Press Room

"There has never been a President more deserving of the distinction of having been impeached twice, or less deserving of the office he still occupies until either the Senate acts courageously to convict him or his term expires, than Donald Trump.

"We are not safe with Donald Trump in the Presidency - it was true four years ago, and it is acutely, intensely, urgently true today. He has incited domestic terror - not only through his actions over the course of one day, but over four years. A week ago we saw the consequences of the President's desperate attempts to cling to power and his emboldened supporters' desperate attempts to cling to a system of supremacy where they are empowered- these remain ongoing threats.

"The vote to impeach Donald Trump is one of moral clarity and governing imperative. I am glad that unlike the first House impeachment, today's vote was bipartisan, but the reality is that it should not take four years and an armed insurrection against our Congress to know that Donald Trump has always been an existential danger and unfit threat - yet this party has enabled and championed him for years.  It's true that there have to be accountability and consequences in order to move forward - for the President and for his enablers. But there also has to be admission of culpability from those enablers, and real steps toward contrition if we want to strive for the kind of unity being invoked in recent days.

"Impeachment was a necessity. But it was the beginning, not the end, of the work to combat the forces that led to Trump's rise and empowered his atrocities."

A bill from Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams which would require a racial impact study ahead of potential rezonings is receiving a hearing Monday morning in the New York City Council. The legislation is aimed at combating the displacement and community harm which often accompanies rezonings, particularly in neighborhoods of more color. Watch the hearing here. Intro 1572-A is co-sponsored by Council Member Rafael Salamanca, the Chair of the Committee on Land Use which is conducting today's hearing. The hearing follows several highly controversial rezoning proposals, including the Industry City project, which was recently rejected following community opposition, the Inwood rezoning, which was originally blocked and ultimately allowed by court order, and the Flushing proposal, which was just approved by the City Council despite significant resistance.

"In neighborhoods across the city, we have seen rezonings lead not to stronger community growth, but to rising rents and displacement. Particularly in communities of color, these forces have been unchecked in the name of development, and a failure to recognize the racial impact of these projects has been detrimental," said Public Advocate Williams about the bill. "I thank Chair Salamanca and Churches United for Fair Housing for their long support of this legislation, as well as Speaker for addressing this priority, and I look forward to continuing the work with my colleagues in the City Council and advocacy organizations to pass a bill that meets an urgent need in this moment of crisis, rebuilding, and recovery."

The bill would mandate a report on the racial impact of rezonings of at least four adjacent blocks or 50,000 square feet to be conducted and presented as part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP.) The report must include, but is not limited to, an analysis of demographic, social, economic, and housing conditions and trends as well as identification of potential measures that may address any identified disparities or displacement risk. Those mitigating measures may include certificate of no harassment protections, right to counsel protections, workforce development programs, or other initiatives or policies that would achieve greater racial and ethnic equity.

Rezonings can dramatically accelerate gentrification and displacement, having an outsized negative impact on communities of color. Following the 2005 Williamsburg rezoning, the waterfront area's white population increased by 44 percent, compared to a 2 percent decline citywide, while the area's Latinx population declined by 27 percent, compared to a 10 percent increase citywide.

In a statement prior to testimony from the de Blasio administration and housing advocates, the Public Advocate argued that "Including a racial impact analysis in the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure is long overdue. The way in which land is rezoned in our City has subsequently made it difficult for many New Yorkers to find a home, let alone stay in their homes. The land zoning process, coupled with the use of the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program as it is currently crafted, has led to massive gentrification, exclusion, and displacement across the City."

Read the full statement from the Public Advocate for today's hearing here.

"In 2021, New York remains a divided and inequitable city, with persistent disparities between Black and Latino families and White families," stated Council Member Salamanca. "Much of this persistent inequity is due to the legacy of decades of explicitly discriminatory housing and land use practices from redlining, to urban renewal, to exclusionary covenants. Requiring analysis of potential disparities from the very beginning of a proposal, Intro 1572-A begins to institutionalize the goal of racial equity in our land use decision making process by providing stakeholders the needed information to push for more equitable outcomes. I thank Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for his leadership on this issue, and look forward to working with the Public Advocate, the Council and the administration to make this bill a reality."

"Time after time communities of color have seen lofty promises of equity and affordability, only to be pushed out of their communities because of gentrification and skyrocketing housing costs. Actions like the Greenpoint and Williamsburg rezoning in 2005 led to the loss of thousands of black and brown families because land use changes were made without considering the racial impacts. This Racial Impact Study legislation will help address New York City's obvious racial inequities in housing going forward," said Rob Solano, Executive Director of Churches United For Fair Housing.

"There must be justice in land use. Many past rezonings have failed to address the inequality that has plagued our City for decades," said Council Member Ben Kallos. "This racial impact study will shine a light on the problems we need to fix involving rezonings and the displacement they can cause to vulnerable communities. Our City continues to be segregated and some past rezonings are at fault for that. Developers who want to build here should have to answer questions on whether they are helping fix segregation or making it worse. Thank you to Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Land Use Chair Rafael Salamanca for focusing on this issue."

"We commend the Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Council Member Salamanca for pushing this legislation forward. By analyzing the racial impacts of proposed land use actions, the City will be better positioned to increase housing opportunities across New York City and ensure that BIPOC people and businesses can remain in their communities, even in the face of neighborhood change. We look forward to working with the RIS Coalition, the Public Advocate, and the City Council to further strengthen the legislation as it moves forward," said Barika X. Williams, Executive Director of the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development.

