Electrification Sticker Shock

SPEAKER_06 0:00

The second I saw that graph, I wrote back to the board and I was like, uh, we cannot do that. Like, we cannot, there, there, it's not feasible. Like, we can't afford it. Um, and probably literally, we don't have the power in New York City, which we can talk about a little bit more later, um, to support this many all-electric buildings. We don't literally literally don't have the electricity.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

You're freaked out, basically.

SPEAKER_05 0:29

I freaked out. I freaked out.

Welcome And Meet Jane Menton

SPEAKER_03 0:31

This is the Co-op and Condo Insider, the podcast dedicated to New York's cooperative and condominium communities. This is your trusted source for the latest insights, strategies, and stories shaping the world of shared housing. You will hear from the people who are leaders in this community. Information and insights you will not hear anywhere else. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you're in the right place.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

The views and opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect those of the host or any affiliated individuals or organizations.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Hello and welcome to the Co-op and Condo Insider, where we explore the real-world issues facing co-op and condominium communities across New York City. With insight expertise and a healthy dose of straight talk, I'm your host, Jeffrey Mazel, a co-op attorney, legal advisor to the president's co-op and condo council, and most recently an executive member of the Co-op and Condo United of New York. I'm thrilled to be joined by my co-host, Richard Solomon, a seasoned voice in public radio for over 20 years. Richard has taken his listeners around the world to meet experts, newsmakers, and the people making a real difference in our everyday lives. Richard, always great to have you on the mic.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Love being here and I love my mug.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

So uh we're thrilled to have our guest today, uh Jane Menton. Jane has been an advocate in the co-op and condo space for many years and most recently has been uh was appointed legislative director of co-ops and condos united and why. We'll get into all that, but Jane, great to have you here today.

SPEAKER_06 2:09

Thank you so much for having me.

Board Service Opens Her Eyes

SPEAKER_02 2:11

So let let's start with your background. How did you get involved in in the co-op and condo legislative and advocacy world?

SPEAKER_06 2:19

I started as a co-op board member. I joined the member, I joined as a member of my board, uh, I think it was the beginning of 2022. Um I thought I was very naive at that time. I thought it would mostly be like finding out gossip about my neighbors. Honestly, I was like, I want to know who's who in the building. I I love being in the mix. And then I find out at my first board meeting that it's mostly, you know, financial issues and keeping the building running and like policy issues that the building's facing. And I was like, oh, this is a lot less fun than I thought it would be. Um, but I my eyes were opened in that moment. Um I where where was the building? The building, so it's Sunnyside Towers in Sunnyside, Queens. It is a 159-unit building. Um, it's a mix of young families, it's older residents, um, retirees, people living on a fixed income. And, you know, then it's about 30% young families, 30% retirees, and then 30% um people who own an apartment, you know, studio apartment or um just miscellaneous. Let's call them miscellaneous. Okay. Um yeah, so the average apartment in that building sells for$500,000, I would say. Um it's a middle New York middle class building. Um love it. I love it there. It's I still feel very attached to the community there.

Local Law 97 Deadlines Explained

SPEAKER_02 3:44

So so you said it opened your eyes. What what what opened your eyes and what what was the issues and and the things that caught your attention as a board member?

SPEAKER_06 3:56

Um, so the first meeting that we that I had, the board president, uh who is still the board president today, um he said to us, have you heard of local law 97? This is the biggest uh piece of legislation that our building is facing over the next decade. The first deadline at that time, so I joined the board in 2022. The first deadline is 2024, was 2024. Um local law 97 is an emissions reduction law. I don't know how much background you've given on this podcast before, but basically you can describe it. So it was passed in 2019 um as a cli, it's a climate leadership bill to reduce building emissions. Um the passed in 2019, the first deadline was 2024, buildings needed to reduce their emissions by 10%. The second deadline was 2030, buildings need to reduce their emissions by 40%. And then by 2035, you need to reduce your building emissions by 60%. So our board president sent along with this email where he said this was the biggest impact, the biggest piece of legislation that was going to impact our building. He sent a graph showing where our building emissions were coming from. And the graph showed that 25% of our building emissions were coming from our electricity use, and 75% of our building emissions were coming from our uh natural gas infrastructure for heat and hot water. So the deadline of 2024 to reduce your building emissions by 10%, we were going to clear that with our existing infrastructure. But to even bring our emissions down 40%, we were going to have to be on a path to fully electrifying our building, taking out our existing natural gas infrastructure and replacing it with electric heat pumps, electric hot water. And the second I saw that graph, I wrote back to the board and I was like, uh, we cannot do that. Like we cannot, there, there, it's not feasible. Like, we can't afford it. Um and probably literally we don't have the power in New York City, which we can talk about a little bit more later, um, to support this many all-electric buildings. We don't literally literally don't have the electricity.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

You're freaked out, basically.

