New York Housing Advocates issued an ominous Warning Friday. As proposed, the New Congressional District 10, could prioritize the desires of Brownstone Brooklyn Homeowners over affordable Housing efforts, Advocates said.
In a letter to the Court-appointed Special Master, overseeing the State's chaotic Congressional Redistricting efforts, Open New York, a Pro-Housing group, said Plans for District 10, set to cover Lower Manhattan and parts of North Brooklyn, would create a "NIMBY Super District."
NIMBY, an acronym for the phrase "not in my back yard", is a characterization of Opposition by Residents in their Local area. It carries the Connotation that such Residents are only Opposing the Development, because it is close to them, and that they would Tolerate or Support it if it were in another District.
"The new district strings together many of New York City’s whitest and most affluent 'historic districts,'" writes the Group's, Open New York, Executive Director William Thomas, in a letter to Special Master Jonathan Cervas.
"This is, to use a colloquialism we are fond of, the “NIMBY district,” creating a constituency uniquely situated to serve the interests of wealthier homeowners in neighborhoods where City policy has severely restricted housing growth and there has been a corresponding extreme increase in property values."
Combining Brooklyn Neighborhoods like Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens, overwhelming white, Wealthy Neighborhood, where a disproportionate number of People own their Homes, with increasingly-diverse parts of Lower Manhattan, would stifle Housing Growth efforts, Open New York said.
District 10 would create "a potential political situation in which the interests of [diverse Lower Manhattan communities] is buried underneath the political impetus to serve homeowners in neighborhoods covered by exclusionary zoning," Thomas writes.
Efforts to appease Wealthy Brooklynites could stifle Federal attempts to Challenge Exclusionary Housing, and Land Use Policies, under the Fair Housing Act amid the City's ever-worsening Housing Affordability crisis, the group warned.
"New York needs leaders in Congress committed to building New Yorkers homes – and not elected representatives beholden to a small, but powerful, minority who want to keep New York under glass and block new housing creation," Open New York said in a News release.
A growing group of Liberal Leaders, now including former Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), are starting to throw hats in the ring for the Open District 10 Seat, which doesn't have an Incumbent since, longtime Congressman Jerry Nadler(D) plans to run in the reshaped 12th District, aganst Carol Maloney (D) the Incombent.
De Blasio said he chose to run to address growing Inequity in the wake of the Pandemic, and Senator Brad Hoylman (D-27th District), who's represented Lower Manhattan in the State Senate for years, said the need for Progressive Leadership in Washington catalyzed his bid.
Little has been said, though, about these Leaders' and other could-be-candidates' stances on Housing in the proposed District, which would be home to some of the City's most-contentious Housing Plans.
Cervas' Draft Maps are expected to be Finalized today.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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