Vote No to City of Yes

Dear Council Members:

(Editor’s Note: The full City Council vote on City of Yes Housing Opportunity is today, Thursday, December 5.)

I am writing today to implore you to vote NO on the City of Yes Proposal! Yes, there is a housing crisis in NYC, but this is NOT the solution! It seems that no one has thought this plan through! There has not been an Environmental Impact Study done! The City of Yes would absolutely destroy residential neighborhoods throughout NYC! There are so many reasons to vote against this proposal. I will state just a few: 1. As a retired Battalion Chief and 26-year veteran of the FDNY, I can guarantee you that fire related fatalities will skyrocket! A. Basement apartments with only one means of egress are illegal for a reason. A fire breaking out between the residents and the single means of escape cuts off that escape route thereby trapping those inside. I have seen this far too many times with catastrophic results. B. Structures built in the rear of residential houses create a multitude of hazards and difficulties for firefighters to do their job quickly and efficiently. Laddering buildings for rescues become extremely difficult if not impossible. Fire apparatus such as aerial and tower (bucket) ladders cannot access rear yards of private residential dwellings. Getting portable ladders to the rear of these dwellings and raising them to windows for rescues becomes time consuming and difficult, if not impossible due to limited space: driveways full of cars, narrow walkways, fences, planters, outdoor showers, bicycles, sheds, etc. Stretching hose lines to the rear of these buildings for fire extinguishment is subject to the same difficulties. Seconds matter in these situations. People will die!

2. I have lived my entire 60 years in the Queens neighborhoods of Belle Harbor, Rockaway Park and Arverne. These are nice, middle class, residential neighborhoods where, as Kamala Harris said, “People take pride in their lawns.” People work hard their whole lives to be able to save money and afford to buy homes in these nice, quiet, safe neighborhoods. The City of Yes would completely destroy these neighborhoods, wasting the labor and sacrifices of people who worked so hard and did the right thing their whole lives to be able to live here: A. These are quiet, residential neighborhoods of one- and two-family homes. Allowing developers to come in, purchase a property and erect a multi-story, multi-family building in the middle of a block with only one- and two-family homes is not fair to the residents of that block. B. There are no requirements for such buildings to add parking for the new residents. The streets of this type of neighborhood cannot provide enough parking for the tenants who already rent apartments plus multiple new families with multiple vehicles. C. As I previously stated, these are RESIDENTIAL neighborhoods where people raise children, sleep at night, get up and go to work and school every day. Allowing businesses with no requirements for business hours or restrictions on the type of businesses on these blocks is unjust to the residents that are there already. The quality of life of these homeowners and tenants, who already pay astronomical mortgages and rents would plummet. People would be on the streets making noise at all hours, taking up already scarce parking spots, potentially purchasing and using alcohol and marijuana, cars would constantly be driving, racing down these streets where children play.
3. It is a known fact that NYC pays landlords more money for Section 8 housing than they can get by renting apartments on the open market. Developers will come in and erect the largest buildings they can fit on a particular lot or purchase multiple adjacent lots for larger structures. Greedy landlords and corporations will purchase these buildings and fill them with Section 8 dependent, otherwise homeless people. Again, the quality of life for the current homeowners and tenants on these blocks will fall into the sewer. Not to mention the losses in property value on homes that people have sunk their life savings into. These new buildings will be filled with drug users, alcoholics, criminals, sex offenders, unvetted migrants and so on. This is not fair, unjust to the people who own and rent on these blocks currently, people who worked hard their whole lives to be able to afford to live on quiet, safe streets.
4. The infrastructure in NYC residential neighborhoods cannot handle the current number of residents, let alone thousands, if not tens of thousands of new residents. Current water and sewer lines, gas lines, the electric grid and internet are not capable of supporting the multitude of new residents that the City of Yes would bring in. The roadways in NYC are a shambles now. They can’t sustain all this potential new traffic. I know the Rockaway peninsula. There are only three ways on and off the peninsula. The traffic now is ridiculous with all the new development going on. The City of Yes would make these streets a 24-hour a day logjam. For the above stated reasons, I implore you; I am begging you to VOTE NO on the City of Yes Proposal! Thank you for your time in reading my letter.

 Very sincerely,

George Johnson