MAS NYC Presents: Ideas For New York's New Leadership

About MAS For 120 years the Municipal Art Society has made New York a more livable
city by advocating for excellence in urban planning and design, a commitment to historic preservation and the arts, and the empowerment of local communities to effect change in their neighborhoods. From saving Grand Central Terminal and the lights of Times Square, to establishing groundbreaking land-use and preservation laws that have become national models, MAS has been at the forefront of New Yorks most important campaigns to promote our citys economic vitality, cultural vibrancy, environmental sustainability, and social diversity. For more information, visit mas.org.
About the Project:

Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership draws on the diversity of interests and expertise that shape the city: planners, designers, artists, elected officials, academics, entrepreneurs, corporate business and community activists. To enrich the discussion about the next set of policy ideas for New York City, The Municipal Art Society (MAS) invited a cross-section of New Yorkers with knowledge in various urban policy areas to offer their guidance to the new leadership. Each contributor discusses a key issue, opportunity or priority for action within a specic domain. The ideas that follow do not necessarily reect the views of MAS, but are presented to stimulate a diverse and inclusive discourse to inform decision making and priority setting.
March 2014
Table of Contents
Tony Hiss The Municipal Art Society of New York
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Foreword Introduction
Integrated Planning Strategies for the City

Director of Policy // The Pratt Center for Community Development Director // The Pratt Center for Community Development Architect // Ennead Architects Director of Sustainability // Ennead Architects
Joan Byron
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Mobility and Equity in the Tale of Two Cities Innovating Jobs Venice on the Hudson
Adam Friedman
Richard Olcott Stefan Knust
Research Psychiatrist // New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University Provost // University of Orange
Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD Molly Rose Kaufman
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Jobs and Housing Make Stable Communities
Neighborhood Assets: Investments for the 21st Century

Director // J. Max Bond Center, Spitzer School of Architecture, City College, CUNY Cofounder & Chairman // Brooklyn Brewery Professor of Architecture // University of Michigan Vice President, Preservation & Government Relations // The Municipal Art Society Founder // Gambit Consulting
Toni L. Griffin Steve Hindy
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Is New York City a Just City? A Tale of Two Parks Renaissance Plan for New York Citys Public Housing Making the Case for Civic Assets
Roy Strickland Ronda Wist
Sophia Koven
President // Barrett & Company and Spring 2013 Fellow, The Municipal Art Society
Alison Carnduff
Supporting Diversity Through Arts and Culture

Executive Director & CEO // Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance Executive Director // Dance/NYC Executive Director // New York Foundation for the Arts
Sandra A. Garca Betancourt Lane Harwell
40 42 45
Toward Real Change The Arts and New York Are One Creative Individuals Equal a Creative City
Michael Royce
Building a More Resilient City

Research Director // Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE.), Columbia University
Jesse M. Keenan Peter Lehner
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Many Birds with One Stone: Adaptation and Economic Development Scaling Up Energy in Low-Income Housing All Hands on Deck: Building a Resilience Constituency
Executive Director // Natural Resources Defense Council Director, Urban Resilience and Livability // The Municipal Art Society Senior Urban Planner // BTAworks
Mary W. Rowe Andrew Yan
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Contributors Biographies Acknowledgments
FOREWORD
by Tony Hiss
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MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership
here are moments in New York when our vast, rushing city seems to pause, when people throughout our more than 325 neighborhoods are poised and ready to listen to one another, to reassess where we are as a city and where were going. Now is one of those moments, when we nd ourselves eager to think again about the essentials of a modern city, and how it can stay true to its highest purposes by cherishing the dignity and worth of everyone here, all eight-and-a-third million of us. Its well known that cities create efficiencies: by concentrating people, making it easier to stay in touch, move around, make a living, create undreamt-of experiences and opportunities. But less well known is that when cities are in tune with themselves, they have an extra dimension accelerating human understanding, constructing an environment where, when people are working together and looking after one another, each successive generation can meet ever larger challenges. This short but remarkable book presents 14 ready-to-go ideassome big and bold, some small but perhaps even bolderabout bringing New Yorks extra dimension back into focus. Here are thoughts and plans and visions directed, as Joan Byron says in her essay, toward rewriting our tale of two cities. How would the future story of one city read? Eendraght maeckt maght is the old Dutch motto on the Brooklyn borough ag, a phrase usually translated as In unity there is strength. But it derives from an even older, if slightly longer, Roman concept, the insight that Concord will make small things ourish, discord will destroy great things. Practically speaking, one city simply works better than two. Oneness is more than an undercurrent in this book: it is its wellspring. Writing, for instance, about the strength of neighborhoods, Mindy Thompson Fullilove and Molly Rose Kaufman
say, there are no undesirable people, only undesirable conditions. When it comes to the citys 334 housing projects, which house 400,000 New Yorkers, Roy Strickland celebrates them as an asset, not a liability, whose residents are assets and whose homes can become centers of vital neighborhoods without demolition or displacement. Then again, wells can eventually run dry and, like many watchwords, oneness could become a buzzword and lose its strength, a phrase evoked but not implemented. These essays demonstrate specic transformations that are possible when you look afresh at a city through sense-of-we lenses:
can innately and instantly read, such as Welcome or Move along; Youre safe here or Watch out; There are people here youll like or Not your kind; This takes me back or Not this again. Toni Griffins Just City Indicator Project gets to the heart of this link, augmenting the PlaNYC sustainability indicators, which measure how clean the air and water are by incorporating qualitative dimensions of what makes the built environment conducive to greater inclusion, diversity, equality and democracy. Its a scale that would let us assess whether, for instance, the design of new places and spaces aid in encouraging a young African American teenagers sense of belonging in a public park in Midtown Manhattan. Imagine more public spaces that encourage rather than discourage a greater diversity of young New Yorkersthe ultimate wellspring of the city. There are many other bright ideas bubbling up in these few pagesabout parks, artists, landmarks, affordable housing, and replenishing nature along our river edges. In a memorable phrase, Adam Friedman tells us its time to capture the next ripple, meaning that were clever at coming up with original products but then we let the manufacturing of them and all those good jobs slip away. Design/Production Innovation Districts can x this by giving equal value to inner innovation cores and outer production rings. Like so much in this book, the idea encourages us to expand on what New York has been and still is, to keep the city rushing forward, but with care so we dont stumble or lose our way. I look forward to being part of a city that opens its arms to the ourishing of small things and great things alike. n
Everyday objects can have hidden value. An express bus, for instance, as Joan Byron points out, if given its own right-of-way, can be a lifeline, a springboard, a launch pad for people who cant afford cars but who, to make ends meet, have had to move into neighborhoods built for car owners and now spend two hours a day getting to and from work. (These fast-bus routes cost less than 1% of a new subway line.) And what if a MetroCard could get you out on the water? Thats the question Richard Olcott and Stefan Knust raise, arguing for a large eet of small ferries that extend mass transit across the Hudson, the East River, and the harbor, and create memorable destinations for generations to come. It all builds on one of the best initiatives of the Bloomberg administrationthe realization that a street can have more uses than just driving and parking. Its a great public space, too, a place to move through but also one to be savored and shared by motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians alike. Here is where the eight-and-a third million mingle. The built environment isnt just something around us, because its also building something within. The physical and social environments are inextricably linked. Every structure and every public space is festooned with wordless messages we
INTRODUCTION
MAS Presents: Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership
s New York City welcomes Mayor de Blasio and new leadership across the ve boroughs, we at the Municipal Art Society (MAS) are hopeful that todays leaders will build on the successes of the last administration while also developing innovative approaches to confront the persistent challenges of building a more livable and resilient New York. We are not alone in our anticipation. According to the 2013 MAS Survey on Livability, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, 76% of New Yorkers feel optimistic about a new administration.
Through this lens of collective optimism, we look forward to taking a fresh look at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Throughout our 120-year history, MAS has been at the forefront of New York Citys most signicant city building campaigns, including saving Grand Central Terminal and the lights of Times Square, imagining a new park in Fresh Kills and establishing groundbreaking land-use and preservation laws that have become national models. MAS has helped ensure that the pieces of New Yorks physical and cultural heritage so crucial to neighborhood diversity
are valued and protected. And, as we have for over fty years, we continue to increase urban literacy by offering dynamic walking tours and organizing thought-provoking public conversations through events like our annual MAS Summit for New York City. Drawing on the remarkable energy of the MAS Board of Directors, volunteers, and staff, we will continue to lead a strong coalition of non-prots, planning and design professionals, civic leaders, and neighborhood activists to confront and develop solutions to the challenges New York City faces today. From building an alliance for a new Penn
Station to advocating for muchneeded affordable housing, MAS looks forward to working handin-hand with our new leadership to address the citys most pressing issues. Integrated Planning Strategies for the City New York City needs a comprehensive approach to better plan for the futureone that more equitably distributes development throughout the ve boroughs and employs the best planning practices: from preserving our historic assets and investing in infrastructure and public space, to encouraging community engagement. We know with global competition, economic uncertainty, and new challenges like climate change, New York City must constantly re-think and re-invent itself. But to ensure success, we need to think holistically and creatively about the elements that make a city resilient, economically vibrant, and livable. In 2013 MAS re-engaged in a discussion on the future of Grand Central Terminal when the last administration proposed to rezone 73 blocks of East Midtown in order to incentivize the development of new large Class A office buildings. Our work over the course of the last year
helped to dene what a 21st century Midtown might look like. This year we hope to realize this vision in a new plan by working collaboratively with a broad array of stakeholders concerned about East Midtowns future. Investing in a new Penn Station is one of the central infrastructure projects of our time. More than half a million people travel through Penn Station every day, experiencing a sub-standard
facility that compromises safety and efficiency, and continues to impede the revitalization of what could be a dynamic and sought-after commercial and residential neighborhood. It is the busiest station in the US. And, there is perhaps no other single place in the city that impacts the daily lives of so many. Investing in a new station is critically needed, not only to accommodate a growing ridership, but also to ensure the citys, regions and countrys economic
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health. In 2013 MAS, in partnership with the Regional Plan Association, convinced the City Council to limit Madison Square Gardens permit to operate above Penn Station to ten more years with the support of then-public advocate de Blasio. This administration now has an unprecedented opportunity to engage in a process to relocate the Gardena vital step in turning Penn Station into the dynamic, high functioning catalyst New York needs. Solutions to this problem will require extraordinary leadership and coordination, but it is this kind of investment that is necessary to keep New York secure well into the next century. MAS is also rmly committed to working with our new leaders to develop solutions to build and preserve affordable housing while simultaneously building stronger neighborhoods. An extraordinary amount of work is ahead of us to meet the Mayors ambitious goals and support institutions like NYCHAan essential part of New Yorks affordable housing landscape which are in urgent need of investment. Neighborhood Assets: Investments for the 21st Century Today, New York Citys ability to be globally competitive is largely due to public investments made long ago. Our public housing, community centers, libraries, parks, and numerous other civic assets continue to provide essential services. As economic concerns drive decisions and real estate values rise and fall, we need new investment strategies to support these assets. The most resilient neighborhoods are those that nurture strong social networks, which are often formed and cultivated through our shared places. We need to nd a way to help develop innovative, nancially sustainable approaches and effective partnerships to help strengthen the local places where communal bonds are forged, creativity is nurtured, learning enhanced, and culture exchanged. As MAS has pointed out recently in our work on real estate development around Central Park, it is critical that as New York grows we protect and support the key assets which continue to dene the urban experience and New York.
Supporting Diversity Through Arts and Culture Arts and culturein all formsplay a central role in shaping the character of our citys neighborhoods. Going back to our founding, MAS has a long history in promoting the fundamental role of the arts in stimulating pride of place, quality of life, and cultural connections. Our work in the arts today touches nearly every area of MASwhether it be the inclusion of the arts in communitybased planning, conversations about the inclusion of places for the arts in new development, how to retain our citys creative workforce, or discussions about equity. We know from the 2013 MAS Survey on Livability that many nonManhattan-based residents dont see their neighborhoods as good places to experience arts and culture. MAS sees this as an opportunity for the de Blasio administration to create new incentives and opportunities across its many agencies, including the Department of Cultural Affairs, to invest equitably in the arts in all neighborhoods. Building a More Resilient City To develop truly resilient communities and a stronger New York, economic, social, and environmental vulnerabilities need to be addressed equally. As we saw with the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, solutions to these challenges often originate in proactive, locally driven community planning and grassroots innovation. Strengthening the capacity of communities to participate in the planning process is critical to ensure that proposed plans reect local needs and priorities, and that citywide partnerships develop networks able to respond quickly to future disruptions. Mobilizing existing resources and enlisting professionals with a broad range of expertise in environmental, planning, and community engagement can help to create strategies that both improve resiliency and livability. We encourage our new leaders to engage directly with entrepreneurs in the design and tech communities to develop ways to better share information and anticipate and respond to challenges.
We advocate for an integrated approach to making soft and hard infrastructure investments by coordinating across federal, state, and city agencies. Ultimately, we hope to see City leadership mobilize New Yorkers across all ve boroughsacross class, race and ethnicity, and neighborhoodsto step up to the challenge of making resilience a part of our daily lives. n
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Joan Byron Mobility and Equity in the Tale of Two Cities Director of Policy // The Pratt Center for Community Development Adam Friedman Director // The Pratt Center for Community Development Richard Olcott Partner // Ennead Architects Stefan Knust Director of Sustainability // Ennead Architects Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD Research Psychiatrist // New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University Molly Rose Kaufman Provost // University of Orange
Innovating Jobs Venice on the Hudson
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Mobility and Equity in the Tale of Two Cities

