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| From Crains |
As the mayor‘s recently proposed, and in many cases fiercely opposed, zoning text amendments have fanned the flames of New Yorkers‘ ever-simmering fear of gentrification, one type of at-risk tenant has gone unmentioned: small business owners.
Whether it is the famous Arepa Lady of Queens who cooks up corn pancakes with mozzarella, the baby Jesus doll boutique showcased in Frederick Wiseman‘s recent film “In Jackson Heights,” or the local bodega still selling expired $1 honey-buns, locally-owned and servicing mom-and-pop boutiques provide much of the diverse commercial life that has long characterized New York City.
As the de Blasio administration looks to change zoning requirements throughout the city, including to allow more and better retail space, and wants to see significant real estate development to increase affordable housing, there is a great deal at stake for small business owners - both current and prospective.
From Crains:
Our endorsement of the city’s plan for East New York would require that it take into account historical inequities and the long-term impact on the approximately 200 rezoned blocks as well as the surrounding area. We propose:
- Greater resources to preserve existing affordable housing, including supporting regular intake for anti-displacement advocates and legal practitioners as well as assistance for the residents of government-funded housing where affordability requirements are expiring;
- An increased supply of very-low and low-income housing through new opportunities, such as the development of unstudied city lots and faith-based properties with air rights, to support hundreds of residents at risk for potential displacement;
- A commitment of 50% preference in new housing for local residents, including former residents who were displaced;
- Additional land-use measures that would encourage developers to include deeper and more flexible bands of affordability in new housing;
- A codification of a minimum threshold of family-sized units in all new affordable developments, protecting against developers’ tendency to build studio and one-bedroom apartments;
- A restriction of big-box retail stores, and increased financial incentives to prevent commercial displacement of local small businesses.
18 comments:
So glad almost all our community boards and Katz opposed this crap. To see how leftists like streetsblog posters hate queens, check out the comments on their site. All because we're not manhattan. Go to hell, stupid liberals. Take your housing and bus plans with you. Commies.
Who is going to show up with the balls to take down this Mayor before he completely ruins our great City and it's boroughs? We are all sitting and watching the destruction every day. Class action lawsuit needed badly!
It's only a "Top Priority" because BDB has Campaign Debts to donors he has to pay off. I believe he peripherally cares about homelessness in NYC, but that it's an interesting side effect. The ONLY thing he REALLY cares about is getting re-elected so he can further his (And the councils) "Progressive" agenda...
"So glad almost all our community boards and Katz opposed this crap."
The community boards can oppose this all they want.
It does not matter, they are there to make RECOMMENDATIONS, they have absolutely NO power and minimal influence.
Just like the POTUS, with his pen and phone, making executive decrees, so will this Mayor.
This will be put into effect before you know it...
More people want to live in NYC than we have the resources of space and infrastructure to safely house them - period. No one with any expertise in urban planning has presented a plan or innovation that isn't some infeasible pipe dream or doesn't require vast involuntary transfers of wealth. Let alone attracting in an influx of educated productive people who were once priced out, but now come here for opportunities in well paying jobs that will eventually drive up prices. They're already here, rooming with 1, 2 or even 3 other people - legally, but uncomfortably, and they already have the expendable cash to crowd out the less well-off once this affordable housing stock should miraculously become available. NYC had its day of economic diversity, but those opportunities have been competed away. Face reality already, and forget about more affordable housing. The answer, if there is an answer, must lie in the slow revitalization of the municipalities elsewhere in NY State.
If it's a De Blasio plan, it's really a scheme to benefit hizzoner.
De B is really a REBNY stooge. He needs their money to be re-elected.
No matter who gets elected mayor, New York is really governed by REBNY, so it seems.
The only antidote for getting screwed by the real estate development industry, is for each and every voter to elect local candidates that have their interests in mind , not the real estate moguls.
Uh...make sure that council member Paul Vallone, who is a developer's lobbyist, does not get his desired second term.
Victories begin in your own back yard. Without any local accomplices, no mayor can butt fuck you!
Remember when "the projects"....low income affordable housing, was forced upon nabes in the 1950s?
A lot of good that wound up doing for solid tax paying middle class nabes. Phony blockbusting did not help NYC back then.
Phony affordable or equality housing won't do crap for your nabe now.
This is a zone busting offensive that we all have to participate in to prevent.
Make no mistake about it, this is a long term move to gentrify and drive out poor people so that luxury housing can be built in reclaimed poorer nabes so that REBNY can make millions and, in turn, support their developer friendly politicians with campaign contributions.
the developers are going to go hog wild!
The people's should be punished for opposing our Great Leader
Off with Thier Heads,public lashings and Arm Bands for Dissenters so they shall be known to the followers and servants of the Progressive God's who rule over us and feed us and Love Us.
Sorry, there's no more room at the inn!
A shop owner in Hell's Kitchen, near the Port Authority bus terminal, told me he spoke to a homeless woman who was begging in front of his shop.
She was polite and he helped her out with a few dollars. Then he asked her where she came from. She replied that she was given a one way bus ticket....out of I forget which Midwest city...through a city program. So she was dumped in New York to become our problem.
And that is the God's honest truth.
Anon #1:
How in any way, shape or form do the current crop of city council and Albany leaders behave like liberals? Just fucking tell me how? Aside from waving around the rainbow flag at gay parades and pretending to be against upstate fracking, THEY DO WHATEVER THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY TELLS THEM TO DO.
They CUT regulations. They CIRCUMVENT laws. They act on behalf of the industry that paid for their campaigns. They lecture us on the virtues of development. They do everything that a good republican would do, all with "D" next to their names.
You don't honestly believe all this affordable housing malarchy do you? The past two regimes have jettisoned every black person from Manhattan creating a panacea of dipshit, moneyed white people. Commies? Liberals? Yeah, whatever.
No one understands the zoning laws in this city and no one wants to waste their time reading pages and pages of laws written by city funded lawyers. That is why Bill DiBlasio will get what he wants.
How are they liberals? That's the dumbest question I've heard in a long time. Let's see: ID cards for illegal aliens, pandering to every non-white culture under the sun, mandating sick leave for private employers, blocking Wal-mart, hiking the budget endlessly, advocating to release a terrorist, advocating to pardon a traitor, banning certain foods, banning styrofoam......
That enough for you? I've got stuff to do.
If you think the New York City Council isn't liberal, you must be to the left of Lenin.
Cut regulations? Like hell. Name one. Circumvent laws? Sure, liberals have no problem with that. Yes, they do back the real estate industry. No "good republican" would do what they do. You obviously have no idea what republicanism is.
And there's only white people in Manhattan?? Get some eye surgery, Stevie Wonder.
We have a poster who doesn't think the city council is liberal? OMG. Must be a de blasio staffer.
Leave Stevie Wonder out of this. He can't read your comments !!
If they do a study of where the city's homeless come from they will be shocked to find out that most are not from here. We take in everyone else's problems. This has to stop. Send them all to Cuomo's mansion in Westchester. Maybe he can house them all .
You're right, that was unkind of me to bring Stevie Wonder into it. Change that to Helen Keller.
Bazinga
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