Asian Wave Alliance Urges Voters to Reject All Six Ballot Proposals

New York, NY – October 24, 2025 – Asian Wave Alliance calls on all voters to cast a resounding NO on all six ballot proposals appearing on the general election ballot. These measures will sideline the civic and electoral progress we have fought for to reflect our priorities. While building more housing is a citywide goal, it must not supersede the rightful concerns of existing residents in our communities. City services like police precincts and firehouses, sanitation and schools must be addressed to support the growth from new developments. Proposals 2, 3, and 4 would erode this local control by shifting critical land-use decisions away from our community boards and elected City Council members and concentrate the power to the mayor and unelected mayoral appointees and expedite processes without important safeguards and evaluations by city agencies. We must vote NO to secure our seat at the table.

Proposal 1 (Statewide: Amendment for Olympic Sports Complex in Essex County Forest Preserve): While this does not directly pertain to NYC residents, it will divert statewide public resources to develop this distant project that offers no benefit to our boroughs. Vote NO. 

Proposal 2, 3 and 4 (Expedited Land Use Review Procedure, Fast Track Review and New Zoning Appeals Board): By slashing timelines for "smaller" projects and spawn development in lower-density neighborhoods, these proposals will curtail full community scrutiny by removing local power and forums to hear neighborhood needs. The new Zoning Appeals Board proposal hands unchecked power to the mayor and his City Planning Commission appointees, sidelining the City Council. “It is important that we preserve the say we have on how our communities are shaped. Removing such checks and balances can lead to overdevelopment and do great harm to the existing environment without thoughtful planning,” says Amy Tse, treasurer of Asian Wave Alliance and member of Community Board 8 in Queens. “We urge voters to vote NO on all the proposals.”

Proposal 5 (Unify the City Map Digitally): While centralizing and creating a digital system for outdated paper maps sounds logical, we have concerns about transparency of the process with no public input process or error adjudication; creation/changes/updates would be wholly centralized with the Department of City Planning. Additionally, we have not been given the cost or timeline of this proposal  —vote NO until transparency is guaranteed.

Proposal 6 (Even-Year Elections): Shifting city elections to even years might boost turnout overall, but it would drown out local races in the shadow of national politics, and dilute local organizing for local representation. It will also make it harder for challengers to incumbents. As a nonpartisan club, we want to see open and fair challenges to electeds who are not serving our communities well, regardless of party —vote NO to keep our elections vibrant and community-driven.

“We stand with the City Council leadership in opposing these overreaches to eliminate democratically elected local representation on how our communities would change under the push for housing development. On November 4, join us in voting NO on all six. Your ballot is your voice: use it to protect the representation we've earned,” said Yiatin Chu, President of Asian Wave Alliance.

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