by Joan Byron
ay a subway map over a census map of household incomes, and youll see evidence that the cost of housing in walkable, transit-rich neighborhoods is pushing poor and working-class families out to what used to be called two-fare zones. Though the MetroCard has eliminated the extra charge for transferring from bus to subway, living out of reach of the subway still exacts a heavy price from individual commuters, from their families and from their neighborhoods. 758,000 New Yorkers travel more than an hour each way to workand
two-thirds of them are commuting to jobs paying less than $35,000 per year. Neighborhoods that were once cardependent, quasi-suburban enclaves are now the homes of families with multiple wage earners who cant afford to drive; teenage mega-commuters who leave their homes before dawn for school; and seniors cut off from health care and other needed services. Businesses off the subway grid suffer too. Since 2000, the boroughs have steadily gained both absolute numbers and share of employment; but jobs in
health care, education, retail, logistics, and manufacturing are clustered in locations far from the subway. Slow and unreliable buses make it hard for employers to attract and retain skilled workers. And local retailers struggle to compete with big-box chains on commercial strips made chaotic by autocentric 1960s planning rules. There is no scally or physically imaginable scenario in which outerborough transit decits can be addressed by rail. The MTA will be hard pressed to complete the rail projects
Population Change 1990 to 2010

Population change by census tract
more than - 100 residents - 99 to 100 residents 101 to 300 residents 301 to 500 residents more than 501 residents Select Bus Service routes (proposed and in progress) Subway routes
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2.5
5 Miles
Data at census tract level, Census 2010 Source: US Census 1990, 2010
now under way, much less begin Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway. Completing Phase 1all one and a half miles and three stations worthwill have cost more than $4.5 billion by the time it opens in 2016. Claims that existing freight rail lines can be cheaply converted to transit service are dubious. The Triboro Rx idea only works if were willing to give up the only option for diverting any of our evergrowing volume of freight from trucks to rail. And an MTA study of Staten Islands North Shore line found that using the right-of-way for full-featured Bus Rapid Transit would provide almost as fast a trip as light rail (23 minutes vs. 21 minutes from West Shore Plaza to St. George Ferry Terminal) at about 60% of the total capital and operating cost.1 Full-featured Bus Rapid Transit is what New Yorks transit-starved neighborhoods need. The features that make BRT fast are achievable on many of the corridors, where speed, comfort, and reliability matter the most. Multi-lane streets with medians can accommodate the protected lanes and real stations that enable BRT to perform like rail, at a fraction of the price. Clevelands Health Line, the most advanced BRT corridor in the US, was completed for less than $30 million per milecompare that to the $3 billion per mile cost of the Second Avenue Subway. BRT doesnt cost much moneybut it does require agency bandwidth, and political commitment. MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation were able to introduce Select Bus Service because staff at the two agencies learned to work togetherand with affected communities. Reallocating street space can be fraughtbut the agencies have brought communities into the planning of each route early on. Engagement from route selection through lane and station placement helps to surface local concerns, like keeping curbs available for parking and loading. This kind of ne-grained planning solves real problems, and dispels misperceptions
that can block change. But its laborintensive. Accelerating the deployment of Select Bus Service, and bringing real Bus Rapid Transit to the corridors that need it most, will require an expanded commitment of agency staffing, well beyond the small and dedicated teams now assigned to the program.
Full-featured Bus Rapid Transit is what New Yorks transit-starved neighborhoods need. The features that make BRT fast are achievable on many of the corridors, where speed, comfort, and reliability matter the most.
Leadership from City Hall will determine whether BRT will get the modest amounts of funding and the high priority in agency mission that it will need to get rolling. Bringing fast, efficient transit to residents and workers in New Yorks transit-starved neighborhoods will be an important step toward rewriting our tale of two cities. n
References 1. Mobility and Equity for New Yorks TransitStarved Neighborhoods: The Case for FullFeatured Bus Rapid Transit. (2013) report by the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Rockefeller Foundation, http:// prattcenter.net/research/mobility-and-equitynew-york%E2%80%99s-transit-starvedneighborhoods-case-full-featured-bus-rapid
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Innovating Jobs
by Adam Friedman
he City should capitalize on New Yorks extraordinary wealth of design and other creative resources to stimulate product development, business formation, and job growth through the creation of Design/Production Innovation Districts containing a vibrant mix of space and uses. The growth in income disparity has become a dening characteristic of New York Citys economy, and addressing it must be one of the highest priorities of the new administration.
Critical to addressing the growth in income disparity is building a broader economic base, with sectors that offer living-wage jobs for New Yorks residents, who have an incredible diversity of skills, talents, and interests. The Bloomberg administration recognized the need for greater economic diversity, and late in its tenure began to recognize the design and engineering sectors as potential engines of economic growth. Initiatives to create a high-tech, applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island, launch Design Week, and any number of
business incubators and business plan competitions sought to ramp up the economic impact of our citys creative sectors. While these are great initiatives that will help to diversify the citys economic base, they will not lead to the type of broad-based economic recovery needed to generate the new jobs to address todays widespread unemployment and under-employment. Achieving a more robust recovery will require that the City create not only jobs in the innovation economy, that
we not only make the prototypes, but that we also capture the next ripple of jobs as companies move past the initial innovation phase of their products life cycles and into broader production for consumer markets. Similarly, we must nurture not only high-tech but hightouch industries that derive value from design and responsiveness to consumer preferences. The City should lay the foundation for such a broad-based recovery through the creation of Design/Production Innovation Districts. An Innovation District would contain a diversity of spaces for both the high-tech and creative sectors that stimulate product development and commercialization, as well as space for larger-scale production to capture the full job creation potential. The challenge for planners is how to achieve a mix of uses, some of which can afford relatively higher land use costs (such as the engineering and design rms, the restaurants and local retailers) while others can afford relatively lower land costs (such as the manufacturers and arts organizations.) The picture is even more complicated by the aesthetics of the industrial space and appeal of walkto-work communities, which combine to prime the market for residential conversions that could price out all of the above. The attractiveness of such mixed-use districts are inherently unstable if property owners can easily convert from low-rent to high-rent uses, and while property owners may oppose the restrictions that balance uses, such restrictions are essential to both the overall public and private value of the district. How can the City create an area with both the eclectic high-energy mix that stimulates creativity and entrepreneurship, but also stable lowcost space for the arts and production? The answer is for the City to create Innovation Districts with at least two types of land use patterns that might be conceived as an Innovation Core and a Production Ring.1 The Innovation
Core is diverse and where the creatives are clustered with space for designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists, incubators, educational institutions and micro manufacturers including coworking spaces such as those provided by Fab Lab, Tech Shop and Third Ward, where equipment and ideas, can be shared. The proximity of start-ups, art and design rms and other innovative businesses creates a synergistic web of ideas that inspires new products and businesses.
Any new construction should include space for manufacturing. This requirement could be satised on-site or it could be achieved by paying other property owners to dedicate space elsewhere in the district. Existing manufacturing space could only be converted if an equal amount of space is dedicated for manufacturing on-site or elsewhere in the district. Enforcement of use restrictions has been very difficult in the past. One way to solve the enforcement issue would be to give incentives or density bonuses for transfers of ownership or management of the restricted space to a third-party nonprot organization; and Clearly brand the district to ensure that anyone living, working or visiting the district knows that it is a mix of uses, expect that the mix creates some conict such as noise from early morning trucking and machinery or smells of coffee roasting and bread baking and be prepared to tolerate it. Such branding might include everything from signage and murals to public programming with factory tours, mini trade shows, and networking events that would both foster appreciation of the mix as well as the synergy between the uses that is at the heart of the district. n
Notes: 1. The Innovation Core and the Production Ring are not literal descriptions but meant to illustrate two connected, mutually dependent but distinct land use patterns.
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Critical to addressing the growth in income disparity is building a broader economic base, with sectors that offer living-wage jobs for New Yorks residents, who have an incredible diversity of skills, talents and interests.
The Production Ring is more homogenous, and home to the uses that can afford lower land costs. This would require zoning that permits only a narrow range of uses. The development of new types of public interventions is necessary to create and maintain the diversity of uses essential to Innovation Districts. Some of these new interventions are reminiscent of the strategies that have been developed in cities across the country to build and maintain affordable housing. Others are similar to efforts to preserve historic neighborhoods or unique districts such as the Theatre District in New York. Still others are brand-new and capitalize on changes in both technology and cultural preferences that permit a new mix of uses which were previously unheard of. For example:
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Venice on the Hudson

