Growing up on Staten Island’s North Shore, Sideya Sherman learned that to access opportunity, she needed to leave her neighborhood.
“I understood at a very early age how much place matters and how impactful government services can be on one’s life,” Sherman said in an interview on Tuesday.
That sentiment was reinforced when Sherman worked at the Municipal Art Society, where she helped community groups get more involved in land use and planning issues, and at the New York City Housing Authority, where she engaged with residents. She explored access and equity as the city’s first chief equity officer and commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice.
In February, Mayor Zohran Mamdani tapped Sherman as the new director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission. Sherman sees the role, in some ways, as a continuation of her earlier work.
“The [Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice] was really focused on working with agencies to think about how they’re addressing inequity, whether it’s through budget as a lever or personnel as a lever, procurement, policymaking,” she said. “But land use is a lever as well. When you think about how much where you live matters, I think there’s a really great opportunity to further advance equity in the work that I’m doing today.”
During an interview, Sherman described how she’s thinking about her new job and how she thinks about ramping up housing construction while valuing community input. She also spoke about rezonings and initiatives left unfinished by the last administration.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How will your previous experience influence your new role?
What my experience has taught me is that while all of the neighborhoods that I worked in were unique, many of the challenges were the same because they were systemic in nature, whether it’s lack of investment in transit or the impacts of redlining or segregation. I saw this play out in many of the communities, and I think that’s what led me to a lot of the more system-level, equity work.
In what ways are you looking to advance equity at City Planning?
This idea of scarcity, particularly as it pertains to housing, has a way of reinforcing inequities. One of our charges at DCP is to help dramatically increase the city’s housing supply, and affordable housing supply in particular. I think there’s a great opportunity to significantly increase the city’s housing supply, create an opportunity for more mobility for New Yorkers and more choice for New Yorkers across our city, and also make sure that we’re working with communities, because process is just as important as the outcome. Just given my background, I have a strong interest in making sure that we pursue neighborhood plans and that we’re working side-by-side with communities as we do so.
Have you identified neighborhoods to rezone?
We’re still determining that. But housing and supporting the development of housing is obviously a priority. We also sort of have marching orders from the work of the Charter Revision Commission with a focus on communities that haven’t contributed fairly to the city’s affordable housing supply in the past. So, certainly, a focus there.
When you say focus, do you mean you’re considering upzoning those community districts, the 12 with the lowest rates of affordable housing development?
We’re pursuing the very first steps, which is promulgating the rules around how we even determine those neighborhoods eligible for the fast track. And then taking it from there.
What about proposals that were left over from the Adams administration, including the Manhattan Plan and the text amendment to require special permits for last-mile facilities?
For the text amendment, that’s still in environmental review. The agency worked to push that forward towards the end of the last administration. With a number of new faces in the council, and also me just getting here and getting up to speed on everything, [I] want to sit down and take a look at that and figure out what’s the best path forward. Same on the Manhattan Plan. We know that Manhattan faces a pretty substantial housing crisis, and there was a lot of online, in-person engagement to put forth that plan. And so now, we’re digesting that. But we’re starting to assess and move all of those plans into the next stage.
For a number of years, the Municipal Art Society opposed efforts to lift the city’s residential FAR cap. How do you feel about the cap having been lifted?
I think it’s been positive and that it’s unlocked new high-density districts that can help us achieve the housing supply that we need, and it’s something that we support.
Will the charter amendments change the kind of scrutiny the Planning Commission gives to applications that are not subject to final City Council approval?
With the fast track, community boards still have a role. Borough presidents obviously have a role. I take the comments of those who come and testify, those who send in testimony, community board members, borough presidents, very seriously. I think it will be important, knowing that the CPC would be the final stop for some of the fast track projects, that we’re taking all of that into account. That happens already, of course, but I think that there will be a heightened level of focus on what we’re hearing from communities as we reach those decisions.
Check out our other interviews with Mamdani administration officials:
What we’re thinking about: Did you attend the final “rental ripoff” hearing on Staten Island on Tuesday? Tell me about it at kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: The 1986 film “Big Trouble in Little China” was originally envisioned as a Western set in the 1890s, according to Mental Floss.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Delia Awusi, director of the Business Outreach Center Network’s Women’s Business Center, as mom-and-pop czar. The newly-created position will focus on helping “ultra-small businesses” and will report to Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su.
— During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani supported City Council legislation seeking to abolish the NYPD’s gang database. But on Monday, the mayor noted that the department has made a number of reforms, proposed by a Department of Investigation report, to the database. The mayor’s comments seem to signal that the mayor is open to keeping the database around, Gothamist reports.
— State lawmakers on Tuesday approved a second one-week budget extender that will keep the government running through April 14, according to City & State.
Closing Time
Residential: The largest residential sale Tuesday was $6.9 million for a 2,418-square-foot condominium unit at 1 Central Park South in the Plaza District. The unit last traded for $8.1 million in 2007. Charlie Attias, Brooke Winsness and Connor Ramage with Compass had the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale was $35.5 million for a 25,000-square-foot commercial area at 1101-1123 Myrtle Avenue in Stuyvesant Heights. SYU Properties sold the property to Secured Management.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $50 million for a 14,125-square-foot townhouse at 18 East 80th Street on the Upper East Side. Zeve Salman and Eric Brown of the Elevated Team at Compass have the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 290,561-square-foot, 28-story mixed-use project with affordable housing at 164-02 Jamaica Avenue. Suzanna Tharian with Stat Architecture filed the permit on behalf of Melissa Bindra at Vaya Development.
— Matthew Elo
