Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

Opinion: Build Housing Where We Need it Most

16 Comments

  • Michael F
    Posted January 3, 2024 at 1:07 pm

    Thank goodness. Rents are out of control in the neighborhood and this is a rare opportunity to build housing that doesn’t displace a single resident AND removes tons of truck traffic from our streets. Thank you Senator Myrie for supporting our community!

  • Jessica Smith
    Posted January 3, 2024 at 10:54 pm

    When you say apartments are “sitting vacant” while claiming we need more housing. How about addressing the ACTUAL issue? How is it my rent can legally be raised 3 years in a row over 25% a month? This is what is casuing displacement, the fact that the government doesn’t care about putting limits on how much property management companies can take advantage of tenant. Also, there will be nothing “affordable” about this housing. Most all of these build affordable housing projects require an over 70k annual income OR the qualification requirements force people to spend 35 to 40% of their income on rent, which in turn just keeps people living in poverty level circumstances.

    I strongly oppose this rezoning, 7 stories? Sure. 13? Utterly ridiculous for the area Senator Myrie.

  • Crest
    Posted January 3, 2024 at 11:00 pm

    The majority of people I know in Windsor Terrace support housing in the neighborhood, what has gotten most of us up in arms is 13-floor towers! Compromise is the only way to get to “yes.” Like the State Senator, I too believe in changes in the size and/or scale of the proposal. The subject lot is large enough to for 8 or less floor structures that would be compatible with other structures in the area (Bishop Boardman, as an example). Windor Terrace is open to affordable housing (I’m open to income-restricted housing too!!!!). But, two 13-floor towers, complimented with two 8-floor and two 6-floor structures on the same lot is a NO for me and many of us. We need, rational, reasonable, and right housing in Windsor Terrace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    .

  • Melissa Olson
    Posted January 4, 2024 at 12:12 am

    It sounds like you are misunderstanding what your constituents are telling you – we are not against development of apartment buildings on Arrow Linen lot….we are against a re-zone allowing a 13-story high building! And you falsely assume that lower-income families want to live in a 13-story highrise as well. There is a perfectly good apartment building going up across the street from Arrow Linen site right now – why can’t Arrow Linen site be sold to a developer who will do the same? What’s more Sen. Myrie, one does have to wonder why your opinion is more in line with large for-profit developers instead of in line with your own constituents?

  • Eric
    Posted January 4, 2024 at 12:22 am

    The proposal for a 13-story building in this neighborhood is insane and completely out of character. As a long-time resident of the street Arrow Linen is on, I don’t get the sense that neighbors oppose redevelopment of the site. They oppose an out-of-proportion “luxury” apartment building that will fundamentally change the character of their neighborhood and potentially raise everyone’s rent…including current low-income tenants. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who lives in this neighborhood is wealthy.

    Furthermore, once this special rezoning is granted, what’s to stop it from spreading to other blocks in this area? Pretty soon it will look like downtown Brooklyn here, in what was once a charming, largely forgotten corner of Park Slope with a great community vibe.

    Senator Myrie is clearly putting the interests of developers before his own constituents. It makes you wonder how someone affiliated with the Democratic, a party that is supposed to look out for the little guy, is so aligned with the interests of greedy developers. So much so, that he would take it upon himself to write an opinion piece in favor of their cash grab. Strange days.

  • Jihan Kim
    Posted January 4, 2024 at 10:24 am

    How do you know developers will keep their word? They haven’t kept their word for generations and politicians have allowed it which is why we have an affordable housing crisis today. No. Just stop the cycle!!!!! Bring back rent-control!!!! Brink back commercial rent-control!!!

  • Roman J
    Posted January 4, 2024 at 12:15 pm

    This is all good generic argument for more housing. The cost of real estate is a function of location, as well as the allowed building size / zoning. Yes build housing, but quadrupling the zoning in this one location is bad urban planning. Corruption is happening when zoning is overridden for profit, for developers and politicians. One can argue that there is no planning in NYC, that it is all money driven, and has always been. This works in Lower Manhattan and Midtown, but here? There is no spectacle transforming the neighborhood. Just another generic condo building offering “affordable” housing (for an incomes a multiple of the national median) as a base of truly unaffordable fat cat pads–people who will have cars. The impact will be real for the neighborhood.
    Look at the development of the Gowanus, crazy new density at elevation 0. This is the short sighted planning that gets done in BK. We will all pay for this debacle for generations as the flooding gets worse each year. True zero vision, just quick $$.
    Changing the zoning for Windsor Terrace from R5B to R6B would add a story to the buildable height of each of the 4000+ houses, creating a democratic increase in density and housing. This would change Windsor Terrace to be more like Park Slope, making the streetscape more like rooms / a better feeling proportion.
    But no big profits for the very few, and no shiny object for some politician to stand in front of…

  • Jack Walsh
    Posted January 4, 2024 at 11:05 pm

    Senator Myrie, It is clear you understand the forces at work with this Spot Rezoning and you have made calculated choice to support it at the expense of your constituents, as it will only benefit the owners of Arrow Linen Supply and the ultimate developer of the site.

    This spot rezoning proposal goes way beyond any previous norms. To be clear, the only purpose of this spot rezoning proposal is to increase the value of the land so Arrow Linen can sell it at a massive profit (instead of a big profit based on what its currently worth), followed by an unknown buyer/developer building 100% market rate housing that simply makes the Windsor Terrace neighborhood LESS affordable, as other comparably-sized apartment rents will also certainly rise as a result. If your aim was true your efforts (and constituents) would be better served by a thoughtful revision of the City’s 2005 citywide contextual rezoning, as opposed to supporting community-killing spot-rezoning cash grabs.

    So far, you may have only “heard the perspectives of a handful of community members.” Did you consider asking your constituents about this issue before writing your OpEd? Did you or your staff attend any of the community meetings on this issue attended by over 400? Please know we want more affordable housing for all, but if this spot rezoning is approved you will hear from many, many more residents of the district who will not forget your betrayal when we return to the ballot box.

  • Sean G
    Posted January 5, 2024 at 11:04 am

    Time and again we’ve seen developers make promises of affordability and then those promises have been broken. I moved from Gowanus to Windsor Terrace and in Gowanus the construction of massive high-rises are over-taxing the social and physical infrastructure of the space, all while doing nothing to mitigate housing issues or reducing costs in the neighborhood. Once again- money in the pockets of developers (who fund politician’s campaigns) and no justice for folks seeking affordable housing.

    When I see highrises coming to Windsor Terrace, my new neighborhood, and the bogus definition of what is “affordable” coming along with it, it’s the same red flag. I want to see truly affordable, low-income housing in the neighborhood but I find it hard to believe we’ll get that with a luxury development.

  • A Constituent
    Posted January 5, 2024 at 8:44 pm

    All the people in comments are the definition of NIMBY – “Oh we support building housing and affordable housing but just not here or not now or not this way or not that way”. Don’t listen to them – we need more housing. Luxury, affordable, big, small, I don’t care. Just build a lot of it. Make those towers 20 stories and upzone the whole borough so we can build a whole lotta places for people to stay and bring rent & prices down. If we continue down this path of a million hoops to jump through, “character of the neighborhood”, no-change-at-any-cost, we’re gonna drive *everyone* out.

    I pledge to vote for any politician that votes to build and reduce barriers to doing that.

    I’d love to see some sort of NYC equivalent to California’s builder remedy. Communities get a target and have to make a plan to hit that target. If they fail to build enough, they lose the right to have a say.

  • Sue-Ann LaCasse
    Posted January 6, 2024 at 2:10 pm

    I am a resident of your district, and I want to let you know my concerns with this opinion piece. I support the building of housing people can afford on the Arrow Linen site that fits the scale of our neighborhood. Approving the construction of a 13 story building would be a contemptuous disregard of the concerns of the neighborhood. Arrow Linen’s proposal only makes a difference to their own profits, and does not solve the city’s housing crisis. I am proud to be one of the 1200 community members you mentioned in your opinion piece who signed the petition opposing the inappropriate size of this project. I’m encouraged to hear you say you’re open to changes in the scale of the proposal – that, and an increase in affordability, are all we have ever asked for. I urge you to listen to the voices of the people who elected you to represent them.

