CB5 Chairman Vote Heads Toward Contested Election in June

Contested elections are rare at the city’s community boards. But Samir Lavingia, interim chair of Community Board Five, appears to be headed for one. Lavingia was thrust into the role of chair of Community Board Five by a series of surprise resignations, an event made more controversial because his day job is as campaign coordinator for Open New York, registered in Albany as a lobbyist for building more housing.

This infuriated other members, and the boards second vice chair, Craig Slutzkin, has told colleagues he plans to run for chair in elections for a full term that would take place in June. A board committee is currently interviewing candidates.

In an exclusive interview with Straus News, Livingia said he has also put his name in for nomination for a full term, pledging he can keep his role as a housing lobbyist separate from his duties as an officer of CB 5, which sprawls across midtown Manhattan.

Here are excerpts of the conversation:

LIVINGIA: I have personally put my name in for chair. I look forward to going through the interview process, seeing how they feel, and then hopefully getting on to their slate in May. The election will be in June.

And what is your case for why you should have a full term as Chair?

I think that I’m well positioned to really focus on the work. There’s been a lot of turnover on Community Board Five. I think we really need someone who’s clear eyed about the fact that we need to build a more resilient, transparent board that will last for a long time. And I think I’m the best person to do that. Since joining the board, I’ve built a lot of relationships. I’ve met with so many members, new members, existing members, long term members. Just to understand what they see the pain points are. And I want to take on a full term so I can address some of those long standing pain points.

What would you identify as the key pain points that people are sharing with you?

People join the board for many different reasons. And I think in the past, people have not been given the opportunity to really push forward what they’ve wanted to push forward. So, for example, I have a friend on the board who is very interested in the environment. And she feels that she’s not been able to push through, or be heard, when it comes to big environmental issues. You know, climate change is a very important issue to people, especially people my age [Lavingia is 29 years old]. And I think the main thing that I want to address is making sure that when people join the board, they’re able to get heard on the issues that they care about, which currently I’ve heard is quite the struggle.

How would you make it easier for people to be heard?

I think there are two main ways. When I joined the board, I was very clear that the issues I cared about were land use and transportation. And I was put on two committees. One was the state license and permits committee and the other was Parks and Open Spaces.

I’ve really enjoyed my time on both. I’ve learned a lot, especially on the state licenses and permits. I think it’s really the most hands on with community residents of any of the committees.

But it’s not really what I came in as the most interested in. So the easiest way would be to reevaluate the committee assignments, look at why people joined. What they’re interested in. And then the second would be to try to push the board in a more proactive direction. Our board historically has been very reactive. We get applications. We go through them. We issue our recommendations. And we don’t really take a more proactive approach. Community Board Four, for example, they identify that they have a housing crisis. They put together a task force and entire plan. They say, these are the sites we want to be rezoned. These are the types of housing we’d want there. That’s how we’re going to get out of this housing crisis. And we haven’t really done anything as proactive, I think...I think community members, residents, business owners want to feel like they’re being heard and want to feel like we’re taking a more proactive approach to their problems...

Speaking of housing, you came in as interim chair to some controversy because of your role at Open New York. Revisit that for a moment. How does that feel now looking back on that controversy?

I joined the community board because I was seeing both myself and my friends and my family all get pushed out of their housing situations. People with market rate rentals. The rents are going through the roof. It’s very easy to identify that community boards are a good opportunity to push for more housing. You know, we go through the ULURP [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] process, we have a charter mandated roll in that. So as a member, I was very vocal, especially at full board meetings that I cared a lot about housing.

I think as the chair, it’s just such a different job. The job as chair is not to have a policy position. The job as chair is not to advocate for anything. It’s really just to run the meetings, make sure that people are satisfied and really delegate a lot of the authority. For example, we’re going to have the City of Yes, come in. I don’t plan on having any opinion on it as Chair. I’m going to let the committee chair run the show on that. The Committee will issue their recommendation to the full board. The full board will vote on it. And then my position as chair, and the position of the board, will be whatever the full board votes on. So I think one thing that I’ve really doubled down on is that as chair my job is not to advocate. My job is to just reiterate the position of the board and make sure the board is structured in a way that we can have a well-informed opinion that represents the community.

So in that sense, do you think it’s unfair or overstated that you’re a registered lobbyist? And that open New York is also a lobbyist?

Those are both true. Right? It is true that I’m a registered lobbyist. It is true that Open New York does lobbying work. The part where there’s some confusion is about what role does that have to play? As community board members, and as the chair, we’re supposed to represent the community. We’re supposed to represent our own opinions. We’re not supposed to represent the opinion of any employer, be it a lobbyist, a non-lobbyist, anyone else. And I felt that since starting, I’ve done that. I’ve always made sure to center the community. To make sure that the voices that are not heard are being heard through me. And I continue to do that as chair. I understand the perception, and why people are concerned about it. But at the end of the day there’s simply no conflict. And I’m making sure that whenever there’s an issue like a bill that comes up where people are concerned, or there is a conflict, that I do not vote on it.

