 How are you doing, Mr. Mayor? Before we go into Q&A on this amazing project, looking at zoning in our city, and I want to both thank Dan and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, and they're going to go over some of their points. We want to go over the announcement that was made last night based on TPS. Our administration, we've spent the last few months asking for work authorization, particularly through TPS, which is considered temporary protective status. We really heard the announcement from the White House last night. I spoke with the White House Chief of Staff, and we really want to thank President Biden for hearing our call. We want to thank the Congressional Delegation, met with Congressman Jeffries last week, I believe it was, and he clearly understood the urgency of it. Congressman Espriot met with the Hispanic Congressional Delegation, was communicating repeatedly with Senator Schumer, and all of our partners, our union members, our faith-based institutions, the advocates for immigrants throughout the city, and many of our elected officials. There was a clear call coming from New York City about work authorization, and I want to thank the White House for hearing us by extending protective status to Venezuelans asylum seekers here before July 31st, 2023. That announcement was well received by us. We could begin the process of allowing the seekers to become job seekers, from asylum seekers to job seekers. And every time I speak with the asylum seekers, that's all they ask for. They've been asking, they want to work, they want to contribute to the American experience and American dream. They travel so far, and there's so much more we want to do. So I want to thank everyone that was involved. What we do want to make clear, that we have clarity on how this impact New York City. So I just want to go over some very clear numbers so we could have some accurate reporting because I think there was a lack of clarity on the numbers. So I want Fabian, Deputy Mayor of Communication, to write down some of these numbers so you can get the accurate number and count. We don't want to prematurely spike the ball. We want to make sure that we're moving in the right direction to deal with this humanitarian crisis that we're facing. We have approximately 60,000 total asylum seekers in our care. Approximately 60,000. These quarters are not eligible for the announcement that was made last night. So that's 60,000, that's minus 45,000. We have approximately 15,000 that are eligible. Out of the 15,000, 5,500 can't work in the city because they're under the age that they can or they're under 18 years old. We have four-year-olds going to do a job in the city. And so 5,500 are not eligible. So that leaves us a total of 9,500 out of the 60,000 that are eligible to apply for the work authorization. In addition to that, we are getting 10,000 a month. 10,000 a month that are coming into the city. So more than three-quarters of the asylum seekers still in our care wouldn't qualify for last night's announcement. And so this is the number we're talking about. 60,000 in, 10,000 a month, 9,500 are qualified for it. Those who are coming in now won't fit the qualification. And so this was important because I'll take this. There's 9,500 people I don't have to find housing for. I'll take it. But I'm getting 10,000 a month and a substantial number are still in our care today. And so we can't spike the ball and we need to be clear on that. We want to continue to work with the White House. We want to continue to work with our congressional delegation and our unions and advocates to deal with this crisis. I think all of you saw that there's a real spike at the border and there's a clear mental pathway that many people believe the answer to this crisis is New York City. It's not sustainable. It's not sustainable. We should be commended for the announcement that was made last night for these 9,500. And now we must deal with this 45,000 that remain and the 10,000 that we are getting every month so that we do not financially harm this city. So I just want to make sure we got clarity because we received a lot of mixed communications last night. People were given numbers, we wanted to make sure that people got the accurate number of people who are here and who would benefit from the announcement that was made last night. And this really goes into the imperativeness of what we announced today around the housing crisis that we are facing because if we do not continue to house New Yorkers, we are going to be unable to address the housing crisis we are facing for long-term New Yorkers as well as new arrivals in the city. And I really want to thank Dan Garotnik, the director of the Department of City Planning for just really using his expertise from being a former councilman in this area and thinking, Bo, he had one assignment, go in and be Bo, be Bo. And he stepped up to that assignment and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer who came to us with the moonshot of 500,000 units of housing. We were honest with ourselves. We have to build more. And I think the two of them with their team came up with a proposal that we were looking to get our partnership with the city council and our state lawmakers to finally start addressing some of the sins of the past that are now being carried down to the children of today. So we'll open up to some questions that we could answer. Yeah, Mr. Meagher, when you talk about 20% bigger buildings, a bigger house, taller, and is there a cap on how many floors or stories are we talking about more super tall buildings? So this would be applicable in medium to high density areas in New York City in zoning R6 to R10 districts. Today we have a density bonus program that applies exclusively for senior affordable housing. So you are entitled to get roughly a 20% bonus if you provide permanent affordable housing for seniors. So we are looking here to expand the eligibility of that program beyond senior affordable and include all types of affordable housing and supportive housing. We also know there are parts of the R6 to R10 districts that today do not enjoy that bonus for senior affordable. We want to provide it there. So to the extent that there are limits in existing districts, we're taking a look at that, but this is roughly going to be a 20% density bonus. The development rights that you have would be enhanced and for the benefit of permanent affordable housing. It's within your development rights. So within the envelope that you own, you have a certain amount of development rights today, we would enhance that exclusively for the benefit of permanent affordable and supportive housing. So the density bonus is in exchange for affordable housing. So what constitutes affordable housing and what's the income levels? Thank you. So today this would essentially function as a voluntary inclusionary housing program in all of our medium and high density