Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
TESTIMONY
Testimony by Michael Lewyn, Law Professor at Touro Law School, supporting housing streamlining and addressing counterarguments
3:42:40
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166 sec
Michael Lewyn, a law professor, testifies in support of fast-tracking housing, especially affordable housing in low-growth areas.
He counters arguments against streamlining by questioning the premise that demolition is the main driver of opposition (citing vacant lot opposition), challenging the representativeness of public hearing testimony (citing research on participant demographics), and framing local opposition as potentially rational individually but irrational collectively.
He also expresses skepticism that infrastructure costs justify blocking housing given NYC's high tax base.
Michael Lewyn
3:42:40
Finally, I'm in.
3:42:41
Hi.
3:42:42
I'd like to thank you for your, service tonight, first of all.
3:42:47
I'm a law professor at Torah Law School.
3:42:49
I live in Midtown.
3:42:51
I'm a member of new open New York, but I don't really I don't speak for them, and I don't get warrant that they would necessarily agree with everything that I'm about to say.
3:43:00
First of all, I would like to endorse Anne Marie's call Gray's call for fast tracking housing, especially affordable housing, especially in areas having haven't been adding much housing.
3:43:10
But, really, the best thing about being able to testify late in the meeting is that instead of just reiterating what other people have said, a person can respond to things that other people have said, which I actually think is more interesting.
3:43:24
So one argument that seems to be used against stream wise is is this concern that, well, builders are just going to tear down have to tear down existing units to build new housing.
3:43:35
And I don't really find that argument that persuasive.
3:43:39
And the reason is it seems to me that when new housing is promotional on vacant lots, it gets the same pipe and maybe even the same volume as community resistant of community quote, unquote, community resistance that carry that carrying down older housing does.
3:43:55
So for example, there is a development at 250 Water Street that's been taking years to it was on a vacant lot.
3:44:01
It's taken but it's still taken years to litigate because there's been this kind of, quote, unquote, community opposition.
3:44:08
Another argument is, well, it's much more important to have more community input than to have new housing.
3:44:16
But I'm a little skeptical of that argument for two reasons.
3:44:19
First of all, the people who testify in these kind of meetings aren't necessarily representative of the public.
3:44:25
There's actually been a lot of re research saying people who testify in zoning relating meetings tend to be very unrepresented of the public.
3:44:33
They're older.
3:44:33
They're wider.
3:44:34
They're more likely to be homeowners.
3:44:36
I think there's a book I forget who wrote, but I think there's a book called Neighborhood Defenders by Katherine Einstein that goes through a lot of detail about this.
3:44:44
And second, sort of community input creates a sort of individual rationality, collective irrationality situation.
3:44:51
That is to say, it may be rational for each individual neighborhood to exclude housing for a variety of reasons, but it's still not rational for the city as a whole.
3:45:01
Someone else mentioned concerns about infrastructure.
3:45:04
I just say given New York's high taxes, if new infrastructure create a new I let me rephrase that.
3:45:11
If new tax more taxes and more government spending led to more housing, we would be building housing at a faster pace than low tax states, which, of course, is sort of the opposite of reality.
3:45:22
So on that note, thank you for your time.