Choices of Which Neighborhoods to Rezone Questioned in New York City

Controversy over New York's recent series of rezonings flared up in the New York City Council earlier this month, reports Joe Anuta.

"City Council members criticized the de Blasio administration last week for concentrating neighborhood rezonings in low-income, minority neighborhoods—yet the council itself is fueling the trend," according to Anuta.

Anuta explains that the city of New York is underway in a plan to rezone 15 areas of the city. "So far, the administration has completed the task in Brooklyn’s East New York, Far Rockaway in Queens and East Harlem." City Planning Director Marisa Lago told the council in response to their complaints that the rezonings have so far been targeted in neighborhoods "with amenable council members and neighborhoods."

"Absent community interest, it would be an exercise in futility," Lago is quoted in the article as saying.

Anuta references completed rezoning projects in Brooklyn’s East New York, Far Rockaway in Queens and East Harlem, as well as a soon-to-be-approved rezoning on the Jerome Avenue corridor in the Bronx. Two forthcoming rezoning projects will target Long Island City and Gowanus in Brooklyn.