districts. Today the AMI levels for that are at 80 AMI. We are looking at those levels now. We believe we can do better than that as part of this universal affordability preference and we are going to be discussing that level with our partners in the council and thinking about that through this process. The process is just beginning. We're starting our environmental review on September 26 and we're going to be looking at that through this process. We're just starting that process now. We believe that we can and should do better than the current 80% AMI level. And we also want to keep in mind because we had that question often. Broken class New York is a struggling. That teacher and that accountant with three children, they're struggling. Low income New Yorkers, husband and wife that works for a fast food chain because we fought and got increased minimum wage, they are struggling. And so we have to find housing for all New Yorkers and we're going to be extremely thoughtful on how we're doing it. But working class people are struggling in the city and we don't want to lose them and have them leave the city because they can no longer afford to be here. So if you can't provide shelter for them and given the fact that there are already demonstrations in Staten Island yet again today about putting a shelter in Staten Island, what's going to happen? What do you want the federal government to do? What do you want the state to do? How are you going to find places for them given the fact that this program is going to happen way too late for you to deal with the policy? Well, the one we're not sitting on our hands as Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer reminds us often the record number of items we did around housing with city theft vouchers placing in supportive housing we know we have to continue even as we ask for help we have to continue to place people in housing and we're doing that. But I have made it clear this is not sustainable. We realize that and we are extremely pleased to get 9,000 out of our system and an ability for them to work and file the documents but the way the incoming continues and the number who are here already there must be a national response to that and we stated it. There needs to be control at the border and the immigration reform I think far too many of our Republican lawmakers have been pushing back on that and it should be funded. This should not come out on New York City taxpayers. $2 billion already, $5 billion this fiscal year projected $12 billion over the next fiscal budgetary cycles where we have to do two year budgets and what's also important, Marsha, that many people are misunderstanding that the budget is $106 billion. Almost $76 billion of that is already locked up. There's nothing we can do about it. It's to pay for various things. So we're talking about $30 billion that we have to find efficiencies in and $30 billion. So if you have to take $12 billion out of $30 billion that math is problematic and so we need this national problem to be addressed by the national government. What about this protest that keeps going on in Staten Island about locating shelters on the bottom of California? Listen, we need to separate the hateful terminology that a small number of Staten Islanders are displaying from the pain that everyday New Yorkers are feeling and the pain that migrant and asylum seekers are feeling. So everyone is frustrated with this. New York City residents and migrants and asylum seekers should not be placed in this circumstances. But those who are banging on the buses using derogatory terminology, that is not who we are. And if you break the law, we're going to take appropriate behavior. And so when you look at 50, 60, 70 people, that is not the population of Staten Islanders. They just want to be fairly treated. I know they're frustrated. We are frustrated. We are all frustrated. This administration and the Rokies who have been spending countless number of hours addressing us, we're frustrated, we're angry, we deserve better as a city. But I'm not going to allow those who have used some of the terminologies I heard to define what we are as a city. This is a city of immigrants. This is a city that has always allowed people to step in stone to participate in an American dream. But what you're seeing now is a humanitarian crisis and a national government. And the state should help addressing this. This should not be New York City's problem. We've had great conversations with the speaker. And we wanted to make sure they saw this before we rolled it out. And we're going to now engage in real conversations with each of the council persons. We all need to get on board. There's one thing I'm sure of. We're going to speak to every council person, every state lawmaker, every bar president. They will say the number one thing they hear from their constituents is housing. Number one, everyone is concerned about the affordability of living in the city and how we're going to deal with this housing crisis. And from the research that Deputy Mayor Dan did of showing how we got here in the first place, we created zoning and policies to keep people out and not to bring people in. We're saying let's go back and correct the sins of the past. Dan, you wanted to talk about the council? Yeah, I just wanted to add, and I agree with all of that, that I think what council members are seeing today is the direct impact of the lack of housing on their constituents. And there is a moment now where people are connecting the cost of rents, the gentrification pressures, the imbalance of power between landlords and tenants in the city to our housing scarcity problem. So we have been having very productive conversations with council members and with the speaker. And they are our partners in this. The speaker has made it very clear this is a priority of hers and we really appreciate that and look forward to working with them to be able to get this over the go line. Mayor, can I add something? If I could just add, in the past year and a half, this already builds on a number of projects that we have worked on together and collaboration that already exists. So from individual projects like Innovation Queens to the Brockner project and the Bronx to area wide rezonings that we are working on diligently as council members and a couple of them joined us here today, raised their hands and said, we know that we need to be part of the solution. So the collaboration is not going to be new. We will spend the next year making sure that we are continuing to provide the type of information about what these set of proposals does and what it doesn't do. And so we're hopeful because as Dan mentioned, housing is every New Yorkers number one expense. And the time for tinkering as the mayor mentioned in his speech is really over when we have the number of people who are sleeping in our shelters and within too many Yorkers feel that the promise of the city