“We do this while ensuring that it is easier to build even for the private sector … These are the ways we can ensure that we build more than 4 houses per 1,000 people, that we start to get up to Jersey City and Tokyo.” Watch this and tell... me again this is not an abundance YIMBY.show more

From the NY1 mayoral debate two weeks ago. Starts at 42:10

I’m struggling to reconcile the YIMBY-sounding stuff with the kinds of issues Alex identified.

See here—he has been actively campaigning for and co-sponsoring legislation from Open NY, including the City of Yes reforms package, long before he ran for mayor. I don’t think that he moderated—he has held these views and taken these positions since before the race.

I certainly hope you're right. I'm worried that he's going to everything-bagel his YIMBYism so much that it's not effective at building anything, but I would much prefer to be wrong about that.

Dude seriously? This guy won the election by promising loads of free stuff. He’s the King of No trade offs. So you’re going to tell me that he’s not going to put a million stipulations on any project ?

See here. He spent last year campaigning for and sponsoring Open NY’s zoning reform bills at the city and state level, which do not add those sorts of stipulations.

He’s been in the state assembly for 5 years! How many abundance bills did he sponsor? Proof of pudding is in the eating. It’s genuinely great that he’s increasingly embracing abundance. As a lay observer I’m optimistic, and I think everyone should be. But at the same time, anyone who wants a promotion in any line of work should demonstrate they’ve earned the next level, not just say they have, especially when it’s an about-face from the past.

The devil is in the fine print. Ask him if he's willing to do anything to ease rules on union labour, useless environmental studies, community input, "affordability" mandates, etc. He wants to keep all of the rules that make it hard to build.

I know your hearts in the right place but you have to accept “Abundance” is about much, much more than zoning reform and building housing and that is why both pro/anti Zohran people will say he’s not doing Abundance despite having a lot of the same stated principles

Well, no, I don’t have to accept that