September 18, 2026
Hon. Zohran K. Mamdani
Mayor, City of New York
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Hon. Dina Levy, Commissioner
NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
100 Gold Street
New York, NY 10038
Hon. Sideya Sherman, Director
NYC Department of City Planning
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
Where We Live NYC Fair Housing Growth Strategy Draft Report Feedback via WhereWeLiveNYC2025@hpd.nyc.gov and wherewelivenyc@hpd.nyc.gov
Re: Where We Live NYC Fair Housing Growth Strategy Draft Report
Dear Mayor Mamdani, Commissioner Levy, Director Sherman, and Where We Live NYC Fair Housing Growth Strategy Team:
Although we at the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative — LESPI — are deeply concerned about the city’s lack of affordable housing, we have very serious reservations about the proposals set forth in the “Where We Live NYC” draft report. Our concerns include:
- Gentrification: With 75 percent, or 525,000 units of the housing earmarked to be market-rate, the new construction will be primarily luxury housing. This will lead to further gentrification. Many New Yorkers ask why, with the furious pace of residential development we’ve seen in many areas of the city, and what appears to be a significant loss of population, housing costs continue to escalate. The answer is that this type of new construction, which primarily serves wealthy New Yorkers and out-of-towners, not only floods areas with new expensive apartments, but encourages even owners of existing buildings to raise their rents to be closer to that of their new neighbors. Additionally, much of the newly constructed units are sold as investments or pied-a-terres; in some buildings the apartments are vacant for most of the year, a trend that, with the loss of existing residents, has been hollowing out our communities.
- Overburdened infrastructure: Dropping 700,000 units of new housing into New York City would be tremendously disruptive to neighborhoods and for the city’s infrastructure. With subway and sidewalk overcrowding, gridlocked streets, and other services already strained, there is no adequate plan to ensure that New York would continue to function safely and effectively after this population increase.
- Poor track record of previous upzonings: Despite past administrations’ efforts to upzone, the problem of affordability continues to worsen. Clearly providing give-aways to developers to build what is essentially more luxury housing will not help. The draft report’s target of creating 555 units of deeply affordable housing in the Lower East Side / Chinatown will easily be undermined by gentrification and the loss of existing affordable units.
We need a better plan.
LESPI strongly supports growth, including new construction, providing it is smart growth. This means taking a close look at the needs and capacities of different neighborhoods, as well as the city’s infrastructure, and planning growth around current realities. 700,000 units, with massive construction intended for already densely populated areas like Manhattan’s East Village / Lower East Side / Chinatown, is much more than likely to be a net detriment to the city, with ever increasing gentrification, higher rents, and loss of the special character — the diverse residents, workers and visitors, the mom-and-pop stores, the historic architecture — that makes people want to live, work, and visit here in the first place.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Richard D. Moses
President
