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Max Politics Podcast: The Future of Lower Manhattan, with Jessica Lappin


 
Lower Manhattan (photo: @DowntownNYC)


May 10, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: The Future of Lower Manhattan, with Jessica Lappin

Jessica Lappin, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York and former City Council member, joined the show to discuss the future of Lower Manhattan, including the area's evolution over time, office occupancy, tourism, affordable housing, and more. That includes the work of The Downtown Alliance, which manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District, publishes research, provides services, and advocates on behalf of the businesses and residents of Lower Manhattan.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Read more: Max Politics Podcast: The Future of Lower Manhattan, with Jessica Lappin

As City Council Continues Push for Sanitation Funding, Administration Touts Investments 'In a Lot of the Right Places'


(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


Trash and sanitation have become a top issue for the City Council in this year’s budget season, but Mayor Eric Adams’s $99.7 billion executive budget proposal for the 2023 fiscal year that begins July 1 failed to fund many Council demands. At a hearing on Tuesday, Council members questioned administration officials on their sanitation priorities — from corner basket pickups to composting — and their approach to a problem that has grown worse over the years and was exacerbated during the pandemic.

Mayor Adams proposed a $1.83 billion budget for the Department of Sanitation, a modest increase of about $50.5 million since the mayor’s February preliminary budget proposal. That increase includes $17.9 million to restore the city’s incipient organics collection program (AKA composting), $7.9 million for a waste containerization pilot, and $2.9 million for sweeping bike lanes, among other programs. 

But, the Council had called for about $96 million in additions to the operating budget for the sanitation department and $1 million more in capital funding, most of which was left out of the mayor’s updated budget.

The Council’s demand’s included $22 million for additional litter basket pickups citywide, restoring $47.8 million in cuts to various programs including organics collection, $4.8 million for rat mitigation, $3.6 million for curbside e-waste collection, $3.4 million for illegal dumping enforcement personnel, $2.2 million to restore lot cleaning cuts, and more.  

“If we cannot get the basics right, as in getting our corner baskets picked up, then I'm troubled by all the other things the department wants to do, frankly,” said Council Member Justin Brannan, a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the Council’s finance committee.

“Sanitation affects public safety, public health, and environmental outcomes in every single neighborhood across the city,” said Council Member Sandy Nurse, also a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the Council’s sanitation committee, in her opening remarks. “I, along with many New Yorkers, am impacted and we've all been a little bit disappointed in the level of sanitation service our city has received over the past two years, mostly due to the deep cuts made by the prior administration.”

As Nurse pointed out, former Mayor Bill de Blasio made significant cuts to the sanitation department at the height of the pandemic before partially restoring them. But the damage was done, as evidenced by sanitation complaints, which spiked last year via 311 calls.

Mayor Adams sees the city’s cleanliness and quality of life as inextricably linked with its recovery and crucial to restoring confidence in the city. But his administration has yet to reverse all the cuts to service from the last two years. 

Tuesday’s hearing was the first appearance before the Council for Jessica Tisch in her new role as sanitation commissioner. In her testimony, she acknowledged the scope of the problem, the various manifestations of sanitation issues, the steps the administration has taken already, and promised to work with the Council on solutions. “I want to be very clear upfront that I agree with New Yorkers who feel that our city is meaningfully dirtier than it was before the pandemic, and that is not acceptable,” she said. 

She promised a mix of policy solutions on issues like street trash, litter basket service, and rat mitigation, while also assuring the Council of greater enforcement on matters of illegal dumping and dog feces cleanup. 

Tisch said the major factor leading to an explosion in street litter was the partial suspension of alternate side parking during the pandemic, which led to fewer street sweeps. The program is being fully restored on July 5 and will immediately lead to cleaner streets, she said. 

She noted that the city has built out more than 100 miles of protected bike lanes over the last ten years “without a practical plan in place to keep those bike lanes clean.” The executive budget, she said, invests $6.7 million in capital funds in a fleet of mini-sweepers to clean those lanes. Ten units are expected to be on the streets this summer, growing to a permanent fleet of 45 units by the end of next year. 

Though the executive budget increases litter basket service to 588 weekly pickups – more than double the pandemic era low when services were slashed – it still remains well below the 736 weekly pickups from pre-pandemic years. “Can I guarantee after the adopted budget that New Yorkers will never see an overflowing litter basket again? No,” Tisch said. “But we will work to ensure that these conditions are minimized and call on all New Yorkers to do their part to keep our city clean.”

