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Chair Richard R. Buery Jr. opens the Charter Revision Commission hearing on housing and planning
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Richard R. Buery Jr., Chair of the 2025 Mayor's Charter Revision Commission, opens the public hearing.
He outlines the commission's goal to review the city charter, focusing particularly on housing and planning to address the city's affordability crisis.
Buery emphasizes the commission's independence and commitment to hearing diverse perspectives from across the city.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
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Good evening, everyone.
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Good evening.
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Can you all hear me?
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Alright.
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Great.
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Welcome to the public hearing of the Charter Revision Commission.
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My name is Richard Beury.
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I have the honor of serving as our chair.
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We are here as New York celebrates our four hundredth anniversary to take a fresh look at the city's governing charter.
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Our goal is to ensure that New York City remains a cradle of opportunity as it was from my parents when they immigrated from Panama to New York City some sixty years ago and to explore how we can make how we can revise the charter to make it a more effective tool for building the inclusive and affordable city that New Yorkers deserve.
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We have the responsibility to review the entire charter and suggest and suggest changes for the voters' consideration.
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Only if the voters agree to those changes in an election would any changes to the charter go into effect.
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I know that I speak for my fellow commissioners when I say that we are committed to hearing from the broadest spectrum of New Yorkers and to pursuing the best ideas we can find.
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This is just one of many public hearings across every borough to hear ideas from experts, from community leaders, from elected officials, and indeed from any member of the public who wishes to testify.
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And very importantly, this is an independent commission.
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So in making our recommendations to the city voters, we are bound only by our judgment and our values.
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We will pursue ideas regardless of who propose them and regardless of who supports them.
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Joining me in this task are 12 other commissioners, some of whom are attending virtually.
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Our vice chair Sharon Greenberger, our secretary Leila Bozarg, Grace Bonilla, Sham DeBaron, Anita Lermont, doctor Lizette Nieves, Anthony Richardson, Julie Samuels, senator Diane Savino, Carl Weisbrod, Valerie White, and Katherine Wilde.
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Although, as I said, we will be considering the entire charter, the commission is looking in particular at the charter's approach to housing and planning.
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From my perspective, there is no more urgent challenge for this body to take up, and everyone here understands and knows the city is in the midst of a profound affordability crisis.
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For millions of low income New Yorkers, housing costs are the central struggle of their lives.
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For millions more, especially low income New Yorkers, our housing crisis limits where New Yorkers can live and therefore limits what schools they can attend, where they can work, the quality of the air they breathe, whether their families can stay together.
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These challenges will rain will be the focus of this hearing, but, of course, testimony on any topic related to the charter is always welcome.