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ASKTHEBP62B

Thanks so much for sticking with us here on Ask the Borough President on News 12 Brooklyn with Brooklyn BP Antonio Reynoso right before we went to the commercial break, we were talking about housing specifically here in the city, and I think about the rent hikes that are currently being considered by the rent guidelines board. It seems like these have been coming in almost nonstop waves over the last several years. Now tenants once again being forced with the possibility that their rents could go up. Once again this summer if approved, what are your thoughts on the proposed hikes as they stand right now, which I believe is from 1.75% to now 3.75% for two years leases, and then it's a little bit more if you're in a one year situation. Yeah, look, there was a time during de Blasio's administration where the rent was frozen, I believe twice, and the increases that did happen when they happened only were 1 and 2%. And and it was an effort to recognize the crisis we're in and that we can't afford the rent and we need all the help we can get. There are other levers that can be pulled by the city and the state that could make it more affordable for homeowners. Like there's insurance is skyrocketing through the roof. Any repairs you need to make in a home in a home are skyrocketing through the roof. What are we doing to help that? And and settle that down and make it so that it's less impactful on landlords so that then these increases are not as necessary but if you don't have the you don't have the increase you don't have the repairs you don't have the insurance everyone loses uh but in this one case the the mayor and the rent guidelines board is so deep in the pockets of developers that they had data in front of them. And and decided to have a ridiculously exorbitant increase of like 3.75% to 7% there it was so bad that they had to come back and redo their vote because they did something that not even the data supports the data supports in this case very low increase and no increase and because they're so deep in the pockets of developers they ended up doing this ridiculous. This hike and I think they went back and we shouldn't be celebrating the fact that they went back and revoted it should've never gotten to that point, but it shows that people have a real concern that this rent guidelines board is not looking out for their interest at all and I'm and I'm sad to see it. And in this time a rent freeze should have been what we've done we did. I was just gonna ask, I know certain lawmakers have called for the rent freeze. That's something that you would. This time around, absolutely, and then a lot of people feel like these are pie in the sky ideas they're not. We did it under Bill de Blasio twice. There's no reason why we can't do it again, but uh no one's been better for developers, uh, than Eric Adams in the last 3.5 years. Thank you for your thoughts on that. Let's get to another caller that we have on the line right now. I believe Terry has dialed in to join us this evening. Terry, thanks so much for the call and what's your question tonight? Hi, um, Can you hear me? We got you. Go ahead when you're ready. Yes, I'm just trying to find out MTA accessorri why the service is so bad for us riders that really, really need the service of accessorri. You know, the buses are dirty. The people are not very nice, the drivers. I'm just wondering if MTA is so amped on making the bus system and the train system so wonderful. How about us that we need the access to ride. Is there anything where can we go to get better service? Some of us can't ride the train. Yeah, Terry, thank you for bringing that to our attention because I'm sure a lot of your fellow riders feel the same about their experiences. Your thoughts? There are some changes coming to accessorize. They've improved efficiency significantly and still there, it's a big problem, uh, so I've had conversations and we've talked about legislation that would allow for some of the problem. Private market to come in to be helpful so that if you need a ride the city will pay uh maybe a base uh back in the day I don't know if you guys remember delivery bases used to be phone calls those bases still exist in a lot of these neighborhoods that that need is high and what we can do is subcontract with them and have them give them a schedule. They understand these neighborhoods and know how to move to these this city better than anyone and if, uh, you know, they have 10 rides a day. And it's paying for the days of work and we've expanded the capacity um inside access right it can go a long way and I know there's people doing that work already we should just expand that but we have improved efficiencies we're doing more technology based work as well um so I know it's a, it's a tough one it's a necessity. There are people that can't take the train or the buses and this is the best way through so we gotta do better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. In this one, and again we've already done some efficiencies and I think that there's gonna be some partnerships and contracts that would exist to expand capacity so people don't have to wait a long time and uh services improved. That's exciting news for people like Terry who share that experience so at least conversations are being had. they are they are. I wanna try to get to one more caller before we have to go to break, so we'll turn things over to Elizabeth from East New York. What's your question tonight, Elizabeth? What plans do they have to take the homeless off the trains? Yeah. So, so this is, uh, the train systems, uh, look at, at the end of the day there's a housing crisis problem. The, the, the folks are in the trains because our city and our states have divested from supporting homeless families, and that's the reality of it, uh, and we need to do better. Uh, I tell people all the time there was a time when Bellevue Hospital used to have 200 beds for people with mental health illnesses, and now they only have 19 beds. So where do you think those people are going? They're either gonna be in Rikers Island in. Leave after 2 days and go right back to the streets or they're gonna stay in the subway system moving from train stop to train stop. What we need is, uh, housing first centered care so we can move them into a stable system that allows them to not have to live in public view. I would say this that what we're seeing is, um, uh, is visible poverty and it didn't, it wasn't there during the de Blasio time was a lot less now it's a lot more because of the divestment. From former Governor Cuomo and the current mayor and Eric Adams, they divested and what you see is a lack of opportunity leads to visible poverty. So I would ask people, it's not about enforcement, it's not about arresting them, it's about where are the beds and where is the housing that these people should be living in and getting care for, uh, and we don't do that well here and to that point, I know the mayor had announced plans to send outreach teams into the train specifically to engage with those who are homeless. Uh, have you gotten any update on how that's playing? Yeah, it's it has been working, uh, for the amount of people that they're moving and the amount of people that they're disrupting their lives, the, the folks that get housing is uh is is very little. Uh, we need a a bigger plan with more opportunity and it's just not happening. So people are being deceived. Uh, they'll move them from one train station to the next, but that's just another group that's gonna complain about it, so we got a lot of work to do. Multi-layered issue with a lot of conversation to come and we'll be right back with more conversation here on Ask the borough president right after this. Stay with us.

