NYC Housing Ballot Measures

The most important thing on the ballot in NYC is the mayoral election. There are also other local offices, including city council positions. For instance, my Republican city councilperson is up for re-election.

We will also have ballot measures. I am not a big fan of ballot measures. They often are technical issues that are best determined by the legislature. Sometimes, the state constitution requires a public vote. So it goes. 

The measures, which have the backing of pro-development advocates and interests, aim to simplify and expedite land use review procedures to streamline new housing development in the community districts with the city’s lowest share of affordable development and for small-scale projects. In both cases, the City Planning Commission — and not the Council — would have final say. 

The third disputed ballot item would create an affordable housing appeals board made up of the mayor, the local borough president, and the Council speaker for projects the Council rejects.

These measures were opposed by the City Council, which seemed to be concerned about its turf. Yes, there is a claim that the text (see link) is not clear enough. I think the general assumption is that the claim is rather pretextual. And, reading the proposed text, it seems clear enough to me.

Housing advocates, meanwhile, celebrated the board’s decision. The pro-housing group Open New York and the political spending committee it formed to raise $3 million to support the changes claimed credit for prompting the Board of Elections to allow the amendments on the ballot by mobilizing members to inundate the board with phone calls and emails.

Here is more arguing that the City Council, particularly single members, are NIMBY-ing things here. I don't claim to know much about this. I generally trust that person's judgment and that of housing advocates overall.

Still, I prefer that such issues be decided by the legislature. The problem here is that there might be a biased bottleneck that blocks good policy. That is a major purpose of ballot measures. It allows the public to step in and act directly.  

Housing is a major issue in this election already. So, perhaps, this is a good time to have this on the ballot. Either way, it's there. Time to decide.