SPEAKER_05 6:16

I freaked out. I freaked out Richard.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

I thought natural gas was clean. That's why everybody moved from oil to natural gas, because it was clean energy.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

That's that's so 10 years ago.

Electrification Costs Per Apartment

SPEAKER_06 6:30

Still 10 years ago, and our building had gone through that conversion process. I know many, many others that have. Um, so it was sort of like to your point, a little bit crazy that it's like we just went through a whole conversion process to meet the old standard goal, and now we're being told, like not even a decade later, that that wasn't good enough.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

And the next phase to get to electrification is I mean, it's a dramatic transformation of was it was there a price uh at Sunnyside for the electrification?

SPEAKER_06 7:02

Yes, we had a um like engineer come and build us a proposal how we should comply with local law 97. And again, like they, you know, when we started this in 2022, 2030 felt like people were talking about it like it was a lifetime away. Like, don't worry, we'll like figure out how to get like what to do when we get there, kind of a thing. Whereas to me, I was like talking about a process like electrification. This is you need to raise the funds to plan the scope of work to whatever. That's a multi-year planning process just to talk about it. So we need to start talking about it sooner rather than later. But the proposal that we got from the engineer was like, you know, seal your envelope, that'll probably cost this much. Um, you can talk about replacing your boiler. Replacing your boiler will probably be$500,000, which to me was like, why would we spend$500,000 replacing our boiler? If we're gonna eventually have to electrify our building, we'll just have to like we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on work that we're just gonna like basically tear out in a couple of years. Um, then they put electrification, a very preliminary proposal for electrification. That I was like, this is not remotely cover the full scope of this work, which was basically um like the cost to buy the heat pumps and the like possible cost of the electrician work. That was a couple million dollars.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

It was definitely over two million. How much per unit that did you ever calculate?

SPEAKER_06 8:38

Oh, 19, 18,000 to 19,000 per unit. And again, like that was that was a very basic proposal for that cost. It did not take into account so much of the rewiring of apartments, the renovation work in each apartment, displacing the residents while we worked in the building. Um, so many things had not been considered in that cost. And it was still 18 to 19,000 per apartment. And the engineering firm wrote or wrote at the bottom, not recommended at this time. Like under the electrification proposal they put not recommended at this time. And it was like, so when are you gonna when do you recommend this then? Right? Like it's if it's 2020, it would that maybe 2023 at this point. I don't remember, remember, Jeff, when you and I first met, but it was in that era. Like we we only have five more years to figure this all out.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Um so you have the aha moment. Yes.

Unfunded Mandates And Organizing Neighbors

SPEAKER_06 9:44

And that by the way, was just one of the issues. They were like, and we have to do our local law 11 work, and our insurance rates are going up, and we've got it.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

So it was just like, oh, like so you you came to realize co-ops are under a barrage of unfunded mandates.

SPEAKER_05 9:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yes. And how did you turn that into advocacy? And and what issues did you work on first?

