Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Opinion

Opinion

The Way We Plan is Broken; The Next City Government Has the Power to Fix It


8528968582 de19b58052 c

Development rendering (image: NYC mayor's office)


Over the past several years, our cityscape has continued to transform before our eyes. Gentrification and displacement have pushed deeper into working class communities, while shiny new towers throughout the five boroughs remain out of reach. At the forefront of this reality is the way our government makes planning and land use decisions. They shape what our city looks like. And equally as important — they shape what communities are served.

The fact is, the way we plan is broken, and far too many are unhappy with how the system works. 

Yet despite numerous attempts, systemic change to land use and planning has proven hard to come by. This doesn’t need to be the case. We know what’s wrong. We know what needs to change. We know who can make the change we all need.   

Currently New York City takes a scattered, ad hoc approach to planning — a neighborhood by neighborhood process, untethered from any larger analysis of citywide and local needs or collaborative vision. 

This approach replicates and exacerbates existing inequity, causing displacement and exclusion, with each community left to respond with whatever resources and power they can muster. 

It has brought us neighborhood rezonings that, until these final months of the de Blasio administration, were solely situated in low-income communities of color, forcing neighborhoods like East New York or along Jerome Avenue in the Bronx to trade new, mostly market-rate density, in exchange for long overdue community investments. 

It has disregarded thoughtful, community-created plans like those crafted by Bushwick and Chinatown residents, simply because they didn’t meet the city’s hidden targets for those neighborhoods. 

And it allows whiter and wealthier communities power to say no to more affordable housing.

As a city we must pivot to a different model — one that creates a fairer distribution of resources and development, one that empowers communities to create and move forward their own plans, and ensures all neighborhoods are helping to advance racial and economic equity. 

This is why we have long advocated for comprehensive, long-term planning in New York City. While the details of how comprehensive planning would work in our city are not set in stone (nor should they be), its broad outline and goals remain the same. 

Comprehensive planning requires the city to holistically look at its current and future needs, alongside existing disparities across neighborhoods and groups. The city then sets transparent goals for how to address these needs and disparities in an equitable fashion. 

Most crucially the community (and not developers) creates their own plans to help guide their future. This builds community  power and power for their elected officials to fight for those visions moving forward.     

Our city will move forward with new leadership — from the City Council to Borough Presidents, the next Mayor, and more — in a matter of days. 

This new landscape is an opportunity to reinforce equity-centered, community-based planning as the best way to build consensus for land use decisions that prioritize the needs of New Yorkers.

By aligning our spatial planning with our city budget, the next administration can ensure that growth and investment are working to facilitate a more just and equitable city.

Comprehensive planning is the most efficient strategy to tackle our biggest and longest-standing challenges like housing choice and affordability, climate resilience, and equitable access to opportunity. 

We need to redefine what it means to thrive as a city, without leaving any of our neighbors behind. Comprehensive planning is the key to seeing the city as it is, and as it could be. 

Such solutions require leadership, and the next administration and City Council must agree this is a problem within their power to fix.  

Through new legislation, directives to city agencies, budget priorities, and changes to the City Charter, New York City can chart a course towards comprehensive planning and a brighter future for all.

Imagine what could be possible if we had a real plan.

***
Chris Walters is Land Use Policy Coordinator at Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a member organization of the Thriving Communities Coalition. On Twitter @ANHDNYC & @thrivingccnyc.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A Black Woman as the Next Leader of the New York City Council


49605519223 0150253046 c

Farah Louis, the author (middle, in green) with Adrienne Adams (second from left) & others (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


While tackling the global COVID-19 pandemic, New York City experienced a historic moment this year. We didn’t just break the proverbial glass ceiling; we demolished barriers that were created to leave marginalized communities out for generations. The next New York City Council is on track to be the most diverse in the city’s history, including the first Muslim woman; the first openly gay Black women; seven foreign-born New Yorkers; the largest LGBTQ+ delegation; and a high number of electeds who identify as people of color. For the first time ever, City Hall will have a majority of 31 women serving in the legislative body.

In our city, from health care to home care, whether managing restaurants or grocery stores, women are leading the way. Women make up the majority of workers on the frontline in the fight against COVID-19, and by supporting the very people who have shown up, risked their lives and, in some cases lost their lives during our darkest hour, we can improve the city. Many of their important issues were sidelined when the covid crisis began, and if the goal of the New York City Council in the next session is to fully reopen and revitalize New York City, and make it better than it was before the pandemic, these issues must take center stage.

There can be no recovery without centering women during our next legislative session – because every issue essentially is a women's issue. 

We should begin at the beginning: the maternal mortality and morbidity debacle. Birthing-people in New York City are dying. Their pain is ignored. Their lives, along with the lives of their children, are at risk. The City of New York has not adequately invested in the necessary infrastructure or programs to protect them. Black and Brown mothers, in particular, have endured structural racism in health care for decades. There is a national and local history of substandard care, disregard, disrespect, and unfair treatment.

Black women are two to three times more likely to die from complications during their pregnancy. I witnessed this firsthand in my district. According to a report by the NYC Health Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, East Flatbush is one of three New York City neighborhoods with the highest rate of infant mortality and maternal complications in the city, resulting primarily from racial disparities in health care.

