May 20, 2024 NYC Office of the Mayor
Hazel Sanchez: Welcome back. It's 8:22 and the public is getting the chance to weigh in on zoning changes, which are a part of the mayor's City of Yes plan to bring affordable housing to every neighborhood. Now, these new zoning laws would also be good for mom and pop shops.
Here to explain more about that are Mayor Eric Adams and City Planning Director Dan Garodnick. Good morning to the both of you. Thanks for taking the time to be with us.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Great to be here. When you talk about it, we're thinking about 1961 is the last time we had major zoning changes. That was the rotary phone days. Now we're in a smartphone era. We need to have our businesses and the change in our zoning reflect the difference in the lives that we're living.
Sanchez: Why is it taking so long?
Mayor Adams: Great question. I think that's why Commissioner Garodnick has really understood that we have to get in and we want to continue to see this unprecedented job growth. We have more jobs in the city and the city's history. We want to match with our decreasing crime but we have to figure out how do we make it and continue to make it easier to do business in the city.
Sanchez: Yes. Dan, this is going to make a lot of neighborhoods look a lot different. How many housing units are you looking to add in each area?
Dan Garodnick, Director, Department of City Planning: First of all, there's three proposals that the mayor has advanced with the Department of City Planning and as part of our City of Yes initiative.
The first one on the environment passed the City Council last year. The second one that we're focusing on here, the mom and pops, evolving our commercial districts, allowing for more innovation, dealing with rules that have become laughably outdated and are perpetuating vacant storefronts around the city. That's the proposal the City Council is considering this week. Then the third proposal, the third of three is for housing. That one right now is being reviewed by community boards and borough presidents and will be voted on at the end of this calendar year.
Most importantly, for this one, we see that our zoning rules have gotten antiquated. They call out taxidermy and telegraph stores, but not 3D printing or virtual reality. We need to modernize our zoning so that we are not limiting our own growth and evolution. It's a 21st century economy. We've got 1961 rules and we're looking to deal with that now.
Sanchez: How are you addressing some of the concerns, though, of some communities that say this can't be a one size fits all thing, in some of the more densely populated areas that say there's not enough room for more development?
Garodnick: Yes, we certainly understand that as it relates to our housing proposal, which comes next. We are trying to create a little bit more housing in every neighborhood.
The mayor has set out a moonshot goal of five hundred thousand units. We are looking to create opportunities around the city. We have some neighborhoods in New York that really have not produced any housing at all over a very long period of time. New Yorkers are struggling today. The rent is high. We have gentrification pressures. We have homelessness and we have a real imbalance of power between landlords and tenants.
That's the next proposal. Here we are focusing on economic development and an opportunity for us to revitalize our commercial corridors and stop the perpetuation of vacant storefronts around the city.
Sanchez: Yes. Mr. Mayor, how will this help those small mom and pop shops?
Mayor Adams: In so many ways, when you think about it, as Dan pointed out, we don't have any rules on a book now that talks about cell phones. We don't have any rules now that allow in our restaurants where you want cabarets to dance.
There are different ways that our business communities, they have come to us and stated “These restrictive rules are preventing us from growing.” We've done a great job in bringing in more jobs in the city, as I stated, more than the city's history. We know we can go even further. That's why these changes are important.
Garodnick: I can give you some examples. In a commercial corridor, you can today have a model car hobby shop, but not laser tag. In a home occupation, you can be a music teacher, but not an interior decorator. You can bake bread on a retail street, but you can't make salsa.
These rules are out of date. We need to advance our local economy and do this in a way which reflects a 21st century environment.
Sanchez: All right. All right. Good to know. All right. Let's switch gears now. Mr. Mayor, we wanted to talk to you about that partial building collapse in Brooklyn. The city's aging infrastructure, obviously in need of attention.
This building was vacant and people are now afraid that this is going to happen in other vacant or abandoned buildings. Do we have enough building inspectors to make sure that this doesn't happen somewhere else?
Mayor Adams: Yes, we do. They were free from our PEGs. They were not, when we were doing, finding efficiencies, that was one area we did not look at to find a decreasing number. We have a suitable number of inspectors and we continue to recruit for more inspectors.
Commissioner Oddo, he's on top of this. He's doing a thorough investigation. We determined exactly what happened in this case.
Sanchez: We also wanted to ask you about several other things. Former Governor Cuomo talking about NYCHA claiming residents were possibly getting arsenic poisoning. He said that they were ignored because, quote, “They are not wealthy Park Avenue residents.” How do you respond to that?
Mayor Adams: I've always stated over and over again. I'm hoping that the mayor should have complete control of NYCHA. NYCHA has had issues of dysfunctionality for so many generations. We've made real wins. Number one, we put it into our housing plan, the first time ever. We were able to get the NYCHA land trust legislation that's going to infuse real money.
When we specifically talk about the Chelsea area, there was no arsenic in the water. We clearly show that. That's why I went there to drink the water myself. The former governor is well aware of the problems we've had in NYCHA and how this administration has specifically focused on turning around NYCHA.
Sanchez: Finally, Mr. Mayor, you've been very outspoken about breaking the cycle of domestic violence in New York City.
Given everything that's developed over the weekend with P. Diddy, what are you thinking about rescinding, possibly rescinding the honor that you gave him last year when you presented him with the Key to the City?
Mayor Adams: I think all of us were deeply disturbed by watching that chilling video of the young lady being assaulted by him. The committee and the team, we've never rescinded a key before, but we are now sitting down to see what the next steps forward are going to be.
Sanchez: So you are considering it?
Mayor Adams: We are taking everything under analysis and the team will come back with me with a final determination.
Sanchez: All right, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Garodnick, thanks again for taking the time to speak with us this morning.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
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