  • Jay G
    Posted January 6, 2024 at 5:19 pm

    Sen. Myrie, I am a resident of your district, and I’m encouraged to hear you say you’re open to changes in the scale of the proposal. If you have been following the community organization around this issue, you’ll see that this – and in increase in affordability – are the only things that folks are asking for. I urge you to listen to the voices of the people who elected you to represent them.
    Did you know that there are 65 rent-controlled apartments on the block where Arrow Linen is located? The owners of these buildings are being contacted by speculators and developers since Arrow Linen’s application was submitted. What happens to those residents – who you represent?
    Did you consider that the vast majority of market-rate apartments that would be built if Arrow Linen’s spot rezoning proposal is approved will increase the area median income? This will reduce the affordability of the few units of mandatory inclusionary housing in this project, whose rents are based on that area median income.
    The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposes a comprehensive approach to rezoning that fits in neighborhoods, and offers to address the city’s housing crisis with “a little more housing in every neighborhood”, rather than a small number of spot rezonings that serve only to enrich landowners and developers.

  • Jay G
    Posted January 6, 2024 at 5:23 pm

    Sen. Myrie, I am a resident of your district, and I’m encouraged to hear you say you’re open to changes in the scale of the proposal. If you have been following the community organization around this issue, you’ll see that this – and an increase in affordability – are the only things that folks are asking for. I urge you to listen to the voices of the people who elected you to represent them.
    Did you know that there are 65 rent-controlled apartments on the block where Arrow Linen is located? The owners of these buildings are being contacted by speculators and developers since Arrow Linen’s application was submitted. What happens to those residents – who you represent?
    Did you consider that the vast majority of market-rate apartments that would be built if Arrow Linen’s spot rezoning proposal is approved will increase the area median income? This will reduce the affordability of the few units of mandatory inclusionary housing in this project, whose rents are based on that area median income.
    The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposes a comprehensive approach to rezoning that fits in neighborhoods, and offers to address the city’s housing crisis with “a little more housing in every neighborhood”, rather than a small number of spot rezonings that serve only to enrich landowners and developers.

  • peter
    Posted January 7, 2024 at 11:37 am

    Not once does this ill-advised opinion piece mention the height of the proposed towers that will dwarf everything else in the neighborhood. This lie by omission undercuts any credibility I might have afforded our disingenuous state senator.

    As a resident of the community, I’m not against building on the site and am not opposed to multiple uses for the site- be it housing for the homeless, assisted living, or truly affordable housing; all fine and valuable uses.

    But I am very much against letting landowners or developers rezone any mid-block lot to their liking. Doesn’t that negate the value of even having zoning laws? It effectively renders the 2005 comprehensive zoning laws useless.

    That is a recipe for disaster and will destroy the character of so many neighborhoods while flooding them with luxury high-rises. If the city needs to rezone comprehensively to address housing needs and our district has to make concessions, that sounds reasonable to me and is very different from issuing developers a blank check under the guise of housing advocacy. If this goes through, there is no turning back- and no forgiveness for the officials who let it happen.

    In the case of Arrow Linen, we have a landowner looking to cash out with a massive windfall just before it severs its ties with the community. How is it even possible to choose their interests over the interests of your constituents who actually live in the community?

    I understand the pressure to build affordable housing and the appeal of anything that looks like a win on paper but it’s critical to discern the difference between true housing advocacy and rapacious developers who cynically co-opt the cause. Our housing challenges need to be addressed by a city-wide rezoning plan, as outlined by the City of Yes initiative. At very least, there needs to be a moratorium on spot rezoning until we understand the impact of the City of Yes proposals.

    Mr. Myrie, do not let your constituents down, do not succumb to the false choices presented by developers with zero ties to our beloved Brooklyn neighborhoods.

  • a small world cup
    Posted January 22, 2024 at 11:41 pm

    Thank you for raising this critical issue, and for advocating for practical solutions. We need more voices like yours in this discussion. Let’s make sure the city council recognizes the urgency and gives the Arrow Linen proposal the green light it deserves!

  • Molson
    Posted January 24, 2024 at 12:17 pm

    The final comment this week on an opinion article from earlier in the month is obviously a plant instead of an actual resident with an opinion, because it links back to this website: https://a-smallworldcup.com/

    Again, it does make one wonder why there are “planted opinions” getting involved in a community issue….. groups with money to be made are concerned I guess!

Leave a comment

0/5

To better help City Limits know and serve our community, please select all that apply: