No. It depends on how aggressively the mayor uses these new powers.

The Council's main talking point is that if the proposals pass, NYC might be flooded with new housing. Sadly, that's not true. There's not one move that solves the housing crisis -- many more will have to follow. But the council's resort to NIMBYism shows why the charter changes are needed.

One can only evaluate that retrospectively. For QH, little got built in the first ten years. We had to keep tweaking it until it worked. Certainly, similar in ambition.

If anybody wants to interview me, I'm happy to go community district by community district and discuss where the QH buildings are. I've certainly disputed the assertion that City of Yes is the biggest change to residential zoning since 1961. QH was quite significant.

I was there in City Hall in 1987 when the QH exclusion areas got negotiated. Those areas, which are long gone as a result of subsequent zoning changes, were not impactful as to the ultimate success of QH, which didn't happen until the economy got strong in Giuliani's second term.

Expiration of Section 421b tax exemption program.

The next mayor needs to make Mandatory Inclusionary Housing economically workable, or provide a predicable waiver where it is not. Furthermore, low-density areas need to get the bus upgrades and business services they need to support a growing population.

The amendments are pro-housing and NYC will be better off if they pass in a November referendum. However, I'm critical of NYC's practice of deterring investment in new apartment houses in medium- and high-density areas near transit while encouraging growth in low-density areas with high auto use.

The adjustments are usually positive when there's a net gain in private employment over the calendar year, negative when there's a net loss. So depending on what happens in the second half of the year, these numbers may be superseded by a net gain in private jobs.

The CES numbers will be adjusted in March 2026, a process known as "rebenchmarking." That adjusts the sample weights based on actual payrolls, which become available with a time lag.

The article is reporting on NYC OMB's publication of seasonally adjusted Current Employment Survey (CES) data for Jan. - June 2025, which shows no net gain in private payroll employment -- not that no one was hired.

To succeed, it needs comprehensive reorganization of rail operating entities, labor's cooperation and agreement by the Federal and state governments on who will pay for what. A lot to ask in the current, or perhaps any conceivable future political environment.

www.city-journal.org/article/nort...

Thanks, 38 years as a city planner, you learn something.