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Q&A
Barika Williams discusses community board engagement and housing target methodology
0:22:15
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177 sec
Commissioner Valerie White questions Barika Williams about the proposed three-step process for housing targets: City Council voting on targets, community boards creating plans, and expediting projects.
Williams acknowledges that community boards may disagree with set targets but emphasizes that the citywide goals should be the guiding principle, with communities influencing how they meet these obligations rather than opting out. She also differentiates her proposal from Howard Slatkin's, preferring targets over percentage thresholds to account for districts that have already significantly contributed to housing, allowing them potentially lower future targets without penalty.
Valerie White
0:22:15
Just in looking at the three steps that you laid out, the city council voting on targets and the community boards creating plans themselves in the expediting, I'm assuming you are looking at it in order.
0:22:27
What what potentially do you do you think there's a potential that this once the city, council folks on the target, the community boards will be engaged in the plan, but they're not agreeing with the number that's there.
0:22:40
How do you think that will work?
0:22:41
And, you know, well, I don't know if the community doesn't still feel like you're saying you have to do a particular, you know, type of foulting.
Barika Williams
0:22:50
No.
0:22:50
And I yes.
0:22:51
Absolutely.
0:22:51
And and I think it is almost assured that there will be community boards that do not agree with the targets that are set for them.
0:23:02
Right?
0:23:02
And in that regard, I completely agree with what Howard said of, like, the part of this is to say setting those targets is about not just we're trying to in the city council vote and in the community board vote, what we're trying to balance is that what needs to be the guiding star is the citywide goals and that that there is a role for then communities to say, I wanna influence or give input into how my community board then meets its obligation to be a part of that guiding star.
0:23:35
Right?
0:23:36
Not that they can opt out of that guiding star.
0:23:40
Not that they can say, well, I don't like what happened to the guiding star, and I don't agree with it, and we're not that that then puts them into the, okay.
0:23:49
You didn't wanna participate.
0:23:50
Now everything is moving through.
0:23:52
All of these a 100% and mixed income units are moving through on a much faster threshold.
0:23:57
The one place I would say we probably have a little bit difference in terms of how threshold is Howard was talking about that bottom 25%.
0:24:08
Mhmm.
0:24:09
I think we are a little bit more concerned about what that data could look like over time, especially considering that there are a number of community districts in New York City who have done vastly higher than their share over the past twenty years.
0:24:27
And so at some point in the future, it might be quite appropriate for them to fall to that 20 bottom 25% and that not actually be a penalty, that other people should be doing more in order for us to over time sort of even out.
0:24:42
Right?
0:24:43
And so that's why we think about it more as targets, and less so as, like, percentage thresholds so that in theory, we as a city could say, okay.
0:24:53
You know, Kingsbridge.
0:24:56
Okay.
0:24:57
Flatbush, you've done your percentage times 10 over in the past few years, and so we will allow you to have a lower set of targets for this next five year period intentionally and that not be something that they get penalized for.
Sharon Greenberger
0:25:11
Right, Brenda.