Council Members Chin and Rivera demonstrate their contempt for New York City by urging the NYC Council’s land-use and zoning committees to approve de Blasio’s catastrophic Soho/Noho/Chinatown upzoning. These two committees fell into line yesterday. The full council vote comes later this month. We know what it will be.
How stupid do Chin and Rivera think New Yorkers are? These two negotiated some niggling, tinkering-around-the-edges improvements to the Soho/Noho proposal, but these modifications in no way mitigate the enormous damage this unprecedently ghastly upzoning will do to the city and the net loss in affordable housing it ensures.
Chin is leaving at the end of this council term, fortunately. Her successor, Christopher Marte, has been outspoken in his opposition to this upzoning. But he is not yet in office.
This is the second time that Rivera has delivered a knock-out land-use punch to her constituents. Back in 2018, she betrayed her campaign pledge not to support upzoning for Union Square South without landmark and tenant protections by pivoting at the last minute to support a proposal that contained no such protections. And Rivera continues to refuse to support historic district designation for this district of amazingly historic heirloom architecture.
Bloomberg and de Blasio’s upzoning debauch has been disastrous for the city. Our city council has shown itself to be putrid with corruption, composed for the most part of real-estate shills who are totally subservient to the mayor.
NYC is doomed unless we do something about the New York City Council.