Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
The words of support are helpful to Mayor de Blasio, seen at a recent town hall, because elements of his political base have indicated opposition to the zoning proposals.
The ULURP clock is ticking toward a final vote on Mayor de Blasio’s two citywide zoning proposals, Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) and Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA), and as a hearing Monday about the separate East New York plan revealed, there are still major areas of disagreement between the two sides of City Hall. On Tuesday, the administration–which has capitalized heavily on the support it received earlier from AARP–rolled out statements of support from two civil rights organizations.
In a statement, Arva R. Rice, president and CEO of the New York Urban League, said:
The New York Urban League is dedicated to enabling African Americans and other underserved communities to secure their fundamental civil rights. One of these most basic rights is access to affordable housing. Yet in our great city the options for affordable housing diminish with every passing year. Mayor de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Zoning for Quality and Affordability proposals promise to drive affordable housing development for not just middle-class New Yorkers, but for seniors on fixed-incomes and those lowest-income families struggling to make ends meet each and every month. It is an effort to provide a viable option for affordable living to those who recently moved to the City and for those who have called this great city home for generations. NYUL, and the entire civil rights community, will work with the City to applaud these efforts when appropriate and call for course correction where necessary. Today, we call on the City Council to work with City Hall to pass housing reforms to benefit all New Yorkers.
A short time later, the state conference of the NAACP released the following:
