Latest news with #CityofYes
Newsweek
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Kathy Hochul Sidesteps Endorsing Zohran Mamdani for NYC Mayor
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul directly avoided saying whether she will back Democratic mayoral primary winner and assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in the upcoming election for New York City mayor. Newsweek reached out to Hochul's office via email Thursday for comment. Why It Matters On Tuesday night, Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, clinched the first-round vote in the New York City mayoral primary race against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani landed the backing of Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and was largely unknown when he announced his intent to run, per the Associated Press (AP). The assemblyman's win could trigger panic buttons for Senators like Chuck Schumer and other Democratic establishment leaders alike, as some pollsters argue that New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Mamdani, could challenge Schumer's Senate seat. What To Know When asked during a news conference Thursday if she will support Mamdani's candidacy and if she will back him, Hochul replied, "You know, the election just completed, I had a chance to call and congratulate him on the Tuesday's primary and look forward to having conversation. "Obviously, there's areas of difference in our positions," Hochul added, "but I also think we need to have those conversations, but in the meantime, I truly am not focused on the politics. We're six months away from inauguration day, and that'll determine who I'm working with for the next four years. And that's important, and what I'm doing, I'm focusing on affordability, and making New York City safe, and making the state safe. So that's my primary objective right now." Hochul was then pressed in a follow-up question on whether she is "skeptical" of Mamdani and the will of New York City Democratic primary voters. "No, I don't see how you could possibly conclude that from what I just said," Hochul fired back. "I said that I'm going to be having conversations, I want to find out you know positions on specific issues, but in the meantime, I'm working closely with Mayor Eric Adams, who is the mayor. Who, we have a lot of work to do to get through you know a crisis right now. We just had a lot of people in our city, you know, under siege with excessive temperatures; we have to keep making sure our subways are safe, building more housing under 'City of Yes,' which we were able to get over the finish line. The governor added, "So as much as there's a lot of people perhaps even in this room, who are very focused on the politics, I don't have the luxury to do that. I focus on governing and delivering for New Yorkers and working with people that are in government today." New York Governor Kathy Hochul can be seen speaking during a hearing with the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at the U.S. Capitol on June 12, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by) New York Governor Kathy Hochul can be seen speaking during a hearing with the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at the U.S. Capitol on June 12, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by) What People Are Saying Hochul on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: "Today, voters made their voices heard, demanding a more affordable, more livable New York City. I hear them loud and clear. @ZohranKMamdani built a formidable grassroots coalition, and I look forward to speaking with him in the days ahead about his ideas on how to ensure a safe, affordable, and livable New York City." Trump on Truth Social on Wednesday: "It's finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor." Trump continued: "We've had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous. He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he's not very smart, he's got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin' Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!" Mamdani on X Wednesday: "In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it's done. My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it. I am honored to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City." What Happens Next The New York City mayoral election will now head to ranked-choice voting, as no candidate received a majority of the vote on Tuesday.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Making NYC affordable: Where the mayoral primary candidates stand on the housing crisis
NEW YORK — New York City is facing intertwined housing and affordability crises, with record rents and historically low apartment vacancy rates. About half of households struggle to pay for the basics while a quarter live in poverty. Within the debate over affordability, finding ways to create more affordable housing has become a major concern for voters. With the Democratic primary for mayor approaching on Tuesday, the Daily News is breaking down some of the key issues for voters and where each candidate stands on them. Here is how the contenders have proposed tackling the housing crisis on social media, in interviews, during debates and as part of their formal policy plans. We have included the top seven candidates who met the fundraising thresholds to qualify for the second debate. Adams has touted her housing record as Speaker, saying she is 'doing the work' with large-scale rezonings like City of Yes, Innovation QNS and the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan. As mayor she pledged to 'use every tool available' to address the housing crisis by cutting red tape and using emergency powers to get affordable housing built. She and the broader City Council also passed an expansion of the CityFHEPS rental assistance program as part of a protracted legal battle with Mayor Eric Adams. She has indicated she supports a rent freeze at least this year for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments. Cuomo has said he would use 'every option available' to develop 500,000 new apartments over a 10-year period. During the first debate, the former HUD secretary vowed to 'blow up' the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development to minimize bureaucracy, a proposal that was warmly received by real estate players but balked at by tenant advocates. Cuomo has not supported a rent freeze for rent-stabilized tenants, dismissing it as a 'politically convenient posture.' Opponents of a freeze have argued that the cost of operating and maintaining buildings would continue to rise while rents remained flat, potentially putting property owners in a precarious financial position. Lander has said he would be 'the best-prepared housing mayor,' citing his years in urban planning and work passing the Gowanus rezoning while on the Council. His lengthy housing plan involves declaring a housing emergency to expedite the development of 500,000 new units of housing over a decade, including on city-owned golf courses. It also calls for coming down harder on 'irresponsible' landlords and increasing funding for NYCHA and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Lander has called for a one-year rent freeze in his capacity as comptroller and expressed an openness to doing so again as mayor. Mamdani has made freezing rents for rent-stabilized tenants a centerpiece of his campaign, saying he would do so for all four years if elected mayor. His housing plan would triple the City's production of affordable housing with the aim of producing 200,000 new homes over ten years. Mamdani would also fast-track 100% affordable projects, double the money being spent to preserve public housing and beef up municipal housing agencies. Mamdani proposes funding many of his ambitious plans by increasing taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers. Myrie has pitched himself as the 'YIMBY' candidate, with a plan to build and preserve one million homes over a decade. It includes revitalizing NYCHA, building more in Midtown, reallocating shelter financing for housing and expanding the Right to Counsel program. Myrie has called for a one-year rent freeze for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments and said he would consider it in the future. Stringer's housing plan — dubbed 'Mitchell-Lama 2.0' — includes developing affordable homes by building on underutilized city-owned lots and reclaiming derelict properties from neglectful landlords. He further hopes to bolster public housing by securing $40 billion for NYCHA improvements. The former hedge fund manager summarized his housing mantra as 'unleash the private sector.' Tilson says he would cut red tape in order to create more affordable housing by streamlining zoning and approval processes, and said the city should be constructing at least 100,000 new units annually. Tilson indicated at the second debate that he does not support a rent freeze for rent-stabilized tenants this year.
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A Former Office Tower Goes Big for Residents
An office building in the Financial District has ditched cubicles and shed most of its original facade, making way for more than 1,000 new rental apartments and splashy amenities. The building at 25 Water Street, now known as SoMA for South Manhattan, previously housed JPMorganChase, the National Enquirer and the New York Daily News. Co-developed by GFP Real Estate and Metro Loft, SoMA is the country's largest residential building to be converted from offices to date, with 1,320 apartments. (Metro Loft and a partner are also converting the old Pfizer headquarters in Midtown, which will surpass SoMA with 1,602 apartments.) Nathan Berman, the founder of Metro Loft, said that converting buildings removes 'the millions of feet of space that are essentially obsolete.' 