by Richard Olcott and Stefan Knust
he worlds greatest cities are celebrated for the vibrant public spaces that emerge along their transportation nodes: materials, ideas, and knowledge are exchanged in the marketplaces through which people choose to move. And a rich density and diversity of travelers denes the ebb and ow that is life blood to a thriving metropolis. When transportation systems become stressed or interrupted, new or expanded systems are necessary to provide options, security, and relief. Each new or
improved network provides the socioeconomic connections that make possible prosperity and resiliency for communities old and new. Robust transportation systems are essential for New York City to continue to be a gateway to opportunity. The greatest untapped strength of our metropolitan region is our waterways. Our waterwaysNew York Harbor, the Hudson River, the East River, Jamaica Bay, Long Island Bay, and
our coastal shoresare typically seen as an edge condition. For many, they are a destination for sightseeing and recreation. For most, they are a boundary that is both alluring, for development, and changing, in light of climate change. Yet our waterways are also our greatest untapped strength at a time when transportation systems are reaching capacity and at a time when our city is becoming increasingly vulnerable to what have now become the expected unexpected events, both natural and man-made. The manner in which cities have incorporated
their waterways into their historic trajectoriesin particular, the ways in which their waters connect rather than isolatehas been key to their health and continued growth. We need a better, faster and more comprehensive ferry system. One hundred years ago, before the construction of the bridges and tunnels that we now take for granted, there were hundreds of ferries that stitched together the rapidly growing communities on both sides of the Hudson and the East Rivers. Our waters enabled the expansive growth of New York City and served to unite the increasingly interdependent communities of commerce and habitation. We are poised to benet from this blue highway again. An expanded network of no-frills passenger-only ferries, accessible by MetroCard, could have a similar impact today, not only opening new service corridors into the heart of Midtown and Wall Street, but also reestablishing links across the rivers, connecting emerging neighborhoods, commercial centers, retail and recreation. For example, a ferry connection between 125th Street, near the newly expanding Columbia University campus in Manhattan, and the Mitsuwa marketplace within the Edgewater community across the Hudson River, would connect two large ridershipsheds that are currently linked only by bus or car. At the regional scale, new intermodal centers could connect ferries to airports, trains, and buses, as well as to greenways and bike lanes, increasing options for leisure and commerce at short, medium, and long distances, all without traffic. All that is needed is a vision for the future. Our hope is that the new administration will continue to build upon the planning and implementation
efforts already initiated by its predecessorsthe Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, Vision 2020, PlaNYC 2030, and A Stronger, More Resilient New Yorkall of which address the increasing importance of an accessible and active waterfront for a more
Our waterways . . . are our greatest untapped strength at a time when transportation systems are reaching capacity and at a time when our city is becoming increasingly vulnerable to what have now become the expected unexpected events, both natural and man-made.
sustainable future. The City needs to reduce vulnerability to oods, decrease its carbon footprint, and nd new and more ways to transport people more efficiently: all while creating new nodes for economic development. Ferries are an ideal vehicle to achieve these goals. Each administration seeks to leave its mark on the city; with a commitment to the renewed use of our fabulous waterways, this next one could build on New York Citys natural and historical legacy and move the city toward a future where ecological and economic goals continue to converge and enhance one another. By building public and private partnerships in which robust and exible terminals provide a range of ferry options, commuters, residents and tourists will continue to shape what is the New York experience: growing and thriving neighborhoods and a ourishing economy, lled with memorable destinations for generations to come. n
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by Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, and Molly Rose Kaufman
t is a tenet of public health that stable communities, equipped with equitable access to resources, are the true foundation of health. Communities are the social resource for inventing culture and economy, solving problems, negotiating acceptable behavior, and making meaning. When communities are destabilized, the frayed social functioning creates stress and augments rates of disease. The effects of destabilization are not limited to the affected community, but catch
everyone up in the problems that radiate from the injured part. During the Bloomberg era, the rich got richer, and the poor got poorer. Housing prices shot up, and jobs for the unskilled collapsed. Many poor families found themselves stringing together dead-end, low-paying, parttime jobs, while the rent pressures were escalating and educational opportunities narrowing. These processes are unsettling many of the citys neighborhoods. The decline in the African-American population,
from 25% of the citys population in 2000 to 23% in 2010, is the sentinel indicator of trouble. This is a festering wound in the city, and the sooner it is acknowledged and healed, the better it will be for the city and the surrounding region. To reverse this process, a new commitment to neighborhood stability is urgently needed. Between 1949 and now, New York City neighborhoods have suffered from urban renewal, highway construction, deindustrialization, planned shrinkage,
mismanaged epidemics, gentrication, and foreclosures. Taken together, these policies and processes have disrupted the lives of millions. They have destroyed cultural, social, and economic resources; fed epidemics; and impeded social response to trouble. Instead of this injurious and repeated upheaval, New York City needs a commitment to long-term community stability and rebuilding. Making such a commitment would put New York City on a path to a new kind of economic vitality and health. While the Bloomberg years have supported the economic vitality of those at the top of the economic ladder, a community stability initiative could unleash a creative search for the economy of the future, beneting all residents and lifting the entire metropolitan region. At the heart of such a commitment is a new approach to growth. The current approach seeks to replace problem people with desirable people. It is a continuation of policies articulated in 1937, when the US governments Home Owners Loan Corporation made the infamous redlining maps. Those maps documented the neighborhoods where surveyors found undesirable racial elements, meaning AfricanAmericans, Hispanics, Asians, Italians, Jews, and the foreign-born, among others. This replacement approach has resulted in serial displacement, and it is not a way to build long-term health in the city.1 If we reject the idea of undesirable people, we can approach all neighborhoods with a new attitude, respecting the people who live there and helping them plan to stay.2 We have called this urban restoration, because it addresses the health of the whole urban ecosystem.3 One example of urban restoration is the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio, worker-owned, for-prot green businesses that are building wealth in the University Circle neighborhood. Another example is the Almono Project, which is rebuilding the last
major browneld site in Pittsburgh in cooperation with all the surrounding neighborhoods, as well as affected and interested communities.
Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis. 3. Fullilove, Mindy (2013). Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in Americas Sorted-Out Cities, New Village Press, New York.
If we reject the idea of undesirable people, we can approach all neighborhoods with a new attitude, respecting the people who live there and helping them plan to stay.
Adoption of urban restoration as a principle unleashes the creativity and problem-solving ability that exist in communities of all kinds. Human beings can look at the world and see solutions, and it is this inherent ability that is optimized in good cities, becoming the engine for civilization and economy. New York City, like many US cities, is facing major challenges, among them adjustment to sea level rise and climate change. While all cities are touting their resilience, in fact the ability to recover depends fundamentally on social connection and cohesion. Yet what New York City has, at the moment, are the opposite: growing economic inequality along with the social instability that inequity fosters. Its time for a new path, one that unleashes the power to face serious threats and solve lingering puzzles. That new path is community stability, which we can achieve through policies derived from the principle of urban restoration. n
References 1. Fullilove, Mindy, and Wallace, Rodrick (2011). Serial forced displacement in American cities: 1916-2010, Journal of Urban Health, 10.1007/ s11524-011-9585-2. 2. Morrish, William R., and Brown, Catherine R. (1994). Planning to Stay: Learning to See the Physical Features of Your Neighborhood,
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Toni L. Griffin Is New York City a Just City? Director // J. Max Bond Center, Spitzer School of Architecture, City College, CUNY Steve Hindy Cofounder & Chairman // Brooklyn Brewery Roy Strickland Professor of Architecture // University of Michigan Ronda Wist Vice President, Preservation & Government Relations // The Municipal Art Society Sophia Koven Founder // Gambit Consulting Alison Carnduff President // Barret & Company, 2013 Fellow, The Municipal Art Society
A Tale of Two Parks Renaissance Plan for New York Citys Public Housing: Creating Vital Centers for a Thriving New York Without Demolition and Displacement Making the Case for Civic Assets
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Is New York City a Just City?

by Toni L. Griffin
n The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, Dr. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett present a compelling set of data illustrating that material inequality has a profound inuence on population stratication, status insecurity and competition, and the prevalence of all the urban problems associated with chronic health and social conditions, as well as the strength of community life (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2009). The book presents comparable data, both internationally and for the fty US states, on several health and social problems and their relationship to income inequality. Specically, the
data looks at life expectancy, mental health, levels of violence, teenage birth rates, imprisonment, obesity rates, levels of trust, the educational performance of school children, and social mobility. The data reveals that the US ranks the worst among other countries with the highest income inequality and the worst index of health and social problems.1 Within the US, New York State has the highest income inequality, but among the top ten states with the highest income inequality, it does better than 7 out of the 10 states on health and social indicators.2
It is quite easy in a vibrant city like New York for some segments of the local population, as well as visitors from outside the city, to overlook the effects of its income disparities. Effective public policies and economic development strategies have eradicated a large share of the historically seedy areas of Manhattan, only to push many of these conditions into other parts of the city and region, including lower-cost housing, homelessness, and undesirable land uses, to name a few. While New York may be performing better than some in the areas of human health and quality of life, inequality is still on the rise and contributing to
the realities of a geographically and socially divided city. The city has always had wealthy neighborhoods, but the boundaries of this wealth are expanding within and beyond Manhattan, often pushing workers further from their jobs within the citys core employment districts. This trend should cause us to question whether our city, often held up as a global standard for economic and cultural vibrancy, is truly a Just City. In the book, The Just City, Professor Susan Fainstein describes the principle components of urban justice as equity, diversity and democracy.3 Certainly the health and social conditions Wilkinson and Pickett examine provide cause to be concerned about the macrolevel state of urban justice. But in the space of urban planning and design, one might argue that New York City has launched some progressive initiatives over the last twelve years that begin to promote urban justice in the public realm. The Citys Design & Construction Excellence Program and Great Streets Initiative can be lifted up as positive examples of providing more equitable access to quality design of public facilities and public street improvements that prioritize pedestrian safety and comfort. For those of us who work to improve the built environment, the ambition of achieving urban justice is often a goal embedded in modern design problems, including the redevelopment of distressed public housing sites; the reuse of chronically vacant land; the revitalization of aging commercial main streets; and the creation of safe routes to school, just to name a few. Public process procedures that create, regulate and monitor land development and design also claim to promote justice by giving citizens voice in the development process. But when we examine the presence of urban justice in housing, transportation, commercial development and infrastructure, it might be fair
to question whether New York City has more to do in promoting a more Just City, where the functions of city planning and design can go even further in playing an active role in this pursuit. Imagine if we identied specic metrics for evaluating the performance of New York Citys public spaces, housing developments, commercial districts, or transportation modes for their ability to create more urban justice? For instance, in addition to assessing whether these interventions advanced increased quantities, and economic value or minimized environmental harm, we also determined how these places and spaces facilitated greater economic and social inclusion for its users and community access, connectivity, and diversity.
quality, waste supply and waterways, energy, solid water, and climate change. Spatial systems metrics focused on quantitative indicators, measuring increases and decreases in volume, distribution, rank, or usage. But to determine if the city is just, we also need to incorporate the qualitative dimensions of what makes the built environment conducive to greater inclusion, diversity, equality and democracy. The J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City (JMBC) at The City College of New York Spitzer School of Architecture believes that design can assist in setting the context for urban justice in New York City. By taking on the proposition that design can have an impact on the social and economic equity, inclusion, and access of cities, the JMBC aims to examine these unresolved issues in urban communities. In 2013, we launched The Just City Indicator Project, a new research initiative that seeks to create a clear denition of the Just City and to develop a set of evaluation metrics that assess the effectiveness of design tactics on facilitating urban justice. Our preliminary proposition suggests that achieving the Just City is rooted in a distributive paradigm of where social justice is dened as the morally proper distribution of social benets and burdens among the society.4 Within this paradigm, we believe striving toward the intentional existence of access and inclusion is a key ingredient of the Just City. We strongly encourage the de Blasio administration to consider how New York Citys inequalities might be further dissolved if we were to measure the presence of urban justice in design and development policy, capital improvements, and development, including the public realm, infrastructure and housing.
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Imagine if we identied specic metrics for evaluating the performance of New York Citys public spaces, housing developments, commercial districts, or transportation modes for their impact of creating more urban justice?
We could measure the presence of this inclusion at the scale of the city, the neighborhood, the block, and the site. For example, imagine if we created metrics that assessed how the design of these places and spaces aided in encouraging a young African American teenagers sense of belonging in a public park in Midtown Manhattan or the adaptability of an apartment unit for a new immigrant family. PlaNYC, launched in 2007, establishes a set of twenty-nine sustainability indicators, largely seeking to measure environmental systems, such as air
In the sidebar on the right, we provide an example of how the 2007 PlaNYC Sustainability Indicators might be expanded upon to include Just City indicators that begin to measure the qualitative impacts of our investments towards the reduction of economic and social inequalities. n
SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS 2007
JUST CITY INDICATORS 2014
HOUSING AND NEIGHBORHOODS

