keys to the city

8/12/2019 Keys to the City

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KEYS TO THE CITY 64 Ideas to Keep New York the Capital of the Middle Class

Keys CityTOTHE

64 Ideas to Keep New Yorkthe Capital of the Middle Class

BY ANTHONY D. WEINER


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CONTENTS

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Hunger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Small Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

New York City / Albany / Washington. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Safety and Crime Prevention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Reform and Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Housing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Job Retention and Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Tax Reform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Keys CityTOTHE

64 Ideas to Keep New Yorkthe Capital of the Middle Class


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INTRODUCTION

New York City staked its claim as the capital of the middle

class generations ago. Here, people with nothing more than

tenacity and perseverance can emerge from a hard-scrabble

start with an opportunity for a life in the middle class.

But the fact is, New Yorkers who work every day to

make a living are struggling. Housing prices are through the

roof. Health coverage is exorbitant and for more than

1.2 million New Yorkers, its literally unattainable.

Manufacturing jobs that once buttered the bread of

thousandsof families have all but disappeared.

To maintain New Yorks place as the capital of the mid-

dle class and to keep the promise of prosperity for genera-

tions to come we must meet todays challenges with fresh

ideas. Bold ideas. Substantive and practical ideas.

In these pages, I offer 64 ideas linked with a common

purpose: to keep our city the capital of the middle class.

is goes to my core philosophy that whats good for the

middle class is good for the city, and vice versa. ese ideas

are diverse, but what binds them is the help they offerto

the middle class and those struggling to make it there. Part

of being a New Yorker is looking at problems and figuring out

a better way. I put these ideas on the table to start the dialog

for a better way for our great city.

A VIEW FROM THE STOOP

ere is a unifying American ideal by which we mea-

sure success as a nation, a city and even a family: has one

generation done better than the one before? e answer has

always been yes. But for the first time, thats in jeopardy in

New York.e middle class and those struggling to make

it into the middle class facesa looming crisis. More New

Yorkers are getting caught between powerful forces beyond

their control. At the same time that our cost of living con-

tinues to climb, an economic slowdown is limiting growthand opportunity. Trapped in this tightening vise, the middle

class needs our policymakers to face the challenges head-on

and discuss practical ideas to propel our city forward.

e plight of the middle class is not an academic issue

for me. Its personal. I grew up in Brooklyn, the son of a

public school teacher and a lawyer who, aer earning his

degree through the G.I. Bill, literally hung a shingle near

our stoop. My mom and dad raised me and my brothers like

millions of other middle-class parents did: we went to publi

school I graduated from P.S. 39, my neighborhood ele-

mentary school;Junior High School 51; and Brooklyn Tech

We played stickball in the streets and rooted wildly for the

Mets whenever Dad could take us to Shea for a game.

My parents ingrained in me a belief in the citys basic

bargain that hardworking New Yorkers have a real

chance to raise their children into a better life.at has com-

pelled me to advocate for the middle class for 27 years: as an

aide to then-Congressman Chuck Schumer, as a City Coun-

cilman, and as a seven-term member of the House of Repre

tatives. I have always approached my endeavors from that

angle asking what can be done differently, smarter, and

more efficiently to help the citys great middle class thrive.

In 2011, my concern for New Yorks middle class took

on even greater personal meaning; my wife and I welcomed

our son into the world. I believe Jordan deserves to grow up

with the same, if not better, opportunities than I had. But

in just one generation, the promise of our city has faded

Incomes are flat,and poverty is up.e fear of too many resi

dents of the five boroughs is that they might not have rea

opportunity here or that they might do better elsewhere.

Below, I trace the history of how the middle class has

succeeded in New York City, describe some long-term obsta

cles to its future success, then offer a catalog of ideas that

we should pursue to tackle big issues like housing, educa-

tion, health care, hunger, and economic growth. It is time

that we take a hard look at the problems facing New Yorks

middle class and begin to outline an approach and mindset

we can all share.

I remain optimistic about the future of the city that

gave me my every opportunity, because the smarts, grit, and

determination that built the Big Apple into the worlds great-

est metropolis endure as our greatest assets.

NEW YORK CITY: CAPITAL

OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

New York has changed dramatically through the

years. Before Manhattan was entirely developed, a patch-

work of farmland dotted the outerboroughs.The rapid


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influx of immigrants before and aer the turn of the 20th

century spurred the rapid expansion of tenement hous-

ing. e development of Tammany Hall the notorious

political machine whose corruption fed off the vitality of

the growing city begat Robert Mosess emergence as the

regions foremost masterbuilder. e city sank into turmoil

through the dark days of a municipal fiscal crisis, an out-

moded police force, and a crack epidemic. Aer a rebound

for some following the financial crisis of 2008, New York

enjoyed a period of growth, the resurgence of the citys

transit system, and a turnaround in crime.

Public perceptions of New York have evolved. A teeming,

chaotic den of immigrants just through Ellis Island turned to

a staid, postwar corporate haven aer World War II. A crum-

bling, drug-ravaged slum in the 1970s became the safest big

city in the country by the turn of the new millennium.

Turn-of-the-century immigrants came to New Yorklooking for a better life and the same dream draws peo-

ple today. College grads gravitate to the city. People of all

races, genders, ethnicities, and religions come to New York,

because it offers them the opportunities they might not

haveif they lived elsewhere.

is brief summary does not capture the full complex-

ity. Certainly there were well-to-do families residing in the

five boroughs even during the periods of greatest challenge.

