New York Says 'YIMBY Ki-Yay MFer'

City Of Yes Vote Provides Insight On Politics Of Housing Across The Big Apple

New York City of…

New York City said, “Yes, In My Backyard.”

Embattled mayor Eric Adams scored a big political win this week, possibly the only big one of his almost inevitable single term. His pro-housing proposal, City Of Yes, got approval from an abnormally divided and deliberative City Council on Thursday. Shepherded through the legislative body by Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens), the proposal would add more than 80,000 new homes to the city over the next 15 years, the most significant investment in housing the city has seen in a century. It comes at a time when housing is especially crunched, with rents and sales prices rising and inventories and vacancies at a record low, turning the tide in the city’s population growth that has been steady since the late 1980s and helping Republicans rebound in to numbers they haven’t seen since that decade.

The proposal will likely be the most politically charged issue the Council takes on before next year’s elections, where the entire council is up for election. Several members are facing primary challenges in June or seeking higher office and the politics ramifications of their vote on Thursday will be interesting to watch unfold.

THE PLAN

The City Of Yes plan is a compromise proposal that allocates $5 billion toward constructing new homes to alleviate the city’s housing crunch. That includes $1 billion for housing development, $2 billion for infrastructure improvements related to housing, such as electric, sewer, and school upgrades, $1 billion for tenant protection, and $1 billion in state funding for housing promised by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The plan includes converting underutilized office space, especially in Manhattan, into residential housing. This idea became popular after the collapse in office usage after the COVID-19 pandemic shifted many industries to work-from-home. Another aspect of the plan is allowing “town center zoning,” where multi-use properties along major commercial zones are upzoned to allow higher-density development over storefronts, shifting dense developments away from residential streets. Transit-orientated development, or higher-density development around subway and commuter rail stations, is also part of the City Of Yes.

Among the most controversial aspects is the elimination of parking mandates in much of the city. The original proposals that were shot down last year called for eliminating parking mandates—a rule mandating the number of parking spots for a development—citywide. However, the compromised plan allows the elimination or reduction of parking mandates by zone.

Zone 1, which includes all of Manhattan south of 145th Street and denser neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn with significant subway service, like Greenpoint and Park Slope, would eliminate parking mandates. Zone 2, which includes neighborhoods like Washington Heights, Woodhaven, and Borough Park, and areas within a 10-minute walk of subway and rail lines like the Queens Boulevard Line in Forest Hills, the Port Washington Long Islanad Rail Road line in Northeast Queens, and the Staten Island Railway, would see parking mandates reduced but not eliminated. Zone 3, which covers transit-starved areas with low-density housing like Fresh Meadows, Glendale, Throggs Neck, and Marine Park, would see little or no change. The other controversial part of the plan is the legalization of ADUs, or accessory dwelling units, allowing homeowners to build smaller units in backyards or basements in non-flood zones to add extra housing. Many in low-density neighborhoods opposed this, fearing it would lead to the construction of small shack-style housing or the conversion of garages, taking away green space and making neighborhoods look and feel congested and overcrowded.

Nearly all the opposition came from council members in the outer boroughs representing these low-density communities of single-family homes or unattached or semi-attached one- or two-family homes with yards and driveways. Every council member representing a district devoid of subway service voted “no.” All the Republicans were opposed, but 15 of the 20 opposing votes came from Democrats, some who won races against progressives in 2021 when progressive groups like Democratic Socialists of America were trying to capitalize on what they saw as significant growth in support during the 2018-2021 time frame. Despite being openly critical of the compromised plan, primarily due to parking mandates, the Council’s leftist members, including Tiffany Caban of Queens and Lincoln Restler, Chi Osse, and Alexa Aviles of Brooklyn, voted for the plan.

Let’s take a look at how some of the key members voted and the dynamics behind their votes:

MANHATTAN

All but one member of the Manhattan delegation voted for the proposal.

