Dustin Longmire is a pastor with an extra church.
And he believes the most Christian thing to do with it is build more housing.
The 38-year-old pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in the upstate town of Rotterdam said his plan was moving forward until local officials changed the zoning code to reduce the allowed density. As a result, he’s become an advocate for state legislation called the Faith-based Affordable Housing Act, which would exempt houses of worship from some local zoning laws.
Longmire says the bill could help alleviate the state’s housing crisis, fulfill a spiritual call, and help revitalize religious institutions and better connect them with their communities. It also puts him in the middle of an ongoing debate over the state’s affordability crisis, where efforts to build high-density housing in suburbs like Rotterdam meet with resistance from municipal officials who argue for local control.
To answer NIMBY, or “Not in my backyard,” Longmire says YIGBY: “Yes, in God’s backyard.”
I met Longmire in the weeks before Easter. He gave me a tour of both church properties, and then invited me to a prayer service in support of the bill. It has some legs at the Capitol, but municipal officials are concerned it would lead to an override of local zoning.
Click here to read my full article, and listen to the radio feature below.
MORE TESLA PUSHBACK: As New York weighs a deal to let Tesla renew its lease at a state-owned factory in Buffalo, the electric carmaker is falling short of its job-creation commitments — prompting some state lawmakers to call for penalties.
The employment shortfall may complicate the company’s attempts to renew the lease. Gov. Kathy Hochul declined to back the pending deal as some of her fellow Democrats have raised concerns over the company and its leader, Elon Musk.
Tesla’s contract calls for it to employ 3,460 people statewide. In exchange, it rents the Buffalo factory for $1 a year. It’s short of those goals, reporting 2,883 jobs at the end of last year. State and company officials say they have a tentative agreement to lower the threshold in an amendment to the lease, but Assemblyman Micah Lasher says the Hochul administration should push for a contractual penalty.
“They should be fined if they didn't meet the terms of their agreement, both because that's fair and because it's essential for the state of New York to have any credibility in negotiating and enforcing agreements around economic development subsidies,” told me last month.
Click here to read my latest article, or watch me talk about it on WKBW, the ABC affiliate in Buffalo.
THE QUESTION: Which New York City church owns more than a dozen acres in lower Manhattan?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: Perforated toilet paper was invented in Albany, according to a sign I walk by at the New York State Capitol.
