What Does the Mayor’s ‘City of Yes’ Proposal Mean for New Yorkers?

The New York City Council is expected to approve one of Mayor Eric Adams’s signature policy proposals on Thursday — part of a three-part plan to update the city’s zoning rules known as “City of Yes.”

The latest measure aims to boost the economy by creating new manufacturing districts and encouraging businesses to fill vacant storefronts. The Council already approved the first piece of the mayor’s plan, which focused on climate change, in a vote last year.

A third proposal could be more contentious. It is meant to spur development of affordable housing, but it has prompted outrage in neighborhoods outside Manhattan and comes at a time when there is growing tension between Mr. Adams and the City Council. It could be voted on later this year.

Here is what you need to know about the mayor’s “City of Yes” proposals:

What’s the goal?

Mr. Adams, a Democrat, has argued that the city’s zoning rules are outdated and are hampering efforts to address a housing crisis and to help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The changes would be the first major updates to the commercial zoning code since the 1960s.

Mr. Adams has argued that the goal of the three-part plan is to make the city “more equitable and sustainable.” Updates to rules around housing are especially needed, he said, as the rental vacancy rate hovers at close to 1 percent — the lowest it has been in more than 50 years. The new rules, he said, would allow the city to build “a little more housing in every neighborhood.”

“We have to build more inventory,” Mr. Adams said at a recent town hall in Queens. He also pointed to the city’s stark racial segregation: “Our zoning laws were racist on many levels. It prevented people from living in communities.”