and openness.
0:04:22
We're committed to hearing from a broad spectrum of New Yorkers and to pursuing the best ideas we can find.
0:04:29
Also wanna note that although we were appointed by the mayor, this is an independent commission.
0:04:34
I know that everyone in this commission is committed to approaching the work with integrity and that making our recommendation to the city's voters.
0:04:41
We are bound only by our judgment and our values.
0:04:44
We're gonna pursue ideas regardless of who propose them and regardless of who supports them.
0:04:50
So joining me in this task are 12 other commissioners.
0:04:54
My vice chair, Sharon Greenberger, secretary Lila Borzaug, reverend AR Bernard, who cannot be with us right now, Grace Bonilla, Shams de Baron, Anita Laermotte, doctor Lizette Nieves, Julie Samuels, Diane Savino, Carl Weisbrod, who I think is also not here, Valerie White, and Catherine Wilde.
0:05:19
Although as I said, we'll be considering the entire charter, The mayor had asked that the commission look in particular at the charter's approach to housing and planning, and I can imagine a more urgent challenge for this body to take up.
0:05:33
Our city is in the midst of a profound affordability crisis.
0:05:37
For millions of low income New Yorkers and middle class New Yorkers, housing costs are the central struggle of their lives.
0:05:44
For millions more, especially low income New Yorkers, our housing crisis severely limits where New Yorkers can live, what schools they can attend, how they can get to work, and whether their families can stay together.
0:05:57
It is not hyperbolic to say that the future of housing is the future of New York City.
0:06:03
Recently, at the city, we've made significant strides thanks to the work of so many including the mayor and members of the administration as well as the city council and tireless advocates, countless of tireless advocates.
0:06:15
The city has recently enacted the city of yes for housing opportunity, the most pro housing reform in many decades.
0:06:22
But we all acknowledge that there is far more work to be done.
0:06:26
The commission will, among other things, see how we can build on that momentum to create a more affordable city.