(This was my spoken statement at the June 23, 2021 Manhattan Community Board CB2 Soho/Noho Working Group, aka “chaos.”)
My name is Connie Murray, I was born and raised in Manhattan, lived in Soho for a few years 30 years ago and have been living in Long Island City, Queens for almost a quarter century now. I am a writer and I advocate for cheap housing, not the scammy affordable housing offered in the proposed Soho Noho rezoning.
I am here tonight to speak about pro development group OpenNY, the self-funded vanity project which was featured in the Daily News’s recent piece on Soho as “a rezoning wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
OpenNY hates Soho Noho. They hate the buildings, they hate the beauty, they hate the history, they even infamously hate the sunlight here.
They hate this community board: they want to abolish it and replace it with themselves.
And they hate the residents of Soho: they want Soho residents to pay for the audacity of creating an extraordinary, globally recognized neighborhood.
OpenNY’s contempt is an off-putting and deliberate distraction from the reality that their proposal is baseless, gratuitous and threatens hundreds of already existing very low income homes while not being able to guarantee that even one unit of affordable housing would be produced in their stead.
OpenNY is the loudest voice for the rezoning of Soho Noho.
It’s also the loneliest voice, as demonstrated yesterday by Christopher Marte’s resounding victory.
OpenNY and its hatred of this community will not prevail here.
Not in our backyard, gentlemen.