And today, a full fih of the city lives below the poverty line

in a metropolis that nevertheless glimmers with optimism

(and practically speaking, the poverty rate is more like 50%).But present throughout all of modern history through

boom and bust New York has maintained a unique qual-

ity. e can-do attitude, competitive spirit, and aggressive

nature rooted in New Yorkers have made the city a machine

of innovation and growth. eres no doubt that privilege

can provide an advantage, but what makes New York unique

is the chance it affords to anyone willing to sacrifice and pull

themselves up by their bootstraps.

For all the talk about glitz and glamour, wealth and privi-

lege, the corporate headquarters and skyrocketing real estate

prices, New York is less defined by its luxury than its com-mitment to opportunity. At closer inspection, it is a city built

for the middle class, and those aspiring to get there. More

than any other measure, its star rises and falls on the chances

it affords those willing to sacrifice in their drive to climb the

economic ladder. New York gives anyone willing to work

hard the chance to succeed, an opportunity that might not be

as available anywhere outside the citys five boroughs.

A NEW SET OF CHALLENGES

For all the citys successes over recent decades and

there have been plenty there are now signs that life has

become more difficult for middle- class New Yorkers and

those aspiring to get there. Aff

ordable housing is harder tofind, and quality health care is harder to afford.e schools

that have educated generations of middle- class children

no longer offer the same promise. While our infrastructure

calls out for investment and modernization, employers are

being tempted overseas or at least across the river.

We live in world that is faster-paced and more sophis-

ticated than the one in which I grew up. New Yorkers now

face a new set of challenges,from the specter of terrorism to

the complexities of global finance to competition from busi-

nesses around the world. e five boroughs are intertwined

like never before with the global economy.For every private equity firm that made a fortune, theres a

neighborhood pharmacist who has been put out of business by

a big chain. For every developer who has seen an investmen

turn into a real estate bonanza, theres a family in a neighbor-

hood like Sunnyside trying desperately to keep up with a rising

property tax bill. For every strip of stores that celebrated the

opening of a more convenient Starbucks, theres a hardwork-

ing middle class family struggling to put their kids through

college on the profits earned by a family-run business.

ats not to say that the city does not benefit when Wal

Street is bullish or that anyone hopes a real estate slump wilenvelop the five boroughs, or that New Yorkers in search

of a pick-me-up should be deprived of a venti iced double

shot skim latte. But those with an interest in seeing the city

continue to grow should not be blind to the effects recent

decades have had on the New Yorkers who have never man-

aged to swing a signing bonus, who struggle to cover their

tax burden, and who are just as happy to wake up with a

regular cup of Joe.

Neighborhoods like Bay Ridge, rogs Neck, Wash-

ington Heights, Jamaica, and West Brighton continue to be

neighborhoods. ey house middle-class families who arraising their kids in the great tradition of the Big Apple. Bu

ask around, and most will tell you, it is much more difficul

to carve out a comfortable living than it was a few years ago

and those who aspire to steward the city through the coming

years ought to be listening.

New Yorks mantle as the great gateway to the middle

class is in peril. But it need not be this way.


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EDUCATION

Our school system is a city unto itself; 1.1 million kids

in well over a thousand schools being cared for (dur-ing most of their young lives) by an army of teachers,supervisors, and support staff. But as any educatorwill tell you, teaching a child is often a painstaking,complex,and personal challenge that no one test or

single curriculum can tackle. Education is as much artas it is science.

When it comes to educating our kids, weve got toget back to basics.It means training and payingteachers well.It means holding the systems lead-ership accountable to the public. It means taking seri-

ously the discipline problems that diminish the learn-

ing experience of well-behaved students. It meansengaging parents in a meaningful and productive way.

And it means focusing more on early education andelementary school, so that high schools are not bur-

dened by the responsibility of teaching older studentswhat they should have learned earlier.

1Streamline the Process for Removing Trouble-

some Kids from the Classroom.e process that

must be followed by a principal to suspend a disruptive stu-

dent can take months. Due process must be preserved, butthe current multitiered, trial-like process must give way to

a clear benefit of the doubt for school leaders and teachers.

Keep in mind that a long-drawn-out process harms the child

in question as well.

2Pay Master Teachers More for Taking Tough

Assignments.e seniority system has many bene-

fits, but it oen serves to attract the most tenured and skilled

teachers to the most comfortable assignments. Incentives

for top teachers to choose challenging schools and needy

students should be part of all teacher contracts.

3

Create a Master Teacher Academy.We are suf-

fering through a brain drain in the public schoolsousands of our smartest and most skilled teachers are

retiring.is generation of teachers like my mother ha

lebefore their time because of the frustration with current

policies. Lets get them back in the game with the creation o

training and mentoring academies featuring the best of the

best. is is a much- needed opportunity for the city and

teachers union to work together.

4Eliminate Paid Parent Coordinators. Paren

involvement is important,and participation in the Par

ents Association should be a rite of every school mom and

dad. But the current policy of having paid parent coordina-

tors is a waste of money and misunderstands the importance

of parents being part of the oversight of a school not the

staff.

5Make Catholic School Preservation a Tweed

Mission. Between 2000 and 2011 the city lost 63 Cath

olic Schools,with another 24 eliminated in 2012. e Paris

school is not only an asset in the teaching of values that

underpin our society, but its also an important practical

circuit breaker on another major problem overcrowding

in our public schools. Considering how much attention wepay to the debate over charter schools, the lack of conversa

tion about disappearing Catholic Schools is disheartening.

