District 11 City Council candidate, Mino Lora, has been facing pressure in recent weeks to explain her alleged support of a controversial, $200 million re-zoning plan, announced in 2018, for the Northern Manhattan district of Inwood, where the candidate’s nonprofit, the People’s Theater Project (PTP) is located. Lora faced criticism from detractors from a number of different perspectives, and has addressed each of them. We will attempt to break them down one by one.

 

Firstly, local Inwood housing activists had objected to the housing component of the plan, concerned they would eventually be “rezoned” or displaced from their neighborhoods as a result of rising housing and rental costs. Because of this, some Northwest Bronx voters had also raised concerns that the same thing might happen to them if they elected Lora to District 11.

 

The Inwood housing activists went as far as challenging the rezoning plan at the New York Court of Appeals last year. Though a lower court initially supported the group’s arguments, Real Estate Weekly reported that on Nov. 23, 2020, the higher appeals court ruled that, finally, it would not hear a case from Inwood Legal Action, the housing group which opposed the plan on the  grounds that it entrenches racism and “privileges the priorities of developers.”

 

Despite the ruling, some housing activists remain dissatisfied with the final plan, which was negotiated by Manhattan District 10 Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez. The councilman had sought input over three years from community residents and stakeholders representing different interests, from small businesses to housing, and from culture to health and education. Lora was among those who liaised with the wider community to gather and provide feedback to Rodriguez on the community’s needs from a cultural perspective.

 

According to the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), in terms of housing, the plan included the creation of an estimated 1,600 affordable homes on different public sites and, through the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program, the expansion of Inwood’s affordable housing stock, preserving 2,500 affordable homes in Inwood and Washington Heights through new resources with the aim of preventing displacement, and keeping apartment buildings affordable.

In a NY Daily News May 3 op-ed by Esteban Girón of the Tenants Political Action Committee, and Tiffany Ann Khan, an affiliate of Met Council on Housing, they wrote that the MIH program has been proven disastrous, writing that the program involves subsidizing private, profit-making developers to create 75 percent luxury housing, and [only] 25 percent “affordable” housing in designated zoning areas. “Even if we accepted the mayor’s dishonest definition of affordability, the City already has a glut of luxury housing, and a desperate shortage of housing regular New Yorkers can afford,” they wrote.

 

On Aug. 2, 2018, Rodriguez held a press conference at City Hall, during which he said he felt the final plan would be accepted by the community after some carve outs had been agreed – specifically the removal from the plan of the so-called “U zone” commercial area from Dyckman Street to 207^th Street.

 

Lora was one of about ten other people standing alongside Rodriguez as he presented the final plan to the media, while simultaneously, housing activists protested outside the building, holding banners which read, “Vote No in Inwood” and “Don’t Zone Us Out,” and chanting, “Rezoning will fail. Northern Manhattan is not for sale.”

 

 

Lora’s campaign told the Norwood News that she and others involved in the project had been invited to attend the press conference but were unaware of the final details of the rezoning plan before it was announced, and neither were they aware of which parts of the plan had been removed before it was agreed.

 

Meanwhile, Rodriguez told those present, “We have negotiated significant investments in affordable housing creation, preservation, tenants’ protection, esteemed education in our schools, and supporting of small businesses.” He said the city council, which was required to vote on the plan, had listened to the community, and had understood their priorities.

 

He then highlighted the plan’s main elements, including the affordable housing component, referenced above. Other wins included $50 million for the George Washington High School campus to offer day and evening City College programs; a commitment to create a “Pic tech school;” a CUNY City College, funded by both the Department of Education and the private sector; and a commitment to build a first-in-the-nation, immigrant, research and performing arts center (IRPAC) to celebrate the artistic contributions made by all immigrants to the area.

 

Other elements of the plan included “millions” dedicated to the area’s parks, and a new pier at the marina in Inwood Park for educational and recreational use, the development of which was to be completed through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

 

Speaking at various times in both English and Spanish, Rodriguez emphasized that both he and his colleagues had made sure to invest in people, education, art and culture, that they had not politicized the negotiation, and that their aim had been to protect, preserve, and create housing.