Councilman Chris Marte (D-Lower East Side) was the only member in the borough to vote against the plan. Marte, who ran as a progressive against incumbent Margaret Chin in 2017 and won the seat in 2021 when Chin was term-limited, has not been particularly friendly to development and has been labeled a NIMBY¹. He criticized Chin’s ties to the real estate industry in his 2017 run and sought to oppose several developments in his district.

Marte’s district covers nearly all Lower Manhattan south of Houston Street, including SoHo, TriBeCa, Chinatown, and the Financial District. It is one of the most expensive places to live in the entire city.

Marte is facing a primary this year from Jess Coleman, a member of Community Board 1, who supports City Of Yes and criticized Marte’s opposition immediately after the vote:

“The more I look at this map, the more I can’t believe it,” Coleman said on social media referring to the map above. “Lower Manhattan is one of the country's densest, most vibrant, transit-rich communities. It has also been hit particularly hard by the housing crisis. We should be *leading* the fight for more housing, not opposing it.”

The plan gained the support of Council members Shaun Abreu of Morningside Heights and Carmen de la Rosa of Inwood, both of whom held town halls recently in their districts where they were met with strong public opposition and concern over whether housing built under the plan would indeed be affordable. Northern Manhattan has become a haven for residents priced out of neighborhoods to the south, leading to fear of gentrification and rising rents, and local civic leaders and some residents have expressed concern City Of Yes will only supercharge that.

BRONX

Only two members of the Bronx delegation voted no: Eric Dinowitz (D-Riverdale) and Kristy Marmorato (R-Throggs Neck). Both represent relatively low-density districts. Dinowitz represents Riverdale and Fieldston, largely suburban, wealthy enclaves. Other communities in the district, such as Spuyten Duyvill, Norwood, and Kingsbridge, are pretty dense and are among the fastest-growing parts of the Bronx due to their relatively low cost of housing compared to the rest of the city. Dinowitz had been leaning against the proposal for some time, especially after Bronx Community Board 8 issued a scathing opinion, calling the City of Yes “fatally flawed.” Dinowitz, as of now, faces no primary opposition in June.

Marmorato’s opposition is no surprise. She won her 2023 race against incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velazquez, becoming the first Republican elected in the Bronx in 20 years, primarily due to community opposition to an affordable housing development Velazquez backed. Marmorato’s district is a low-density, often suburban, section of the East Bronx² that includes many private single-family or two-family homes, especially in Throggs Neck, Country Club and Pelham Bay. The district is also nested within the 14th Congressional District, represented by national progressive figure Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York). Locally, there is a lot of opposition to development in the community out of fear that the suburban nature of the neighborhoods will forever change if there is more development. One common refrain among those who oppose more development is the community “doesn’t want to look like the rest of the Bronx.” Read into that what you will. The area is also underserved by public transit – with only the 6 train and several express bus lines connecting it to Manhattan – and is heavily car-centric. Residents in this part of the Bronx are also concerned about the stress an increasing population could have on schools and other infrastructure.

The proposal got key support from Councilman Kevin Riley (D-Co-Op City), whose North Bronx constituency is largely low-density. Riley had been considered a swing vote on the proposal, to which he gave lukewarm praise. He noted his concerns over the type of housing the plan permitted and whether it would protect the character of the neighborhoods he represents.

Due to relatively lesser demand, most of the Bronx does not have the same affordability problem as the other boroughs, so the issue isn’t as salient as elsewhere in the city. Increasing development in the South and West Bronx tends to be more popular than elsewhere because of decades of disinvestment causing vacant lots and run-down housing ripe for growth, so a vote in favor wasn’t considered politically damaging. Concerns about neighborhood character, as Councilman Riley noted, do exist, especially in Mott Haven, where some luxury high-rises have popped up along the Harlem River. However, that didn’t push the others in the Bronx delegation to oppose the plan.

