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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Nichola Cox, Member of the Public on protecting longtime residents and the role of community boards
3:17:17
·
3 min
Nichola Cox, a resident of Crown Heights South, echoes concerns about development impacts on longtime residents in communities of color, particularly regarding inappropriate scale and displacement pressures. She argues for preserving the vital role of community boards in protecting neighborhoods and ensuring development meets local needs, advocating for deeply affordable housing.
- Cox worries about the impact of development (even as-of-right) on older homes and neighborhood character.
- Criticizes using out-of-context buildings (like Ebbets Field towers) to justify scale.
- Emphasizes protecting residents who stayed through difficult times but now face displacement.
- Defends CBs as crucial voices for community protection and advocates for truly affordable housing.
Nichola Cox
3:17:17
Good afternoon.
3:17:18
Good evening.
3:17:18
I feel like I'm tag teaming with, Teresa Westerdahl, who is actually a neighbor of mine.
3:17:25
And I appreciate her voice and many of the other voices that we've heard tonight, representing the
Cormac Slade Byrd
3:17:32
community
Nichola Cox
3:17:34
and the people that have been longtime residents.
3:17:37
I as Teresa mentioned, I live in Crown Heights South.
3:17:40
We're near Prospect Park and Ebbets Field.
3:17:44
And my blocks are comprised primarily of one and two family houses, but we're we're zoned r six.
3:17:51
So even as of right development, especially with the city of yes, changes that have taken place recently can be detrimental to the one hundred year whole houses that we have.
3:18:02
As a month as a woman spoke about earlier, it's important that the people that are in the community are considered when we're making these changes.
3:18:13
Even fast I know fast tracking is important, but keep in mind the people that are here and have to live with the changes that will be proposed.
3:18:24
There have been, talk about fast tracking developments where you look at the highest building in a community and make sure that if a if if a proposed development is lower than that building, then you're gonna fast track it.
3:18:39
The highest building in our community would be Ebbets Field and and Tibley Towers, which are always considered out of context.
3:18:47
But they were part of Ebbets Field.
3:18:49
When Ebbets Field was, when the Dodgers moved, this apartment building was built in the seventies.
3:18:56
We still had primarily a low rise community here.
3:19:00
But every development that comes along, they look to Ebbets Field as being contextual.
3:19:06
And now we have, again, as Teresa mentioned, development all along Prospect Park and and, the Botanic Gardens being proposed.
3:19:15
So, again, my main thing is to look at the black and brown communities that have done our fair share through the last few years.
3:19:24
I wanna make sure that we continue to be protected because we've been the ones that have survived redlining, survived high crime rates.
3:19:32
These are people that have lived in this community for sixty years, fifty years.
3:19:38
And now because we're now desirable, the rates are going up, development is increasing, and now these these residents, residential renters as well as homeowners are being pushed out.
3:19:50
And it's not fair to us.
3:19:52
It's not fair to the diversity and the liveliness of this of this city, and I wanna make sure that our voices continue to be heard.
3:20:00
It's critical that the community boards that have been protecting these communities over the years continue to have a vital role in this project.
3:20:08
It can't just be top down.
3:20:10
You have to be able to have people with the feet on the ground, ears in the street that understand the community and know where deeply affordable housing can be built in this community, in this city, because that's truly what's needed, not just market rate housing.
3:20:23
Thank you.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
3:20:23
Thank you so much, miss Cox.