Create homes for almost a million more New Yorkers while making housing and neighborhoods more affordable and sustainable Increase in new housing units from 2007 Total units of housing in NYC Percent of housing affordable to median-income NYC households Vacancy rate of least expensive rental apartments Percent of new units within a half of a mile of transit Diversity of housing unit design to accomodate changing demographics of urban households Equitable distribution of affordable housing in all New York City boroughs and neighborhoods (Percent per neighborhood) Equitable distribution of neighborhood amenities in all New York City boroughs and neighborhoods, including libraries, healthy foods, health care and public transit Integration of local cultural aesthetic into public space design standards, including streetscapes and public plazas
References 1. Wilkinson, Richard, and Pickett, Kate (2009).
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The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. Bloomsbury Press. 2. Ibid.
3. Fainstein, Susan S. (2010). The Just City. Cornell University Press. 4. Young, Iris Marion (1990). Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton University Press.
PARKS AND PUBLIC SPACE

Ensure all New Yorkers live within a 10 minute walk of a park Percent of New Yorkers that live within a quarter of a mile of a park Presence of inaccessible barriers Presence of amenities that support a diversity of cultural users and their recreational practices Evidence of user adaptation Presence of places to post public information Diversity of users within a public space Presence of adequate lighting levels to promote public safety Ease of regulations to host events and gatherings in public space
CIVIC CAPACITY
Number of citizen-led design efforts in the community Level of community participation during design and implementation process Existence of a current comprehensive neighborhood plan Evidence of community activism and social networking within the community
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A Tale of Two Parks

by Steve Hindy
bout 20 years ago, Prospect Park Administrator Tupper Thomas enlisted me to serve on the board of the Prospect Park Alliance, the not-for-prot organization that she started along with Terry Christensen, a prominent attorney living in Park Slope. The Alliance raises private money from individuals, corporations, and foundations to fund improvements in the 500-acre park that architect Frederick Law Olmsted built in the 1860s. The Alliance also solicits discretionary funds, pork-barrel money, from elected officials.
The Alliances rst project was the restoration of the parks Carousel. The second was a restoration of man-made forest in the center of the park, an area that was suffering from erosion. Because of my business experience (I am a cofounder of Brooklyn Brewery), I was asked to serve as chairman of the Alliances Operations Committee, overseeing day-to-day maintenance of the park. I thus was privy to the impact of city budget cuts on the park. Just about every year, it seemed the city would cut the operating budget of the Parks Department.
The Alliance began to pick up some of the maintenance tasks, like mowing the grass and trimming the trees. Somewhere around the year 2000, our committee realized that the Alliance was doing more and more basic maintenance of the park. We worked with the Parks Department to gure out how much of the maintenance budget was being funded by the City, and how much by the Alliance. We determined that the City was paying 60% and the Alliance 40%. My committee proposed that we draw the
line at 60/40 and refuse to put any more money into daily maintenance. The Board of Directors rejected the idea. Today, I think the Alliance funds well over 60% and the City less than 40%. There was a similar dynamic under way at Central Park, also an Olmsted gem. The Central Park Conservancy eventually took over 100% responsibility for the maintenance of Central Parkan idea that the Prospect Park Alliance has considered. The City still contributes to the Central Park budget. Thanks to the Alliance and the Conservancy, these two parks have ourished over the past two decades. They are probably in the best condition in their long histories. Both organizations have raised big money from wealthy individuals. Central Park got a $100 million donation from hedge fund manager John A. Paulson in 2012, and Prospect Park got two $10 million donations for its $75 million Lakeside project, which includes two ice skating rinks. There are now more than 50 similar organizations raising private and public money for parks in New York City. Most of these parks are now dependent on private funding for their maintenance. The problem with this picture is that most of these not-for-prots have been started by relatively wealthy, entitled people to improve parks near their neighborhoods. Hundreds of smaller parks in low-income neighborhoods have deteriorated as parks funding has been cut. The cuts really began after the 1977 scal crisis in New York City. Only Mayor Bloomberg managed to increase the parks budget during his tenure. The current budget of $380 million is the largest ever. But the mayor also added $10 billion in new parks during his years in office. The
maintenance budget does not keep up with that expansion. Today, much of the day-to-day work in the parks is performed by temporary workers on six-month contracts through social service and prison release programs.
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There are now more than 50 similar organizations raising private and public money for parks in New York City. Most of these parks are now dependent on private funding for their maintenance.
Mayor deBlasio thus faces a tale of two parks, the parks with conservancies and the parks without. State Sen. Daniel Squadron has proposed that the wealthy parks share their funding with other parks. I think that is a bad idea, because these conservancies have spent years cultivating a culture of giving among their supporters. They and their supporters will resent the city taxing them in this way. Also, Central Park and Prospect Park are the jewels in the crown of Manhattan and Brooklyn. They are used by all residents and visitors to the city. They are not private parks. If Squadrons idea were adopted, I have no doubt contributions would plummet. There are ways to approach the problem of inequity. Together with a group of concerned citizens, I started the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn with a mission of raising money for the 125 parks in Brooklyns Community District 1. The City gave us $50 million to renovate the Depressionera McCarren Park Pool, which had been closed for 30 years. Former
councilperson Diana Reyna gave us $2.5 million to improve Cooper Park. We have raised money for other parks in the district too. It seems to me that this model, which focuses our efforts on parks in all North Brooklyn neighborhoods, is more equitable than the single park model. Ideally, the City should begin to restore funding to the Parks Department so it can do an equitable job of maintaining all parks. Short of that, the City needs to vigorously promote the creation of conservancies and alliances for all the citys parks. Perhaps the existing conservancies and alliances could help cultivate these organizations. n
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Creating Vital Centers for a Thriving New YorkWithout Demolition and Displacement by Roy Strickland
Renaissance Plan for NYCs Public Housing:
ne of the new mayoral administrations major legacies will be its success in addressing public housings crisesoperating decits, deteriorating buildings, unsafe living conditions. This proposal outlines a renaissance plan for public housing whose benets will be apparent in two years. The proposal advocates a strategic plan for all public housing capitalizing on its social, physical, and locational assets for the benet of public housing residents and a sustainable, economically dynamic, equitable and unied New York.
I. Public Housings Challenges and Opportunities The challenges: Federal cutbacks resulting in a $60 million annual operating decit. Backlog of repairs creating unsafe living conditions for many residents. Waiting list of 160,000 families. The opportunities: The human capital of 400,000 NYCHA residents.
334 developments in all five boroughs. 2,500 acres of land. Developments often located near drivers of New Yorks 21st-century economy including technology, arts, health care, and higher education, enhancing their potential value to residents and the city as a whole.
II. The Renaissance Plans Two Assumptions 1. Public housing is an asset for New York. As the major provider of housing for low- and moderate-income families, public housing deserves preservation and enhancement, not demolition and displacement. 2. Public housing residents are assets for New York. As people who work in many of the citys services and industries, as families raising children who will be the next generation of New Yorkers, and as retirees whove contributed their energy to New Yorks vitality, public housing residents deserve respect and should be active shapers in planning the future. III. Renaissance Plan: Steps Look at public housing as a whole and develop the Renaissance Plan that will help sustain and enhance it for decades to come, as well as provide additional low-and moderate-income housing. Establish a Renaissance Plan Corporation (RPC) with power of grants and loans. Enact enabling legislation promoting coordination of New York City agencies in delivery of capital projects and services as part of the Renaissance Plan. Make public housing residentsfrom kids to elderspart of planning. Hold regular community workshops for the exchange of ideas between neighbors and RPC representatives and planners. Locate Renaissance Plan meeting space in every public housing project. Also make the Renaissance Plan process part of nearby public schools curriculum so that local kids can be introduced to architecture, planning, development, and construction careers.
Quantify undeveloped air rights for all public housing developments and put them in an RPC bank that will enable them to be transferred across all NYCHA developments and their
Year II: Rene Renaissance Plan; identify Plans rst projects at representative locations around city; negotiate public/private and public/institutional relationships for rst projects; announce projects and begin implementation Year III: Complete rst projects; identify next series of projects. Year IV: Based on completion of representative Plan projects, continue Plan at other sites around the city. V. Renaissance Plans Potential As the following illustrations show, NYCHA developments can become centers of vital neighborhoods as part of a thriving New Yorkwithout demolition and displacement. n
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As people who work in many of the citys services and industries, as families raising children who will be the next generation of New Yorkers, and as retirees whove contributed their energy to New Yorks vitality, public housing residents deserve respect and should be active shapers in planning the future.
environs according to principles of appropriate land use and densities. Enter into public/private and public/institutional partnerships that through RPC will negotiate with NYCHA residents the use of banked air rights toward projects that provide a) revenue streams for NYCHA developments upkeep and repair, and b) turnkey facilities such as new low- and moderate-income housing, schools, libraries, recreation centers and employment places for NYCHA developments and their surrounding communities. IV. Renaissance Plan Schedule Year I: Initiate community participation and private and institutional outreach; establish RPC; enact enabling legislation; quantify bankable air rights; develop outline of Renaissance Plan.
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(top image) University of Michigan study of NYCHA developments in Astoria illustrates potential locations for new small businesses and low-to moderate-income housing. (bottom image) Perspective shows new buildings in blue inserted among existing Lower East Side public housing projects. With up to 22 million square feet of development potential in the area, there is room for a rich mixture of uses, including college campuses and research centers. University of Michigan
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Making the Case for Civic Assets

