Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Opinion

Opinion

Latino New Yorkers Know Governor Hochul is Fighting For Us


Gov. Hochul celebrates Puerto Rico (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)


Every election season, Latinos have the same conversations about how political candidates engage with us. My constituents and I are used to seeing chronic underinvestment despite big promises, and our communities are used to feeling like an afterthought. It’s far too easy for us to succumb to cynicism about our political leaders’ commitment to fighting for us. 

But that’s not the case with Governor Kathy Hochul. And she’s proven it time and time again on the campaign trail and through her legislative and budgetary victories for our community. 

With Election Day around the corner, Kathy Hochul is fully engaged with the Latino community. Her campaign has prioritized Latino investment with a seven-figure Spanish ad buy that reaches members of our communities across the state, on the airwaves, and through digital ads. 

She’s also working hand-in-hand with Latino elected officials to speak to constituents across the five boroughs, which I saw firsthand when I joined her campaign to reach voters in Washington Heights. The impact of in-person voter engagement is truly immeasurable, and her team is putting in the crucial face-time that our voters need. 

In May, the governor and the State Democratic Party launched the “Nueva York Initiative,” a first-of-its-kind bilingual empowerment program dedicated to coalition building, voter registration, and mobilization in the Latino community in 2022 and beyond. 

The actions Governor Hochul has taken show that she views Latino voters as more than a mere item on her campaign’s checklist. She understands the importance of sharing her message with non-English speakers so that we can all show up to the polls informed about what the Governor is fighting for, from keeping guns off our streets to creating jobs and bringing down the cost of living. 

Although Governor Hochul has only had a relatively short time in office, her accomplishments for the Latino community have gone far. 

Communities of color are often hit the hardest by gun violence, and polling shows crime as a key issue among Latinos. Governor Hochul has stepped up to protect our neighborhoods by passing common-sense gun safety laws that keep weapons out of the wrong hands and providing law enforcement officials with the tools to crack down on the distribution and possession of illegal weapons. Governor Hochul knows that New Yorkers deserve to move through their days free of fear and has taken decisive action to keep us safe.

The governor has also made historic advancements in New York’s economic recovery by accelerating $1.2 billion in middle-class tax cuts for 6 million New Yorkers and providing $100 million in relief for nearly 200,000 small businesses, working to ensure an equitable pandemic recovery for all. 

In the wake of Hurricane Ida, Governor Hochul made $27 million in storm relief available to New Yorkers, including those in my community, to support individuals who were ineligible for federal aid. When Queens residents’ basements flooded during the storm, Kathy Hochul was the first to pick up the phone and lend a hand in their hour of need. 

Governor Hochul has proven that fighting for Latino communities makes our state a stronger, more prosperous place. She is a true ally to our communities, and she’s shown it by listening and executing on the issues that matter to us most in Albany and in our streets. Governor Hochul is the real deal.

***
Diana Ayala is a New York City Council Member representing East Harlem and parts of the South Bronx. On Twitter @DianaAyalaNYC.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ten Years After Sandy, New York is More Resilient Than Ever, with More Work to Do


Resilient planning (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


Ten years ago, New York City received one of the biggest wake-up calls in its history – climate change was here, and we were not ready.

Superstorm Sandy, which killed 44 New Yorkers and caused $19 billion in damages and lost economic activity, was the first massive climate-change-driven storm to hit the five boroughs — and, as we are now well-aware, it wouldn’t be the last. We did learn some very important lessons.

First among them: if we are going to build, and rebuild, we need to build resiliently. That is because newer structures built under modern construction codes are standing up to powerful storms much better than older buildings. This fact is underlined again and again, most recently in Florida as Hurricane Ian swept up the Gulf Coast.

So, what are we doing about this? Alongside resiliency work New York City government agencies are undertaking from our shores to our streets, the Department of City Planning and the Department of Buildings are today pushing forward Mayor Adams’ City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality. This wide-ranging zoning proposal will make it easier to green our grid, reduce our carbon emissions, and protect our homes, parks, and job spaces.

Since Sandy, the City has worked to protect our 1 million buildings. We’ve done this by updating construction and zoning codes to make certain that newly-constructed homes and businesses can stand up to and recover faster from more intense weather events – including by allowing property owners to move boilers out of their basement and to raise living space up and out of harm’s way. In a few days, stringent new construction codes related to critical facilities in the floodplain, such as hospitals and fire stations, will go into effect. Just 30% of municipalities in the United States have taken on this work to bake resiliency into construction codes.

Because these codes are only half the battle, we are also fully focused on the second battleground: reducing New York City’s carbon contribution to climate change.

Some ways that we propose to do this are to make it easier to install energy efficient building façades and solar panels on roofs and allow electric vehicle charging in and on many more structures. Today, for instance, we generate about 300 megawatts of electric energy per day through rooftop solar panels. The City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality proposal would eliminate barriers and more than triple the amount of electricity the sun would generate for New York City over the next eight years. That alone is enough energy to power over 70,000 homes.

Our carbon neutral work is more expansive than solely updating construction and zoning codes, but they are important building blocks for a healthier city. Further, this work will help landlords introduce retrofits into existing buildings and make new buildings greener, as required under Local Law 97.

