Like Margaret Chin, Johnson’s City Council tenure ends in disgrace.
When Johnson announced that he would not accept real estate contributions for his since-ended mayoral bid, I made up my mind to support him then and there.
So I am gobsmacked that Speaker Johnson, who is also my district’s council member, has chosen, like Chin and Rivera, to say Fuck You to New York City by not only supporting de Blasio’s sham upzoning but directing the Council staff controlled by him to make it happen.
This is a terrible betrayal.
There is a regrettable precedent at the council wherein the individual council members whose districts are condemned to upzoning can expect the balance of the council to support whatever is their decision.
Therefore this disastrous upzoning–a massive fraud perpetuated on the people of New York– is headed for approval because of three individuals: Chin, Johnson, and Rivera. The proposal’s rejection by numerous politicos and the neighborhoods’ residents meant absolutely nothing.
This is a fateful week for NYC. The Soho/Noho/Chinatown upzonig is a blueprint for the extinction of this city. If New York is to survive, something must be done to wrest exclusive approval for land-use matters from the council.
The sad thing is, Johnson was done many good things and his staff has helped me on several occasions. But I can never vote for him again, should he ever return to politics.
Let’s make this very clear to New Yorkers: Council Members Chin, Johnson, and Rivera are voting for a proposal that they know will result in untold misery for their constituents, who will lose their neighborhoods to monster condos and who will be displaced from their rent-regulated apartments.