Fran Reilly
Tom Angotti, Vicki Been, and Moses Gates debate at Rezone Or Leave It Alone, A City Limits debate
On May, City Limits hosted a panel debate between former housing commissioner Vicki Been, Regional Plan Association’s Moses Gates and Hunter professor Tom Angotti on rezoning, community planning and the affordability crisis. Over the course of 80 minutes they discussed a key question: can rezonings be used effectively, and democratically, to address city problems—or do they sometimes create more problems than they solve?
Full video of the event is here, and a complete write-up is here. Below are a few rough cuts of key exchanges.
Clip 1: Gates argues that the city should reevaluate—and make publicly transparent—its criteria for evaluating what makes an area suitable for redevelopment.
Clip 2: Been talks about how rezoning neighborhoods were picked (and Angotti responds)
Clip 3: Angotti and Been discuss the city’s planning process
Clip 4: Gates and Been discuss whether high-income, largely White communities might have figured into the de Blasio administration’s rezoning agenda.
