Perspectives From Brooklyn 

And Beyond

► Massive Long Island City Rezoning Begins

Last week, City Councilmember Julie Won, urban designers and city agencies laid out their broad plan for the ONE LIC project, a new attempt at redeveloping a large swatch of the Long Island City area. At the kickoff event, locals and stakeholders gave feedback on several aspects of the proposal, including what they want to see in housing and waterfront access. Despite a general hopeful attitude toward the broad and long-term project, some community members say they have been here before and were let down by the results. The ONE LIC initiative, announced in mid-October by Won, takes a large portion of Long Island City and opens it up to community planning and rezoning with the hopes of increasing housing, public spaces, waterfront access, transportation improvements and more. It also aims to address years of inequity that have occurred in what has been one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in New York City in the past decade. Read more.

► How a New York City Councilwoman Lost Her Job For Doing The Right Thing

The surprising defeat of City Councilwoman Marjorie Velázquez in Tuesday’s elections is a loss that hurts all of New York, affecting people who have never visited the 13th District in the northeast Bronx. In a part of the city that usually votes Democratic, a first-time Republican candidate named Kristy Marmorato, an X-ray technician, pulled off the unlikely feat of dispatching an incumbent, winning 53 percent of the vote in a district with a nearly 62 percent Democratic enrollment. The move that doomed Velázquez politically was her vote for last year’s rezoning of Bruckner Boulevard, a measure approved by a vote of the full council that will create a few hundred much-needed apartments in a city that is desperate for housing. Read more.

► Crains Editorial: The City Has A Chance To Correct A Mindset From The 1960s To Create More Housing

In the world of urban planning, it’s not every day that an opportunity comes along to correct an historic mistake. New York can never bring back the original and grand Penn Station, which was allowed to languish before its 1963 demolition—an infamously short-sighted move that played a role in galvanizing a preservation movement that later saved Grand Central. Nor can the city fully reverse the poverty, pollution and property-value destruction unleashed by the 1955 construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway, the first interstate highway in the U.S. that carved up an urban neighborhood. But the city does have an opportunity—and an urgent need—to significantly boost housing production by reversing another relic of an era marked by urban decay and car-centric planning. The administration of Mayor Eric Adams wants to update several restraints on development that date back to the city’s 1961 zoning code, including size limits, height caps and parking mandates that have blocked mixed-use projects across large swaths of the city. Read more.

► Could Thermal Energy Be New York’s Best Shot At Reaching Its Climate Goals?

As wind and solar renewable projects across the state hit hurdles, environmental advocates say investing in an underground network of heat pumps is the Big Apple’s best bet at reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Read more.

►  20% Of US Offices Are Vacant. WeWork’s Bankruptcy Will Make The Problem Worse

America has a glut of empty offices. Now, some offices face losing WeWork, which has more than 600 locations in major cities. WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, throwing the future of the real estate company up in the air. WeWork said it would terminate some of its US leases. WeWork’s bankruptcy will increase financial stress on commercial landlords that have rented large chunks of their office buildings to the co-working company, experts say. Office landlords for years rushed to rent out space to WeWork, viewing flexible office spaces as the future of office life. But these bets have soured, and some property owners have taken on debt to stay afloat. About $270 billion in commercial real estate loans held by banks will come due in 2023, according to Trepp, a commercial real estate data provider. Read more.

► Giants Tommy DeVito Benefitting From Living With His Parents

The question was posed to New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley very clearly. What do you think of your starting quarterback living at home? “Living at home?” Barkley asked quizzically. When informed by ESPN that this week’s starting Giants quarterback, New Jersey native Tommy DeVito, was living at home, Barkley asked with whom. With his parents, of course. “For real?” Barkley said with a chuckle, unaware that DeVito was playing for the Giants while living in his childhood home in Cedar Grove, N.J., nine miles away from the team’s practice facility and stadium. Read more.

► The Best Hope To Rein In Rent Control Is Lurking On The Supreme Court’s Docket

The U.S. Supreme Court keeps putting off deciding whether to take up a challenge to New York’s rent control scheme. Those wishing the U.S. Supreme Court would reverse its longstanding blessing of the constitutionality of rent control were dealt a harsh blow last month, when the justices decided not to take up a major challenge to New York’s extensive rent regulations. Yet hope springs eternal. Currently idling on the Supreme Court’s docket is another petition for a writ of certiorari from New York City landlords. This one, in the case 74 Pinehurst LLC v New York, asks the court to consider the constitutionality of a state law that limits their ability to raise rents, choose their tenants, or even withdraw their apartment from the rental housing market. Read more.