'They can't compete as office buildings anymore, and we're taking them, sort of, out of the race,' he said. As remote work ramped up during the coronavirus pandemic, many offices in busy areas like Manhattan were left empty, and developers increasingly saw vacant office buildings as opportunities to create housing. Iconic structures like the Flatiron Building are being converted to luxury condos, and the former headquarters of Goldman Sachs on Broad Street began leasing last year. More conversions are likely on the horizon. Last year, the city approved a sweeping housing plan, known as 'City of Yes,' with the goal of creating 80,000 new homes, which has made office-to-residential conversions easier. (SoMA was not a City of Yes project, but, according to a news release, it was the first to use the 467-m housing tax incentive, another initiative from Mayor Eric Adams's office designed to add new homes.) Conversions offer a significant challenge for developers, and with more than 50 units per floor, Mr. Berman compared SoMA to a puzzle. The original brick building resembled an IBM punch card, with windows scattered around the facade. The converted building has more windows and flourishes of the original brick along with a new 10-story addition on top, bringing it to 32 stories. 'It was almost like doing a new building inside an old building,' said John Cetra, the co-founder of CetraRuddy, an architecture and interior design firm. Studio apartments start at $4,000 per month, and three bedrooms start at $10,000. Two four-bedroom units on the higher floors will be released for leasing in the summer, according to the building's publicist. Some studios are spacious with separate home offices, as zoning regulations mean they are not legal bedrooms. Twenty-five percent of the apartments have been set aside as affordable, and the housing lottery is set to close May 5. Compass Development Marketing Group is handling the leasing. With around 100,000 square feet devoted to amenities, there are many perks. Residents can walk downstairs to a vast atrium, where there is a dedicated concierge service. Catch a whiff of something fresh? A scent called 'green bamboo' is pumped into the air. Residents looking to unwind can take advantage of the spa, equipped with a infrared dry sauna, salt room and a relaxation room with chaise longues. Those trying to stay active can grab a pickleball racket or a basketball to play on the courts, or head to the nearly 18,000-square-foot fitness center, which has a Pilates and yoga studio. There are also two pools — one inside and another on the 25th floor — and a social lounge with a two-lane bowling alley, virtual reality room and sports simulator. The first residents moved in February, and for some, like Vivian Ayala, those amenities were a draw. 'Being in New York and living in our tiny boxes, I think it's so important to have such incredible spaces outside of our apartments to be able to really enjoy the city for what it's for — for both social settings and just personal space,' said Ms. Ayala, 40. Newly single, Ms. Ayala wanted a change from Hudson Yards, where she had lived for five years. In SoMA, she signed a lease on a studio apartment with a home office, where she now lives with her Pomeranian, Leo. 'No one's lived here before since it was office space,' she said, 'so I love the idea of just everything — a complete blank slate and a new start.' The interviews below have been lightly edited for length and clarity. How would 'City of Yes' have changed this project? If City of Yes had existed, we would have been able to create more apartments here. A lot more apartments. The old regulations had issues around density. Because of that, we ended up having to produce fewer apartments on some floors as we went up. What made this project particularly complex? The challenge here in doing conversions is that this building is as close to an impossible conversion as you can get. Its floor plate is over 40,000 gross square feet with only two sides of legal light and air. Technically, to lay out this floor plate efficiently is a huge challenge. To overcome these shortcomings and create a product like this was amazing. What's the difference between designing a new building versus converting an old one? In a new building, you wouldn't see 52 different apartments on one floor. It would be much more standardized, so you have less creativity on the exterior, but what you have is an amazing amount of creativity on the interior. And also you've got things like higher ceilings, floor-to-ceiling heights — all of those elements that you just don't see in new construction. Is the Financial District becoming more residential? Absolutely. I think that part of the challenge is that it's named FiDi. When we were naming the building, the reason that we ended up naming it SoMA is because we wanted it to be bigger than just FiDi. It has a very European feel. There's great boutiques, great retail, great services, and I think people who live here have really come to appreciate it.
