Ballot proposals may not be the sexiest part of New York City\u2019s 2025 election slate, but they are consequential and city residents who overlook them do so to their own detriment.<\/p>\n
Putting aside ballot proposal one\u2014which impacts land in Essex County and is not a focus of our concern\u2014Staten Islanders have a particular stake in the changes outlined in proposals two, three, four and five. All are set to pull back or undermine local influence over decisions on new housing and development in our communities.<\/p>\n
We urge Staten Islanders to vote \u201cNo\u201d on all of these ballot proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo\u201d votes for proposals two, three and four are cast to retain important mechanisms that are in place to ensure proper review and community input when new housing is planned, including City Council approval, and reviews by the community board and borough president.<\/p>\n
These reviews are critical for our borough, where community members and elected officials deeply understand Staten Island\u2019s unique character and needs, which are often overlooked or under-appreciated by our centralized city agencies.<\/p>\n
In the context of a city with new, more permissive zoning laws passed as part of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, further degrading local oversight would be deeply concerning.<\/p>\n
Ballot proposal five, which would create a digital city map managed by the Department of City Planning, similarly removes local oversight\u2014in this case, of maps that are currently housed in Borough Hall and accessed there by the public.<\/p>\n
On ballot proposal six, which would move city elections \u2013 like those for mayor and city council \u2013 to even years to coincide with state and federal elections, we also believe a \u201cNo\u201d vote best serves Staten Islanders. Overwhelming a ballot with races in any given year threatens to derail focus on, and understanding of, less prominent contests and candidates.<\/p>\n
More information on the ballot proposals are available on the NYCVotes.org website<\/a>. Read up, and on Election Day vote \u201cNo\u201d on ballot proposals two through six.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ballot proposals may not be the sexiest part of New York City\u2019s 2025 election slate, but they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-12325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}