There is a proposal to limit the number of people from any one group on the Board, clearly aimed at the four Open New York members on CB 5. What’s your view of that?

As chair, it was critical to me that we understood the legal ramifications of those proposals. So I talked to the law department and got their opinion on them. The latest proposal was to limit the votes of people if they are–I don’t want to speak out of turn–but I believe it was that if you’re an advocate for a certain affiliation you should not vote on an issue. Okay? Let’s say you’re an advocate for bike lanes, you shouldn’t vote on bike lanes. That was the proposal. And when I spoke to the law department on that, they said, Look, voting is a right it is not a privilege and simply put that would not be allowed, like you cannot take away someone’s right to vote on the community board.

You mentioned that wanting to address the high price of housing first brought you to CB 5 as a member. Where do you live?

I live near Columbus Circle, along 55th and Broadway. When I joined the community board, I lived on 15th and Union Square East. And then, you know, part of the reason why I’m so involved in the community board and why I care so much is because in February of 2023, I was told by my landlord that I was going to be getting a 25 percent rent increase, which is just something I could not afford.

I think it’s something, especially right now, a lot of New Yorkers are going through that. Especially people at market rate rentals. So I had to look for a new place to live. I looked really hard for a place in the district because I wanted to continue on the community board. But I was very close to not being able to afford to live in the district. But thankfully, I was able to find a place on the basically exact opposite corner of the district, from the southeast corner to the northwest corner. And thankfully, I was able to stay on but you know, I was looking in Chinatown. I was looking in LI City, Sunnyside, Inwood, really all over the place, because the rents are just out of control, especially in our district.

You’re a software engineer. Your story belies this image that software engineers just are raking in the money?

So I quit my job as a software engineer in February of 2022. And, you know, up until then, it was still hard to afford a place I was not, I was not severely rent burden, but I was still paying quite a significant chunk of my income in rent. But once I changed jobs to work at Open New York, at this nonprofit, it comes with a severe pay cut, which is something that I was willing to do, because I really, truly care about this issue so much, that I’m willing to dedicate my life basically to it. And so it’s a compromise that I was willing to make. I was acknowledging the fact that if I wanted to live in the district I was going to be severely rent burdened. I’m paying way over 50 percent of my income on rent. But it’s something that I’ve decided is worthwhile to do for now.

Recognizing the caveat you’ve issued before about it being separate from your work as chair of CB 5, say a word about the mission of Open New York?

I’m putting on my campaign coordinator hat. The mission of Open New York is basically to remedy the housing shortage that we’ve had in New York City and New York state that’s been building up over the decades. To bring rents down, we need to build a lot more housing to match the demand that it exists to live in New York. Where Open York is a little bit more unique is that we also push for very strong tenant protections to make sure that people living in their homes are not going to be displaced, are not going to be forced out. I think that is like a very common concern. Very reasonable and common concerns that when you build housing, you’re going to push people out and we want to make sure that that does not happen.

How do you feel about the housing deal the governor just made last week?

Putting back my Community Board Five Chair hat, we have constantly said it in our district needs assessment that affordable housing is the number one issue. In the past, we have been concerned about the levels of financial incentives that are going to developers to build affordable housing. We have been outspoken on that as an issue on the community board.

Where does that position take you on one of the biggest issues facing the board, which is Penn Station, the GPP [General Project Plan]. The GPP was basically conceived with almost no housing.

Yeah, so you know, we have taken, we’ve written many resolutions on the GPP. We are vehemently against the GPP. We want it to be retired. We don’t think it’s appropriate, especially right now, with so many things changing it was originally approved before COVID, was approved before higher interest rates, etc. And so we want it to be retired altogether.

In terms of our plan for the future, we have a task force that is really trying to look at this issue holistically. What we would want to see as a community from the Penn area. That taskforce has been working very diligently to gather community feedback, to gather input from all stakeholders. And we hope to get together a report on what we’d want to see in the area. And I would expect housing to be something that would be highlighted in that report.

You’re expecting an opponent in the race for chair?

I don’t know. I’m not going to know until May, I guess. And if there is an opponent, I think that’s healthy. I think that for a long time, community board five has shied away from having contested elections. Having a contested election is an opportunity to really see where the board members are on different issues on the platform.

The only thing I would add is I want to be very clear that my role as chair and my role as campaign coordinator, Open New York, are fully separate. I take the role as chair incredibly seriously and will not let my work influence my positions or my opinions at all. And I’m really focused on making sure that we are centering the residents, the business owners and everyone else who is a constituent of ours.