* What did the NYC Council Speaker get After 'Negotiating' a 'Better' City of Yes Law?

She got 29,000 Fewer Affordable Housing Units, for which the Taxpayers will Pay $5 Billion More

November 27, 2024 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

If this wasn't real, I'd be laughing pretty hard.

But because it is real, so I'm only laughing cynically, because it is so close to unbelievable ... and it's happening in - as Eric Adams likes to say - 'the Greatest City in the World'. To which I would comment, 'not for long, if this keeps up'.

Evidence Indicating the City of Yes Legislation has been Dishonestly Sold to Us

To give you an idea of how dishonestly the City of Yes legislation appears to have been sold to us by Mayor Eric Adams and Daniel Garodnick of the Department of City Planning - consider this.

Last week, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, 'negotiated' a better City of Yes legislative package.

So what did she / we get?

She / We got a package that costs $5 billion more, of our hard earned tax payer money, to be used to support wealthy and super rich real estate developers' and investors' projects; and in exchange she / we got 29,000 LESS AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNITS promised. So when is the last time you negotiated a better deal, for which you paid billions more, and got tens of thousands of units less, and walked away thinking you got a 'better' deal?

Come on. This is funny.

But in reality it is not very funny at all. It's dishonest.

This shows you how dishonestly Mayor Adams and his side kick Garodnick, appear to have been selling this package to the public. Part of the reason for the lower number of units is that they actually included some honestly affordable housing in the renegotiated legislation.

What Speaker Adrienne Adams got was a more honest [but not completely honest] assessment of what seemed to be a very dishonest legislative package, but it's still far, far less than anything that should fully justify it.

See 'Affordable Housing' story below dated 10.23.24, where 'affordable housing' is used to describe housing units that require an income of up to $250,000. And assuming my understanding of this is correct, Mayor Adams and Garodnick want taxpayers to give real estate developers and investors tax abatements, to build similar 'affordable housing' units, that would be rented to those earning 100% AMI [Area Median Income], which for a three person family is currently $127,000. The incentives might possibly extend to higher income levels [above 100% of the AMI], as the story below indicates - but I need to do more research to obtain confirmation or refutation that tax abatements would be given for units built for incomes above 100% of the AMI in the in the City of Yes legislation.

• CLICK here to view our report on NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams helps Eric Adams pass the City of Yes zoning law changes into law, transferring NYC voters' power to billionaire real estate developers and international investors.

Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso Responds to the NYCC Negotiated Changes

I received an email from the Brooklyn Borough President's Office on Thursday, November 21, 2024 around the close of business, which I believe was either simultaneous to or immediately AFTER, the NYC Council committees voted to send the City of Yes to the full Council for a vote. Here are a couple of excerpts of what he said,

"... City of Yes was never going to fix everything. It was never an affordability strategy, it was never a production plan, and it was never a panacea for our city’s housing crisis ... But it was at least a modest opportunity to begin addressing the discriminatory zoning practices that force low-income, Black and Brown neighborhoods to do all of the work of building new housing while low-density neighborhoods get away with contributing nothing ... I urge Mayor Adams and the City Council to carefully consider the ramifications of these exemptions and be wary not to enhance the harms of administrations past ...”.

I believe the exemptions stayed, so it doesn't do what Reynoso had hoped it would do, along with all the things he knew it would not do.

So Reynoso tells us he knew that the 'City of Yes' would not address this, that or the other thing, but at least it addressed SOMETHING, and in the negotiations, that something was just taken out of the City of Yes legislation to get it passed. So perhaps the City of Yes now looks like what it always was - with NO EXCEPTIONS - which is very little to NOTHING for the people, and EVERYTHING for the wealthy real estate developers and investors who initiated, drafted and have been funding the politicians, who have been promoting the City of Yes legislation ... like Mayor Eric Adams.

It's a Win / Win & Lose. The winners are the Real Estate & Investment Industry / and Mayor Adams & the politicians who vote for the City of Yes and whose campaigns are funded by the Real Estate Industry / & the losers are the Majority of all other New Yorkers.

City of Yes - What do we get & What will it cost?

Adams Administration Fails to Provide Direct Answers to the Most Basic Questions

I submitted three questions to the Adams Administration over the past few days and months for which I received answers which I believe should be unacceptable to any New Yorker or any NYC Council member who pretends to be representing you. Ask them these same questions next time they attend a public meeting or event.

