Mayor’s City of Yes is Really a ‘City of Cake’

Mayor’s City of Yes is Really a ‘City of Cake’


“If Mayor Adams is serious about addressing the affordability crisis, he should direct his city agencies to use planning tools to slow land speculation, tax warehoused property and pied-à-terres, and subsidize housing outside of the profit-making system.”

Mayor’s City of Yes is Really a ‘City of Cake’
Mayor Eric Adams at a rally in April to kick off public review for his City of Yes for Housing Opportunity plan.

Mayor Adams’ “City of Yes” (CoY) plan to add to New York City’s housing supply by loosening zoning restrictions might better be called “City of Cake.” Adams, is, after all, letting his real-estate industry friends have their cake and eat it too.

While some changes in the CoY proposal would offer developers incentives to build more units in exchange for moderate amounts of actual affordable housing, nothing would mandate and subsidize affordability levels or limit speculation and displacement.

CoY would allow developers to bypass the so-called ULURP public review process for zoning changes and build more densely “as-of-right” under certain circumstances. During the previous administration, many communities, particularly communities of color, used ULURP to oppose proposals that fed gentrification and displacement.

ULURP is imperfect, but silencing community voices while loosening zoning regulations clears the way for developers to increase supply only as they see fit and reap more profits, doing nothing to address the affordability crisis. 





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