On the latest episode of Stroock Presents: GOAT Town, John Egnatios-Beene speaks with Tom Angotti and Sylvia Morse, authors of the Revised Edition of Zoned Out! Race, Displacement, and City Planning in New York City. Zoned Out! discusses how city land use and housing policies have played out in Williamsburg, Harlem, and Chinatown—neighborhoods facing massive displacement of people of color—and looks at ways the city can address inequalities, promote authentic community-based planning, and develop housing in the public domain.

Drawing upon on the book’s principles, this episode looks at:

• the role of land ownership/control and its interplay with housing;
• the importance of racial impact studies coupled with resources to address the identified issues;
• the ability of zoning to solve these problems – where do they begin and end?
• inclusionary housing programs – what is done well and where should improvements or enhancements be made?

Listen to the conversation.

Find all episodes of “Stroock Presents: GOAT Town” here.

Continuing to be faced with a shortage of affordable housing amid an abundance of unused office space, the City of New York established the Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force to study the conversion of vacant office spaces to expand the city’s housing supply. Earlier this year, the Task Force issued a list of recommendations intending to ease the regulations that govern the adaptive reuse of office buildings.

In the latest episode of Stroock Presents: GOAT Town, John Egnatios-Beene is joined by Vishaan Chakrabarti, Architect and Founder and Creative Director at Practice for Architecture Urbanism | PAU. Together, they walk through the recommendations of the Task Force exploring topics including:

• Whether conversions actually offer a viable solution
• Actions that could be taken to augment efforts and conversely, missing steps within the process
• The easing of regulations contained in the zoning resolution and the Multiple Dwelling Law
• The establishment of tax incentives to support the inclusion of affordable housing in conversions
• The importance of increasing housing supply along transit lines (i.e., subway, ferry)
• Conversion of roadbed to public space
• Strategic use of designated landmarked neighborhoods.

In the second release of this two-part episode of "Stroock Presents: GOAT Town", Special Counsel John Egnatios-Beene and Rachel Loeb (former New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) President & CEO and Founder & CEO of Muse Partners), distill NYCEDC’s unique role in facilitating the region’s long-term economic prosperity. They look at:

• Efforts to modernize New York City’s aging airports
• The importance of cultivating productive working relationships between all project teams
• The successful effort of incentivizing JetBlue to remain headquartered in NYC, resulting in job security and opportunities for thousands of area residents
• The future of NYC landowners and development partners
• The concept of newly formed Muse Partners and its mission to help investors efficiently and effectively advance regional development