QUEENS

The City Of Yes faced a wall of opposition in the city’s most diverse borough. A politically polarized borough, the 14-member Queens delegation split 7-7 on the plan. The progressive members in the northwest, like Caban and Julie Won of Sunnyside, voted for it. The opposition to the plan came from the borough’s two Republicans – Vickie Paladino of Whitestone and Joann Ariola of Howard Beach – and several moderate Democrats.

The most notable opponent, Councilman Robert Holden (D-Middle Village), represents what has been a staunchly anti-development constituency for decades. Holden’s district includes Middle Village, Maspeth, and Glendale, largely low-density, working-class neighbors surrounded by more densely populated and growing communities like Elmhurst, Rego Park, Forest Hills, and Ridgewood. It is in Holden’s district where the notorious anti-development blog Queens Crap originates. The blog, which dates back to the Mike Bloomberg era, was launched to organize opposition to and report on the “overdevelopment” or “tweeding” of Queens – specifically, the demolition of low-density housing to build larger, more dense “out of character” housing.

One primary reason for the rabid opposition was the belief development led to an influx of Asian and Hispanic residents into the predominantly white working-class communities, leading to a lot of resentment. However, the influx also led to several legitimate concerns, including school overcrowding. Community Education District 24, which includes nearly all of Holden’s council district, has been the most overcrowded in the city for decades. Though the city has invested in building new schools and expanding existing ones, keeping up with the growing population has not been easy. A proliferation of homeless shelters in the district in the early 2010s sparked further resentment, which led to Holden’s election in 2017. He defeated incumbent Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley³ that year. Before his win, he was one of the most influential civic leaders in the borough and regularly spoke out against overdevelopment concerns.

Nearly every member of the Queens delegation from Eastern Queens voted against the City Of Yes. Two members who were thought to be undecided, Council members Lynn Schulman (D-Forest Hills) and Sandra Ung (D-Flushing). both represent districts that already have very dense housing stock. However, they are also home to more suburban-feeling communities⁴, similar to those in Holden’s district, where residents increasingly feel infringed upon by the dense housing nearby. Council members Jim Gennaro (D-Jamaica Estates) and Linda Lee (D-Oakland Gardens) were also “no” votes. Their primarily suburban constituencies saw a significant shift to the GOP in recent elections.

City Of Yes succeeded in part due to the support of two members from the largely upper-middle-class black communities in Southeast Queens: Nantasha Williams (D-Cambria Heights) and Selvena Brooks-Powers (D-Far Rockaway). While both represent largely low-density suburban communities, they are part of a political community that includes Speaker Adrienne Adams and are considered safe from any primary challenge as long as they have the backing of the Queens Democratic machine led by U.S. Rep. Greg Meeks (D-New York), the area’s representative in Congress. This part of Queens being a transit desert and these members are likely ones whose support was clinched by the alterations to the bill that added back parking minimums.

The parking mandate compromise map shows that mandates would be eliminated in red Zone 1, decreased in Zone 2 and left alone in Zone 3.

BROOKLYN

If you took a map of Brooklyn and drew a line through the borough from Southwest to Northeast, it would come close to representing how the borough’s delegation voted on City Of Yes. Brooklyn is possibly the borough most affected by the housing crisis. While Manhattan has been a pricey place to live for decades, Brooklyn has become the epicenter of the unaffordability crisis only recently, with gentrification changing the character of many formerly working-class and middle-class neighborhoods like Greenpoint, East Williamsburg, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens.

The Brooklyn delegation can be divided into three groups: Those who represent the aforenoted gentrified neighborhoods, where there is low housing inventory and high rents that price out most prospective residents; currently gentrifying neighborhoods or those at risk of gentrification; and conservative Brooklyn. The delegation from the first bloc, which includes Restler, Osse, Aviles, Crystal Hudson of Fort Greene, Rita Joseph of Crown Heights, and Shanana Hanif of Park Slope, all voted yes.

