Speaker Adrienne Adams Delivers Remarks on Mayor Adams’ Ballot Proposals

City Hall, NY - Today, Speaker Adrienne Adams delivered remarks at the New York City Council's press conference ahead of its Stated Meeting to address Mayor Adams' misleading ballot proposals. The Speaker's remarks touched upon the Council's efforts to pass City of Yes and neighborhood rezonings, secure billions of dollars in housing and community investments, and the mayor's blocking of senior housing at Elizabeth Street Garden and FDNY-EMS pay parity. Mayor Adams' ballot proposals are the product of a Charter Revision Commission he initiated to undemocratically block the Council from putting Charter revision proposals before voters for the second consecutive year.

Below are the Speaker's full remarks as prepared for delivery. They can also be viewed here between 0:00-8:38.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I want to begin by setting the record straight regarding this Council's history of housing leadership that has been wildly distorted.

It is this Council over the past three and a half years, that has approved record amounts of housing, while securing billions of dollars in investments for communities that were previously absent from initial proposals sent to us. The work of this Council, representing neighborhoods in the land use process, has made housing more affordable to New Yorkers.

It is this Council that not only approved the biggest zoning reforms to expand housing development last year, but also secured $5 billion dollars for affordable housing, homeownership, tenant protections, and neighborhood investments. We know that people are struggling to afford homes and remaining in their communities, which is why we fought for this critical affordable housing and neighborhood funding that was not in the proposal that came to us from Mayor Adams' administration.

It is this Council that initiated several neighborhood rezonings in partnership with City Planning, some of which have already passed and one that we held a constructive hearing on just yesterday for Downtown Jamaica, Queens.

In the recently approved Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan that can unlock nearly 10,000 new housing units, it was this Council that used its power to negotiate on behalf of the people to save the 34th Street Busway that Mayor Adams' City Hall wanted to kill. That success, cheered by so many, simply does not happen without the public's power granted in the Council's role within the land-use process.

This Council is doing the work, not just talking about it.

As Speaker, I have led this Council to demonstrate housing leadership, and the accomplishments touted by this mayor are because of our steadfast work to champion more housing in New York City.

Our opposition to Mayor Adams' misleading ballot proposals is not a disagreement about creating housing. It is not about the power to block housing. This is not about member deference either. Because this Council's members do not always defer their votes on land use projects to the local member.

How could any of that be, when this Council has approved building more housing than ever before.

To be crystal clear, our opposition is about preserving the public's power to make development better, and housing more affordable, for everyday New Yorkers. Developers do not automatically produce housing that is affordable to New Yorkers without being pushed to do so, and the City often fails to invest in our communities unless pushed to do so by the Council. This is a fact. These ballot proposals remove that power to hold developers and development accountable to the needs of neighborhoods and residents.

The objections we raised with the Board of Elections about the proposals were about misleading language used to describe them on the ballot, and that it hides how they take away this public power. Instead of being clear about transferring votes on land use from elected representatives to appointees of the mayor, the language simply makes broad claims about housing. We called that out as being dishonest with voters, because it is. And that is fundamentally undemocratic.

We urged the Board to reject the proposals' language, not to prevent voters from being able to weigh in on changes to our city's constitution. We urged scrutiny of this submitted language, because there should not be an unchecked ability in our city to put misleading language on the ballot without scrutiny. At this time, there is the ability to do this without any accountability. That is a threat to democracy. That was our issue.

While our city, state, and New Yorkers should want to close this loophole to protect our democracy from misleading proposals that seek to change our local constitution, we will now turn our attention to educating voters now that the ballot has been certified.

Voters will decide, and they should know exactly what they are voting on. If voters believe that their power to fight for housing that is more affordable to them should be removed, and there should be no vote by democratically elected representatives on proposed development, then that is their choice. But the choice should be articulated clearly and honestly for them to make about whether they want to give up this democratic power to already powerful developers and the mayor.

Mayor Adams has consistently demolished democratic norms at a time in our country when authoritarianism is rising at the federal level, with traces right here, locally, because of him.

Nothing about this reality that New Yorkers have been forced to endure should leave us comfortable with handing over more of our power to the mayor with less democratic checks to protect the public interest.

My commitment as Speaker to creating more housing, and shifting the norm to the Council approving housing, is clear. As a Council Member in a previous session, I chaired the first Council Land Use Subcommittee to approve housing at the Elizabeth Street Garden six years ago. It is this mayor who disregarded this years-old approval of housing and blocked the development of affordable homes for seniors. There are countless approved housing developments stuck in the mayoral agency's pipelines because City Hall has undermined the capacity and staffing levels of city agencies.

So, the claim that the greatest obstacle to producing housing in the city is the Council's land use power is completely dishonest. In fact, my mantra on housing since day one has been that we cannot be the Council that says "no" to housing when there are so many people who need a place to live.

No one has a monopoly on caring about housing and affordability.

I am a lifelong New Yorker and I want more housing, because I want this city to be affordable for my children and grandchildren to stay here, just like I want for all New Yorkers and families. I have daughters that have not been able afford to live in our city, one of whom is an EMS worker who struggles due to the lack of pay equity for first responders like herself, who have been denied a fair contract by this mayoral administration.

This Council is constantly fighting to make this city more affordable and to build more housing. Our work today to override the mayor's vetoes that deny fair pay and approve affordable housing today clearly demonstrates our ongoing commitment.

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