6Help Private Schools Access Security Grants

Homeland security grants are available to religious

schools and nonprofit institutions, but the application pro-

cess is complicated.e NYPD should take an active lead in

helping these oen cashed-strapped organizations get things

like security cameras and emergency locking doors.


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7Reinvent Teacher Contracts for the New Work-

force Realities.Todays labor force is more transient

than at any time in our nations history. e old model of

heavy back-loaded incentives like pensions is not appealing

to many talented people considering teaching. New York

should explore the Denver model,which permits teachers totrade the defined benefit future for a higher pay today.

8Put a Kindle in Every Backpack.Kids today walk

around weighed down by backpacks full of outdated

books that cost taxpayers nearly $100 million per year and will

rise with new standards. EBooks would cost less, give teachers

access to millions of titles, and are never outofdate. I wrote

more about this idea in 2010 here: http://tinyurl.com/af6lsoj.

9Use Federal Standards for New Yorks Kids.

e argument over the troubling trend toward teach-

ing to the test is on the minds of many teachers and parents.To make matters worse, we are comparing our schools to the

wrong standards. We should be using the national bench-

marks so we compare ourselves to Seattle and Cincinnati,

not just to Syracuse.

10Let Empty Schools Bustle After Hours

Even for Churches.Given how much we ask of

our schools, it makes sense to keep them open as commu-

nity centers as much as possible. Civic groups should not be

charged to hold neighborhood meetings,and local churche

that need space should be able to use empty auditoriums fora fee.

11Expand Civic Service with Gotham Corps

Using the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps models

New York should make Where are you going to do your

service year? a commonly asked question among todays

young citizens. By capturing AmeriCorps funding and

matching with a year of free tuition at a CUNY or SUNY

college, the Gotham Corps would allow the city to harness

an army of volunteers to tackle our large urban challenges.
http://tinyurl.com/af6lsojhttp://tinyurl.com/af6lsoj


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HUNGER

More than 1.5 million New York City residents face

hunger every day,and a quarter of them are children.

It is a moral failing that our kids are going hungryyear after year. We need to expand awareness and

access to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition

Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food

Stamps) and make them more nutritious and benefi-

cial. And we need to create a coalition of the business,

charitable, and government sectors to get them work-

ing in unison on this crisis. We must reduce hunger in

our city and ensure that no child goes to bed hungry.

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Eliminate Barriers to SNAP (Food Stamps).

e rise in the number of New Yorkers who are eli-gible to 1.8 million is a sign of how dire the need is in

our city, but it is also an opportunity for more to take advan-

tage of the single-most successful program in reducing hun-

ger. Now we have to change city policies that put obstacles in

the way of parents getting food for their hungry kids. Treat-

ing the needy like criminals is not just inhumane, its bad

economics. Food stamps are a federal benefit that cost city

taxpayers nothing additional.

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Enlist Our Kids to Teach Their ParentsAbout

Food Stamps. e best place to attack child hun-

ger is in the schools. Its the place kids spend much of their

day. Its a place where they get two hot meals. And its a place

where they get an understanding about good nutrition. Its

also the ideal place to transmit information to their parents.

e Department of Education should be stuffing the back-

packs of kids with information and using school offices and

lobbies to help parents apply for SNAP. e federal govern-

ment has successfully used this strategy to increase partici-

pation in the Census.

14Double the Meals Served in City Schools

over the Summer.Teachers oen observe that

the summer months off from school are when kids forgetmuch of what they learned in class. But when kids leave the

structure of the school, they oen also lose access to free

breakfast and lunch. We need to dramatically increase the

number of meals that kids return to school for in July and

August.

15Create a Nonprofit Czar.For too long, govern-

ment, business, and the nonprofit sector hav

worked on common goals in their own silos.e city should

have a cabinet- level liaison to/facilitator of, the charitabl

organizations that serve our city. Whether it be a churchbasement soup kitchen or the Red Cross, we need to get civi

servants and servants of the city helping each other serve us

16Give Food Stamps 50% More Value When

Used for Fresh Produce.e sad truth is that

the least expensive foods are the ones with the least nutri-

tional value. Rather than punish the hungry by banning the

use of food stamps for bad foods, we should give a bonus

to families who buy fresh fruits and vegetables.


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TRANSPORTATION

For much of New York with important exceptions in

the outer boroughs the Metropolitan Transit Author-

ity (MTA) is the great equalizer, used by New Yorkers atevery point on the economic spectrum. An estimated

7.5 million times a day, New Yorkers swipe their Me-

troCard to ride on a subway system that is 108 years

old and to commute on a giant fleet of buses. Mod-

ernizing our infrastructure and transportation systems

needs to be a high priority. In the most densely popu-

lated region in the country, we need to look at alterna-

tive modes of moving people from Point A to Point B.

17

Launch Ferries in All Five Boroughs. No

water-bound city is as far behind the curve on ferryservice as New York City. e Department of Transporta-

tion is invested 100% for service to Staten Island, as they

should be. But what about Rockaway, Sheepshead Bay,

Riverdale, and Harlem? Ferries are good for the environ-

ment, reduce congestion,and are vital lifelines in an emer-

gency.