SPEAKER_06 10:07

The local 197 when uh that one to me was like, this is I mean, this is an existential threat. This is if if we can't change this in the coming decade, uh we uh it like it's over, you know, like we can't do it. Uh it has to be amended. And um we need people to know. Like to me, it was like sitting in this boardroom, and I had until I stepped into that room, as I was just a shareholder who had no idea any of this was going on. So I was like, the shareholders don't know. Like, and it's not fair because I mean it's not fair to the board to some degree, because you know, as as we face these costs and the board sort of has this in-depth knowledge of what's going on, what the shareholders are receiving is just like a notice of an assessment. Oh, we're we're having a heating assessment. Oh, we need to raise our maintenance 5%, and they're all getting frustrated. They're like, what's going on? And you know, of course, we have we'll we release minutes or we have um a memo or whatever, but it's it's hard for people to keep track of all the things that are happening in the building. So I was like, the shareholders just like don't understand that it's like not, it's not that we just like are, oh, we want like a prettier lobby. It's like we have are facing unfunded mandates. So the first thing was that at our board, I was like, let's have a building town hall and just like explain local law 97 and explain how serious this is and sort of galvanize that our own shareholders to understand it and care and and want to take action. Because the more people who are willing to do it, like if we get a group of of a hundred, you know, every building, a building of 150 units has 400 residents, like each co-op building has has a big population. Like you know, Jeff, you know this. Um, so I was like, if we if we can mobilize them, if we can get them to contact their elected officials, our elected officials will start to see that this is gonna have a dramatic impact on uh on everyone's quality of life. So basically, just starting from there, it sounds funny. Like in retrospect, I literally was like, I'm gonna go to Berkeley Towers and find out who their board president is. That's another building in my neighborhood. I'm gonna go to Celtic Park and find out who their board president is. I'm just gonna like go to the different co-ops in the neighborhood and find out who they are and be like, what are you doing about this? And how do we tell the shareholders? And if we can get enough of us together, like our city council people will have to listen. They just will have to listen. I also um I had never done anything like that before. I had never been like a community organizer type of person. So I sort of didn't realize um how accessible, I guess, our local politicians are. Like, I wrote to my city council member and I was like, I want to meet with you about local law 97. And I actually, I think I saw her at like an event in the neighborhood and approached her and was like, hey, like, what are we doing about local law 97? Um and she was like, contact my office and we can set up a meeting about it.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Who who was this?

SPEAKER_06 13:31

Which is city councilwoman Julie Wan.

unknown 13:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 13:35

She's still in city council today.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 13:37

And um yeah. So I just like I didn't realize that you could do that until I, you know, until it until I did. Like, so it's been very interesting to s to like get involved in this like civic engagement and find out how much you can actually do.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

And how did your uh advocacy horizons broaden after that?

SPEAKER_06 14:03

Um hold on. Can we pause for just one second?

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Pause, Max. So how did your advocacy world broaden after that, beyond your co-op and your neighborhood?

SPEAKER_06 14:20

I mean, Jeff, it was really getting connected to you and getting connected to the PCCC. As I started doing this, I I found um, or I should say, it was really Bob Friedrich from the PCCC who found me or we got connected. Um and realized how much you guys were already doing on these issues. And uh I just I was like, I I I'm super passionate about this. Can how can I help support you? Um, and we've been working together on these things ever since, really. I I was I guess I kind of feel lucky, you know, that that we got connected because it's been uh it's uh it's been great. It's been something I just really care a lot about.

New York Grid And CLCPA Clash

SPEAKER_02 15:06

So you you you seem to have a uh deep knowledge of the electric grid in New York State. Um if you could explain what the issue is with the grid uh in terms of converting to renewable and even just sustaining the present you know infrastructure in terms of demand and supply.

SPEAKER_06 15:34

I will try. Okay, so at the same time that local 197 was passed in 2019, that's at the city level, the state passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which was to oversee the transition of our electric grid from its fossil fuel infrastructure to renewable infrastructure. And that bill also had a timeline. And the deadline was they had a deadline of 2030. They wanted 70% renewable energy by 2030. So that was seven years ago that they implemented that. Um, and now we're four years away from 2030. We have made opposite progress on building more renewable sources of energy. Um, we actually closed our nuclear power plant, Indian Point, which was providing 25% of our emission-free energy and had to replace that with fossil fuel energy. Um so, I mean, there's there's a couple of things. As we try, as the CLCPA tries to transition this grid, it's reducing our sources of reliable energy at the same time as New York City is saying we're going to radically increase uh the number, like our electricity demand and the number of buildings that we're trying to run on all electricity. This is like a recipe, it's a complete recipe for disaster. If we're not building out sources of energy, not only are we not building out renewable sources of energy fast enough, but we're also trying to decommission our fossil fuel energy resources. What are we going to have to supply the energy to these buildings? And the fact of the matter is that if we do need to scale up our grid dramatically over the next 10 years to meet our increasing electricity demand in New York City, the only technology we would have to do that at this time is natural gas power plants. That's what we could build and scale quickly enough. Like if you want to talk about like building a nuclear plant, that's going to be a decade. If you want to talk about like I don't even that that would be my choice, is nuclear, I guess, but um reliable sources of power that can be scaled to meet demand. Natural gas power plants are our best shot. If you are running an all-electric building on a natural gas electricity plant, you are not reducing your carbon footprint at all. In fact, you are probably increasing your carbon footprint because natural gas electricity plants are about 30% efficient, and then you have to transmit the electricity to the building. So you're losing about 10% uh uh efficiency through the transmission process. And then when by the time you convert it to the electric heat in your building, you've lost like 80% of the efficiency. Whereas if you just burn natural gas in a boiler on site in your building, that is like a 95% efficient process. So the goals it, I mean, the mind boggles. Like if the goal here is efficiency, then oftentimes, as you were to to Richard's point, the natural, the clean natural gas infrastructure that we built is working well efficiency-wise. Did I did I explain the electric grid?

