New York is facing a massive housing crisis by virtually every measure imaginable, and one of the leading proposals to help tackle the problem is turning vacant Manhattan office space into affordable homes for New Yorkers. Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams both support the idea, which could reinvigorate Midtown neighborhoods still recovering from COVID and provide relief to outer-borough residents being priced out of the city. Another major backer of the proposal is a diverse coalition of supporters from the business, labor, civic and religious communities called the 5 Borough Housing Movement. The new advocacy group is keeping up the pressure on New York lawmakers to see this through and its executive director, John Sanchez, joins us to discuss the city’s housing crisis.
At age 12, Vic Barrett experienced the wrath of Superstorm Sandy, and noticed how the storm disproportionately affected people of color. Years later, Barrett is one of 21 plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States, the groundbreaking lawsuit moving through the courts which alleges that the federal government violated Vic’s rights by knowing for decades that fossil fuels create pollution that leads to climate change.