by Ronda Wist, Sophia Koven, and Alison Carnduff
hen New York Citys signature buildings have been threatened, the preservation movement has saved them. Perhaps the most well-known campaign, appealing to all New Yorkers, was the effort to save Grand Central Terminal. One hundred years after its opening, it serves its original transit hub purpose as well as a variety of others, and is one of our most beloved public buildings. A century ago, many local and treasured civic assets were built thanks to the collaboration of philanthropists and local government. These resulting neighborhood hospitals, parks, libraries, and schools sustained generations of
New Yorkers. The brick and limestone buildings have always been recognized for their critical role in the streetscape, as well as in many ways reecting the soul of the community. Grand facades such as Morris High School, Asser Levy Baths, and the New York Public Library main branch elevated the learning, reading and gatherings within. These thoughtfully sited works of inspiring architecture are essential parts of our urban fabric. Andrew Carnegie said: A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benet its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert. Although todays New Yorkers may
remain committed to the early 20th century civic values that led to the creation of these places, New York Citys real estate burdens and operational concerns often exert intense redevelopment pressures. New Yorks demography and economy has changed, but the essential needs of our neighborhoods remain the same. Neighborhoods require certain sets of conditions and services to be livable, desirable, and resilient. When these public places are converted to private uses, our neighborhood experience and community strength gradually erode. Any New Yorker who has met a neighbor while pushing a child on
a playground swing, volunteering at a hospital, sitting in a school auditorium at a political meeting, attending a neighborhood concert, or checking out a library book knows the important roles these places play in fostering community resilience. For decades, city governments have shed their public assets in exchange for quick, short-term dollars. Constrained budgets and costly operating liabilities make selling off valuable real estate enticing. Rationales for property disposition include programmatic improvement and consolidation or elimination of operations thought to be nancial drains on larger systems. Monetizing real estate to address shortfalls in operating funding, soaring required expenses, or deferred maintenance is often considered the most plausible solution to nancial problems. These losses can greatly impact the citys residents as the public realm is permanently diminished with the sale of public art or the privatization of public lands and buildings. Yet within the last year or so, many plans have emerged to privatize public spaces, including the proposed sale of Long Island College Hospital, library facilities in Brooklyn and Midtown Manhattan, major privatization efforts such as the proposed white-tablecloth restaurant in Union Square, and the proposed soccer stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Often the disposition process is distressingly opaque. New Yorkers deserve an ongoing transparent planning process that clearly reveals the long-term benets and detriments of selling off public assets. The public the true stakeholdersshould have the opportunity to weigh in on these proposed dispositions and help decide their fate. These resources have always been critically important to those New Yorkers least able to advocate on their own behalf: recent immigrants, children, and senior citizens. We must focus attention away from the shortterm monetary value to the longer term importance of serving New Yorkers. The preservation of these assets is particularly critical in the face of New Yorks projected growth.
Instead of ghting piecemeal battles about individual losses, we encourage the City to take a holistic view of civic assets. These assets are not simply buildings, but convening spaces for the community that provide services whose effects, unlike real estate property taxes, are sometimes difficult to measure. Over time the use of these buildings has changed and will continue to evolve. For all buildings considered for disposition, criteria should be created to determine the value that each building and its services represent to the community. These include, the number of visits, types of users, and necessity and convenience. Projections about demographic changes should also be taken into consideration. As the explosive growth of Brooklyn has so clearly demonstrated in the past few years, demand for civic assets, such as schools, parks, and libraries, can shift dramatically in short periods of time.
Public ownership should obligate the City to be transparent to both the community where a building is located, and to the taxpayers who have supported its use for decades. Now is the time to revisit deaccessioning choices and ensure that future generations are able to use these critical resources. By putting forth its long-term goals for these properties on a citywide or borough-wide basis, the new administration can clearly present any operational, maintenance, and renovation issues to New Yorkers. Using a set of publicly-agreedupon principles for alternatives to disposition, the City may determine that in some cases sale and demolition is appropriate. This should help the public understand an individual facilitys complete inadequacy as well as what the sale proceeds will fund. And the Citys architectural response should enhance each community. Everyone can agree that a neighborhood without usable public space isnt much of a neighborhood at all. Preservations power should be harnessed to work with communities to maintain and enhance the publiclyowned real estate that forms the infrastructure of our civil society. n
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New Yorkers deserve an ongoing transparent planning process that clearly reveals the long-term benets and detriments of selling off public assets.
Landmark designation is a part of the solution. Old buildings must be respected and not disdained as obsolete when for example interior layouts can be adapted. The private and public sectors must join together to ensure that worthy historic buildings continue to serve as useful assets for the future. Can development rights be transferred more exibly from civic assets since they serve the entire neighborhood? Could useful operational, staffing, or physical modications be made to underperforming or underutilized schools or libraries? Are there ways to collocate disparate uses to help support beloved buildings?
Sandra A. Garca Betancourt Executive Director & CEO // Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance Lane Harwell Executive Director // Dance/NYC Michael Royce Executive Director // New York Foundation for the Arts
Toward Real Change The Arts and New York Are One Creative Individuals Equal a Creative City
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Toward Real Change

by Sandra A. Garca Betancourt
ommunity-based organizations throughout New York City have always been agents of change and community development. Their work and commitment to the improvement and advancement of the citys diverse communities have not only had a signicant impact in the population they serve, but in all sectors of our society. For example, throughout the last decade, much has been said about the need to work toward community building, social change, social transformation, and justice and community development.
These evocative expressions have been embraced as bywords by elected officials, as well as philanthropists and nanciers, and have embodied the missions and aspirations of many community leaders, residents, artists and activists concerned with uneven economic growth. The concern extends to the lack of visibility of communities around the city, particularly those with high populations of new immigrants and people of color. The narratives that have described the calling of many community organizations for many
years has, at last, been understood and incorporated as key to building a stronger and more equitable city at a time when new efforts to readdress the need to make our communities viable and strong have become urgent due to the current, profound social, and economic disparities. The lack of importance or prominence assigned to these communities, and the inadequate access to opportunities, have historically prompted the creation of local institutions that
often strive to provide culturally appropriate, competent, and mindful programming to their residents. The arts and culture sector, for example, has had a signicant impact. Artists and arts organizations have helped, organized, and partnered with other community institutions, to provide programming that has enhanced the quality of life and has ignited the vibrancy of neighborhoods around the city, as well as having encouraged tourism, social investment, and economic development.
to begin to tackle these issues and the sustainability of arts and culture organizations in our communities: evaluate and amend the guidelines and practices of providing public support to community organizations, so they reect a more equitable distribution of funds and resources; include community arts and culture organizations that are not located in the mainstream cultural corridors of NYC in the city guides, tourism brochures, and maps so our communities become destinations for visitors from other neighborhoods and abroad; and invest in efforts to create and sustain innovative arts spaces in disadvantaged communities. n
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The new leadership of New York City must be prepared to take the appropriate steps to validate and support those vital community organizations that are, continuously, effecting change and transforming our city into an exciting and better place to live and progress.
Notwithstanding, many of these organizations, some more mature than emerging ones, others developing, are at risk of disappearing for lack of the resources that would ensure their sustainability. The new leadership of New York City must be prepared to take the appropriate steps to validate and support those vital community organizations that are, continuously, effecting change and transforming our city into an exciting and better place to live and progress. To address social change, transformation, equality, and economic development, our elected officials, philanthropies, businesses and communities must work together. In that spirit, these are some suggestions
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The Arts and New York Are One

by Lane Harwell
nvision a future where New York and arts and culture are more meaningfully one.
Mayor de Blasios vision and framework for addressing equity, One New York, Rising Together, opens up new possibilities for realizing this goal. He has committed to universalizing arts education, and he creates innite entry points for arts and culture by proposing government reform to engage New Yorkers more greatly in setting priorities. Needs in the arts are certainly bound up in the challenges he has identied for
all New Yorkers: perhaps above all, affordability. Arts and culture can be included in solutions to the issues on his docket: for instance, jobs and economic development, equality for all, safety, sustainability, and resilience. The sectors role in healing spirits and the economy after Sandy is a powerful example of how. New possibilities are also unlocked by the momentum our City Council is gaining to include a comprehensive cultural plan in the New York City Charter, a charge that 21 newly elected Council members may consider.
I embrace the promise that, to be comprehensive, such a plan will not view arts and culture in isolation but, rather, as being linked reciprocally with society. As we look to all levels of City government to advance a future where New York and arts and culture are more meaningfully one, there are opportunities beyond dollars through the Department of Cultural Affairs (which, yes, could increase so the agency might include new groups in its funding portfolio, and help
currently funded groups to scale up their delivery of public value). There are opportunities for accelerating and incentivizing interagency strategy, as we have seen evolve nationally through recent leadership (from New York) of the National Endowment for the Arts, and at the state level with a new commitment to the arts through the Regional Economic Development Councils. Our new leaders could consider in-kind offeringsfrom space to marketing, building on past successes, and new ideals. And they could catalyze public/private partnerships and harness the creative potential of our citys artists to lift up neglected, established, and start-up industries, including the booming tech sector. Many of these directions are encouraged by One New York, Rising Together. Consider, for instance, Mayor de Blasios description of economic development hubs in every neighborhood. He offers an equitable, asset-based framework for engaging community stakeholders (I read, artists) to map and create hubs that may advance the movement of naturally occurring cultural districts and foster creative placemaking. I see opportunity for expanded arts and culture activity, increased collaboration and economic and technical support especially in non-Manhattan geographieswhere increased attention by our sector, and all New Yorkers, is needed. The proposed universalization of arts education invites a revisiting and strengthening of the relationship between the Departments of Education and Cultural Affairs. Our new mayor reminds us that creative lives exist on a continuum, inviting government to take seriously arts training, arts careers, institutional advancement, and, concomitantly, audience and constituent engagement. Yes, arts education and the arts are one.
Now, I am not advocating top-down strategy or canonizationuseful concerns expressed in the testimony I have heard on the City Councils proposal for a cultural plan. Nor, certainly, do I wish to reduce arts and culture work to any particular social issue or outcome. Rather, I mean to leverage the reality that artists and cultural groups are always already affecting social change through the work they create and engagement with audiences, their fellow citizens and tourists, to encourage more and new directions. Creative sector workers can be includedand given agencyin shaping the vision for our Cityand, ideally, an adaptive vision, and one that embraces risk (and risk capital), prerequisites for a healthy city and the continual ow of ideas and inspiration.
by modeling inclusivity and access, and by surfacing and breaking down categories that divide us: from geography to creative form, corporate structure, and budget size. I share the optimism of my fellow New Yorkers in welcoming new leadership. As the arts and culture are priorities for New Yorkers, I am condent they will also be priorities in the future of our great cityOne New York. n
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Our new leaders could consider in-kind offeringsfrom space to marketing, building on past successes and new ideals. And they could catalyze public/private partnerships and harness the creative potential of our citys artists to lift up neglected, established, and start-up industries, including the booming tech sector.
Ultimately, I am writing for our citys artists, cultural groups and supporters, and encouraging participation in unifying and moving our New York and its people forward. I offer, as a challenge, that while artists and organizations create value through their individuality, we too need to work better as one. I speak from the vantage point of advocate, something I share with Mayor de Blasio, when I say we have an opportunity to lead

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Creative Individuals Equal a Creative City