Rising Rates And Lost Subsidies

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Yeah, I think you just did. So basically, um I I just wanted to add to that. I I've spoken to several uh state legislators who voted for the CLCPA. And I what was it past 2019, did you say?

SPEAKER_06 19:29

Yeah, 2019.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Yeah, and they all felt 2030, we'll worry about it in seven years. Yeah, we're gonna get it. Sounds good. Nobody had that there was no data behind it. And now there's um there's a big fight in Albany, and the the governor wants to push back the deadlines. Uh most people uh you know, other than you know, the environmental groups, of course, are fighting back. Even the attorney general uh of the state of New York took a position to slow down the uh the conversion of the grid. And one of the main reasons is the cost of electricity, which was never even factored in any of that. If you could speak to that.

SPEAKER_06 20:08

Yeah, I mean, a lot has changed um since 2019. The biggest thing is, you know, we have a president who is not interested in subsidizing green energy. So under the prior Biden administration, there was basically the inflation reduction act. The inflation reduction act was putting tons of money towards building renewable energy projects. New York had a plan to build a lot of offshore wind. Um that they saw they were, oh, we're like because we're gonna have that funding, because we're sort of scouting these plans, we're gonna figure out how to get to these goals by 2030. Fast forward to today, that funding is gone. There's no political incentive from at the federal level to supply that money to New York. Um, and the wind plants aren't getting built. They had to like reprice or uh yeah, recon like be rebid a lot of them, and it the price came back as much, much more expensive than they were going to be originally. And as Jeff, as you're saying, I mean, to build out infrastructure, to expand the grid, to sub to build out, to, to replace existing uh the existing grid with renewable energy, which is going to require vast infrastructure expansion. And then also talk about how we're gonna scale the grid to support a doubling of electricity demand in New York City. This is infrastructure building on crack. It's like you have to do so much building. Um, so where like who at the end of the day, the ratepayer has to pay for that. I mean, Con Ed is gonna invest billions of dollars in transmission lines, in you know, uh in the in the city and in Into buildings and they're they want they're gonna want to get paid back, right? Like that it's just a natural.

Co-ops And Condos United NY

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Well, I I saw I think they said upstate it's gonna be uh four, I think forty dollars a month. I don't know, it was hundreds of dollars a year just in the present dollar. So let's do this. Um we're gonna pivot now uh and talk about something new. Uh I've been getting and uh I've been hearing about something called the Co-ops and Condos United NY. Tell us about this organization and what its mission is.

SPEAKER_06 22:38

Um Co-ops and Condos United NY is a citywide coalition to bring all the co-ops together to elevate these issues that have been affecting all of us. As I was saying, you know, I my eyes were opened by the complete onslaught of regulation and unfunded mandates and increasing taxes and insurance. And it's just, I mean, you we could go on and on. Jeff, I'll never forget when you called me and you were like, hey, we're starting this project. And I'm thinking in my head, like, how do I convince him that I should be part of it? I want to be part of it so bad. And you were like, and we want you to be legislative director. And I was like, like, my jaw just dropped. I was so excited. So uh truly, like, truly think this is necessary for buildings. I mean, it's there's there's a longevity and sustainability issue here. We want to be proactive, we want to defend uh build, we want to be proactive and um and protective.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

So so it's a it's a co-op and condo advocacy organization.

SPEAKER_06 23:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

Uh how is it different than existing organizations?

SPEAKER_06 23:48

We're basically trying to bring everybody under the same umbrella to use all of our ability to elevate these issues. Like we we see it as uh speak like using our collective influence. You know, so many of these buildings have relationships with, have been working with their legislators already, trying to speak on or tell them about what the co-op community is facing. And it's like, let's just take like let's just bring that together so that we can be even more effective. Like what as we say, um, what's good for one co-op is good for all co-ops. Um, so if we work together, we can do so much more because our politicians are basically affected by how what they hear from their constituents. They're gonna make changes based on how frequently and how mobilized their constituents seem. Um so if they're hearing it all the time, they're gonna have to make a change. That's just like that's just the way it works. I mean, Jeff, that's what you and I have been doing is demonstrating to elected officials the real needs that the community has through this advocacy, through conversations, through letter writing campaigns, through live events. And we're just trying to bring that on a broader scale so that we can do more to benefit the entire city.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

So why don't you explain uh how the first inaugural meeting of the advisory board went and who was who was there in terms of co-ops and areas that they represent?

SPEAKER_06 25:16

It was amazing. I mean, first of all, the enthusiasm from the community. Everyone, I think, feels the same way, which is the co-ops often feel um like they're an island operating with like operating under like, I don't know how to explain this.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Sea of sharks around.

SPEAKER_06 25:35

And the the thing that people kept saying, so we had uh an event where we brought together some of the biggest co-ops in the city. Co-op city was there, Penn South was there. Um, I mean, it we were probably in one room alone, we had 100,000 units of housing represented um from across the five boroughs. Uh actually not Staten Island, sorry, Staten Island, next time you will be invited, of course. Um, so across the four of the boroughs. Um and the main thing is that everybody was like, wow, there's been such a need for this for so long. Um, we ran around the table and people were, everyone had the same problems. I mean, everyone was seeing the exact same things. Everyone was like, you know, the local law 97 is gonna completely destroy us. We like we're our property taxes have like doubled, our insurance rates have doubled. Like, how can we be more proactive? And in out in that room was this uh momentum to take what we were all feeling and turn it into action. Um, so we're starting that with a J51 letter writing campaign. Um, we're starting that, we're gonna do some live events in the coming months to just to say, listen, this community is mobilizing. Like we are, we have been struggling a lot with many of these, many of these unfunded mandates. And we also want to be proactive and think about ways to help the community remain what it is, which is a the last really uh bastion of affordable housing in New York. Um, and it it you know, we want it to that to be the case for many, many, many years to come.

J-51 Letter Campaign How-To

SPEAKER_02 27:17

So I I saw this statistic uh uh Comptroller landers, uh, I think it's about two years ago, did a report. Uh of the median home in New York City cost 800,000. Over 95% of those are co-ops or condos, um, under it. And of 400,000 or over, it's 100% are co-ops and condos. So so that's not me talking, that's that's Brad Landers who has not been a friend to this community. So let's go through some issues. J51. Uh explain quickly, I guess, what it is. Well, you don't know if they could be quick. Um, and and what what the letter writing campaign is and how would they get, how would people listening get get to the the the website to to just to uh submit a letter.

SPEAKER_06 28:10

Um so J51 is a tax abatement program where you can get money back to do capital improvement projects for your building. So it is one of the ways that um the government supports capital improvement projects or makes it possible without adding additional financial strain to buildings. So the governor's budget proposal right now uh is to raise the assessed value cap for buildings from 45,000 to 60,000, which would bring in an additional 62,000 units of housing.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

So we any building over 60,000 is ineligible.

SPEAKER_06 28:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Okay. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_06 28:48

No, listen, you know more than me. So jump in whenever you feel. Um but basically what we're what we're trying to do is do like have our coalition send hundred letters to our elected officials to say this would we support the governor's proposal, this would benefit us tremendously, this would really like help us do these improvement projects that that need to get done, that have been mandated that they get done, um, without you know causing more financial strain. And really, it's it's this power of numbers is what will make the change. So we want to make it as simple as possible. Um, our website is ccunitedny.com, and there is a J51 tab. If you click on it, it will take you to a form where you fill out your name, your um zip code. That's really important, and it has a letter that you can edit or you can send as is, just talking about how J51 will help you, and then hit submit and it will go to your legislator. That's because it has the zip code, which is kind of amazing. So we want this to be really simple because the most important thing is that legislators hear from as many as their constituents as possible. That is really what makes a difference.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

And that's what legislators always tell us.

SPEAKER_06 30:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Yes, we want to hear from you.

SPEAKER_06 30:20

They represent the community. I mean, that's really the thing. There's it's there's supposed to be a reciprocity here. They want it what they hear from us affects what they do. So we have to show them what the need is.

City Council Co-op Caucus Plan

SPEAKER_02 30:33

So, what are some of the other issues? Local law 97, we discussed. What about the co-op and condo caucus? Uh, what what is that and what what is the status of that advocacy?

SPEAKER_06 30:45

So, one of the things that we wanted to do when we launched this advocacy group, Co-ops and Condos United NY, was to build a relationship with city council so that we could be proactive about legislation. Like we are we are running defense a lot of the time, but we also want to be able to do things that like in a get ahead of some of these issues. And so, you know, Jeff and I have been working in this space for a long time. We've built many relationships with our city council members. And when we were going to launch co-ops in condos united, we were like, it would be great if we could establish a partnership, like a working relationship. So when we have issues that come up, we can take them directly to city council. We can have conversations with members, we could tell them, you know, before before this even hits the floor, make these changes and it will you really help the co-op community. Or um, we saw that this is gonna come up. Can we like let's adapt it, or like let's like we'll give you the information that you need to understand how the co-op community will be affected by this piece of legislation. Um, we're really thrilled with city council right now because we feel better than ever about how about their understanding and uh desire to help the co-op community. So we contacted um city council member Julie Wan, who's my district city council member, and Kevin Riley, uh, who is the city council member for Co-op City. And they want they are taking the lead on building a co-op sincondos caucus in city council where we can do exactly what Jeff and I wanted to do, which is take these issues directly as they come up and have this ongoing partnership with City Council where hopefully we can more quickly and more effectively make change than we've ever been ever been able to before.

Sunnyside Gardens Rail Yards Parenting

SPEAKER_02 32:42

So, I mean, my experience and the reason the caucus could be really important is when you speak to, let's say, one legislator uh and you want to get through to 10 more, you have to go, you have to call 10 people. Right. And that's really difficult. But if they're speaking to each other on Coapacano, it's like one-stop shopping, so to speak. And there was a Coapacano caucus, I want to say 10 years ago. It was uh uh led by um Mark Weprin, who is uh Richard's neighbor, and he he was our last guest. So we we we got a good background on that. All right, so uh we're running up on time, but you know, we can keep going. Uh we have fun questions for you.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Okay, some some fun and some serious guy. So, according to the ever knowledgeable internet, in the 1700s, Sunnyside was dairy farms and farmland. So, what happened?

SPEAKER_06 33:48

I mean, I've heard that Manhattan also like it's so hard to picture, but like Manhattan also just being like a natural wonderland is like so far from what it is today, it boggles the mind.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Now, apparently Sunnyside Gardens is like a one of the, I guess, one of the two private gardens still left in the city. Could you talk about that? Because that's like a cool little thing.

SPEAKER_06 34:12

I am obsessed with it. I love it. Um, it is a membership park. It I I I think it's like one of the most special things in the city. Um, people get, you know, very uh some people get very mad that it's you know, you it's a membership park. Um, but it the community element because of that, um, like I I mean there it's you know all the families, you know, there's so much investment. Um the it's really well maintained. I mean, and and the doors, the doors are locked. So when we go, my kids, I don't even see them. It's like, bye, have fun, and I know they're totally safe. I know everyone there pretty much. Um, and I I mean I've never I but until we moved to Sunnyside, well, we moved to Sunnyside before I had kids, but I like I hadn't had that growing up even. So it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Now they they want to apparently develop the sunny side rail yards.

SPEAKER_06 35:15

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

What what what do they think about that?

SPEAKER_06 35:20

I mean, what does the community think? Yeah, I would think there's a lot of mixed feelings. Um, one of the things that I know my city council member has been saying, just as Julie has been saying, is because of a pro uh ballot proposal was passed, now the city can bypass city council on passing, like I'm trying to do these housing developments. Um and she was saying, you know, we need to hear direct directly from the community if if this is what they want. We can't just like make a decision as the city. I think she's right about that. Um, getting the Long Island City one long one LIC project passed was an absolute headache. We heard from all different points of view on that. Um, so it's not an easy decision. I mean, I think we do have an affordable, like housing's not affordable. So a lot of people want to develop housing just because have more housing, more affordable. But we've got a lot of infrastructure problems to worry about. Um, we've got electricity infrastructure problems to worry about, we've got sewer problems to worry about, water and sewer problems. So it's not so simple as just we'll just throw up some buildings and solve our housing crisis. Like it's just it's it's very complicated.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Uh what's harder? Navigating New York City legislation or parenting free kids?

SPEAKER_06 36:50

Oh, parenting, 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Who plays nice?

SPEAKER_06 36:57

Especially doing what we do now, where I feel like we can actually, you know, get something accomplished and make a change with my kids. I'm always like, am I like, are you gonna be in therapy because of this?

Closing Thanks And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Okay. Well, Jane, thank you very much. Uh, I want to congratulate you because you are now officially a co-op and condo insider.

SPEAKER_05 37:17

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

And next time I see you, I'll give I'll give I'll give you your your your coffee mug. And thank you for joining us and for all of you out there listening. Uh we're available in all the podcast stores. And thank you for listening, and we'll see you on the next one.