1. What size and in what borough will the 80,000 [109,000 original estimate] 'affordable' housing units be built in NYC because of the passage of the City of Yes zoning changes legislation?

Answer. They told me the 'invisible hand' of the market would take care of these details, so they couldn't provide them to me themselves.

2. At what monthly prices, will these units be rented, and specify unit size and price by borough?

Answer. They told me to see their website long page promo, which contained no such information.

3. How much in foregone tax revenue, will NYC taxpayers give up to the wealthy and super wealthy real estate developers, and national and international investments firms?

Answer. So far, no response to question #3.

Voters must ask themselves how the most sweeping zoning legislation in the past 50 years can get this far, after more than an entire year of the bill being floated, without the Adams Administration providing, and the NYC Council demanding answers to, these three most basic of questions, about what will we get [1 & 2], and what will it cost us [#3]. And I would add the NYC media to the list of culpable people who should have been asking these questions [see more about the media below].

The Real Answers to What do we get and What will it cost?

What do we get? We get to give up all sorts of government tax revenue [and hence government services] in order to fund all of the new tax abatement incentives Adams and Garodnick [and we'll soon see if the NYC Council does the same] are giving to the real estate industry and the real estate investment funds. And in return we'll probably get a lot closer to no new, lasting, truly affordable, housing - than to getting 80,000 units of truly affordable, lasting housing, that the new current estimate implies.

What does it cost? It costs an incredible amount of lost tax revenue / funding for: 1) publiic education, 2) public transit infrastructure and services, 3) public healthcare and services, 4) public sanitation, 5) NYC fire prevention and response, 6) NYC law enforcement and 7) all of the infrastructure and other government services that enables New York to continue to function as the 'greatest city in the world' - in spite of New Yorkers electing government officials who fight so hard for the millionaires and billionaires who fund their campaigns, while apparently deceiving and ultimately swindling the New Yorkers who voted for them. But 'greatness' doesn't ever last forever ... let alone when people aren't paying attention to what their elected officials in government are doing to them - not for them.

Make Your Voice Heard by or Before Thursday, December 5th

The City of Yes, could be setting up NYC government to become the City that Fails us, because the government won't have enough tax revenue / resource to do their job, because the Adams Administration will have given away so much of it to the wealthy real estate developers and super rich national and international real estate investors who have funded his campaigns.

The NYC Council is scheduled to vote on Thursday, December 5th, 2024. Once they vote, this is either a done deal, or it's back to the drawing board to consider putting together real alternatives to solving NYC's housing problem, as opposed to the dishonest schemes / solutions that are sold on promises that are not likely to be delivered upon [but won't become apparent] before the pols who supported it, move onto their next gigs.

So make your voice heard by calling your council member or emailing them using the contact info on the NYC Council's website.

https://council.nyc.gov/districts/

Please share on social media before December 5th.

Is Mayor Adams Abusing Local Law 83?

There's an NYC local law which, according to Google AI interpretation of the info on NYC.gov states that,

" ... Local Law 83 of 2021 requires New York City agencies to direct at least 50% of their advertising spending to Ethnic and Community Media (ECM) outlets ... ".

The other half of the spending goes to the corporate / national media outlets.

So, ask yourself whether the reason you're hearing scant reporting on the City of Yes legislation, let alone that's critical of it, is because the other local and corporate media outlets are not well informed, or because they are 'on the Mayor's payroll'? Meaning, is the Mayor using taxpayer funded community media money as his own little piggy bank, to cultivate fealty from the NYC community, ethnic and corporate media?

If the local, ethnic and corporate media are not on his payroll [look for NYC government ads on their sites, in their newspapers, heard on radio and seen on TV outlets], then why aren't you hearing both sides [aka the downside / critical side] of this HUGE legislative story?

Please share on social media before December 5th.

P.S. I am going to try hard to publish at least one more report over the Thanksgiving Weekend or in the first day or two of next week, which will flush out a bit more what's going on here - time permitting. Please get involved. This bill really matters to funding future NYC government services / obligations as identified above, and it will also preclude NYC government from finding real solutions - not what seem billionaire funded get richer quicker schemes - to address the affordable housing crisis in NYC.