 

He said they had acted responsibly in terms of the negotiation, protecting small businesses by reducing the extent of the rezoning plan, and that their intent was to elevate the lower and middle classes to allow them to live with dignity. “For the first time in our city, we will decide some type of rent control for small businesses, so in any site, developed with City subsidy, we will establish, at least, a ten-year lease in rent control for small businesses,” Rodriguez said at the time.

 

The councilman then took questions. He was asked by a reporter what was the total amount of money received from the developers for the project. He said they were still going over the documents, and that he would provide the figure later.

 

In the meantime, Norwood News has retrieved what we understand are the latest available documents from the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) which outline various strands of the project’s target timeline and costs, and have attached these as screen shots below.

 

According to the EDC website, some components of the development are currently on hold due to the pandemic but on June 10, 2021, the City announced that financing had “been secured and is moving forward for ‘The Eliza,’ the landmark project that combines the new Inwood branch of The New York Public Library with 100 percent affordable housing in one building.”

 

It is therefore not yet possible to confirm definitively if what was promised in terms of affordable housing in 2018 has been delivered.

During the press conference, Rodriguez was asked what was it that enabled him to commit to the final plan, given the apparent lengthy negotiations. He said reducing the extent of the rezoning had been a big factor in making his decision i.e. the carve out of the commercial U-zone. “This is, to us, too important to the community for those Inwood preservation groups,” he said at the time.

 

The councilman was also asked if the proposed 10-year lease program for small businesses was a pilot program which would be expanded to other City neighborhoods. He said it was a first-time plan, starting in Inwood, and agreed as part of the rezoning.

 

He was then asked if the referenced 1,500 affordable housing units were in addition to what had already been planned for the area, and he said, “No, this is the plan.” Finally, he was asked what he would say to those residents who were concerned that they may be displaced, and if the final plan addressed the concerns of those residents.

 

Rodriguez said, “I believe it does. I believe that the concerns of the residents have been listened to, loud and clear by all of us at the council….we feel that this is a good plan that we’re putting on the table, and we hope that when the residents will listen in more detail, they will be fine.”

 

As he responded to the various questions, Lora appeared to nod in agreement with the councilman’s answers. Norwood News reached out to the Lora campaign for a comment regarding the criticism of the plan’s housing component, and her alleged support of it. Her campaign said that as executive director of PTP, Lora had been charged with leading the arts and culture component of the Inwood plan.

The campaign said that, over three years, Lora had worked with dozens of arts groups and hundreds of community members to gather community input and identify community needs, as other leaders did in the areas of small business, housing, education, health and so on.

 

Her campaign said the plan she and her colleagues presented to Rodriguez was not the same plan he announced at the August 2018 press conference, and that she and her colleagues only learned at the same time as the community that much of their proposals and work had been ignored.

 

As such, Lora said she did not support the final rezoning plan, that she had been shocked to discover its final details, and that the whole experience at the press conference had made it clear to her how important it was to have values-driven, people-first representation at City Hall.

 

“I learned a great deal from what happened in Inwood,” Lora told the Norwood News. “Community involvement is crucial, but it’s not enough. You have to have a council member who fights for and stands with the community – not one that ignores them. My commitment, as councilwoman for District 11, is to my neighbors. The billionaire real estate interests know that, which is why they put their money behind Eric Dinowitz.”

 

Norwood News previously reported on contributions made to the Dinowitz (the incumbent District 11 councilman) campaign, as well as to other candidates in the March 23, District 11 special election by people with links to the real estate industry. Such fundraising is not illegal but noteworthy.

Lora’s campaign said it hadn’t been until after the press conference that she had been able to sit down and understand what had actually been announced that day. The campaign said, “To be clear, there were some folks who were opposed to even trying to make the rezoning benefit the community. There were others who were willing to try to work to make the rezoning the best possible deal for the community. Mino was not the only one in the second group.”

 

Lora’s campaign said that the project’s arts and culture committee had 20 people on it, the health committee had about 15, the housing committee had about 30, including people from the Metropolitan Council on Housing and that, in total, Lora remembers there being about 150 people involved over the course of the negotiations.

 

Aside from the criticism of the housing element of the plan, some Bronxites also started to insinuate on social media that Lora allegedly stood to benefit from the cultural commitments made under the plan, through the creation of the proposed new theater and arts space (IRPAC).

 

Lora addressed this point, telling the Norwood News, “The theater does not exist. If a theater ends up being built, it will be part of a cultural center that will belong to NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs, and not any one person or organization.”

