Backroom Ballot Boondoggle Backfires at the BOE
How the City Council’s anti-democratic plot ended up strengthening the amendments they oppose
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“This wasn’t on my bingo card.”
It’s a sentiment we heard multiple times over the last week, after the City Council asked the Board of Elections to abuse their power by keeping charter amendments off our November ballots—and then Republicans and corrupt Democrats on the BOE suggested they would.
We always knew passing the first real updates to the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP, pronounced “you-lurp”) in decades would be a challenge, even as New Yorkers are living the consequences of our severe housing shortage. Change is always hard.
An unholy alliance between a self-described progressive council, the Democrat on the Board of Elections once called the “King of Corruption” by the Daily News, and the five Republican appointees designed to prevent voters from having our say? That was a shock.
Maybe it shouldn’t be, as just the latest chapter of a long saga of NIMBY forces fighting tooth-and-nail against modest change to deliver better outcomes for New Yorkers.
Thankfully, rumors of the council and BOE scheme spurred pro-democracy and pro-housing forces into action.
Good government groups, abundance advocates (including our community!), progressive leaders, national journals, and editorial boards all called out the shameful plan. Eventually, the governor’s office made a call to the BOE demanding they stop the madness.
The pressure worked. On Tuesday, the Board voted 7-1 to do their job and place the charter amendments on our ballots. NIMBYs tried to make a backroom deal to prevent voters from having our say, but in November our voices will be heard.
Here are a few takeaways:
❌ Abundance politics transcends the usual left-center-right divides
We don’t usually see members of the council’s progressive caucus aligned with Republicans while Brad Lander is saying the same thing as Kathy Hochul. However, as we often say, abundance vs. scarcity is a cross-cutting axis to the left-right political spectrum. This time, the pro-housing and pro-democracy forces won out.
🗳️ Democracy and the built environment are deeply connected—both need to change.
New York has long suffered from subpar election administration and a listless approach to enfranchisement, largely due to the patronage-appointed BOE. Low-turnout elections and machine politics are no help. With political power players more interested in protecting their prerogatives than in inclusive decision-making, saying no is always easier than saying yes—whether it’s to new homes, bus lanes, or transmission lines. The fight for abundance must include the fight for a better democracy.
🫵 As always, the future of New York is in our hands.
From the congestion pricing pause to the cancellation of Haven Green to this plot, New Yorkers who expect legal processes to play out as required often find the rug pulled out from under us. NIMBYs will use fear-mongering, litigation, and backroom dealing to block the change New York needs. That means it’s on us to keep up the pressure—and win the fight.