Public testimony: Laura James (CB6) criticizes lack of notification and Phipps accountability
Laura James, secretary of Community Board 6, reports the board was not informed of the meeting until the day before. She echoes concerns about Phipps's bad practices, noting no consequences despite the mayor's crackdown on bad landlords, and asks what the council will do about Phipps's management practices.
Thank you.
We'll now hear from Laura.
You may begin.
You may be.
Hello.
Hi.
My name is Laura James.
I'm the second chair at Community Board 6.
Thank you for listening to my testimony today.
I want to start by saying we didn't know about this meeting until yesterday because Councilman Feliz did not inform us until yesterday.
So I'm not actually sure how much you guys want to hear from us.
And it's already been said that you can't actually do anything about voting down this proposal.
In any case, I would just echo the sentiments of the people who have already spoken against this project.
The community board has sent many letters about BIPs and their bad practices, and it's just really disappointing that nothing really gets done about it.
You know, there are no consequences, especially when the mayor is apparently cracking down on bad landlords.
BIPs just gets a pass.
In any case, they want to build yet another building.
This is like the 10th one in a, well, the ninth one in a 10 block radius in our district.
They're not taking care of the buildings they already have.
Even their new buildings have problems.
And, you know, we're just asking that you at least hold them accountable as the mayor says he's going to do with bad landlords.
Phipps is obviously a bad landlord.
And besides rewarding them with the ability to build and profit from tripling and quadrupling their housing stock.
What are you guys going to do about their bad practices?
Thank you.
Thank you.