 

The Inwood Rezoning Plan was also brought up during recent District 11 debates, during which some of the candidates also voiced their concerns about Lora’s alleged support for the plan. Norwood News reached out to each of the other candidates to request their latest comments on the topic. [Due to timing constraints, not all candidates were aware of Lora’s explanation regarding her involvement in the rezoning plan, at the time they provided their comments to us.]

Abigail Martin said, “The first job of a council member is to represent the community and to serve the needs of those living there. The local community board, neighborhood activists, and small businesses were all against the rezoning of Inwood in Northern Manhattan. They fought for years against developers and the de Blasio administration to stop this plan.”

 

She added, “I was aware that Ms. Lora has long been an activist in Northern Manhattan. It was disappointing to recently come across pictures of her standing at a City Hall press conference in support of the Inwood rezoning, and to learn about her efforts to help push this plan through.”

 

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Dinowitz said, “Eric has run, and will continue to run a positive campaign focused on the issues we need to recover here in the North Bronx, and we have no comment on Mino’s pro-development stances in Washington Heights.”

 

Dan Padernacht said it didn’t seem credible to him that somebody who says they were opposed to the rezoning was on stage for the press conference announcing the rezoning, and the 150 people who also provided input to the rezoning were not on the stage. “If she were opposed to the rezoning, she probably would have been with the protesters outside City Hall, opposing the rezoning land,” he said. [Lora said she was unaware of the final details of the plan until they were announced on the day at City Hall.]

 

Padernacht added that whether Lora had been in support of the plan or against the plan wasn’t the greater issue for him. It was whether or not she was being truthful with the voters. “As far as rezoning is concerned, I personally voted against the mandatory inclusionary housing plan, and the zoning for quality and affordability plan in 2015, because I knew what effect these zoning changes would have on any rezoning plan,” he said, adding that he was referring to a citywide text amendment to the rules around zoning.

“So, what happened in 2015 is that Bill de Blasio and City Planning put forward changes to the zoning resolution, and those changes were very broad, and they would affect the bulk and density of future construction in New York City,” Padernacht said.

 

He added, “When you change the zoning, when you up-zone an area, these new bulk and density rules would certainly take a toll on a community. In addition, history has shown when you up-zone a community, residential and commercial rents increase. So, if any change in an area zoning is not carefully planned, you can have significant effects upon a community.”

 

Padernacht said that Bronx Community Board 8 had put forward a down-zoning plan several years ago to the Department of City Planning, which was rejected. “We actually sought to downzone the area around Dash Place and City Planning wouldn’t even look at our plan,” he said. “As a candidate, I would not approve any up-zoning until I saw changes within the zoning resolution or careful planning on the local level implemented in any up-zoning plan.”

 

We did not receive an immediate response from Carlton Berkley on the topic. Meanwhile, Marcos Sierra said, “It is completely disingenuous for someone who runs a campaign on a platform [of] progressive values, which includes housing, to support and applaud a rezoning that would displace thousands of Hispanic families that had been there for generations. Ms. Lora (Mrs. Braswell) sold out the residents of Inwood for an Arts and Theater space, and $500k in funding from the prime sponsor of this rezoning, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez.”

 

He added, “The residents of Council District 11 deserve a representative that is going to fight for their values and interests, not someone that is going to sell them out to developers.” Norwood News, once again, asked the Lora campaign for a comment on Sierra’s allegations regarding funding. Her campaign said that PTP, like many nonprofits serving City residents, received funding from the City for services it provided to children and other residents, and that the funds allocated by Rodriguez were for free, after-school programs and programs that serve new immigrants.

 

The campaign said the funding started in 2012 and that there was “absolutely no basis” for claiming any connection between the Council funding and Lora’s participation in the rezoning effort. They said, since the rezoning, Rodriguez has, in fact, cut the funding for PTP by almost two-thirds.

Lora’s campaign said, “Instead of discussing his policy differences with Mino Lora, Marcos Sierra is fabricating attacks that have no basis and for which he has no proof. He claims to be opposed to nepotism and the established machine, but by attacking Mino, all he is doing is helping Eric Dinowitz.”

 

The campaign went on to say that the accusations also demonstrated a lack of understanding of what a City Council member does, and that allocating discretionary funds, administered by the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is a big part of the job.

