Understanding the New York City Charter Revision Commission Proposals on the November Ballot

SOMEHOW, the “biggest changes in the history of planning in New York City since 1961” (the City of Yes) are already outdated. On his way out of office, Mayor Adams has proposed five changes to the City Charter that are complicated and difficult to understand. A number of civic groups are working on events and statements to explain them to the public. Two of those events are this Wednesday.

CNU NYC is pleased to be a sponsor of Village Preservation’s Virtual Town Hall Wednesday night at 6. Like Village Preservation, we recommend voting “NO” on Ballot Questions 2–4. For more information on the Town Hall, click here.

From Village Preservation: “The deep-pocketed proponents of Mayor Adams’ charter revision ballot questions are spending millions to convince city voters to approve their deceptive power grab, which would harm affordability, democracy, and healthy neighborhoods. Disguised as ‘affordable housing’ measures, these changes would grease the skids for developers; hand unilateral decision-making over to the Mayor; remove procedures for protecting neighborhoods; and limit opportunities for affordability, tenant protections, and anti-displacement measures. These measures would enable many oversized projects that would contain no affordable housing whatsoever, and some wouldn’t even contain housing. Even their definition of ‘affordable’ is out of reach of the vast majority of New Yorkers.”

This Wednesday morning at 8:30–10, NYU’s Furman Center will hold a Fall Policy Breakfast to discuss the Charter Revisions. A variety of panelists—from City Club President Layla Law-Gisiko to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine—will debate the pros and cons as they see them. RSVP here.

Wednesday at 2 PM, Justice Pearlman will hear argument at the New York State Supreme Court for a case challenging ballot measures 2, 3, and 4 filed by Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis and others. The hearing is open to the public: New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, Room 119.

The Friends of the Upper East Side have comments on the Charter Proposals here. “Mayor Adams and pro-deregulation lobbying groups have made it clear: they want to fast-track development, reduce oversight, and bypass community voices,” they say. “The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal last year sought to weaken the public review process—but fortunately, the City Council voted to preserve these safeguards for many new development proposals. If public review is undermined through Charter revisions, it could open the door to large-scale developments that proceed without regard for neighborhood context, environmental impacts, or long-term affordability.”

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