18Install Cell Service on Every Subway Plat-

form.What is commonplace in systems in other

cities has been a distant dream in the Big Apple. Going down

to catch the train should not mean you lose the ability to

check on a meeting, run an app, or report a crime.

19Give Breaks to Employers to Promote

Biking to Work. e IRS offers tax breaks to

employers who offer up to $20 a month to workers to buy,fixor store their bikes. For the employee, this is tax free compen

sation and a strong incentive to pedal to work. e city

should offer a similar deal.

20Replace Access-A-Ride with 2,000 New

Accessible Cab Medallions. e Access-A-

Ride program is a more than $600 million boondoggle. Tax

payers and the disabled alike are being taken for a ride (if the

car ever shows up, that is) at a cost of nearly $66 per ride.

e city should issue 2,000 new medallions only for handi

cap-accessible yellow cabs that can be dispatched in all fiveboroughs. We would raise revenue for the city, and raise

expectations for the disabled.


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SMALL BUSINESS

Starting a business anywhere is hard. Launching one

in New York City can be extra difficult because of the

myriad of forms, regulations, and applications. Oncelaunched, life doesnt get easier in the face of ticketing,

surprise inspections, and a relentless bureaucracy.

Small businesses are the pulse of the city. They com-

prise 98% of all business here and employ more than

50% of the workforce in the private sector. We need

to stop making life harder for small business owners

and start encouraging them by streamlining the start-

up and BID process, by setting up mobile offices to

facilitate communication with the city agencies, and

by promoting neighborhood businesses on the web

so that New Yorkers can shop locally.

21Roll Out Small Business Adjudication Vans.

Small businesses get hammered by tickets, surprise

inspections,and demands for information from city agencies

all the time. e engines of our economy oen have sand

thrown in the gears by an overbearing bureaucracy. To make

life easier the city should visit shopping strips with mobile

offices that let shopkeepers argue fines, settle tickets,and file

papers without having to shutter their stores for the day.

22 Make Big-Box and Chains Play by theRules.Lost in the fight over Walmart is the costthat is passed along by these big- box stores to taxpayers

when workers are underinsured and underpaid. ere

should be more transparency about the number of employ-

ees who need to use emergency rooms for their medical care

or food stamps for their meals. Only then will we know if

cheap goods really are such a good deal.

23Create www.shopnyc.com. e city has vast

amounts of data on businesses in all five boroughs

We should put this data to good use promoting neighbor-hood businesses in every conceivable field. A website and an

app should be created that allow people to shop in the digi-

tal world but spend their dollars locally. Insert your location

and the goods or service you want to purchase, and the web

site points you to businesses that may have no web presence

of their own.

24Streamline the Business Improvement Dis-

trict Process(BID). e BID program, which

permits businesses to tax themselves to invest in shopp

strip improvements, is a good program,but getting it up anning is way too hard especially for struggling shopkeepers

in the outer boroughs.e Department of Business Services

should shorten the process and designate personnel to help

understaffed businesses access the program.


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NEW YORK CITY / ALBANY / WASHINGTON

It was a huge victory for New York City to gain control

over our own school system. But it is remarkable that

being governed by our own local government is seenas extraordinary. It should be the rule that New York

City citizens control the fate of New York City, not the

exception.

25Give New York City the Control over Fees,

Fines, and Taxes.Perhaps most galling to resi-

dents of the Big Apple is the notion that to raise or lower

most taxes, fees,and fines, the City Council and the Mayor

have to get the permission of Albany. Giving legislators from

Western New York the authority to veto a tax cut for the

West Side or letting lawmakers from Kingston decide howmuch to charge forparking tickets on Kings Highway is ludi-

crous and should be challenged constantly.

26Require State Properties to Pay City Prop-

erty Taxes. In the category of adding insult to

injury, the state of New York refuses to pay property taxes on

the many state-owned buildings that are in the Big Apple. We

welcome state workers, as we do all workers to New York, but

the services that local government provides inures to the

benefit of the state.e state should pay like any other entity.

27Turn Rent Regulations over to New York

City.We casually accept the Urstadt Laws, because

too many elected city officials have been perfectly happy letting the responsibility for the thorny issue of rent regulation

rest with the obscure Rent Guidelines Board. But that

doesnt make it right that a state agency is in charge of the

most costly decision to so many New Yorkers their annua

rent. Just as we made it a priority to get mayoral control of

schools, we should fight for mayoral control of rents.

28Put Local Liquor Licenses in the Hands of

Local Citizens and Local Representatives

Oen the decision of government that impacts a block or an

entrepreneur the most is the issuance of a license to serveliquor at a bar or restaurant. Yet this most local of concerns

is in the hands of an Albany bureaucracy. It makes no sense


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HEALTH CARE

More than 1.2 million New Yorkers are uninsured.

Thats 16% of city residents under age 65, who can-

not afford health insurance and do not qualify for pro-grams like Medicare or Medicaid. Yet Big Apple tax-

payers spend $12 billion each year (17% of our total

budget) on providing health care for its citizens. For

too long this has all fallen under the rubric of non-

controllable costs to our city. Well its too big a chal-

lenge and too costly a status quo to keep doing things

the same way.