is out of their reach. Question on the migrant crisis and a question on housing. If you could just indulge me for a second. I've been trying to do my job. So if you could just indulge me for a second, how long will it take folks to get their work paper applications? How long will it take folks to have work paper? No, how long will it take? No, come on. If you had a joint problem, come on. Mr. Mayor, how long will it take people to get their work papers and what's the process? Yeah, quickly on the plans for mention infill and other infill projects. Similarly, if those going to be like MIH type zoning or their plans to push for deeper affordability, can you give any specific to speak about that? So today there's strict limitations on what you can even add in a campus infill context. It's defined by zoning. If you have existing structures that are beyond what today's zoning allows, you can't actually add anything there today. So we are taking a look at this question about how we can expand the universe of campus infill. The mayor cited the example in his speech of a church with a parking lot next door. We see real opportunities for even in that example, 100% affordable development in partnership with the city to be able to turn underused properties into affordable housing. And there is campus infill opportunities, whether it's NYCHA or other bigger campuses where you have development rights that exist today, but can't actually be effectuated because the zoning rules create too much complexity. We're trying to do away with that to eliminate those barriers which today are keeping anything from that. Well, in the case where you have the development rights, you have the development rights where zoning is just saying you can't do it because you're too close to the building next door or it has to be contextual. The existing buildings are not contextual. So we want to eliminate those barriers to enable anything to happen first. And if you have the development rights, that would not be a trigger for MIH. And I was also talking about housing for NYCHA because your question is a good question. NYCHA's capital problem is billions upon billions of dollars. And there has been a lack of creativity of addressing that. Everyone has stated they're waiting for the federal government to bail us out. The bugles you hear is that's not the calvary coming. It's TAPS. NYCHA's dying. And we are looking at various ways such as the NYCHA Trust. We were able to get that passed with our partners in Albany. The Chelsea Project is a very exciting project for us that is underway. The deputy mayor included and Jessica, who was the former chief housing officer, included NYCHA in our housing plan. NYCHA is very much part of our focus. If we don't start finding real ways of putting capital into NYCHA, it's going to increasingly become problematic. And so we have to think differently. We have to be bold about it and making sure the zero displacement, but at the same time using that footprint in that campus to get the quality that those NYCHA residents deserve is what we're focusing on. The governor had, through recent executive action and through her housing plan, which we noted didn't get through Albany last time, but signaled there would be increasing state dollars for municipalities that do the type of things that you're talking about doing right now. Does that play into all of this? Does that change impact the budget crunch that we know the city is in? Yeah. First, I just want to, this goes back to also Marsha's question, which is we're looking at zoning changes here, which are for the next 60 years, right? We're looking back to 1961, and we're looking forward to the next 60 years of where we want to grow and how we want to grow responsibly of the city. We want to encourage growth in town centers, small commercial areas around the city. We want to do it near transit. We want to promote affordable housing in medium-high density areas, and we want to prioritize housing over parking. That's what is animating this proposal, which is what we can do in zoning, and this is the stuff that we will advance through the city's own powers in zoning, and we look forward to partnering with the city council. The state of New York can do a lot of things that would significantly enhance the ability for these sorts of opportunities to exist, whether it's through a tax abatement, whether it's through ending the antiquated 12-FAR cap. There's a lot of things the state can do, including programs that like what you mentioned, but this is a zoning proposal within the power of New York City. Everything can be enhanced through various actions at the state level. Do you expect to push back on the proposal to eliminate parking requirements from outer-world council members and do you have a plan to move forward? It's New York City, 8.3 million people, 35 million opinions. There's nothing you could do in New York that you're not going to have pushback, but pushback does not mean there will be a step back. We have to house New Yorkers, and if there are those who say they would rather have a place to park a car and not park a family in an apartment, then they need to explain that to their constituencies. We're going to show them how the city with the transportation network we have that we could find adequate parking without taking away housing. We need to get people in housing. Our shelter capacity has reached a record level, including those who were in the shelters of our migrant asylum seekers. We need to be on a clear path of housing. There's going to be pushback. New York City, there's always pushback. It doesn't mean we have to take a step back from doing what's right for New Yorkers. We've got time for one more. On the question, welcome. I would like to to ask you a question. You mentioned the time I'm here. How long exactly are we expecting until we see relief for New Yorkers, new arrivals and long term? We have housing questions. Regarding this plan, this proposal, how long do you expect it to provide relief for New Yorkers, new arrivals, long term New Yorkers? I want to be extremely clear, even as we plan for the future projects, there are a large number of projects that if we have a real 421 extension with Albany, there are projects waiting to put a shovel in the ground and start immediately doing building. We need to understand that. Second, as the deputy mayor indicated, we are still moving projects through. We have the Willis Point project, the Bruckner project, we have Innovation Queens project. We are still waiting as we continue to build, but we're building also for the future. So any successful housing plan is going to state, while we're building now, we need to put units in the pipeline. That is what we're saying. So some of the things that we're talking about is going to take a couple of years before you actually see the results, but there are things we're doing now to put housing for people right now.