Is he landing the plane — or crashing it?
One day after Public Advocate Jumaane Williams called for the city to gut the central piece of City Hall’s ambitious City of Yes rezoning plan, Mayor Adams admitted he's willing to negotiate in order to "land the plane."
Williams had said the plan should not fully eliminate the mandatory parking rules that experts and developers say inhibit housing construction.
"Eliminating mandates in public transportation deserts will be harmful to many neighborhoods," Williams said in a statement calling for mandatory off-street parking — which encourages car use and congestion, as well as undermining the goal of housing construction — to be maintained everywhere beyond "a half-mile of a railroad or subway station."
The Adams administration has spent the last year testifying that eliminating required parking is the linchpin of its multi pronged effort to update an outdated 1961 zoning code and add over 100,000 new housing units in the next 15 years. But on Tuesday, Adams said that parking mandates may remain when the smoke clears.
“We hear about this parking part often, the team that’s negotiating needs to look at that and hear what his concerns are,” Adams told Streetsblog as a Council committee took up the proposal. “There are aspects of a plan that someone dislikes, that’s what negotiations are about. All parts are important, that’s why we release the whole plan. But those of us who have been in government know that this is all about creativity, it’s about negotiating, it’s about finding a way to land the plane.”
Those comments conflict with those of City Planning Commissioner Dan Garodnick, who testified before the Council on Monday that getting rid of costly parking requirements was crucial to the plan.
More than 600 people signed up to testify at the Zoning and Franchises subcommittee hearing, according to committee Chair Kevin Riley.
Williams's statement shows a misunderstanding of the parking part of the proposal and a shared point of view with Council members from low-density areas who are afraid that scrapping the mandates means less parking for their constituents and want to see their districts carved out of this part of the proposal.
The problem with carve-outs for certain communities is that removing parking mandates is key to three of the plan's pillars, Garodnick said — specifically the three that are attempting to re-legalize modest three- to five-story buildings in low-density areas and allow accessory dwelling units. Examples from other cities, including Seattle and Buffalo, show that parking still gets built where residents want or need it, even without the costly mandates.
The public hearing is proving to be just as heated as the 15-hour one hosted by the City Planning Commission in August.
On Tuesday, Council Member Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) conducted a repeat performance, spewing misinformation and vitriol — at one point in a manner so disrespectful of one person who showed up to testify that Riley ordered her to rein it in.
Paladino laid on the sarcasm after Jackson Chabot, director of organizing at the housing and livable streets non-profit Open Plans, testified in favor of eliminating the parking mandates, which she pointedly said would "kill" people who "need their cars."
She declared his testimony invalid because Chabot, whose non-profit shares a parent organization with Streetsblog, was not born and raised in the city.
“What’s the population of Cincinnati, Ohio my friend?” Paladino quipped. “Six hundred thousand, and now you moved to the big city with eight million people, wow!” she added sarcastically.
“About eight years ago, for the record,” Chabot replied.
“OK, so you’re a newbie. Let me explain something to you, you claim ‘car dependence,’ because you’ve only lived here for eight years. You don’t know a thing about New York or how we work, OK? How dare you come to this panel with your so-called expertise, and kill car people. Car people are murderers? Actually, you crack me up. This is not Amsterdam, this is New York City. Take a back seat, because you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Riley gaveled to interrupt the over-heated Paladino and to give Chabot a chance to answer the question Paladino had asked about newcomers.
“Yes, I might be a relative newbie having not been born here, but so many other people here today who are testifying want to live in New York City as well, regardless of whether they were born here or moved here more recently than not,” said Chabot.
"Please, no clapping," Riley said to allow Paladino to continue.