29Create a Single-Payer Laboratory in New

York City.Perhaps more than any other big prob-

lem, the need to provide aff

ordable, accessible, and qualityhealth care is within the reach of all New Yorkers. In this

laboratory, New Yorkers own and control the Health and

Hospitals Corporation,which in turn runs 11 acute-care hos-

pitals, 70 community clinics, 6 diagnostic treatment labs, 4

long- term- care facilities, and employs 3,300 doctors and

8,000 nurses. In addition, there is a buzzing economy of

pharmacists, laboratories,and senior centers. In short, every-

thing you need to structure a comprehensive universal health

care system is right here including the money. New York

passes along a large portion of the state cost of the Medicaid

program for the uninsured to localities like New York City.For a city of 8 million with over a fih of its residents living

below the poverty line this cost can be massive. In 2012,

New York City taxpayers spent $6.2 billion or 8.5% of our

budget on this cost.

e cost of Medicaid is only part of the health care

expense. We also spend $4.9 billion on health insurance

policies for more than 280,000 active and 290,000 retired

city employees. en there is the amount that taxpayers foot

in health care for the uninsured who are cared for in New York

City hospitals that is never reimbursed.

So the proposition is this: we ask the federal and stategovernments to continue to fund our Medicaid beneficiaries

at the level they are today and give us the flexibility to set up

a system that we know works, we know patients like, and we

know is less costly a single-payer program like Medicare

for all the uninsured and underinsured in our city.

If that sounds too ambitious, take a hard look at how

Local 6, the hotel workers union,does it. For $411, which i

about the price of the cheapest city HMO, the union hassalaried doctors at comprehensive health centers across the

city and includes coverage of dental and eye care, with no

co-pays or deductibles and minimal costs for prescriptions

ere is no reason why we cant use our communal buying

power and wealth of health care resources to improve health

care outcomes, while cutting out the health insurance mid-

dleman and save a lot of money in the process.

30End the City/County Medicaid Burden.New

York is one of very few states that passes a portion o

the cost of providing health care to the localities.

is is amassive regressive tax.e more poor residents, the more the

Medicaid expense.e cost for Big Apple taxpayers is a stag-

gering $6.2 billon.e time has never been better for reform

e state has undertaken a redesign of the Medicaid system

and the recent federal infusion of help under the stimulus bil

has helped create a solanding for the state budget.

31Let Local Prosecutors and Auditors Claim

100% in Fraud Bounty.e split responsibility

for funding Medicaid has made efforts to weed out waste

inefficient. Since local authorities get only a fraction of the

savings from prosecuting waste, the investigations are fre-

quently halfhearted. e solution is a bounty program that

puts incentives in the right place by giving 100% of the pro-

ceeds of found fraud to the locality that roots it out.

32Subsidize New Yorkers WhoAre Caregiver

at Home.Most aging and frail seniors would pre-

fer not to spend extended periods in an institution. Bill pay

ers and taxpayers would prefer to find cheaper options

than nursing homes. So oen, family members wind up tak-

ing care of parents and grandparents at home. is humane

option oen leaves families with a crushing burden emo-tionally and financially especially if the other side of the

vice is the cost of taking care of children. All levels of gov-

ernment should offer a caregivers tax credit to lighten the

load of these families.


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33Organize Community Pharmacists to Com-

pete with the Chains.New York City has pri-

mary health care providers on virtually every shopping strip

in all five boroughs.ey are called community pharmacies.

Policy-makers have recently seen the benefit of giving these

health care professionals more leeway to do things likeadminister flu shots. But the steady pressure from mail-

order drug distributors and chain pharmacies has caused

many neighborhood drug stores to close up.e city should

organize these mom-and-popstores to let them compete for

business and reduce costs as a group.

34Permit Gay Men to Donate Blood.Its a relic

from a time of fear and misinformation, but its a

dangerous one. Men who declare that they are gay on appli-

cations to donate blood are routinely denied, even though

all blood donors are screened for HIV.is not only stigma-

tizes a whole class of well-intentioned citizens, but it is fool-

ish in an era when blood shortages are routine.

35Ask City Workers to Pay a Small Portion of

Their Health Premiums. e employer-base

health care model with insurance company middlemen

taking a piece of the action is flawed and should be replaced

with a single-payer model like Medicare (see above). But our

present policy of having employees pay none of their pre-mium costs should change. It is a driver of an unsustainable

fiscal liability. It is out of line with virtually every other

municipal workforce in the nation. And it dilutes true

accountability, since beneficiaries dont feel the pinch of pre-

mium costs and demand efficiencies.

36Require Higher Premiums from City

Employees Who Smoke.e cost to taxpayer

of providing health insurance to city workers is higher

because of the cost of treating those who choose to smoke

e smoker should shoulder a portion of this cost and beincentivized to give up the habit.


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14


SAFETY AND CRIME PREVENTION

In 2012, New York City had its lowest number of ho-

micides in over halfacentury 414. Thanks to strat-

egies implemented by Mayors Dinkins, Giuliani, andBloomberg, and the day-to-day efforts of cops, vio-

lent crime is way down in recent decades.

The city needs to stay at the forefront of efforts to re-

duce crime by expanding its use of DNA technology,

growing our COPs program, and improving efforts to

track and neutralize sexual predators. 9/11 added a

new challenge to keeping our city safe combating

terrorism. More than a decade later, there are fewer

officers in the employ of One Police Plaza than there

wereon the day of that tragedy. We need to be

smart when protecting our city by taking measures

like upping the headcount of police officers and giving

them the training and tools to succeed.