If we want to achieve carbon neutrality, home and business owners need as clear a path as possible to making investments that reduce their energy costs. City of Yes is intended to help large and small landlords to get green and help us meet our carbon emission reduction goals.

As we remember the destruction Sandy caused and celebrate our progress on creating climate-related infrastructure and rules, let’s not be complacent. It continues to be essential to say yes to a greener, more resilient future, and we hope all New Yorkers will support our plans to get there.

***
Dan Garodnick is Chair of the New York City Planning Commission and Director of the New York City Department of City Planning. Eric Ulrich is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings. On Twitter @DanGarodnick & @Eric_Ulrich.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How Could the City Council Cut Affordable Housing in Gowanus?


Housing construction (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


If you listen to progressives in New York City talk, you'd think they're focused on addressing our worsening housing crisis. Endless rally cries for tenant protection and increasing affordability make up the bulk of their campaign promises and slogans.

And they would be right to — everyone, from democratic socialists to President Biden agree housing production is a problem. Over half a million units are needed by 2030, according to a study commissioned by the Real Estate Board of New York.

But when you get past the rally speeches and look instead at actions taken by some progressives in the City Council, you’ll often find something very different. In fact, some of them continue to reject or water down housing proposals that would bring hundreds or sometimes thousands of units, many of which would be affordable, to their districts. 

For example, this week, the Co-Chair of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus, Shahana Hanif, negotiated to limit the size of a project in her district, thereby limiting the amount of affordable housing required through the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, which requires developers to provide affordable housing in exchange for a rezoning that allows for more housing development.

This dilution of the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing overlay will eliminate the opportunity for additional below-market-rate housing units to be built and effectively allow her majority-white, affluent district to avoid doing its fair share to welcome new rental housing and alleviate the city’s housing crisis.

Based on neighborhood NIMBYism, Hanif turned a would-be nine-story building that would provide 48 apartments, 13 of which would be affordable, into a five-story building that will have, at most, 23 apartments, with only three to six of those deemed affordable.

You would hope the Council Member would seek to create a clear contrast and insist that her district accept more of the responsibility to provide housing rather than continue the district’s lagging production levels. From 2014-2021 the City Council District she represents only produced 253 units of affordable housing, about 20% of the city average. Meanwhile, as District Manager of Bronx Community Board 6, I supported the board in routinely supporting new housing, as shown by the Council District we overlapped with producing 12 times as much housing, with 3,115 units during the same period

While the project is small, every effort at building housing matters. Even a single affordable apartment is momentous to a family that has lived in a shelter for years, a city worker seeking a shorter commute to spend more time with family, and the immigrant family with humble beginnings looking to start a new life in New York. By continuously working against critical housing proposals, some City Council Members are undermining the only real chance at creating housing that would address the current crisis and actively working to prevent future generations from being able to experience our great city.

All of this comes after Hanif and others campaigned on the lack of housing affordability. Yet in this case the Council Member is undermining a project that would deliver exactly that. It’s incomprehensible.

She states that she respects and supports the push from many in her community to increase affordable housing — particularly deeply affordable housing.  Sadly, the typical scope of community input ignores the voices of undocumented New Yorkers, New Yorkers without permanent addresses, and New Yorkers on affordable housing waiting lists that number in the tens of thousands. Comfortably housed people should no longer be able to limit how many people and what type of people can live in our city.

If the Progressive Caucus’ commitment is to affordability, then there should be more than respect – there should be decisive and bold action. The rules that govern what can and can’t be built in our city largely come from the 1961 zoning resolution. These rules were made exclusively by men who wouldn’t be representative of our city today in a time before the Civil Rights and Fair Housing Acts were passed. The Caucus could propose moving our city forward and no longer clinging to these outdated rules that tend to keep people out of neighborhoods based on their income, and maintain New York City’s deeply segregated nature.

With an influx of migrants seeking refuge in our great city, the chair of the Immigration Committee (yes, Hanif as well) might be expected to be a champion of bringing immigrants into safe, new homes. Instead, she is reducing the number of affordable apartments potentially available to immigrant families in her community.

The next time the City Council wants to look for a reason as to why there isn’t enough housing being built, they should examine why they defer to a single member that wants to limit how much housing and affordability is allowed. If the entire City Council truly wants to bring affordability to tenants, help working-class people, and improve their neighborhood amenities, then they need to approve projects that will provide just that and not approve deals that decrease affordable homes. People across all five boroughs are tired of excuses. People are tired of the excuse of “member deference” when it comes to explaining why it’s so difficult to provide affordable housing for a city of more than 8 million New Yorkers.

Most of all every City Council Member should ask themselves this: How many new homes do you want to see in your district by the end of the decade and what is your plan, including legislation and funding needed to happen to reach this goal? A goal without a plan is a wish, and we can no longer have a New York where a desire to live in a secure home at a reasonable price is a faraway dream achievable only by six-figure households.

When promises for housing affordability are made and then broken, there should be accountability. New Yorkers don’t want to be sold dreams anymore; we just want to have a fighting chance to afford to live here.

***
John Sanchez is the former District Manager of Bronx Community Board 6. On Twitter @NYJohnSanchez.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Print Friendly and PDF

Editor's Choice


Gotham Gazette: New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
Gotham Gazette: 
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
Gotham Gazette: 
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Gotham Gazette: 
City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years