OPINION
Zoning for reality in NYC
New Yorkers, make your voting plan
COURIER LIFE, OCT. 23-29, 2020 29
In my fi rst three columns,
I’ve focused on what the
state and the federal government
can do for our city.
This week I’ll ask not what
can be done for the city but
what the city can do for itself?
While not limited to it, the answers
primarily reside in the
14 articles that comprise the
New York City zoning resolution.
The zoning resolution
is 104 years old, having come
into being in 1916, making it
the fi rst citywide zoning code
in the United States.
When done correctly, zoning
can cultivate uses with
community and citywide benefi
ts, alleviate concerns, and
help solve crises such as our
current housing crisis. Despite
anecdotal accounts of people
in the city seeing more moving
trucks or neighbors speeding
up their already planned
moves, the city’s fl ight — especially
the outer boroughs’ —
has not correlated with a commensurate
drop in rent. While
we haven’t seen a signifi cant
reduction in rent, we’ve seen
a massive spike in unemployment.
Due to that unemployment
spike, as record numbers of
New Yorkers can’t make their
rent, the city is now less affordable
for millions than before
an exodus of the prosperous.
So what am I recommending?
I’ll get into other zoning recommendations
in the future,
such as expanding Industrial
Business Zones, but I’ll stick
with some housing policy for
today.
As Brooklyn Community
Board 6 urged, our city government
should take strong
measures to generate affordable
housing. As CB6 (my day
job) highlighted in a resolution
last week, measures such
as allowing homeowners to
create so-called Accessory
Dwelling Units — small, affordable
apartments in converted
garages, backyards,
and inside private homes —
within the existing context of
communities should be permitted.
The city could also
expand and should renew
funding for The Basement
Apartment Conversions Pilot
Program. It should amend
zoning and building codes to
promote the legalization of
thousands of existing apartments
while making them
safer for renters. Additionally,
laws that currently ban
such apartments within single
family zoned areas should
be rescinded.
On the single-family zoning
front, you may have heard
President Donald Trump
mention it as an argument
for his re-election. On Twitter
and in speeches, he’s been
race-baiting — a.k.a. being
his usual racist self — claiming
that measures to change
single-family zoning, and
reduce segregation, would
bring “who knows into your
communities.”
Well, what I know is that
part of what makes the city
so great is its diversity, and
the more we get to know each
other by living together, the
better. As a rule of thumb,
I don’t think we, as a city,
should be lining up with
Team Trump on anything
— especially not on housing
policy.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of Community
Board 6.
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
OP-ED
BY LAURA WOOD
& JARRET BERG
Amid the ongoing uncertainty
and hardship wrought
by the raging COVID-19 pandemic,
one bright spot where
relief has kept pace with the
public health emergency in
New York is the progress
made reducing longstanding
barriers to voter access, by
modernizing our elections
and improving voter convenience.
Although there are evolving
headwinds to political participation,
New York is providing
voters safe and convenient
options to make their voices
heard at the ballot box. For
those who have not cast a ballot
since the midterm elections
in 2018, there are now “Three
ways to vote in Election 2020.”
Early Voting: Saturday
Oct. 24–Nov. 1.
Thanks to 2019 legislation
that created a reasonable
in-person early voting period,
New York City will now
offer residents an additional
64 hours to vote over nine
days, including two weekends
and evening hours on select
weekdays. The early voting
period runs from Sat. October
24 – Sun. November 1. During
this time City voters may
visit their assigned early voting
location (check at www.
fi ndmypollsite.vote.nyc).
Voting from Home:
Request your ballot
by Oct. 27. As New York’s
COVID infections surged this
past spring, Governor
Cuomo clarifi ed in an Executive
Order that a voter’s unavailability
to appear in
person due to “temporary
illness”—one of the permissible
reasons—includes “the
prevalence and community
spread of COVID-19” illness,
including “the potential
for contraction.” This
summer, lawmakers codifi
ed this understanding,
permitting any New
Yorker to vote from home, but
only if they request a ballot
by the Oct. 27 deadline.
For those considering voting
from home, it’s easier than
ever to do so. Thanks to a new
law, anyone with internet access
can request a mail ballot
online in seconds by completing
a simple online form (at
www. nycabsentee.com). New
Yorkers can also request a ballot
by calling 1-866-VOTE-NYC
(1-866-868-3692).
Various due process safeguards
have also been enacted
to better protect our
voting rights from several technical
pitfalls. Critically, City
voters can now track a ballot
request and will be able to
confi rm that completed ballots
have been timely received by
the Board. Voters who are
skittish about returning a ballot
through the mail or are
short on stamps may drop off
their signed, dated, and sealed
ballot envelope without waiting
in line, via any of the secure
contactless drop boxes that will
be located at the entrance of all
early voting or election day
poll sites, and all City Board
of Elections offi ces. For those
mailing in a completed ballot,
although postage is required,
the USPS agreed on
Friday that it would to deliver
election mail with insuffi -
cient postage, as part of a legal
settlement.
Despite a recent error that
resulted in a large subset
of Brooklyn absentee voters
receiving incorrect oath envelopes,
nobody’s vote will
be counted twice because envelopes
with signatures belonging
to an entirely different
voter must be set aside. The
real concern, however, is a risk
of suppression among those
impacted who might ignore
the remedial (second) mailer if
they believe they’ve already
voted. Stakeholders are attempting
to notify the affected.
Vote on Election Day:
Tuesday Nov. 3, 6 AM–9
PM: New Yorkers are still
welcome to wait for Election
Day, the last opportunity to
vote, when polls will be open
from 6 AM to 9 PM, but now
they have some really decent
alternatives to avoid crowding
at poll sites. But we have to
spread the word so New Yorkers
can make informed voting
plans.
That is why the Mayor’s
Democracy NYC Initiative,
through an informal
consortium of agencies
including the Campaign Finance
Board and voting rights
groups have committed to
educating voters about these
changes through robust outreach
in multiple languages directed
at voters in the communities
hardest hit by COVID-19,
many of which also have historically
lower participation.
Many things about New
York are necessarily different
now, at least for the time being.
But one series of long-overdue
changes that need not sunset
are the many improvements to
voter access.
Laura Wood is the Senior
Advisor and General Counsel
at the Mayor’s DemocracyNYC
Initiative. Jarret Berg
attorney and co-founder of the
non-partisan VoteEarlyNY.
/www.nycabsentee.com
/www.fi
/www.fi
/nycabsentee.com