Conservatives like Brooklyn’s sole Republican, Inna Vernikov of Sheepshead Bay, and two conservative Democrats, Kalman Yeger of Borough Park and Susan Zhuang of Bensonhurt, voted against the proposal. The more notable opposition came from black council members from largely poor to working-class Eastern Brooklyn communities. Councilman Chris Banks of East New York made parking a central reason for his opposition. Despite the plan giving in on some concerns about parking mandates, Banks said his constituents’ primary concern is still how more development would affect parking. Banks represents a district, mostly in Zone 2, with much denser housing and greater access to public transit than his Queens colleagues. Still, many drive and live in attached single-family or multi-family homes with no driveways and rely on street parking. The parking mandates concern residents who worry that denser development with no parking would clog up existing street parking on which they depend.

Other East Brooklyn members who voted no, including Mercedes Narcisse of Canarsie and Farah Louis of Flatbush, echoed this. Louis and Councilwoman Darlene Mealy (D-Bedford-Stuyvesant) voted “no.” Their constituencies are currently ground zero for gentrification. Many proposed developments that would get support under City Of Yes would be in their districts. Residents in these areas fear being pushed out, and their neighborhoods changing like other adjacent Brooklyn communities have recently.

Interestingly, two progressive Council members representing similar constituencies, Jennifer Guiterrez of Bushwick and Sandy Nurse of Cypress Hills, supported the plan. Both communities are currently hotbeds of development, and the growing demand for housing has led to skyrocketing rents in these once-affordable areas. A key factor is that their constituencies are located along the L and J/Z subway lines, which connect to the notoriously pricey and gentrified riverfront neighborhood of Williamsburg, and residents priced out there are moving to these areas to remain close to those key transit lines, increasing demand for housing more than in other East Brooklyn neighborhoods. The proposal would greatly benefit their districts in dire need of more housing.

A notable affirmative vote came from Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Bay Ridge), who has won several competitive races, represented a fairly conservative area with a lot of low-density housing, and is running for City Comptroller this year. In addition to Brannan, Councilman Keith Powers (D-Stuyvesant Town)⁵, the Democratic majority leader running for Manhattan Borough President, voted for the plan and enthusiastically supported it in interviews. Their votes suggest there isn’t much concern about the plan’s popularity with the citywide electorate.

STATEN ISLAND

Despite the city’s smallest borough failing to produce much housing in the last few decades, all three members of the Staten Island delegation voted against the plan. They include the two Republicans, Minority Leader Joe Borelli of Annadale and David Carr of Grasmere, and Democrat Kamillah Hanks of Stapleton. The borough does not have the same housing affordability crisis as the other four, partly due to low demand. Still, New Yorkers priced out of other boroughs have begun to look at Staten Island’s North Shore as an option, which makes Hanks’ opposition to the plan notable. She explained that she wasn’t against adding more housing but described the City Of Yes plan as “a hammer” when “a scalpel” was needed.

Carr is on record as saying he believes the plan will not survive a court challenge because he argues it would allow developers to subvert environmental regulations.

NEXT STEPS

Don’t expect shovels to enter the dirt immediately. Once Mayor Adams signs the legislation, the city will have to engage in official rezoning to allow for development to start. While some projects are already in the pipeline pending the legislation’s passage, many projects that would add new homes are not slated to be finished for many years.

That is assuming no legal challenges as Councilman Carr predicts. Several opponents have already vowed to fight it in court, and even if City Of Yes survives these challenges, the courts could hold up any implementation of the law for months, even years.

1. NIMBY stands for “Not In My Backyard” and is often used to describe those who do not support denser housing development. It’s the opposite of YIMBY, which stands for “Yes, In My Backyard”

2. Much of my mother’s family is from this part of the Bronx and it’s probably the part of the city, besides my native Southwest Queens, that I’m most familiar with.

3. Crowley’s cousin, former U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley, was defeated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a year later.

4. Among those communities are my own, Ozone Park

5. New York is a big city but also a “small town.” Councilman Powers and I graduated high school in the same class (St. Francis Prep, Class of 2001) and even shared the same homeroom (Cor 414 in Room W200)