On ballots this year, Gotham voters will see five proposals for changes to the City Charter: Four would improve the city, the fifth could worsen it.
New Yorkers should vote “yes” on Proposals 2, 3, 4 and 5, and “no” on Prop No. 6.
Props 2, 3 and 4 could lead to a significant boost in the city’s affordable-housing stock, something Gotham sorely needs.
Prop 5 requires the City Planning Department to create and oversee a single, consolidated digital City Map, bringing it into the 21 century.
Proposal No. 2: Fast Track Affordable Housing to Build More Affordable Housing Across the City. This would create a new system that cuts months off the approval process for publicly financed affordable-housing projects and those in areas where relatively little of it is being developed.
It does that mainly by cutting out the City Council, where political issues and narrow interests can slow or stop development where it’s most needed.
Prop No. 3: Simplify Review of Modest Housing and Infrastructure Projects. This no-brainer speeds up the review process on smaller projects — again, shaving off months — by dropping the need for the City Council’s OK and leaving approvals to community boards and borough presidents, with final say left to the City Planning Commission.
Prop No. 4: Establish an Affordable Housing Appeals Board with Council, Borough, and Citywide Representation. This likewise aims to boost affordable housing by giving new boards — each consisting of the mayor, City Council speaker and relevant borough president — the right to reverse City Council decisions on these projects.
That would end the council’s poisonous practice of letting a single council member, in effect, nix affordable housing (among other projects) in his district. Instead, it puts the interests of the city as a whole first.
Prop No. 5: Create a Digital City Map to Modernize City Operations. It’s insane that the City Map isn’t already online and that local “topographical bureaus” in each borough are managing some 8,000 paper maps.
Proponents are absolutely right that consolidating, centralizing and posting these maps online would broaden and simplify access to them and speed up projects
Prop No. 6: Move Local Elections to Presidential Election Years to Increase Voter Participation. This is the city ballot proposal voters should nix.
Yes, voter participation might grow if local elections are moved; proponents claim this would make it harder for small-but-disciplined outfits like the Democratic Socialists to dominate primaries.
Yet, as we see it, voters would pay far less attention to local races with presidential and congressional campaigns under way: What good is boosting turnout if the average voter is less informed?
Our general rule on all ballot measures is: If you’re not sure, vote “no.” But this year, four of them seem worth supporting.
You can also skip these questions; don’t let any uncertainty on them stop you from making it to the polls.