Saturday, October 31, 2015

Groups join forces to stop the insanity

From Brownstoner:

Now, more than 50 neighborhood groups have joined together to fight large-scale development city wide — and the ties between politicians and the real estate industry.

New Yorkers for a Human-Scale City is calling for an end to “the violence that real estate developers have inflicted on our skyline, parks, public areas, and cityscape.” The group has created an online petition that calls for changes to laws, requires regulatory appointees be “free of ties to the real estate industry,” and low-rise development and affordable housing that will protect the historic character of the city.

As for Mayor de Blasio, the group wants a “policy change” from him, said Save the View Now founder Steven Guterman in a letter to members. New Yorkers for a Human-Scale City “calls for an end to the way the real estate lobby has captured our city government and all its regulatory bodies like City Planning and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. As has been often reported in the press, developers are major contributors to the Mayors election campaign and his nonprofit Campaign for One New York,” he said.

You can see the full petition here.

20 comments:

Joe Moretti said...

One just needs to watch the documentary San Franccisco 2.0 (http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/san-francisco-2-0/synopsis.html).

But is it already too late for NYC? Our elected officials have already sold us out.

Anonymous said...

I bet half these groups which signed, like "El Barrio Unite", also put affordable housing high on their list of priorities. I know they mean well, but a lot of their members don't stop and think things through.

(sarc) said...

Another internet advocacy group. Like QueensCrap.

"End the violence..."who writes this "crap"?
You want to end violence? Do something about the murders of our police!

Petition names are just wasted space on their server's hard drive.
NO ONE will ever look at them, sounds nice, and will make people feel a little better thinking that they did something.
When in reality they just signed up to be spammed by this new group that will beg them for money and do nothing.

Remember that the mayor will need A LOT OF MONEY for his reelection!
Where do you think that will come from?
All of his constituents receiving entitlements, or big donors with special interests in need of big favors???

Do not worry!
The mayor will say whatever he needs to, so he can get reelected and then the developers will call in the favors and go HOG WILD...

Missing Foundation said...

Your comments might be correct, but its only a matter of time before something like this happens and actually changes things.

Every year the pols get a shade dumber, a bit more arrogant, a step towards irrelevance as communities get choked by development, paychecks thinner, and the public sees less reason to go along with the things.

As we have said many times, when the machine collapses, it will be sudden and complete.

And the funny thing is everyone will tell you that they saw it coming for a long time.

Anonymous said...

Wanna bet most of this group voted for deBlas?

JQ said...

This short clip is how these predators operate and the people they are trying to attract that adopt similar tactics. The only thing trickling down from these developments isn't affordable housing but the ability to threaten people by staking claims on the presumption of entitlement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awPVY1DcupE



Gary W said...

Yep and in the next election they'll all pull the lever for the candidate with the D after their name

Anonymous said...

Yeah, let's fight tall buildings in New York City. That'll work.

Can't wait for their next campaign: No more sand in the desert!

Anonymous said...

Yep and in the next election they'll all pull the lever for the candidate with the D after their name

Quoted for emphasis. These morons think that everyone on the (R) ticket for City Council gives a crap about non-issues in local politics, and they act as if they'd be casting a vote for Rick Santorum on homosexual marriage. (As if a Councilperson could do anything more than nothing at all even if (s)he DID oppose it.) Not saying we should be Republicans, or even Queens Republicans, but after the dust in the Dem. primary settles, it's the only leverage the voter has. So we saw that P. Graziano had enough sense to cross party lines to send Vallone a message.

Anonymous said...

Who cares if the candidate has an D,R,L or I ?
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few."
Thomas Hobbes

Anonymous said...

Yes, what we need is some tough as nails republican leadership to fix this unregulated mess. Republicans always come in and regulate Real the free market right away.

Don't waste your vote on pinko Democrats like Paul Vallone. He will only cripple the Real Estate industry with mindless regulations.

Anonymous said...

Petitions are useless. Online petitions are worth far less.
Without money coalitions go nowhere. I have been a member of five such groups.
Votes count a lot if you do not have money. It is the only key to power that us working stiffs have.
But then, you have got to leaen to vote snart, not for who the political media and spin doctors feed you.

Anonymous said...

Look into it people - there are tons of organizations from around the city and as usual, Queens is all but MIA. Yes, the only reason we get the shaft when we join groups like this is they assume we got our heads up our ass and the pols in Queens can pretty much do anything they want to us.

Prove them wrong people.

Anonymous said...

Wanna bet most of this group voted for deBlas?

Yes, and most of Queens voted for the Crowleys and Vallones.

At least most of their reps are fighting for their people (go ahead, read their newsletters and it will shock you), instead of taking advantage of their constituents inept naivety to trick them into fear like they do on this side of the East River.

(sarc) said...

I do a write in ballot each year for "NONE OF THE ABOVE"...

Anonymous said...

Your all wasting your breath

Anonymous said...

Yes, what we need is some tough as nails republican leadership to fix this unregulated mess. Republicans always come in and regulate Real the free market right away.

Bloomberg. That's all I got to say in response. Bloomberg. You really want that?

Anonymous said...

Don't waste your vote on pinko Democrats like Paul Vallone. He will only cripple the Real Estate industry with mindless regulations.

A Vallone crippling the real estate industry?

hahahahahahaha
hehehehehehehe
hohohohohohoho

Anonymous said...

The boro presidents don't care. The locally elected officials we call city councilmen don't care. The governor doesn't care, so why do we keep voting for these morons?? For the next gubernatorial, mayoral races don't vote for a progressive!!

Anonymous said...

You want human scale, break the city up into towns with the same first four digits of zip code.