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ASKTHEBP62C_2025-06-03-09-44-29

Thanks so much for being with us for this edition of Ask the borough president with Brooklyn BP Antonio Reynoso, and I wanna look ahead to a conversation that's gonna be had in the borough this week about the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal. We know there's been a lot of debate about these plans. In fact, the vote was pushed back to June, so now we're in the month of June when this vote is going to be happening. What do you hope comes out of the meeting this week, that town hall and how it impacts the plan that's ultimately approved? Well, well, I want two things to happen. I, I don't think the general public knows what's happening. They don't know exactly what the plan looks like, and I think they wanna know and we should inform them. It should be the minimal obligation. So what I wanna do is we've taken about 50 to 60 questions from the general public. we lined them up. We've already sent them to EDC, the Economic Development Corporation, so they'll be ready to answer every single one of those questions. What we don't want is a town hall where everyone's screaming and nothing is, nothing is happening. A lot of people want to know what's happening. We're gonna be able to do that with the questions we have and EDC is already prepared so they can't run away or or lie to us. Um, the other one is EDC needs to hear from the community. I think EDC is, uh, detached from reality or detached from what's happening on the ground and in this one case in one day the public is gonna know more about the project and EDC is gonna have a better outlook or understanding about what's happening, what what they want or expect and I think both of those things are are important because the vote is supposed to happen sometime. In the next couple of weeks and I really feel like my constituents are not ready and I do think we have the details of that town hall so we can pull those up right now and show viewers so that they're aware when and when when and where I should say it happens. I know housing has been really at the crux of this plan in your opinion, what do you think has to happen with that? Where does that go ultimately in this plan? Yeah, look, I think it's a it's an economic development plan so when we were talking about uh housing it. Took me aback. I was like I thought this was a a port for and they just wanna throw housing everywhere and I worry sometimes that this is the appropriate place, but the big thing is that they wanna add a park they wanna add roads they wanna add a lot of amenities that cost billions of dollars and the only way to pay for it is to build more housing and I just think it's counterintuitive. How about we just keep it a port, which is what it was and we're seeing like in Sunset Park they're building the windmills, thousands of jobs that are mostly union and they're so valuable. And we have uh unlimited amounts of space to build housing and a very limited amount of space to do manufacturing work so I'm concerned about the project, but I'm excited for what we're gonna hear come Wednesday. Well, really excited to see what comes of that meeting and where that vote lands, and we'll talk about it next time you're here on Ask the borough president. I wanna thank you so much for being here with us and answering all the questions and to all of you at home who called in with the questions. Thank you as well. We'll see you next time here on Ask the borough president.

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News 12's Amanda Bossard sits down with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to answer YOUR pressing questions in this month's edition of Ask the Borough President.

Ask the Brooklyn Borough President: June 2025

News 12's Amanda Bossard sits down with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to answer YOUR pressing questions in this month's edition of Ask the Borough President.

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