 

The campaign provided a financial breakdown of PTP funding received from the City’s fiscal year budget 2012 through 2021, saying PTP received $751,525 in discretionary and initiative funding from the City, of which $438,325 was allocated by Rodriguez. They said PTP also received other city contracts from the Department of Cultural Affairs (competitive grants) and the Department of Education (contracted services).

 

Lora’s campaign team said, in a typical year, City discretionary and initiative funding represents just 15 percent of PTP’s total funding, and that most of PTP’s funding comes from private sources. They said during the referenced 10 years, funding from Rodriguez amounted to just 9 percent of total PTP funding.

 

Lora’s campaign also said that since the Inwood rezoning was announced, Rodriguez has cut his discretionary City funding to PTP by 60 percent. The current $30,000 in the latest budget for FY 2021 is less than 3 percent of PTP’s total funding. They added that more than 70 percent of their funding came from City government sources other than from Rodriguez.

 

They also highlighted that PTP’s programs comprise free programs for new immigrants to support their learning English, as well as other classes for local tenants, senior residents and children, and that because PTP works closely with the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Affairs, that allows it to offer the programs for free.

In the context of another apparent argument by detractors that additional affordable housing in Inwood may have suffered as a result of the commitment to the arts space (IRPAC), Norwood News reached out to the New York City Department of Housing, Preservation & Development (HPD) to ask if there were not set rezoning rules dictating the percentage of rezoned land that had to be allocated to housing, hospitals, schools, the arts, etc. in any rezoning plan, and whether it was even accurate to suggest that Inwood residents had lost out on more affordable housing in exchange for the referenced Arts & Culture space (IRPAC).

 

We were referred to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC). While the agency did not immediately respond to our question regarding set percentages for rezoned land, an agency official did inform us that under the Inwood Plan, there was a commitment to building the referenced Immigrant Research & Performing Arts Center (IRPAC) as a flexible performing arts space which was to include a theater, rehearsal space, and classrooms, etc. The official said further details of this can be accessed here.

 

The EDC official further confirmed said the IRPAC had not been agreed at the expense of more affordable housing under the Inwood Rezoning Plan. EDC also confirmed that the IRPAC/theatre does not currently exist because the agency is still in the process of selecting a nonprofit to design and run it, through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

 

The deadline for nonprofits to apply to the RFP was Dec. 19, 2019. Norwood News asked for a list of RFP applicants, and was informed that this could not be disclosed at this time, as the agency was in the process of putting together its short-list.

 

Having responded to all the allegations, in conclusion, Lora said, “It’s telling that all the candidates who claim to be against nepotism and the machine candidate are attacking me, the strongest opponent in the March special election, who has the best chance to beat Eric Dinowitz on June 22,” she said. “That’s just helping Eric.”

 

Norwood News reached out to Rodriguez for comment, We did not receive an immediate response.

 

On June 22, in response to this story, local District 11 resident, Jennifer Fox, who said she lived in Inwood at the time of the rezoning, told the Norwood News, “Given that the People’s Theater Project was a member of EDC’s Inwood Rezoning working group, and that Mino Lora was the only representative of that group, it is implausible that she wasn’t aware of the content of the rezoning, or else, she wasn’t paying close attention to the content of the rezoning that she supported.”

 

Fox added that rezoning is a critical responsibility of being a city council member. “It is extremely concerning that Lora says she wasn’t aware of the content of the rezoning, when there was not only ample news coverage, public protests, public meetings, and social media conversations, but she was also a member of the City’s insider working group,” she said.

 

Norwood News reached out to the Lora campaign for further comment. A spokesperson for the campaign said, “There were two different rezoning plans. There was the plan proposed by the community which Mino worked on. She certainly knew about that plan, and that was what she publicly supported and then, there was the final plan, announced by the councilman at the press conference, which did not include key elements from the community plan.”

 

The campaign added, “Rodriguez did not inform the community representatives of the changes before the press conference, and it was not clear until they had a chance to discuss it after the press conference. As we said before, it is accurate that some people were opposed to any rezoning. Mino tried to ensure that any rezoning was as good as possible for the community. Sadly, those efforts were in vain because of the actions of Councilman Rodriguez.”

 

Norwood News has reached out to Rodriguez for comment, We did not receive an immediate response.