by Michael Royce
hrough its unique blend of history, geography, and energy, New York City is a leader in many elds. The world watches Wall Street, output from our research institutions shape national and international policy, and our artists create works in all disciplines that are both cutting edge and beloved by millions. This is a symbiotic relationshipthese industries also generate valuable tax and tourist revenues for the City. The arts especially shape a culture that helps New York City businesses attract the top talent to work and
live here. Unfortunately, the high cost of living and intense business climate make it difficult for artists to sustain themselves in the city, and prohibits many others from moving here. The City needs to support these artists through housing subsidies and business training in order to realize the economic and cultural benets that they bring. Reliable data on artists incomes is notoriously difficult to obtainmany artists work unrelated jobs to support themselves, or subsist off unreported
cash tips. But the numbers we do have paint a grim picture in terms of an artists ability to survive in New York City. A 2009 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) study put artists median income at $43,000, almost 15% less than the New York City median income of $49,461. To put this into the context of housing, the average rent for an NYC apartment recently topped $3,000/month (or more than $36,000 annually). Once taxes are factored in, this number quickly becomes unreachable for most artists. Perhaps even more alarmingly, the NEA survey numbers reect artists incomes
nationwide. Given the costs associated with a move, moving to NYC can be almost impossible, thus depriving the arts industry of many talented potential contributors. There have been some laudable efforts to alleviate the housing problem for artists. Manhattan Plaza, with 70% of its units designated for artists, has offered subsidized housing through the Section 8 program since the 1970s. There are plans to build a smaller but similar complex in Chelsea. However, these units can accommodate only a small part of the overall need. We can and should do more. Not all artist housing needs to be located in Manhattan. Other boroughs are home to rich artistic communities, and the City could bolster existing efforts in the private sector. By placing new artist housing in neighborhoods like Brooklyns DUMBO neighborhood, which is itself a creature of artistcentered development, the City could make a meaningful contribution to a thriving neighborhood, while adapting its policy to the free-market choices of the arts economy. Relatedly, the City can make a real and lasting impact on artists ability to build a sustainable practice in New York through a series of robust training courses on basic business skills, entrepreneurship, and survival techniques. While subsidized housing will always leave out some (if not most) artists who need it, training courses can theoretically serve an innite number of artists at a fraction of the cost. There is precedent for this, of course. In 2009, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) allocated approximately $100,000 to support entrepreneurial training and studio availability within the city. While only a portion of that funding was given to arts organizations for running training courses, more than 100 artists were trained. NYFA
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led one of these training programs (The Artist as Entrepreneur: Boot Camp), and saw outstanding results. Artists found better jobs, newly took advantage of available City resources, started businesses, received grants, and became empowered to work responsibly with their professional communities. And those were not isolated resultsNYFA has run the same program without City funding at the city, state, national, and international levels, all with similar success. This speaks to the artistic communitys inherent entrepreneurial, motivated, and hard-working ethos. Providing a little guidance and support yields amazing results from this population.
on proven ideas like subsidized housing and training courses, but pulled together in a coherent and complementary fashion, responding to positive trends already occurring in the city. With the right vision and leadership, NYC can protect and grow this invaluable resource. n
The arts especially shape a culture that helps New York City businesses attract the top talent to work and live here.
A robust City-sponsored training program would be most effective if implemented in tandem with other efforts like new and existing subsidized housing. The City could incentivize artists participation by offering eligible graduates places on an accelerated wait-list for artist housing. Training courses should be tailored to different segments of the population to better focus on issues of concern, like retirement planning for mature artists, or an introduction to NYC services for out-of-state artists. Courses could be held in common spaces in artist housing to better integrate the community, or online to accommodate artists unpredictable schedules and provide access to those for whom distance is an issue. Ultimately, no single solution will make NYC affordable and accessible to artists. Rather, it will take a combination of new wrinkles
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Jesse M. Keenan Research Director // Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE.), Columbia University Peter Lehner Executive Director // Natural Resources Defense Council Mary W. Rowe Director, Urban Resilience and Livability // The Municipal Art Society Andrew Yan Senior Urban Planner // BTAworks
Many Birds with One Stone: Adaptation and Economic Development Scaling Up Energy in Low-Income Housing All Hands on Deck: Building a Resilience Constituency
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Adaptation and Economic Development by Jesse M. Keenan
Many Birds with One Stone:
YC has the opportunity to meet its most serious challenges in terms of affordable housing, workforce diversication, educational attainment, infrastructure deterioration, and environmental risk by advancing measures and capacities framed by a comprehensive adaptation strategy. The caveat is that strategies are only as good as they can be acted upon and operationalized. This essay argues that East River corridor is ripe for the application of policies and
investments which have the potential to positively impact a broader citywide constituency. However, the most immediate impediment to the challenges we face is one of language. Adaptation is not simply a responsive strategy to climate change. It is a framework for proactively addressing a series of accelerated challenges in the human, built, and natural environments which have little to no historical precedent in their degree or pace of relevancy. From aging society
and transitional labor economies to the increased risk of heat waves and storm surge, adaptation is about managing change not as a means of preventing system failure or preserving the status quo but as a progressive stimulus for advancing institutional governance in both the public and private sectors. The lack of consistent heuristics in the language of mitigation, coping, resilience, and adaptation is holding back the development of comprehensive public sector
regulations and timely private sector investment decisions. Each word varies tremendously in its psychosocial orientation, time horizon, and ontological disposition. So what is the correct word? Adaptation. Adaptation denotes both a responsive action and a capacity to act in the face of external change which challenges the status quo. But, what makes adaptation different from the competing language is that it belies a progressive state wherein the future state of being is advancedfor the betterbeyond its predicate state. Mitigation holds perhaps the clearest conceptual distinction in that it speaks to the prevention of the occurrence of the external stimuli of change. However, mitigation is increasingly loosing relevancy as an exclusive matter of focus in that there is little doubt as to the probabilistic occurrence of climate change. In contrast, coping is a short-term responsive mechanism for the preservation of the minimum
functions of an existing system or state of being. While the provision of emergency shelter and post-disaster psychological and nancial counseling are laudable actions, coping can very often be grounded in an emotional response with its own rationality that like mitigationoften conicts with the long-term logics of adaptation.
Adaptation is not simply a responsive strategy to climate change. It is a framework for proactively addressing a series of accelerated challenges in the human, built, and natural environments which have no or little historical precedent in their degree or pace of relevancy.
In related terms, resiliency is about responding to external stimuli to maintain the status quo of existing internal operations. While the status quo is often misapplied to notions of community, all communities are in a constant state of change in the face of larger demographic and economic changeschanges which are only accelerated by climate change. The question in political terms is how one guides and leads change as a matter of social equity and scal stewardship. A truly successful adaptation strategy is one that mainstreams each of these concepts (mitigation, coping, and resilience) into a comprehensive action plan that weights and prioritizes risks and needs of existing and future populations. There is an argument to be made in the efficiencies of density and proximitythat the future population of NYC should be accommodated along the East River corridor. The East River is historically oriented in
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plan incidental to the commerce of the sea. However, the future of the corridor is best conceptualized in section. From the disintegrated waterfront to the post-industrial landscape, there is an opportunity to create and leverage value which serves to nance the underlying infrastructure itself. In this regard, infrastructure should be conceptualized to include not only the physical conventions as we know it but also affordable housing, which serves an equally compelling public utility. Out of necessity, private investment should be accommodated to guarantee housing production that matches the income diversity of NYCs ever evolving households. By focusing on the fundamental economics of value creation through waterfront investments, the city has the opportunity to utilize physical development for the advancement of human development. More fundamentally, human development is about education and jobs. Moving inland, the postindustrial building stock provides the dual function of preserving historic notions of memory, as well as a low-cost alternative to the high-cost barrier of accommodating the space needs of entrepreneurs and educators. The domestication of global best practices tells us that linking everything on the education continuum from technical education to post-doc research with emerging industries is a win-win for economic development. Students get access to training and experience, and companies get access to a diverse and innovative labor force. These hybridized zones from Sunset Park to Long Island City represent a new paradigm in the advancement of commerce and community. In this sense, NYC has an opportunity to adapt not only to climate change but to shifting labor economies.
By consistently formalizing the language and progressive intent of adaptation, the city has the opportunity to develop policies which enable the public and private sectors to respond to a variety of interrelated challenges. This enabling function is critical for the advancement of adaptation related investments which have the opportunity to recapitalize the manufacturing, education and technology sectors. While the returns
on investment for public and private sectors vary signicantly, the need for focused leadership is one that unites all parties. By advancing strategic adaptation measures and capacities that focus on value creation and entrepreneurial advancement, the Mayor of NYC has the opportunity to hit many birds with one stone. n
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Scaling Up Energy in Low-Income Housing

by Peter Lehner
nergy efficiency is the cheapest, easiest, and fastest way to meet our energy needs, while also mitigating climate change and spurring economic growth. One of the least developed and most signicant opportunities to scale up this critical resource is in low-income multifamily buildings. Doing so would not only harness the multiple benets of efficiency, including reduced air pollution, a more resilient and reliable electric grid, and the creation of muchneeded jobs, but would also reduce the burdens of poverty by lowering basic living costs and creating healthier, more comfortable homes.
More than half of low-income multifamily buildings were built before building codes began to require energyefficient windows, insulation, and appliances. Partially as a result of this energy inefficiency, low-income renters pay a much higher shareas much as 33% or moreof their income for electricity and gas, which means fewer resources for critical expenses such as food, transportation, and health care. In addition, owners of low-income rental properties face higher costs, reducing their ability, among other things, to make other improvements to the properties. Modest investments in weather-tight windows and doors,
insulation in walls and roofs, as well as energy-efficient appliances and lighting, can make a big difference in both the quality of life and the cost of living for low-income households. Despite this large potential for energy savings, the affordable housing sector has been viewed as too challenging for most utilities and mainstream lenders. Many of these challenges have to do with the complexities of crafting a package of efficiency measures that will deliver deep savings in existing buildings in the most cost-effective waya task that is much more difficult
than improving energy performance for new buildings, or upgrading to high-efficiency models when replacing individual pieces of equipment, such as heating and air-conditioning systems. But others are specic to affordable housinglack of coordination with bill-payment assistance programs, onerous qualication and enrollment procedures, and cost-effectiveness tests that inherently undervalue efficiency in this sector. We can overcome the obstacles that currently prevent increased investment in multifamily affordable housing through strategic collaboration among the housing, utility and nance sectors, as well as through strategic local partnerships, including perhaps among the most important: local government. The Mayor of New York City can play a key role in increasing energy efficiency in this sector, given the extensive lowincome multifamily housing stock in the city, as well as the opportunity to make these investments in New York City Housing Authority buildings, which house more than 400,000 New Yorkers. Building upon New York Citys strong leadership to date on scaling up energy efficiency in existing buildings, particularly through the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, the city can once again develop an effective and successful strategy that can serve as a model for other cities around the country. In addition, energy efficiency reduces operating expenses in multifamily buildings, freeing up capital that can address maintenance repair needs or other necessary improvements, such as moisture management measures to reduce mold a pervasive problem in many low-income multifamily buildings, which was greatly exacerbated by Hurricane Sandy. As extreme storms are likely to become increasingly frequent and severe due to our changing climate, it is all the more important that we not only do what we can to mitigate climate change
through increased energy efficiency, but also ensure that our building network is prepared for the potentially devastating impacts of such events especially in those populations that are particularly vulnerable, such as the low-income community. Certain energy retrots, as well as measures to address moisture, would also help to reduce the levels of pests, as they need water to live and air leaks to move around. Fewer pests means fewer pesticideschemicals that further harm the health of low-income residents.
on their energy bills, but will also improve their quality of life and help to address pervasive health issues that impact these communities. n
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Partially as a result of this energy inefficiency, low-income renters pay a much higher shareas much as 33% or more of their income for electricity and gas, which means fewer resources for critical expenses such as food, transportation, and health care.
Energy-retrotting low-income multifamily housing is a key strategy for preserving affordable homes, as well as achieving signicant reductions in energy consumption and reducing greenhouse gases. It also provides a key opportunity to invest in other improvements in this sector, such as measures to address health risks from moisture, mold, or pesticides. The new Mayor of New York City should work with New York State and our energy utilities to develop and implement policies that ensure that low-income residents benet from increased energy efficiency in rental housing, and that we are able to realize additional reductions in energy use in this underserved housing stock. Establishing such policies will not only save low-income New Yorkers money
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All Hands on Deck: Building a Resilience Constituency

