Biden pardons his son Hunter despite previous pledges not to

President-elect Trump taps Kash Patel for FBI director

Suffolk police respond to Lee Zeldin's Shirley home following bomb threat 

NYPD: Bomb threat made against NYC property owned by Howard Lutnick, Trump's nominee for commerce secretary

Ex-US Sen. Bob Menendez seeks new trial, citing prosecutors' recently admitted error

Gov. Murphy orders pay freeze for state agencies due to deficit

newyork

News 12 Staff

KLNPP121B_2024-12-01-11-53-25

Welcome back to this episode of Power and Politics, everyone. I'm Amanda Bossard. New York City is one step closer to seeing transformative changes in the effort to build more housing. The mayor's housing and rezoning overhaul his city of yes plan passed two city council committees last week and now is on its way to a full council vote. In this version of the plan, 80,000 new units of housing as opposed to the original 100,000, the elimination of some but not all parking requirements with new developments and accessory dwelling units or ad us allowed in certain locations, but not across the board here. Now to talk about what's on the way and more is Brooklyn council member, Lincoln wrestler council member. Thanks so much for taking time and being with us on power and politics. Thank you for having me, Amanda. Great to be with you. I'll kick off by asking your thoughts on the version of the plan that passed those two committees and is now headed for that full council vote. I am excited to be voting in support of this proposal next week. Uh Thanks to the extraordinary leadership of speaker Adrian Adams, we are going to not only be building 80,000 new units of housing in every single neighborhood in New York City over the next 15 years, but we're also making historic investments in affordable housing in tenant protections in ho in affordable homeownership opportunities in the infrastructure investments that are needed to meet the demands of growing communities. Uh Thanks to speaker Adams leadership, 5 billion dollars with A B uh is going to be spent over the next five years to make our neighborhoods more affordable for working families. That is a huge victory. Uh So it's not just about adding the supply of 80,000 new units. It's also about ensuring that the housing that we're building for working families. And it's been a long time coming in your district specifically. How do you expect to see this plan play out because different impacts in different locations? So what effects should Brooklynites really anticipate here. The 33rd council district has generated more new housing. We've had more new construction in our district over the last 15 years than any other district in New York City. And the story of development in New York City over the last 15 or so years is that about 10 council members, 10 districts have rep have been responsible for a majority of the new development. And so 40 council members are not doing their part. 80% of neighborhoods in New York City have not been building the housing that is needed. Uh So in, in district 33 we're long accustomed to development. Um, the changes that we're gonna see here are, I think there's two important ones. One, we are lifting parking mandates on every single block of district 33. Uh for new construction, this means that when a 300 something unit, uh housing development goes up, uh We won't be building 200 parking spots in our extremely transit rich area. Instead, there'll be an opportunity to build even more affordable housing or more dynamic uh ground floor commercial use is uh or simply reduce the cost of the development as a whole by eliminating Georgia parking spots so that the housing is that's built is more affordable to all of us. Um That's a huge victory. The other uh uh initiative that's gonna benefit our district is something called the UAP program. And basically, when a tower is already gonna be going up, this initiative allows the developer to build, to expand the building modestly if the new space is fully affordable housing. Uh And so we're gonna get more affordable housing in the new development that goes up in our community. Uh That's a win. Uh That's a win for uh the current and for the future residents of district 33 you mentioned those parking mandates, which was a big talking point in those negotiations to those who might argue that they want more parking. What's your message to them, you know, every neighborhood in New York City is different. Uh in my council district, we have over 20 different subway stations, but there are council districts in, in New York City that have zero subway stations. And so there needs to be different parking policies in different places. Uh in our district. Uh We, I I think want to encourage more people to take the subway to take the bus. Uh We are, I think the most transit rich district outside of uh uh Manhattan. And it's an area where when we build parking spots, people are gonna buy cars. And if we don't build parking spots, some of those people are gonna choose to take the train. In fact, there are many developers in my community who I've spoken with, who are required to build massive parking lots in their buildings and they can't fill them. So it's extremely expensive and partially empty. It doesn't make any sense. It's bad policy. Now, developers can build the parking, they think is needed, they can make a determination that a modest amount of parking may meet the needs of their building or our community as a whole. And that's the amount that should be built. Uh They should be letting the market drive their decision rather than these excessive mandates access to transportation in your district. Making really all the difference there. The 33rd. Also, as you mentioned earlier, one that's seen a lot of development already, but also has other neighborhoods that might be considered more residential if you will. How do you think this plan balances both? Uh We are a diverse and dynamic district and and across every neighborhood in our community, people understand that we have a housing crisis that housing costs way too much. A quarter of tenants in my district pay a majority of their income in rent. But in other, in my, some of my colleagues districts like Purina Sanchez in the West Bronx, a majority of tenants pay a majority of their income in rent. It's totally unsustainable. And if we don't have more housing available and especially more affordable housing available, it's always gonna be impossible for working families to get by uh for middle class, for middle class families to get by. And so we're not only in this plan generating 80,000 additional units of housing across every neighborhood over the next 15 years, we're also making massive investments to protect the affordable housing we have and build new affordable housing that's actually accessible to working people a lot to look forward to starting with that full council vote next week. Council member, Lincoln Ressler, thanks so much for the time and conversation. We appreciate it still to come. Threats made to a number of Donald Trump's cabinet picks here in New York. The latest on the investigation now underway when power and politics returns

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KLNPP121C_2024-12-01-11-59-39

Welcome back to power and politics here on news 12. The Trump Vance transition team says several of president elect Donald Trump's cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted by bomb threats and swatting schemes earlier this week, the NYPD confirming a bomb threat for Howard Lutnick's home on the Upper East Side. He's Trump's comment secretary pick the Suffolk County Police Department confirming Lee Zeldin home was also a target. He's Trump's pick to head the environmental protection agency. Additionally, Congresswoman Elise Stefani's office confirms that her family's Saratoga County home was also targeted all of these instances happening between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Governor Kathy Hole has signed some new laws into effect. The first expands religious protections and classifies the removal or threat of removal of religious clothing as aggravated harassment. Another new law will allow anti violence programs to receive funding from the omnibus school violence Prevention grant program. And finally, Detective Brian Simonson's law will require cell phone providers to disable services on stolen phones. The law is named after the NYPD detective who was shot and killed while responding to a cell phone store robbery. Governor announcing eight appointees to the Suny downstate community advisory board. The board will come up with a fiscally responsible long term plan for the hospital. The Flatbush community has been fighting to keep Suny downstate open in their neighborhood. Back in April, Governor Hole secured the funding to keep it open for another fiscal year house. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries celebrating the rededication of the Shirley a Chisholm State Office building earlier this week and Commemorating the 1/100 anniversary of the birth of the late representative Jeffries who represents some of the same areas that Chisholm once served. Spoke about the impact this building will have not just to honor the Trailblazer but to help better the community, we renamed this state office building after Shirley Chisholm and now have revitalized it as a community resource for decades to come, to have a building named after her that represents all that she was and her legacy um is amazing. Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman born right here in Brooklyn to be elected to the United States Congress. That is all for this week here on power and politics on news. 12. Thanks so much for watching and have a great week.

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