Chair Marisa Lago at the 163rd CityLaw Breakfast/Image Credit: CityLaw
On Friday, October 4, 2019, New York City Department of City Planning Director, Marisa Lago spoke at the 163rd CityLaw Breakfast at New York Law School. Director Marisa Lago was introduced by Professor Ross Sandler, Director of the Center for New York City Law and Dean Anthony W. Crowell. Director Lago spoke on “Planning for Inclusion: The Whys and Hows.” This Breakfast was sponsored by Davidoff Hutcher and Citron LLP, ConEdison, Greenberg Traurig, and Verizon.
Director Lago’s speech started by discussing her role as Director of City Planning. She then spoke to the many opportunities and challenges that come with job growth and population growth in New York City. Lago then turned to the importance of the census. She stated that it can be very difficult to plan for a city if one does not understand its population. In context of the census she spoke, to the extensive immigrant population distributed throughout the many different neighborhoods of the city.
Director Lago’s speech then turned to some of the more technical parts of development and the zoning resolution. She spoke to “as-of-right” development as the work-horse for the city building, construction and housing. To that, Lago stated that tall, dense buildings are the backbone of new construction. She explained these concepts through anecdotal references to the Midtown East Rezoning and the recent growth of Downtown Brooklyn.
Director Lago then spoke about some of current issues facing the City and the department. She spoke about Coastal Flood Resiliency in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the Department’s storefront vacancy report.
In the question and answer portion of the breakfast, Director Lago addressed fear of gentrification, scarcity of industrial space and the actual affordability of “affordable housing.”
To view the PowerPoint presentation from today’s lecture, click here.
If you cannot view the video replay of the breakfast below, click here. Pictures of the breakfast are in a gallery below the video.
VIDEO:
This Citylaw breakfast should more properly have been held in the Hague as a Crimes Against Humanity Trial based upon charges of ethnic cleansing attributable to City Upzoning policies and resulting neoliberal displacement. How about a symposium on that topic? It would be especially meaningful to those facing displacement since the de Blasio rezonngs started in 2014.