CB9's Meetings. Ongoing coverage and commentary: Feb 4th, 11th, 24th, March 16 and March 24th

So...will cb9 send the request?

Nope.   That was voted down.  

It was decided that the present draft was not good enough, and it was created without enough
input from non-exec board members, and non board members. 

So, either a committee of yet to be determined people will create the perfect Port Huron style request.   (highly unlikely)

Or, said committee will decide that a study should be done by the really left "the land belongs to the people" professor from Hunter.  

Videos of Alicia on her party horn before the NYPD took it:


More horn playing footage courtesy of Tim Thomas: http://theqatparkside.blogspot.com/2015/02/one-year-later-back-to-ulurp-committee.html


And, here is video of Alicia just before the vote was to be taken:

Please note that voting on the draft was already next on the agenda; Demanding that it happen "now" was really the only thing that stopped it from happening now.

Perhaps needless to say, but Alicia does not seem to find the draft unacceptable as a result of its content. Her objections to it seem to be:

1. She believes it was exclusively written by Tim Thomas, whom she perceives is a racist white guy. [Fact check: He did not exclusively write it, he is white]

2. She doesn't want a request to be made.

3. She believes DCP has no right to do a study in her neighborhood, and that if some other entity does a study the city council and Mayor will have to abide by it. [Fact check: completely delusional]

4. She believes that the law allows everyone who wants to be involved in anything to be involved; When she is not involved in something that she wants to be, she believes the law is being broken. [Fact check: The courts will decide whether CB9's level of sloppyness, incompetence, and avoidance of her and others reaches the level that it breaks the law. I am interested in the outcome]

DeBlasio has repeatedly stated that he is going to build or preserve 200,000 units of "affordable" housing over the next 10 years.

It is part of his housing plan: http://www.nyc.gov/html/housing/pages/home/index.shtml

He repeated it again today: http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/132-15/mayor-de-blasio-delivers-testimony-budget-hearing-local-governments-before-joint-fiscal

While he does not (and can not) specify what % of this 200k will be new units, for the sake of argument lets assume it is 50k.

At present, he has been able to force developers benefitting from tax benefits and zoning to make about 30% of their units subsidized.

So, he would need to get developers to construct a total 167,000 units in order to create those 50,000 subsidized units.

The fiscal watchdogs will not let him issue huge numbers of tax credits to create and preserve housing. While popular with developers, the credits are expensive.

[Recent discussion about how Alma has agreed to accepted a tax credit for the Jewish Hospital complex http://www.brooklynian.com/discussion/comment/558549#Comment_558549 ]

As a result, he is going to need to upzone large portions of the city and free up lots of land (such as Sunnyside Yards) to achieve this. Variances can achieve this when required.

To answer your question: I think the Exec Board of CB9 may be defeated in their attempt to give DCP a request. However, DeBlaiso and Adams need stretches like Empire Blvd and can't be thwarted at this stage of the game, because other communities will be empowered to engage in similar tactics.

So, they are going to issue variances to developers along Empire who are willing to include subsidized units.

So practically speaking, what is the future of this rezoning initiative?

@southeast - The Real Deal and Crains published articles today that address DeBlasio's battle:

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20150301/POLITICS/150229852/mayors-chummy-city-council-relations-suddenly-arent

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/03/02/de-blasio-bumps-heads-with-council-allies-over-development-issues/

When Bloomberg was in office, I worked at an agency that developed and operated subsidized housing; I watched his efforts to create subsidized housing and was impressed with how many techniques he successfully used to get it built.

When DeBlasio was running for office, I figured he was just saying things to get elected, but actually understood the fiscal and political constraints that politicians and developers faced.

Politicans using populist rhetoric do not bother me.

Now that he is in office, I no longer think he has a firm understanding of how much power he has or how to use it. He seems to have no strategy to deal with responses that could easily be predicted.

The chair of CB9 has resigned:

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150309/crown-heights/chair-of-crown-heights-community-board-resigns-amid-rezoning-fight

The new chair will be appointed by Eric Adams.

I don't know if this particular board could do that.

If this advanced Alicia's goal of preserving the neighborhood, I would award her a point.

It does not. It merely gets rid of a chair who didn't even know the fundamentals of Roberts Rules of Order.

I kind of like that the NYPD paid little attention to the wishes of the exec committee.

If MTOPP were smart, they would conclude from this that the board has even less power over more powerful forces, such as DeBlasio, DCP and capitalism.

But, they have not.