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REMARKS
Commissioner Anita Laremont on the housing crisis as a threat to the city's future
0:34:43
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151 sec
Commissioner Anita Laremont describes New York as the greatest city in the world, but warns that the housing crisis is a major threat to its preeminence and its ability to be a home for people from all walks of life.
The commission's work, she says, aims to create more housing opportunities by balancing citywide interests with local views.
She also states her fervent hope that a future Charter Revision Commission will facilitate open primaries to encourage civic engagement.
Anita Laremont
0:34:43
Partnered by the thoughtful collaboration with our fellow commissioners here and the great leadership of our chair and vice chair.
0:34:53
Also, I just can't say enough echoing what everyone else has said about the caliber and the dedication of the staff that led us.
0:35:02
Alex truly is one of the smartest people I've ever met in city government, and his way of dealing with these problems so deftly has been really awestrucking to me.
0:35:13
So I I I can't thank you enough for that.
0:35:16
I will say that I was not born a New Yorker, but both of my parents were.
0:35:23
I can't tell you what their cognitive problems were that they thought that this was that this was not the place to live.
0:35:28
They chose to move to the Midwest.
0:35:30
Never did understand it.
0:35:32
Soon as I could get here, did, and I've been here ever since.
0:35:35
But because New York is really, I think, the greatest city in the world.
0:35:39
However, this housing crisis, I do believe, is really a great threat to the greatness of this city.
0:35:46
It's a threat to our ability to attract talent to maintain the city's preeminence.
0:35:51
It's a threat to job creation as we move forward.
0:35:54
And most importantly to me, it's a threat to our ability to be that place where people of every walk of life can find a home.
0:36:02
We're just not that place anymore, and we need to have more homes so people can live here.
0:36:08
The work that we have done here aims to create more opportunity for housing to be developed by letting the citywide interest in creating housing be arbitrated through a broader perspective, but always informed by local views.
0:36:22
I'm really grateful and struck by the public's interest in our work, which was reflected in the strong attendance at our hearings, the many comment letters we received, and the very thoughtful conversations that we held with stakeholders, all of which informed our ultimate proposals.
0:36:38
And finally, I echo what's been said, previously that I fervently hope that a subsequently convened Charter Revision Commission will facilitate open primaries, which is, I think, a proposal whose time has come.
0:36:53
It's vitally important to encourage civic engagement if we want our democracy to survive and thrive.
0:36:59
Careful consideration of the form of open primaries should be undertaken so that New Yorkers have the ability to participate without regard to party affiliation, a cry that we heard over and over in these hearings.
0:37:11
Well, thank you for the privilege of letting me be part.