NYC NOW - May 9, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s contentious proposal to build 800,000 homes across the state was left on the cutting room floor last week after the legislature finalized a new state budget. WNYC’s Sean Carlson talks with attorney Craig Gurian about housing in the suburbs and the city, and the barriers that stand in the way of increasing the housing stock. Plus, WNYC continues its garden-hop! We meet some of the volunteers committed to making sure urban agriculture remains a part of New York City’s future.

Good evening and welcome to NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre for WNYC. New York Governor Kathy Hokel's proposal to build 800,000 homes across the state was left on the cutting room floor last week after the legislature finalized a new state budget. It had been Hokel's big idea to address a housing shortage. But the death of the plan came as no surprise to Attorney Craig Gureen. His legal group won a court settlement 14 years ago that compelled towns in Westchester County to build hundreds of homes for low-income residents, and it met resistance at nearly every turn.

WNYC's Sean Carlson talked with Gurian about housing in the suburbs and the city and the barriers that stand in the way of increasing the housing stock. That conversation after the break. You've said that this fight isn't really your typical partisan squabble, that it actually reflects a lack of will by both parties to take on residential housing segregation. What do you mean by that? Well, it's certainly the Republicans brand to be active in maintaining exclusionary zoning that keeps segregation in place. But I didn't hear Democrats in the legislature speaking up very much at all to say that we really do need to break down these barriers. Now, race was an issue in the Westchester litigation that you played a part in. You convinced a federal judge that not enough was being done.

in the suburban towns to further fair housing opportunity. Are the issues any different here in this situation? I think they're very similar. The Westchester case was one example. There are many examples over decades and decades that there is tremendous resistance to affordable housing construction, especially affordable housing construction that has desegregation potential. And there are lots of suburban officials.

who say we like our residential segregation just the way we have it. Thank you very much. Now, Governor Hokel fell short with this plan, but you've said her housing plan represented some of the biggest moves on housing in years. What would you say the governor got right in the plan? Well, it really was the first time in 50 years in New York State where there was a very basic statement that you need to have some level of building everywhere. and you need mandates that the pretty pleased method doesn't work. So it was really a change from the retrograde status quo that we've had both in New York City and in New York State as a whole. A leading Senate Democrat says that what is needed is more incentives for communities that may not want to build this housing voluntarily.

What do you make of that incentivizing towns to build more? I don't want to get technical, but I think the word that's applicable is delusional. We've had decade after decade of incentives or requests or targets, and they never work. It's not like history started in January 2023. Three, we know that the incentives don't work. There can be funding, which can be usefully supplemental to building in terms of infrastructure that's needed in various localities. But the only way you're going to get building is if everybody is made to build. Of course, this plan did not get through this time.

But no one would deny that we're in the midst of a housing shortage, a housing crisis even, right? I mean, just nobody, anybody can look at rents and see for themselves being what they are these days. Given that we don't have a plan now, where do we go from here? I think really a crucial thing right now is that unless Governor Hockel is looking to be a lame duck for the next three and a half years, she needs to show the legislature that there are meaningful executive actions that she can take that will change the facts on the ground. there is a specific legal doctrine in New York State that allows building, even when a locality opposes, when the state's interest is superior to the localities. And given the crisis, there's no question that the state's interest would be found to be

superior. So I think that Governor Hogle should be using that doctrine. It's called County of Monroe to work with developers, to build a for, housing now where there is the most resistance. That's Attorney Craig Gurion, talking with WNYC's Sean Carlson. Community Gardens play a vital role in every borough in New York City. They provide a space to grow food and strengthen neighborhood ties. All this week, WNYC is garden hopping to meet some of the volunteers

committed to making sure urban agriculture remains a part of the city's future. My name is Nadegh Alexis. We are here at St. Nicholas Miracle Garden in Harlem. I work in this garden with Judy Dazeer. She's the leader and I'm the co-leader. How I got involved in the garden is just loving and caring about nature. I am a master composter and from that education and learning Judy and I was very inspired. to continue from what we have learned pertaining the compost education. Because some people was not collecting food scrap properly, some people were thinking that they were helping the environment,

but it was not helpful. So we found out that it was more needed of educational and also engaging with other people about learning about garden garden and the connection between you and the soil and Mother Earth. I was born in Florida. My grandmother, who is from Haiti, I remember visiting her. She used to have like a whole field of like a lot of different herbs and corns and stuff like that.

So she's to sing to the plant. She used to do all these different things. I used to look at her like, what are you doing? to, you know, like to the plants. I never took it serious or anything like that. And now through my adult years, I see the importance of eating good nutritionist food. So this stayed with me in my life.

And when I'm coming here in gardening, it's also putting a homage to her celebrating her because I was like, yeah, you know, So Grandma, thank you so much. You teach me. I learned and I got this from you. Nadaj Alexis is co-leader of the St. Nicholas Miracle Garden in Harlem. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC.

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