Protester Injured at NYC Council Meeting on Affordable Housing Plan

Brooklyn representative Carlos Menchaca applauded the NYPD for their handling of Tuesday's protest in council chambers. Screenshot via NYC.gov

MANHATTAN, NY — A hugely contentious vote on affordable housing mandates at NYC City Hall on Tuesday was reportedly interrupted for upward of 20 minutes when a scuffle broke out between activists and guards in the chambers' balcony area.

By the time the scuffle was over, one protester was injured.

City Councilmembers had been delivering their final comments before voting on the mayor's much-debated new housing plan, which will create new rules for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) and Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA) in the city.

Politico correspondent Sally Goldenberg, who attended the meeting, reported that guards initially attempted to remove protesters from the building because they were repeatedly interrupting with chants like "City Council, vote 'No'! MIH has got to go!"

When protesters refused to leave the balcony, a struggle ensued, according to Goldenberg.

"You're breaking my arm!" one man reportedly shouted at guards.

By the time the hubbub died down, according to multiple City Hall reporters, one man was on the floor.

The NYPD and emergency medical responders were on scene to treat the man, who one City Councilmember called "Mr. Abdulla."

The council's speaker, Melissa MarkViverito, also reportedly climbed up to the balcony to check if he was OK.

Another strange twist: Council staffers told DNAinfo reporter Danielle Tcholakian that protestors "superglued their hands together, which is why there was a struggle to remove them."

(Patch reached out to the City Council's press office, as well as the NYPD, for more information on the injured protester's identity and the extent of his wounds. Check back for updates.)

The NYC City Council approved both prongs of mayor's housing plan just before 4 p.m.

City Councilmember Laurie Cumbo — who represents Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and parts of Bed-Stuy in council — said she understood protesters' concerns, as her communities have been "ravished by gentrification."

However, she said it was "important that we conduct ourselves in a way that permits everyone to feel safe in the community as we express our opinions and our thoughts."

Before submitting her "Yes" vote, Cumbo called the mayor's housing plan "a step in the right direction."

"We cannot allow good to be the enemy of perfect," she said.

For months, NYC residents and the community boards that represent them — including many in Brooklyn — have been fighting to block the mayor's housing plan. Although Mayor Bill de Blasio has called it "the most progressive affordable housing policy of any major city in this country," opponents feel, among other things, that its zoning changes could make for overdevelopment in already crowded neighborhoods, and that its affordability requirements would still be too easy on developers.

And judging by how jazzed NYC developers seem to be about the plan, the mayor's critics could be onto something.