The solutions exist and they are coming from the most knowledgeable advocates, close to the issue: midwives, doulas, and birth advocates. Tackling these issues first will have widespread benefits because health issues that are specific to women’s bodies impact our entire city. Tackling these issues with a co-governance lens will lead to substantial change and a better start for our families.

Supporting women cannot only revolve around the act of birth, of course. We need to invest in mental health resources to deal with postpartum depression, as well as long-term mental health needs for all women. Women are the primary caregiver in most homes, while also working, and living through the harsh realities of pandemic life, as well as other challenges that existed well before COVID-19.

Black and brown communities, in particular, have been disproportionately affected by health disparities, the loss of loved ones, and housing instability. We must ensure that New Yorkers have comprehensive, immediate, culturally competent, and accessible mental health care. Investing in programs that make mental health services accessible to all is a necessary step to reopening New York City fully, and it must begin with the people who did not have access during this crisis.

Our focus cannot purely be on survival; we must push for an agenda that allows women to thrive. Two hindering problems to solve include pay parity and accessible and affordable child care. The pay gap between American men and women is one of the greatest injustices this country has battled for decades. Women across the nation bear the consequences of being paid a fraction of the compensation that their male counterparts are paid — for the same work. For too many Black women, the workplace is yet another arena in which they must wrestle with discrimination and inequality. Our families depend on our livelihoods to remain afloat. These discriminatory pay practices can — and must — change.

This must be supplemented by investments in child care that will allow women to realize these gains directly. No longer should working mothers need to choose between supporting their family and raising children. Women live at the intersection of sexism and racism. Our lives are defined by fighting institutional and entrenched conditions that hinder our career development and advancement. This inexcusable reality is unacceptable. COVID-19 has magnified these disparities and shows that we need to create equitable workplace conditions for all women.

This is our time.

In state government, we have our first female Governor of New York and Black women serving as the Senate Majority Leader and Attorney General. In City Hall, we have a majority of incoming members identifying as women.

This is our time.

We have an opportunity to elect the first Black woman as Speaker of the City Council. And, what better time than now to demolish the old school, backroom, boys club politics!

We can make room for a new wave of leadership, a women’s wave of leadership, that will make vital issues our priorities in 2022.

This. Is. Our. Time.

***
City Council Member Farah Louis represents parts of Brooklyn. On Twitter @FarahNLouis.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How Governor Hochul Can Help Improve Birthing Experiences and Maternal Safety


birthing options

A push for better birthing options (photo via NYSALM)


This op-ed is adapted from a public letter being sent to Governor Kathy Hochul by birth practitioners, advocates, educators, and leaders and reflects a petition already signed by more than 1,000 New Yorkers in support of the Midwifery Birth Center Bill.

Midwifery birth centers provide high-value, evidence-based, patient-centered care that has been proven to result in positive health outcomes, cost savings, and health equity—and could be essential to advancing birth equity in New York, a state that faces a maternal mortality and morbidity crisis.

So why are midwifery birth centers nearly impossible to open?

Byzantine and burdensome state regulations and obstacles from the Department of Health have meant that no midwifery birth centers have been able to be licensed in New York State, leaving families without the care options they deserve. 

The good news: There is a step within reach that could change this. The bad news: There's only a few weeks left for Governor Kathy Hochul to act.

The New York State Senate and Assembly have unanimously passed the Midwifery Birth Center Bill (A.259a/S.1414a) to address exactly these challenges—but now the governor must call for the bill and sign it into law by December 31 or it’s back to square one.

As midwives who have worked in public and private health settings in New York, we've personally seen the value midwifery care can add to birthing families—and we've seen the frustrations that come from not having more birth center options. We're fortunate to have leaders in the State Legislature who understand the health and economic benefits of this avenue—including Assembly Health Chair Richard Gottfried, the longest-serving member of the Legislature, and Senate Health Chair Gustavo Rivera. Now we need to make sure Governor Hochul sees and seizes this opportunity.

To get technical for a moment, the Midwifery Birth Center bill allows accreditation by an unbiased national entity, such as the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers (CABC), to satisfy the Certificate of Need requirements for opening a facility—which is one of the major obstacles to opening such centers in New York. Adopting the guidelines from a nationally recognized accrediting organization, as is done in many other states, will protect and serve childbearing families in New York. National birth center accreditation is evidence-based, efficient, transparent, affordable, and tailored to birth centers. Accreditation reviews all aspects of the birth center, including business financial operations, regulatory compliance, facility design, staff competency, collaboration for transfer, perinatal outcome data, and client experience. It is the gold standard of any state's birth center licensure process. This bill will make sure this gold standard is applied in New York State as well.

***
Whitney Hall, LM, CM, is a Midwife and President of NYS Birth Center Association. Casey Selzer, LM, CNM, is a Midwife and former Co-Chair of NYC Midwives.

***
Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Print Friendly and PDF

Editor's Choice


Gotham Gazette: New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
Gotham Gazette: 
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
Gotham Gazette: 
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Gotham Gazette: 
City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years