THE BRONX — Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who has been an outspoken critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio's citywide rezoning changes, said Tuesday that he supported the plans, but is concerned they did not do enough to help low-income New Yorkers.
The plans easily passed the City Council on Tuesday despite initially being met with strong resistance from community boards, civic groups and borough presidents, including Diaz, who had called the proposals "tremendously flawed" in November.
However, Diaz softened his stance after the Council changed the proposals to allow for more affordable housing and more parking in areas that have poor access to public transportation.
"While the housing deal does not go as far to assist the low income community as many of us had hoped, it is an encouraging step in the right direction," Diaz said.
The City Council passed both Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, which would rezone certain neighborhoods and require some new construction to include affordable housing, and Zoning for Quality and Affordability, which would raise building heights and ease parking requirements to make it easier to build senior and affordable housing.
Diaz continued his criticism of the approval process for both proposals, describing it as rushed and expressing hope that the City Council will reach out to community boards to explain the changes they had made to both MIH and ZQA.
"These changes are substantial," he said, "and the people of this city—who have been incredibly critical, if not outright hostile, to MIH and ZQA to this point—should have been given another chance to voice their opinions prior to any vote."
He also expressed concern that not enough had been done to promote diversity within developments, echoing fears by some lawmakers that the proposals would encourage segregation.
"I remain concerned that the minor change at the upper end of the affordability spectrum does nothing to encourage developers to create units that would maintain our professionals and foster socio-economic diversity," Diaz said. "Preventing developers from using already existing subsidies hinders the opportunity for truly mixed-income development in the borough."
