Thank you to Chair Restler and members of the committee for holding this hearing today. It is important
that as elected officials and government representatives, we remember that our job is to work on behalf
of the people of this city, and I commend the Council for the wide-ranging efforts represented here to
increase transparency, accessibility, and accountability.
I want to focus my testimony on one proposal – Intro 0191, that I originally introduced when I was a
Councilmember. Although the situation that informed this bill dates back a decade, what it seeks to
accomplish remains relevant today.
In 2014, when I was representing Council District 34, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services
(DCAS) failed our community by neglecting to complete proper lease-renewal paperwork on behalf of a
daycare center located in a privately owned building in Williamsburg. This building had been home to
subsidized daycare for our community for 50 years. Yet because of the City’s mistake, the landlord evicted
the daycare center in favor of a new development plan, forcing more than 100 families, most of whom
were living in public housing, to scramble to find alternatives.
I worked on this bill in response to that situation, and to the broader issue that beloved community
facilities were, and continue to be, at risk of being displaced due to gentrification and lack of government
foresight. If the daycare center had received advance notice of the pending lease expiration, its leadership
would have had the opportunity to proactively work with the city to either renew the lease or find an
alternative location as needed.
According to DCAS, the agency currently holds approximately 380 leases or licenses for City agency
operations in privately owned properties, totaling over 22 million square feet. These facilities house
childcare centers, City agency offices, health care centers, cultural facilities, and more. Because they are
owned by private landlords, these sites all, by nature, have some level of risk of displacement, even
without the government errors that factored into the Williamsburg situation. Intro 0191 seeks to increase
transparency about these leases for the tenants, as well as for the local elected officials and community
boards that represent them.
Thank you to Council Member Gutierrez, who represents my former Council district, for partnering with
me on this legislation, and to the Council for considering it today