by Mary Rowe and Andrew Yan
ighteen months into Superstorm Sandy recovery, New Yorkers are still experiencing the physical, social, and economic impacts of this severe weather event. Recovery continues, and resilience is not built quickly. Though technically only a tropical storm when it made landfall, Sandy generated a 14-foot storm surge, causing extensive damage along the coastal shores of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. The storms oodwaters impaired New York Citys physical landscape, inundating homes, parks, businesses, and infrastructure. It disproportionately affected vulnerable populations located near the coast. And it impacted inland communities and New York City neighborhoods by disabling the mechanical and electric systems that underpin the citys critical infrastructure.
Superstorm Sandy thrust into the spotlight tough questions about the future of our city, a discussion not new to the Municipal Art Society, which convened extensively after 9/11 to ask what New Yorkers imagined for the recovery of the city. Once again, we need all hands on deckCity staff
All Hands on Deck: we . . . have a crucial role of mobilizing New Yorkers across all ve boroughs, across class and race and ethnicity and neighborhood, to step up to the challenges of making resilience a part of our daily lives.
and agencies, cultural and academic institutions, neighborhood residents, experts, philanthropy, elected officials, and the private sector, including nanciers and insurers, as well as the creative and entrepreneurial sectors to generate innovation, and increase the capacities of neighborhoods and communities to place New York City on a path to becoming a global model for urban resilience. Resilience is the ability of a system to sustain itself and quickly rebound from shocks and stresses. The resilience of urban systems, the interconnectedness between natural ecosystems, social networks, physical infrastructure, and neighborhoods, is deeply connected to the livability of our neighborhoods and the city as a whole. In order to create a more livable city that enables all
residents to adapt to change and thrive in everyday life, we must develop a mix of large-scale initiatives and granular innovations to mitigate against the effects of unexpected challenges to the built environment. In other words, the quotidian benets of resilience strategies have the potential to increase a citys overall livability. How do we handle the legacy of siting public and low-income housing on ecologically vulnerable sites? What are the new models to nance and operate the infrastructure improvements we so badly need, from a new Penn Station to serve the commuter shed upon which our economy depends, to a sustainable solution to restore Jamaica Bay and protect the Far Rockaways? And how can these investments be made in an equitable and inclusive manner?
MASs work throughout 2013 proposed a framework for resilience that aggregated the efforts, recommendations, and ideas of multiple stakeholders and organizations, emphasizing the need for cross-coordination and inclusive collaboration between different levels of government, disciplines, and recovering communities. By mediating diverse points of view and integrating ideas from multiple arenas, civil society has the unique ability to bring communities, the private sector, and governments together to meet these challenges. And our efforts cant only be about recovering from Sandy, because many more neighborhoods are at risk of ooding, as the mapping supplied here by Andrew Yan of Bing Thom Architects research and development department, BTAworks, using NYC OpenData sets.
Ultimately, New York City has an opportunity to foster an ecosystem of innovation focused on resilience: economic, social, cultural, and environmental. To that end, the new administration should invest in equipping and maintaining various forms of civic assets in local neighborhoods which perform many different functions as community hubs, both in times of crisis and recovery, as we saw post-Sandy, but also during more routine times when neighbors need shared spaces to support common pursuits and needs [See Making the Case for Civic Assets in this volume page 34]. Local planning capacity should be developed and supported by the City in neighborhoods, as our colleagues at the Pratt Center continue to advocate for, and through resilience like the MAS Livable Neighborhoods program,
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NEW YORK CITY by borough ONE PERCENT FLOOD elevation SCENARIo Fema based flood elevation
Total Land Area Total Land Area % of Total Borough (in Square Miles) under Flood Elevation Land Mass Staten Island 58 11 19.5% Queens 109 17 15.8% Brooklyn 70 11 16.3% Manhattan 23 3 14.0% Bronx 43 4 9.9% Total 303 47 15.7%
Bronx
Manhattan
Queens
Brooklyn
Staten Island
Data Source: NYC OpenData Map by: Andrew Yan, BTAworks
NEW YORK CITY by general land use Zoning Area under one percent flood elevation by sQuare feet
400,000,000 350,000,000 300,000,000 250,000,000 200,000,000 150,000,000 100,000,000
Area Under a 1% FEMA Flood Elevation
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50,000,000 -
Note: There is a slight variation in total land mass between zoning and land mass data sets Source: NYC OpenData
When size by affected land use is examined, residential land uses dominate the affected land use types. (Andrew Yan, BTAWorks)
which equips community leaders to participate in building their own resilience through City and State planning processes, and even initiate development to meet local needs. Our ourishing design and tech communities must be engaged directly in the developing resilience solutions: to explore what can be designed, invented, and made in New York as cities around the world increasingly face similar challenges to which entrepreneurs can create critical tools to anticipate and respond. The new administration has an opportunity to engage all New Yorkers in generating solutions, by broadening the efforts of NYC Economic Development Corporation and others to support the economic development and job creation opportunities of creating resilient cities. We should be setting the bar high: not settling for compromised solutions but instead challenging ourselves to bring to
fruition the same commitment to excellence that we aspire to in our cultural life, in our public spaces, in our constant creation of a dynamic urban environment that is both livable and resilient. Many diverse stakeholders across the city and region continue to weigh in on what our resilience priorities must be. We agree on needing an integrated strategy that addresses both hard and soft infrastructure investments. The New York Academy of Medicine is highlighting the needs to vulnerable populations and especially older adults; local associations of the planning and architecture professions continue their advocacy for important changes to building codes and planning standards, to prioritize and remove obstacles to retrotting existing building stock, especially the hundreds of multi-unit buildings in the revised ood zones. The Citys
Special initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR) proposed a number of tangible actions, as did Governor Cuomos 2100 Commission. And the federal Hurricane Sandy Task Force report stressed the importance of coordination across federal departments and agencies. And we are not lacking for political leadership either, as the regions mayors, governors, and the HUD Secretary have each spoken repeatedly about the resilience challenges ahead and their commitment to address them. As resilience has become a new buzzword, we need very good memories that dont allow us to forget the risks we continue to harbor, that Sandy made clear. The Rockefeller Foundations commitment to urban resilience is a global one, urging citiesincluding oursto install a Chief Resilience Officer at City Hall to keep the heat on, and tackle those
resilience challenges that havent presented themselves yet. The City must be equipped and resourced to provide the essential coordination between initiatives, making sure New Yorkers can navigate the myriad programs, services, and initiatives that are our new normal after Sandy. We need systems to better share information and crowd-source solutions, potentially through an expanded 211 service. Post-Sandy recovery funds are bringing to the city and the region that surrounds it a resilience dividend. Civil society advocacy is crucial to ensuring these investments are not squandered, stalled in jurisdictional gridlock, but rather deployed as part of an integrated strategy. And we also have a crucial role of mobilizing New Yorkers across all ve boroughs, across class and race and ethnicity and neighborhood, to step up to the challenges of making resilience a part of our daily lives. As our forebears in the Netherlands continue to remind us, a coastal city lives with its water. But its not only about water: there are other specic resilience challenges before our noncoastal neighborhoods. As the new administration focuses on ways to address inequity by devising programs to incentivize affordable housing and economic development across the city, they must also strive to make neighborhoods more resilient and livable. This cannot be the purview of government alone, but requires the commitment of multiple sectors: public, private, corporate, community, and institutional. Together we must create a drumbeat for resilience, and put all hands on deck to create a resilient New York. n
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C ontributors B iograp H ies

Joan Byron
Joan Byron leads Pratt Centers research and advocacy work on issues of social, economic, and environmental justice in New York City and beyond. Her current and recent projects include post-Sandy rebuilding and resilience; supporting the Queens Fairness Coalitions campaign for Flushing Meadows Corona Park; Pratt Centers Transportation Equity atlas and campaign for a citywide Bus Rapid Transit network; support of the Bronx River Alliances work to restore the Bronx River and build an 8-mile greenway along its banks; and, with the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, the campaign to replace the 1.25-mile Sheridan Expressway with waterfront housing and open space. From 1989 through 2003, Joan directed Pratt Centers nonprot architectural practice in the design and construction of over 2,000 units of affordable housing, as well as community health, child care, and cultural facilities. Joan is a registered architect, and has taught in Pratt Institutes undergraduate architecture program, and in its Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment. She holds a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and in 2012 was awarded a fellowship from the Urban and Regional Policy Program of the German Marshall Fund, for research on equity and the public realm in global cities.
Sandra A. Garca Betancourt

Sandra A. Garca-Betancourt is the Executive Director & CEO of Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA), an arts service organization with the mission to cultivate, support and promote the works of artists and arts organizations in northern Manhattan. Ms. Garca-Betancourt is also a poet and writer, author of the poetry book Ombligo de Luna, and the plaquet Memorias y Olvidos. Her work has appeared in several publications, most recently in Breaking Ground: Anthology of Puerto Rican Women Writers in New York 1980-2012, edited by Dr. Myrna Nieves and published by Campana. Sandra holds a BA from Union Institute University in Vermont, and a MFA in creative writing in Spanish from NYU.
Toni L. Griffin
Toni L. Griffin is Professor of Architecture and the founding Director of the J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. In addition to her academic involvement, Ms. Griffin also maintains an active private practice, Urban Planning and Design for the American City, based in New York. Through the practice, Toni recently served as Director the long range planning initiative of the Detroit Work Project, and in 2012 completed and released Detroit Future City, a comprehensive citywide framework plan for urban transformation. Prior to returning to private practice, Toni was the Director of Community Development for the City of Newark, New Jersey, where she was responsible for creating a centralized division of planning and urban design. Between 2000-2006, Toni served as Vice President and Director of Design for the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation in Washington, D.C., and held the position of Deputy Director for Revitalization Planning and Neighborhood Planning in the D.C. Office of Planning. Toni serves as a board member for the Institute for Urban Design and the New York Committee of the Regional Plan Association.
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Alison CarndufF
Alison Carnduff spent the spring of 2013 at MAS exploring the policy issues associated with the disposition of civic assets and strategies for their preservation. Alisons career spans 20 years working in the elds of housing, historic preservation, and adaptive reuse. Her prior roles include serving as CEO, Keen Development Corporation, based in Cambridge, MA, and Senior VP - Investments, Benchmark Senior Living, one of New Englands largest providers of housing and services for the elderly. Since late 2013, Alison has led Barrett & Company, a rm providing leadership and strategic planning workshops for both the private and non-prot sectors.
LANE HARWELL
Lane Harwell is an entrepreneur, educator, community organizer and former dancer working to advance New Yorks arts and culture sector. Lane is currently Executive Director of Dance/NYC, the leading organization serving more than 1,200 dance makers and companies in the ve boroughs. He was previously the director of development at New Yorks arts-wide advocacy group, the Alliance for the Arts. A product of the citys nonprot community, Lanes lifelong history in the arts also includes training at the School of American Ballet and a performance career with American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. He holds a MBA from Columbia Business School, a MA from the University of California at Berkeley, and a BA from Princeton University. Lane chairs the Municipal Art Society of New Yorks Arts Committee and is a New York State Council on the Arts panelist for the Regional Economic Development Councils. He also chairs the Steering Committee for the New York Dance and Performance Awards (aka the Bessie Awards) and is a member of the Steering Committee for the New York City Arts Coalition, the Policy Leadership Circle for the Cultural Strategies Initiative, and the Advisory Group for One Percent for Culture. Lane is a current French-American Foundation Young Leader and a recent graduate of Coro New York Leadership Centers Leadership New York (LNY24). Lane writes on government and arts issues for the Huffington Post.
Adam Friedman
Adam Friedman is the third Executive Director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. He was the founding executive director of the New York Industrial Retention Network (NYIRN) in 1997, where he led efforts to strengthen the citys manufacturing sector and promote sustainable development. Beforehand Adam served as executive director of the Garment Industry Development Corporation and director of economic development for Borough Presidents David Dinkins and Ruth Messinger. He has also taught urban planning courses at Pratt Institute and Columbia University. He is one of New York Citys leading advocates in support of manufacturing and the employment opportunities it brings.
Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, is a research psychiatrist at New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University. She has conducted research on AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities, with a special interest in the relationship between the collapse of communities and decline in health. From her research, she has published Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It, and The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place. Her most recent book, Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in Americas Sorted-Out Cities, was released by New Village Press in June 2013.
Steve Hindy
Steve Hindy is Cofounder and Chairman of Brooklyn Brewery. A former Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, he is also a founding chairman of the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn and is director of Brooklyns Prospect Park Alliance and the Brewers Association. Hindy has a masters in teaching English from Cornell and he writes a monthly column for Crains New York Business.

