Council Member Santosuosso asks about MIH affordability and loss of council power

Thank you, Chair.

And as someone who is...

Thank you, Chair.

And as someone who is also on the list and also frustrated, I nonetheless appreciate the ongoing conversation with your office.

And thank you for acknowledging our efforts around the Bay Ridge Triangle rezoning.

I think one of the reasons I'm frustrated is because, sort of as Councilmember Zhuang was saying,

Relative to the rest of the city, Bay Ridge rents are relatively affordable, which includes a lot of rent-stabilized units.

And so while I still have Euler power, I've approved 400 units on my old block alone.

Both the market rates and the MIH apartments in both of those buildings are more expensive than the average Bay Ridge rent, which includes rent-stabilized units.

And notably as they passed through city planning review I did not see city planning specifically argue for a deeper level of affordability

and so I'm just concerned that if there is now that I can no longer use my power as a council member to negotiate for deeper affordability I'm concerned that that need will not be acknowledged or pushed seriously through

through the city planning review so I guess my question is now that we're losing this power, what will you do to make sure that the...

rents that are coming in are not merely inflationary to existing Bay Ridge residents while it purports to solve an affordability crisis elsewhere.