37Expand the COPs Program.Doing more with

less is a laudable mantra that has been a way of life

at One Police Plaza in recent years. But the fact that we

have 6,000 fewer cops on the streets than we had on 9/11,

combined with a demographic cliff that has many officers

retiring in the coming years, argues for an aggressive effort

to get the federal government off the sidelines with a new

COPs program thathires local cops with federal dollars.

38Track Sex Offenders Using GPS Technol-

ogy. Most sex offenders are strictly limited on

where they can travel and who they may contact aer theyleave custody. Women with Orders of Protection against

abusers are safeguarded in their space by court order. But al

too oen sex offenders ignore the law and live and loiter

around schools and their victims. Now that GPS technology

is less expensive and less intrusive, all movement-limited

sex offenders and abusers should be required to keep a GPS

tag on their person that alerts the local precinct if they go

into restricted areas or near protected people.

39

Take DNA from More Arrestees.As a matter of

course, the NYPD takesfi

ngerprints from all peoplethey arrest.ey should also take a DNA swab from as many

of those under arrest as practicable.is commonsense step

would help solve cold cases and clear the innocent.

40Use the PACT Act to Stop Tobacco Smug-

gling.Congress has given local law enforcement a

powerful tool in the fight to stop black- market cigarette

from flooding New York City. e "PACT Act empowers

local authorities to make arrests and prosecutions of indi-

viduals and crime syndicates that buy tobacco in bulk from

low-and no-tax jurisdictions and then sell them here in a ci

that has the highest taxes in the nation. Stopping tobacco

smuggling not only plugs the leak in New Yorks tax stream

but it takes a profit center away from criminals who oen

use the ill-gotten gains for other,bigger crimes.


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15


REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY

The old saw run government like a business is

as tired as it is nonsensical. After all, by definition,

nearly all of what government does is not profitable ora business would be doing it already. But the private

sector could teach government a thing or two about

eliminating waste. Technology gives us new tools to

open government to increased scrutiny and an infu-

sion of new ideas. New Yorkers need to be reengaged

in civic discourse by making agencies more acces-

sible to questions and dissenting views. The human

capital that exists here in the capital of the world has

not been fully brought to bear on our common chal-

lenges. That should change.

41Eliminate 5% in Waste Every Year.We are too

slow to recognize programs that are not working or

have outlived their mandate. Every city government depart-

ment head should be forced to list the things they were

doing from best to worst. en the least effective should be

targeted for elimination or merger. City commissioners

should set the modest goal of eliminating 5% in waste each

year. Sometimes that will mean reducing the budget accord-

ingly, and sometimes it will mean moving funding to the

programs at the top of the efficiency list.

42Digitize the City Budget.Simply making reams

of city documents available to download or view

may increase the number of people who see the material,

but it doesnt maximize the benefit. e city should digitize

the City Budget and other documents,which would make it

possible to mark up the material to allow crowd-sourcing of

questions, answers,and structural changes.

43Publish All Contracts.e slogan If You See

Something, Say Something could be just as easily

used as an encouragement to citizens to fight government

waste as it is to be on the lookout for potential criminals. Ifgovernment contracts were readily available, we would

empower citizen audits to shine light on inside deals and call

attention to missed deadlines.

44Institute Instant Runoff Elections.Primary

elections for citywide offices require a plurality of at

least 40%. If no candidate achieves that percentage, then arunoffbetween the top two candidates occurs two weeks

later. is process is expensive. New York City spent $15

million on a runoff election in 2009, where only 228,602

voters came out.at cost the city $72 a voter. Its taxing on

voters and unnecessarily divisive. A better idea is to have an

instant runoffsystem that lets voters rank their choices.e

tally of second choices would determine the winner of the

runoff. is system would encourage a more civil and less

costly campaign for both candidates and taxpayers.

45 Make New York the Home of an AnnuaUrban Ideas Festival.Just as Davos and Aspenhave been magnets for gatherings of business and intellec-

tual heavyweights, New York City should be the home of an

annual ideas festival focusing on the challenges facing cities

We already have a network of thought leaders in the tech

sector, healthcare and higher educational spaces. We shoul

be a destination for ideas and a laboratory for the best ones

46Bring Mayors Question Time to the Pro-

ceedings of the City Council.Reengaging the

public in civic affairs means looking for new ways to spark

interest in the debates of the day. Modeled on the British

House of Commons custom of having the Prime Minister

field questions from legislators, a similar challenge for the

Mayor may be enlightening and would give rank-and-file

City Council members an unfiltered way to bring issues to

the executive branch.


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16


HOUSING

In a boon for homeowner and real estate developers,

property values have risen for the better part of two

decades. But there is an underside to the dramaticappreciation: rising values put mortgage payments

beyond the grasp of too many middle-class families.

Roughly 136,000 cityhomeowners have entered into

foreclosure since 2009. With the average apartment

selling for $1.5 million in Manhattan this year, the notion

of home ownership is no longer part of the American

Dream for the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers.

New programs successors to the Mitchell-Lama

program in the 1970s and the Nehemiah program in

the 1980s need to be developed to sustain a grow-

ing middle class. That means revisiting our 80-20 de-

velopments, which provide housing for the wealthy

and low-income, but ignore the middle class. It means

revising our view of brown fields. And we need to find

creative ways to transfer air rights over municipal as-

sets like public schools and recommit ourselves, not

only to improving public housing, but to making the

best use of every parcel of land in the public domain.

