Village Preservation has published an informtive debriefing on the Soho/Noho/Chinatown upzoning catastrophe. Instructive is the account’s rationale for the frantic, slovenly haste with which the city moved to get this lemon of a proposal over the finish line.
Christopher Marte had won the democratic primary for Margaret Chin’s NYC Council seat back in June. Marte was vociferously opposed to the upzoning scam, and as a Democrat he was a shoo-in to win the general election in November. It was essential to get councilmembers Chin, Johnson, and Rivera, each representing part of the area targeted, on board; had the vote come after Marte replaced Chin in January, in all likelihood the project would have been scuttled.
“The entire process was timed to ensure that Marte would not have a direct say in the outcome,” VP writes.