"Rezonings have been a primary source of displacement and homelessness in New York City, impacting New Yorkers of color at a disparate rate," said Adriene Holder, Attorney-in-Charge of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society. "This is a racial justice issue. At the very least, the City's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure must take into account the racial impact behind any potential rezoning. This will help ensure that some of our most vulnerable neighbors will remain in their homes, defended against the forces of gentrification that rezonzings usually accelerate. The Legal Aid Society applauds Public Advocate Williams for introducing this legislation, and we urge the City Council to advance this matter at once."

"As the Governor said today, the state of the state is one of crisis - of compounding crises. The federal government, as the Governor repeated again and again, has failed New York amid the pandemic - but to imply that the federal government bears total responsibility for New York's problems is both inaccurate and damaging, as it will also not bear total responsibility for the solutions. A just recovery with forward movement from this moment requires bold progressive policies from all levels of government, and there is a great deal the state can and must accomplish on behalf of New Yorkers. Chief among them must be revenue raising, which the Governor was happy to champion on a federal level but continues to resist in the state he leads.

"Too often, the third-term Governor of New York speaks about issues as if they are new, or at least new to him. The acknowledgement of issues without some admission of culpability is ego at the expense of advancement. Today we heard promises of progress in areas like public safety and marijuana justice, but we have heard similar points in years past without significant progression, and that must change. If the Governor means to follow through on a bold agenda this year, I stand ready to work with him, but I will always stand with New Yorkers in need to hold him accountable and push him to action if he delays or diminishes that agenda. New Yorkers are strong, even in the face of a pandemic that saw our state at its epicenter, but we are also suffering, and the state must act quickly and equitably to provide relief."

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams issued the following statement after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today that there are hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses available which the city has been unable to distribute to the elderly or essential workers as a result of state restrictions and the threat of fines.

"On a day when thousands of New Yorkers tested positive for COVID-19, the city has hundreds of thousands of vaccines going to waste rather than to those in need. Mayor de Blasio should immediately direct NYC Health + Hospitals to distribute these lifesaving doses to the vulnerable populations next in line, regardless of state approval. If Governor Cuomo wants to issue a million-dollar fine to the city that he has already deprived of adequate financial aid, revenue raising, and borrowing authority, then I am ready to stand-in court or not- and defend the decision to protect as many people as possible, as quickly as possible."

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams announced today that he will nominate Cea Weaver, campaign coordinator for the Housing Justice for All coalition and prominent progressive activist, to serve on the City Planning Commission. In a letter to the Speaker Corey Johnson Tuesday, the Public Advocate formally designated Weaver as his nominee, beginning the process of confirming her appointment.

Cea Weaver is a housing organizer, community advocate, and urban planner in New York City. She currently coordinates Housing Justice for All, a statewide coalition of over 100 organizations that represent tenants and homeless New Yorkers in Albany. She coordinated the 2019 campaign to strengthen and expand tenants' rights across the State and in 2020 worked to win an eviction moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has worked in affordable housing policy and planning in NYC for over a decade.

Weaver, who holds a masters degree in Urban Planning from NYU, would be Public Advocate Williams' first appointment to the City Planning Commission (CPC), filling the seat on the 13-member body that also includes an appointment by each Borough President and six by the Mayor, who also appoints the commission's Chair. Her nomination represents a bold progressive choice that has the potential to significantly shape the work of the commission and the future of the City of New York. Commissioners serve for five years, and may serve multiple consecutive terms.

"The City Planning Commission can be an instrument of change and progress, one that helps shape the city in the midst of this crisis and in the long recovery we face," said Public Advocate Williams in announcing the nomination. "Cea Weaver has been an unwavering advocate for equity and justice on behalf of New Yorkers, and has helped to lead movements with real, tangible, transformational impact on the lives of people in our city and state - I have been proud to work with her in many of these fights. Her background, qualifications, commitment to fighting for progress and track record of achieving it make her ideally suited to this position and this moment, and I urge the City Council to quickly confirm her appointment."

The City Planning Commission is responsible for the conduct of planning relating to the orderly growth and development of the City, including adequate and appropriate resources for the housing, business, industry, transportation, distribution, recreation, culture, comfort, convenience, health and welfare of its population. The Commission meets regularly to hold hearings and vote on applications concerning the use, development and improvement of real property subject to City regulation. Weaver would succeed Michelle de la Uz, who was first nominated for the position by now-Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2012.

"The City Planning Commission makes decisions that guide the growth and development of New York City. Those decisions should be based on people, not profits," said Cea Weaver. "It is a public entity and should be driven by and for the public good rather than private interests. Working class and marginalized New Yorkers are facing housing unaffordability and displacement; a public health and economic crisis that has devastated so many while insulating and enriching those at the top; and the existential threat posed by climate change. As the Public Advocate's appointment to the Commission, I will use my voice and my vote to tackle these challenges head on."

Following the nomination, the City Council will hold a hearing and confirmation vote.

"I want to commend the state Legislature for passing a bill that will protect tenants struggling in a public health and economic crisis from eviction, and thank the advocates who have spent months fighting for the true blanket moratorium that New Yorkers across our city and state needed. For renters and owners alike, the lack of security or clarity has been debilitating, and passing this legislation is both morally imperative and economically vital.

"As crucial as this emergency measure is, it may ultimately be only a delay, not a prevention, of a looming mass eviction crisis if we do not continue to adapt and provide aid throughout this crisis and beyond. Now the Governor-- who has been able to circumvent the legislature for months and has recently weakened his own 'moratorium'-- must immediately sign this bill into law and provide security and relief for New Yorkers before their next rent check is due."