New York Post
24-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Green-energy madness will turn NYC family homes into firetraps
You've got to be kidding me. A massive lithium-ion battery facility is being quietly pushed into the heart of Middle Village, Queens — right across the street from PS/IS 128, where hundreds of children go to school. And it doesn't stop there: It's also next door to an animal hospital, a day-care center and a children's fun house. This is not a joke. It's a fire hazard disguised as green infrastructure, as part of the City of Yes. And I'm here to say: Not in my neighborhood. Not next door to our kids. Not without a fight. NineDot Energy, the company behind this plan, is eyeing a residential lot smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood — a place where kids ride bikes, families walk their dogs and teachers relax on their lunch break. It's the last place a dangerous industrial-battery facility should ever be allowed. These lithium-ion battery systems, necessary to comply with the impossible clean-energy goals of Albany's 2019 Climate Act, are a disaster waiting to happen. Look no further than Moss Landing, Calif. — where a giant battery facility caught fire this year and burned for five days, releasing toxic smoke and forcing over 1,000 residents to evacuate. A month later, it caught fire again. In 2023 alone, lithium-ion battery fires in New York City killed 18 people and injured 150. And those were from smaller batteries — imagine what a 40-foot container full of high-capacity battery racks could do in the middle of a neighborhood if it explodes. Now imagine that happening across the street from a school with thousands of kids inside. This project is being allowed as-of-right — meaning no public hearing, no environmental review, no input from the community — as part of the City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality, a citywide zoning amendment that I strongly opposed and voted against. And Middle Village isn't alone: Similar giant battery sites and proposals are popping up in residential areas all over the outer boroughs — Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx. The communities most at risk are the ones with the least political clout, and the most working-class families. This is what happens when City Hall passes sweeping legislation without doing its homework — without understanding the consequences. They called it 'green,' wrapped it in nice language, and pushed it through without asking: What happens when we site hazardous battery facilities in the middle of residential communities? Moss Landing knows. This wasn't about climate. It wasn't about helping everyday New Yorkers. It was about helping developers and special interests. The same groups who pushed for this plan — who stood to benefit financially — were the ones who helped write the rules. And too many of my colleagues in the City Council did their bidding, whether as useful idiots or because they were in on it. That's why I've joined a lawsuit with the Common Sense Caucus to strike down the entire City of Yes zoning overhaul — because it's being used to fast-track projects like this one that put people at risk. And we're also exploring a separate legal action specifically targeting the carbon-neutrality piece of the zoning law that makes this battery facility possible. We're demanding accountability. And we're demanding a full stop to the reckless placements of these facilities. Let me be clear: I'm not against clean energy. I support renewable power, responsible planning and real solutions to our climate challenges. But that doesn't mean handing our neighborhoods over to developers and crossing our fingers that nobody gets hurt. We can build a sustainable city without turning schools into blast zones and blocks of family homes into firetraps. I'm calling for the city to place an immediate moratorium on all large-scale lithium-ion battery facilities in residential areas, until real safeguards are in place and real people have a say. That means public hearings, fire-safety reviews, community input and accountability — not just backroom deals and rubber stamps. Middle Village is not a testing ground. Our families will not become the green lobbyists' collateral damage. We've fought too hard to keep this community safe, and I'm not about to let it go up in flames — literally. This is about common sense. And I'll keep fighting until it prevails. City Council Member Robert Holden (D) represents District 30 in Queens.
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Speaker Adrienne Adams raises $128,000 for NYC mayoral bid in 5 days
Speaker Adrienne Adams has raised over $128,000 for her mayoral bid, according to her campaign — but it's not enough to garner her matching funds. Nearly 1,130 donors, including 875 donors in New York City, gave to her campaign in just five days, according to the campaign. The speaker said at a press conference Wednesday that she didn't expect to meet the threshold for the city's 8-to-1 matching program, which requires candidates to reach $250,000 in matchable donations from 1,000 local donors. 'We have been aggressive fundraising for less than a week, so put that together as far as what we're doing on how we're working,' Adams said at a press conference. 'But we do expect to receive matching funds in time.' The next matching funds payout, though, is not until late May — a potential hurdle for her campaign as she vies against candidates who have been fundraising for months and have already qualified for the matching funds. The speaker, once considered an ally to Mayor Adams, launched her campaign against him earlier this month. She entered the race on the heels of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Adams filed paperwork to open a campaign account in late February, but that account couldn't accept donations until March 6, according to Lupe Todd-Media, her campaign spokesperson. The campaign is aiming to employ a 'rose garden strategy' — emphasizing her accomplishments as leader of the City Council — to boost her candidacy, according to a campaign memo shared with the Daily News. 'As Speaker, she will continue to deliver real results while others are stuck campaigning,' the campaign memo reads, listing off her opposition to budget cuts, support for 3-K and CityFHEPS vouchers and work passing 'City of Yes.'