Tony Hiss
Tony Hiss writes, lectures and consults about restoring cities and landscapes. Hes the author of thirteen books, including the award-winning The Experience of Place, several books about his family, and, most recently, In Motion: The Experience of Travel. Tonys next two books are about creating a continental-scale pattern for landscape conservation in North America, and about an innovative approach to healthcare in rural Ecuador. He was a staff writer for The New Yorker for more than 30 years and since then has been a Visiting Scholar at New York University. Tony lives in Greenwich Village with his wife, the novelist Lois Metzger, and their son, Jacob. His website is www.howwetravel.org not-for-prot developers. Sophia is member of Local Initiatives Support Corporations New York Local Advisory Council, the National Parks Conservation Associations East Coast Advisory Council and a board member of the Harbor Foundation. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Brown University.
Peter Lehner
Peter Lehner is the Executive Director of Natural Resources Defense Council and NRDC Action Fund. NRDC, one the nations leading environmental advocacy organizations with more than 1.3 million members and activists and 430 staff in seven offices, works to protect peoples health and families, communities, jobs, and wild spaces by accelerating clean and efficient energy, transportation and protecting our oceans, waters and homes from pollution. He is responsible for guiding NRDCs policy positions, advocacy strategies, communications plans, development and administration, and managing NRDCs seven offices as well as leading the Action Funds political activities. Since Peters return to NRDC in 2006, NRDC has opened new offices in Beijing and Chicago, started the Center for Market Innovation, and expanded both its policy and communications capacity. Previously, Peter served as chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney Generals office for eight years. He supervised all environmental litigation by the state, prosecuting a wide variety of polluters and developing innovative multi-state strategies targeting global warming, acid rain, and smog causing emissions. Peter previously served at NRDC as a senior attorney in charge of the water program. Before that, he created and led the environmental prosecution unit for New York City. Peter holds an AB in philosophy and mathematics from Harvard College and is a graduate of Columbia University Law School, where he continues to teach environmental law. He also has extensive experience in sustainable farming and green business.
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Jesse M. Keenan
Jesse M. Keenan is the Research Director for the Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE.) at Columbia University. Keenan is an internationally-recognized practitioner and academic who has advised governments and businesses on matters of housing, real estate and technology. Keenan has previously held various appointments at the University of Miami, Harvard Universitys Graduate School of Design and the Joint Center for Housing Studies, the University of Amsterdam and The Bauhaus Academy in Dessau, Germany. In bridging the art and science of the built environment, Keenans work includes several contributions to the Museum of Modern Art, New York and has had works published by the Wharton Real Estate Review, the Cornell Real Estate Review, Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law, Harvard University, GSAPP Books, the American Bar Association, and John Wiley & Sons. Keenan holds a joint affiliation with TU Delft School of Architecture, Department of Real Estate and Housing and is Counsel to Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP.
Molly Rose Kaufman

Molly Rose Kaufman is a journalist and community organizer based in Orange, NJ. She currently serves as provost of the University of Orange, a free peoples university that specializes in teaching urbanism, and she is the programming director at ORNG Ink, a youth-led, user driven arts collective.
Richard Olcott
Richard Olcott is a partner in Ennead Architects. Acclaimed for design excellence, his award-winning work is grounded in the power of architecture to communicate the values of contemporary society and to have a lasting and meaningful impact upon our culture. He creates buildings that are at once expressive of their missions and integral to their particular contexts. Recent projects include the Peabody Essex Museum Expansion; Stanford University Bing Concert Hall; Anderson Collection at Stanford University; Yale University Art Gallery Renovation and Expansion; Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant; William J. Clinton Presidential Center; WGBH Headquarters; Williams College Paresky Center and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.
Stefan Knust
Stefan Knust is Director of Sustainability for Ennead Architects and a project architect with more than 20 years experience in the design and construction of complex institutional buildings that emphasize multi-use and public service. An early background in retail, hospitality, institutional and commercial projects in both new and historic buildings provide him with an intimate understanding of the many intricacies involved in signicant urban work. Most recently he was a member of the Ennead Lab team recognized for Leading Innovation in Resilient Waterfront Development and named runner-up in the For a Resilient Rockaway (FAR ROC) design competition. A member of the American Institute of Architects and a LEED Accredited Professional, Mr. Knust is also a certied US Passive House Consultant, and is a current steering committee member for AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE). He received a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies degree from the University of Illinois and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
MARY ROWE
Mary W. Rowe is currently Director, Urban Resilience and Livability at the Municipal Art Society of New York City (www.mas.org), a century-old advocacy organization working to promote the livability and resilience of New York City through effective urban planning, land use, design and civic engagement. Mary directs resilience work at MAS, including convening and community engagement to build local resiliencebuilding strategies, and support of the regional Rebuild By Design, a collaborative initiative of the federal Hurricane Sandy Task Force with the RPA, Van Alen Institute and NYUs Institute for Public Knowledge; and the MAS City Builders Global Network, a peer-to-peer learning platform connecting urban practitioners contributing to the livability and resilience of cities around the world. Previously she spent ve years learning about granular approaches to urban innovation while supporting the New Orleans Institute for Resilience and Innovation, a loose alliance of initiatives that emerged in response to the systemic collapses of 2005, in the wake of Hurricane
Sophia Koven
Sophia Koven founded Gambit in 2010. She has focused on real estate development and strategic planning for fteen years, serving a broad range of clients, including municipalities, environmental advocacy groups, entrepreneurs, and both private and

Katrina. Originally from Toronto, she has a particular interest in self-organization in cities, as the underpinning of urban social, economic, cultural and environmental resilience, and is a contributor to several volumes on urban life.
Ronda Wist
Ronda Wist joined MAS in November 2009, and currently serves as Vice President, Preservation & Government Relations. Ronda comes to MAS with 25 years of public sector experience, including ten years as the Executive Director of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and ve years as the Director of Land Use Review at the New York City Department of City Planning. After her government work, she was a principal at HR&A Advisors. Ronda has a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is the author of On Fifth Avenue: Then and Now (1992).
Michael Royce
Michael Royce is the Executive Director of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), a 42-year-old arts service organization that serves individual artists and arts organizations. Formerly he was the Deputy Director of the New York State Council on the Arts. As a trustee, he has served on the Boards of New York Council of Nonprots, the Jersey City Museum, the Art Directors Club of New York and the Rebecca Kelley Ballet.
Roy Strickland
Roy Strickland is Professor of Architecture at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, where he served from 2001 to 2011 as the founding director of the Master of Urban Design Program. His urban design practice and research have engaged global cities such as New York, London, Tokyo, and Paris and include the design for a new city of 3.5 million people near Istanbul and a new medical university campus in Xian, China. He received his B.A. from Columbia and his M.Arch. from MIT, joining the architecture faculty at both universities before his appointment at Michigan. He currently serves on the editorial advisory board of the journal, Urban Design and Planning, Institute of Civil Engineers, London.
ANDrew YAN
Andrew Yan is a senior urban planner with Bing Thom Architects and a researcher with BTAworks, the rms research and development division in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He has extensively worked in the non-prot and private urban planning sectors with projects in the metropolitan regions of Vancouver, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, and New Orleans in the areas of urban regeneration, data visualization, climate change, and public engagement. Andrew holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the University of California - Los Angeles and Bachelor of Arts First Class Honours degree in Geography and Political Science from Simon Fraser University He is also an adjunct professor with University of British Columbias School of Community and Regional Planning. He is a registered professional planner with the Canadian Institute of Planners and a member of Vancouver City Planning Commission.
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A C K nowledgements MAS Board of Directors

Chair
Eugenie L. Birch
President
Vin Cipolla
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Vice Chair
Susan K. Freedman
Treasurer
James M. Clark, Jr.

Secretary
Frances A. Resheske
General Counsel
Sophia Koven David W. Levinson Christy MacLear Julie Menin Gregory Morey Julio Peterson Carlos Pujol Janet C. Ross David F. Solomon Jerry I. Speyer Kent M. Swig Yeohlee Teng Alison Tocci Thomas Vecchione Thomas L. Woltz William H. Wright, II Gary J. Zarr
MAS Staff
Executive Director
Margaret Newman Andr Allaire Stacey Anderson Aisha Brown Erin Butler Al Castricone Anne Coates Phyllis Samitz Cohen Lucas Cometto Joanna Crispe Mike Ernst Alana Farkas Anastassia Fisyak Aileen Gorsuch Geir Jaegersen Robert Libbey Raju Mann Maia Mordana Brenda Parkerson Gloria Parris David Rivera Mary Rowe Courtney Smith Alexis Taylor Karyn Williams Ronda Wist All photos by Giles Ashford
Earl D. Weiner, Esq.
Directors Emeriti BOARD MEMBERS

Enid L. Beal Paul R. Beirne Elizabeth Belfer Serena Boardman Gabriel Calatrava Lisa Smith Cashin Kathryn C. Chenault, Esq. Michael P. Donovan Kitty Hawks Daniel Hernandez Manuela V. Hoelterhoff Michael B. Hoffman Frederick Iseman Kent Barwick David M. Childs Joan K. Davidson Hugh Hardy Philip K. Howard John E. Merow, Esq. Frederic S. Papert Charles A. Platt Whitney North Seymour Jr., Esq. Stephen C. Swid Helen S. Tucker
ThE MUnicipaL Art SociEty of NEW YorK 111 W. 57th Street New York, NY 10019 T 212 935 3960 MAS.org
Voice for the future of our city.

MAS NYC Presents: Ideas For New York's New Leadership

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About MAS For 120 years the Municipal Art Society has made New York a more livable

About the Project:

Integrated Planning Strategies for the City

Richard Olcott Stefan Knust

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD Molly Rose Kaufman

Jobs and Housing Make Stable Communities

Neighborhood Assets: Investments for the 21st Century

Toni L. Griffin Steve Hindy

Roy Strickland Ronda Wist

Supporting Diversity Through Arts and Culture

Sandra A. Garca Betancourt Lane Harwell

Building a More Resilient City

Jesse M. Keenan Peter Lehner

Mary W. Rowe Andrew Yan

Contributors Biographies Acknowledgments

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents: Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Jobs and Housing Make Stable Communities

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Mobility and Equity in the Tale of Two Cities

Population Change 1990 to 2010

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Venice on the Hudson

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Jobs and Housing Make Stable Communities

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Is New York City a Just City?

SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS 2007

JUST CITY INDICATORS 2014

HOUSING AND NEIGHBORHOODS

References 1. Wilkinson, Richard, and Pickett, Kate (2009).

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

PARKS AND PUBLIC SPACE

A Tale of Two Parks

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Renaissance Plan for NYCs Public Housing:

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Making the Case for Civic Assets

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Toward Real Change

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

The Arts and New York Are One

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Creative Individuals Equal a Creative City

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Adaptation and Economic Development by Jesse M. Keenan

Many Birds with One Stone:

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

Scaling Up Energy in Low-Income Housing

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

All Hands on Deck: Building a Resilience Constituency

Data Source: NYC OpenData Map by: Andrew Yan, BTAworks

Area Under a 1% FEMA Flood Elevation

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership

MAS Presents : Ideas for New Yorks New Leadership