47Make All Tax Supported Housing 60-20-20.

EightyTwenty is shorthand that every housing

developer in the city knows. Tax benefits and zoning changes

are frequently tied to the idea that 20% of new housing cre-

ated should be set aside for those of low income. is for-

mulation ignores the challenge facing those in the middle

class who typically have too much income to qualify for gov-

ernment benefits like subsidized housing. A more appropri-

ate mix in this era of increasingly valuable market rate real

estate and the vanishing middle class is 60-20-20 with a new

middle class carve out.

48Move Affordable Builders to the Front of

the Bureaucratic Line. e Department o

Buildings is so famously arbitrary and wrapped in red tapethat it is said that paid expediters have to hire expediters to

get anything done. Putting aside for a moment the need to

make city agencies more efficient and transparent, builders

of affordable housing should have access to the fast lane at

the choke points of the city bureaucracy.

49Leverage Air Rights over City Properties

e biggest property owner in the Big Apple is the

City of New York itself. The city owns and controls thousa

of properties like schools, libraries, and office buildings.

assets should not be seen as static things. Opportunities fordevelopment, especially for housing and schools, should be

the subject of a full air rights audit. Private developers should

be invited to propose the use of the development rights in

exchange for public benefits.

50Help Prevent New Flood Insurance Rules

from Drowning Neighborhoods.It is hard to

imagine a more devastating one-two punch for waterfront

New York: the damage of Superstorm Sandy has been follow

by a new regime of flood maps and requirements that wi

mean a $10,000 or more increase in flood insurance rates.

is spike will cause a drag on home prices that are already u

pressure. Funds earmarked to buyout property owners sh

also be made available to subsidize flood insurance premi-

ums to keep people in their homes and the market stable.


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17


51Turn Brown Fields into Golden Opportuni-

ties.When it comes to finding sites for developing

new housing, the easy stuffis done. Open spaces are scarce.

Broken- down buildings and in-rem housing have been

fixed up. So now is the time to revisit lands that have been

seen as off

-limits. Lands that are contaminated,or even justfeared to have been, are oen lein a legal and environmen-

tal limbo. Only the muscle of the city can make the follow-

ing deal: if property owners will clean up the sites and put

the lands to use for good things like middle-class housing or

schools, the city will supervise the cleanup and indemnify

the owner from lawsuits in the future.

52Reform NYCHA with Performance Con-

tracting.e Housing Authority in New York has

remained the best in the nation despite virtual abandon-

ment by the federal government. Budget cuts in recent years

have leNYCHA with $13 billion in unfunded liabilities for

repairs and day-to-day maintenance. But the agency has

been uncreative in pursuing performance contracting that

pays for energy- efficient improvements like lights, boilers,

and windows paid for with advance cash and repaid with the

month-to-month savings that are guaranteed to result. It

costs NYCHA nothing upfront but gets vital repairs done

quickly and makes the 343 projects more energy efficient.

53Build Section 202 Housing on Hospital Park-

ing Lots. Our housing supply fails to consider the

needs of seniors. ey oen live in apartments too big for

their needs, because their spouseshavepassed away and th

children have moved out. ey also are frequently too far

from the needs of late-in-life living, such as doctors or thera-pists.e Section 202 program recognized the need by creat-

ing special housing for seniors and the disabled.e problem

is the scarcity of lands on which to build these special apartm

buildings. We should use the footprints of HHS hospitals and

existing public housing.e city may lose some employee par

but the gain is a domino effect of open apartments for larger

families and smart residences for seniors.


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18


ENVIRONMENT

Cities are good for the environment. By concentrating

where we live and using mass transit and shoe leather

to help us get around, we actually contribute less toenvironmental degradation than our suburban and ru-

ral neighbors. But we should always be leaning into

the challenge of keeping our air, water,and wildlife as

safe as possible for our kids and grandkids. This is

more than a moral imperative. As we have seen, New

Yorkers are vulnerable to the vicissitudes of a chang-

ing world climate.

54End Prohibition on Hybrid Cabs.e so-called

Taxi of Tomorrow will soon become the only cab

that a hack can drive in New York City. It is not a hybrid orelectric or any other forward-looking technology.is would

have the effect of forcing many hybrid cabs offthe road at a

time when we should be using more.e push for a one-size -

fits-all approach should be scrapped in favor of incentives

for driving the most environmentally sound cabs.

55Remove Police Cars and Sanitation Trucks

from Our National Park.e most visited urban

National Park is right in our backyard in southern Brooklyn

and Queens. But the many bird- watchers, fishermen and

sightseers share their experience withfl

eets of garbagetrucks and racing police cars. For decades, the city and fed-

eral governmentshave agreed to allow the open spaces of his-

toric Floyd Bennett Field for training drivers and parking

vehicles. is is simply an inappropriate use of a park and

should end.

56Restore and Protect Our Beaches. As we

learned in Superstorm Sandy, the beaches of New

York are not just areas for recreation, they are importantecological barriers that protect properties and infrastruc-

ture. e shoreline should be renourished, and jetties o

groins should be built to keep the sand in place and the tide

at bay.

57Conquer Congestion. Or at Least Try.e

dust has settled on the plan to tax outer borough

drivers who drive into Midtown. Congestion Pricing with

its giant government approach of hundreds of cameras and

huge overhead is dead. But the conversation about conges-

tion should not be. Smart parking meters that raise costsbased on demand and location, and a renewed focus on

stemming the more than 30% increase in truck traffic should

be getting civic attention.


