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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Alicia Boyd, Political Activist, on development, displacement, and the ULURP process
2:21:57
·
3 min
Political activist Alicia Boyd argues that development in communities of color is driven by speculation anticipating rezonings, not organic demand, leading to displacement. Referencing past failed community planning efforts, she expresses skepticism about current processes and suggests not rezoning vulnerable neighborhoods is key to preventing speculation. She contends the ULURP process itself is not the main issue, as applications are rarely rejected after certification; the critical stage is pre-certification.
- Argues speculation, fueled by potential rezonings, drives displacement in communities of color.
- Criticizes past community planning efforts as ineffective against real estate interests.
- Suggests limiting rezonings in vulnerable areas to curb speculation.
- States the pre-certification phase, not ULURP review, is where key decisions influencing outcomes are made.
Alicia Boyd
2:21:57
I can stop.
2:21:57
Yep.
2:21:58
My name is Alicia Boyd.
2:21:59
I'm a political activist.
2:22:01
I was in front of you in Brooklyn, and there was a question that, one of the commissioners had asked, and I was reflective about it.
2:22:09
So I wanted to kind of address it.
2:22:11
And the issue was, well, how is it that we stop development?
2:22:15
So in communities where that become very desirable.
2:22:19
I think you're using that asked that question.
2:22:22
And what we are seeing or what we've experienced is that the speculation and money that drives that conversation.
2:22:32
It's not that all of a sudden somebody decides that they wanna live in my neighborhood.
2:22:36
It's that the prospect of development in my neighborhood is what then drives it.
2:22:41
For example, a rezoning was being planned for my community.
2:22:45
All of a sudden, all the lanes started being brought up.
2:22:50
Within one year, we had spots all over the community being brought up because the anticipation that a rezoning was going to happen.
2:22:58
Now we've already tried a city planning position of doing community planning that was done under the Bloomberg administration.
2:23:06
There were 15 community boards that were supposed to be doing these community planning, and we did community planning in those districts.
2:23:16
But the final result was that the community's suggestions were never incorporated into the final rezoning plan.
2:23:24
It was really driven by the real estate industry, which was the invisible elephant in the room at every step of the way.
2:23:31
We got no infrastructure support at all even though the law required it to happen, and we did file a lawsuit, and we were supported in the law court for that.
2:23:44
So communities all over New York City said, well, we're not gonna engage in in community planning because we realized that and no one's speaking about this issue, is that there's a huge financial interest in communities of color because the land is cheap.
2:24:03
You buy the land.
2:24:05
You're speculating.
2:24:07
You develop it.
2:24:08
You got luxury housing, and now the developers make money.
2:24:13
How do you deter that?
2:24:14
Well, you don't speculate.
2:24:16
You don't rezone those neighborhoods.
2:24:19
Right?
2:24:19
You don't incentivize developers to go into a neighborhood and rezone it by not rezoning.
2:24:28
Of course, nobody wants to hear that.
2:24:29
Right?
2:24:30
We already wanna hear development development development even though we've seen that development actually does not produce housing that's affordable to the residents.
2:24:42
And in particular, in communities of color, it just displaces the existing population, and thus we have this huge displacement issue.
2:24:50
I don't see anyone talking about that issue, and so I think that they should.
2:24:54
And just one more thing, the EULA process, when it begins, an application has a 99.9% chance of passing.
2:25:04
So it's not the EULA process because once an application is certified, they have a tremendous amount of opt there's only been two applications that have been rejected within the last ten years by the city planning, and one was in my community because of the shadows on the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, and we filed a lawsuit for it.
2:25:25
But that's it.
2:25:27
So everything else gets packed.
2:25:29
So while we're focusing on shortening, you know, that little monster looking community doesn't really have anything to say, where you don't really have to listen to the community.
2:25:37
That's not where the power is.
2:25:39
The power is before the application is certified.
2:25:44
Thank you very much.