Join WBAI and MTOPP on October 3rd 2023 @6pm
for a ZOOM Town Hall on Mayor Adams’
City of Yes for Economic Opportunities
To Register for this Town Hall, please click on this link , or go to https://tinyurl.com/CityofYESEconicTownhall
A link to the Zoom will be sent to your email on the day of the event.
This event is also be happening live on WBAI. 99.5 FM or WBAI.org.
Staff will be available during the Zoom meeting
to take your questions via the Chat function.
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Ever wonder why there are no body repair shops, light manufacturing businesses, night clubs, or beauty parlors residing in your apartment building? Why are there no commercial businesses in your residential neighborhood? But a few blocks down, there they all are – on one main street. Ever wonder why you have only doctors’ or lawyers’ offices above ground floor commercial businesses in a residential building etc…?
Well that standard of living is based upon Zoning. Zoning categories were created and then separated to keep people safe, allow businesses to prosper, and give people options on where they want to live and shop.
Do most people mind that the commercial corridors may be a few blocks away, keeping their noise, congestion and pollution over there? Well we are here to tell you that Mayor Eric Adams City of Yes “Economic Opportunity” Zoning Text Amendments wants to change all of that and more.
While the City and the media are highlighting Mayor Adams’ Housing Opportunity plan, the Department of City Planning is quietly moving forward with some really drastic and scary changes to the zoning law and most people don’t even know about it!
Please join us to learn and discuss these text amendment changes, to be informed on how is this happening, and what you can do before it’s too late!
Background
During Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign the idea to make drastic changes to the zoning codes that would effect every neighborhood was never mentioned. However, once he was elected Mayor Eric Adams, came up with the City of Yes, Zoning text amendments with the help of his advisors (real estate and corporate attorneys).
There were three text amendment proposals; Carbon Neutrality, Economic Opportunity and Housing Opportunity. The first one, has already been approved by the City Planning Commission and is on its way to being voted in by the City Council. Its focus was to support a healthier city. The irony however, is that the next two amendments actually will do the opposite.
The Economic Opportunity will foster some drastic changes in our community bringing more harmful, noisy and toxin pollutants right into the community and buildings that we live in.
The Housing Opportunity will do even worse, by allowing apartments to exist without windows and having shared accommodations such as bathrooms and kitchens. These types of apartments were outlawed almost 80 years ago because of its danger to the health and the welfare of the people. But they are back.
Working together, these Text Amendments will cause displacement of long term businesses and residents. (We will discuss this issue in-depth at the Town Hall Meeting)
Zoning as we know it will no longer exist. *Along with a neighborhood’s ability to protect itself.
Town Hall Details
We have Four Great Speakers.
- Alicia Boyd, Prose Litigant and Political Activist, made history by being the first community of color to stop a district wide rezoning and forced the New York City Planning Commission to reject the largest residential development project being proposed in Crown Heights Brooklyn.
- Honorable Justice Kathryn Freed, former City Council person and Retired New York State Supreme Court Court Justice. Bringing all her knowledge and wisdom regarding the Courts, Judicial challenges and Rezoning proposals (i.e. Text Amendments).
- Joel Kupferman, Environmental Attorney, Founder & E.D of Environmental Justice Initiative/New York Law and Justice Project. Focusing on the environmental impacts of the Text Amendments and what must be done to protect the community and the environment.
- Emily Sharpe, Attorney and Founder of Stop Sunnyside Yards, who ran for City Council. She will be covering the impact of these rezonings on the outer Boroughs, and the unique circumstances and impacts these zoning amendments will have on low-rise residential neighborhoods.
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