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19


JOB RETENTION AND CREATION

When the administration endeavored to identify the

challenges that will face New York City in the future,

they didnt look six months or even six years down theroad. They created something called PlaNYC-2030. It

was a laudable rebuke to the short-term planning that

often makes for unwise and costly decisions.

Despite the fact that the document envisioned a pop-

ulation growth of more than 1 million by 2030, it was

silent on where the jobs for those people would come

from. The challenge is steep. Since 1970, we have

only gained 110,000 salary and wage jobs. While

some jobs have gone up and some down, the overall

amount has been flat.

58Compete More EffectivelyAgainst Regional

Foes.While some displacement of jobs is inevita-

ble, simply writing offthe losses to globalization misses the

true story. ere is no doubt that some employers may see

Hyderabad or Manila as attractive venues to find low-cost

workers, but most of our losses have been to less exotic

places like Jersey City and Westchester. We should watch

them like hawks and pay less attention to the distraction of

distant lands.

59 Lower the Tax Burden for Outer BoroughJob Creation. New York City is in a good positionto win the corporate headquarters of a big company. Man-

hattan is a pretty compelling draw at any price for a CEO. But

the second-tier jobs at those companies are great middle-

class jobs, and they are slipping away because the tax burden

in a place like Jersey City is so much lower than in Long

Island City. Both neighborhoods are one stop away on the

train, but Long Island City has eight business taxes that Jer-

sey City doesnt have, and a business that brings workers to

the Garden State gets $1,000 per employee for education and

training,no sales tax on work related purchases,$50,000 inmoving costs,and a seven-year tax abatement on leases.

New York City may not have to match these benefits dollar-

for-dollar but our REAP programs haveto at least try harder.

60Be Automatic and Predictable in Job

Retention and Growth. Every so oen a big

company will rattle itssabers about leaving the city,and alltoo oen it succeeds in getting big incentives to keep them

from leaving something they were not really planning on

doing. Its a well-known axiom among real estate leaders: the

companies that talk about leaving usually arent going any-

where. Its the quiet decisions that we need to preempt with

a less bureaucratic, predictable incentive regime. e TV

and Film tax credit is a good model.

61Take Advantage of Social Entrepreneur-

ship. R&D/NYC would use the venture capita

model of investment, in which the city would review theideas and track record of proven nonprofit organizations

R&D/NYC would be based on four principles which were

initially developed by the nonprofit America Forward

impact-based results,cross-sector strategies,leverage,and a

long-term focus. If the city determined the idea could help

promote growth and opportunity for the middle class, the

fund could leverage more private-sector resources, facilitat

learning among the network, help to pilot and spread inno-

vations, and advance the fields knowledge faster. Together

these steps would break down the oen parallel tracks o

private entrepreneurs, foundation researchers, and govern-ment entities.

62Make New York the Capital of Insourcing

Call Center Jobs.To cut costs, virtually all

big consumer companies have outsourced their telephone

customer service jobs to companies thathave turned to for-

eign countries to find inexpensive multilingual labor. Now

the backlash has led more companies to look for domestic

options. New York City is home to citizens from literally

every place in the world. is wealth of language skills

should be harnessed into a growth industry for middle-clas

jobs. We should create an industry/education initiative via

CUNY to give the corporate giants of the Big Apple a local

option for their call center jobs.


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20


TAX REFORM

Taxes in New York City are too high and not progres-

sive enough. Its time to lower taxes on the middle

class and those struggling to make it, and make thetax structure more progressive. We cant entirely fix

the problem without help from Washington and Al-

bany, but that is no excuse for not taking steps in the

right direction. New Yorks tax regime is 90% higher

than the average of other large cities. That is in part

because of the high demands of our large and diverse

city and our ambitions. But stasis has set in around

the issue of taxes, and it should be broken.

63

Make City Tax Rates More Progressive.

their fair share should be coupled with relief for the middle

class and not be used as an excuse not to tackle the waste

that can be found in the budgets of government at all levels.

ax relief for the middle class should aspire to be budget

neutral or better. And this is demonstrably possible. A 10%

tax cut for every family making $150,000 or less could have

been paid for entirely by a reasonable new tax rate for the

wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers.

At the same time, a surcharge should be imposed on

those who work in New York and enjoy a much more robust

income. Among the very wealthy, those who work in the fiveboroughs, but live outside, should be asked to pay their fair

share of the citys expenses, diminishing the current incen-

tive to avoid New York City income tax by living in the sub-

urbs and commuting into the office.

64Adjust NYC Tax Brackets for Inflation.Being

shortchanged in Washington is hardly the only

way that middle-class New Yorkers find themselves gettingthe short end of the stick. While federal tax brackets are

indexed to inflation ensuring that wage increases tha

track the cost of living do not bump taxpayers into higher

tax brackets those in the state and city are not. Tat means

that a middle class family in Sunnyside whose breadwinner

gets a cost-of-living adjustment (to help offset the burden o

raised rents, higher water bills, more expensive groceries

and the like) is frequently forced to pay a higher marginal

tax rate despite having no discernible jump in income. Te

citys income tax brackets should be tied to inflation, ensur-

ing that the tax code works to ameliorate that extra burdenand not to exacerbate the problem.


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keys to the city

Documents