The funding dedicated to those pickups could be among the sticking points in the negotiations between the Council and Adams ahead of the June 30 budget deadline. It’s not the only one.

Though the executive budget doesn’t include direct funding for rat mitigation, Tisch said the recently launched “Clean Curbs” trash containerization pilot will work significantly to tackle the issue. Adams has pledged to expand the program citywide and already enhanced the planned pilot set in motion in de Blasio’s final months after years of delay.

Tisch also pointed to a Sanitation's partnership with the Department of Small Business Services to provide grants to community-based organizations and Business Improvement Districts (BID) to make cleanliness improvements. She said the city has received 29 grant applications as of last month and will release a second round of applications this summer. 

For issues like dog feces, illegal dumping, and derelict vehicles left on streets, Tisch mostly promised that the city will undertake greater enforcement. She noted, for instance, that in 2020 and 2021, not a single summons was given out to people for failing to pick up after their dogs. “I want to be clear that I do not believe in enforcement for enforcement's sake and there are many problems that you can't and shouldn't enforce your way out of,” she said. “That can be dangerous. But I do believe that enforcement must be a tool in our arsenal to deal with that very small percentage of New Yorkers and New York City businesses who choose not to do the simple right thing.”

Among the main issues raised by several Council members has been the city’s slow progress on reducing trash-related emissions, which would be achieved by eliminating waste, by implementing new commercial waste zones (approved in 2019) to reduce garbage truck traffic in the city, and more.

To achieve zero waste goals, which were set by the de Blasio administration years ago but far from achieved, Council members say the organics collection program has been an inadequate step and several members recently introduced legislation that would accelerate the city’s progress, in part by extending composting citywide. They’ve also pointed to trash as an environmental justice issue, since many of the city’s high-polluting waste transfer stations are located in low-income communities of color. That issue is slowly being managed under the city’s waste equity law, which limits the amount of waste that can be sent to those communities. 

Tisch insisted those matters were priorities for the Adams administration as well. “Our work around sustainability could not be more urgent, and I am committed to elevating environmental justice as a core principle in all aspects of our work,” she said. The executive budget, she said, includes $29.1 million in new funding for long-term zero waste and sustainable waste management initiatives. The $17.9 million for funding organics collection programs will also be used to expand the city’s school composting program to all New York City public schools over the next two school years and to add 100 new smart bins near public schools for community members to drop off their food waste. 

“I am taking a comprehensive look at our composting programs, past and present, to figure out what works and what doesn't,” Tisch said. “This administration is committed to making strides on organics but we cannot throw good money after bad.”

Council Member Brannan did praise the administration for restoring many of the cuts made to the sanitation department, but nonetheless expressed disappointment. “[W]e're happy with a lot of this stuff but it's not even close to the full loaf that we're looking for,” he told Tisch. 

But Tisch admitted she could not speak to the deliberations that went into the executive budget, which was released a week before she was appointed to her position. “I unfortunately cannot speak to the conversations that happened internally as part of the executive budget process because I started here three weeks ago,” she said. 

She insisted, though, that the budget made strategic investments to lay the groundwork for significant progress on multiple fronts. “I understand that the administration didn't fund everything. I think we made investments in a lot of the right places,” she said, noting that she expected more funding to be negotiated as the budget process proceeds. 

Council members at the hearing expressed many of the same concerns, while others had more parochial questions about sanitation programs in their own districts. 

For instance, Brannan noted that the budget doesn’t restore $1.4 million in one-time funding for curbside e-waste collection on Staten Island and doesn’t fund a citywide e-waste collection program either. 

Tisch said that was likely a data-driven decision. “The truth of the matter is when our curbside program for electronics was operating at its peak, which was in 2020, it collected under 1,000 tons. So it's very, very small numbers, not as cost-effective as other programs that we have in place,” she said. 

Council Member Nurse asked Tisch about the potential costs of a citywide curbside organics collection program. Currently, the program is only being carried out in seven community districts. “At its height, budgeted, the organics program cost $30 million…and that was 24 districts,” Tisch said. 

That, however, does not include potential overtime costs, she noted. “One of the things I was surprised to see was that there isn't a breakout in this department of what the overtime is used for…I have not yet seen a true overtime cost associated with just the organics program,” she said. 

Nurse also asked how the city would decide on where to roll out smart bins for composting and about expanding the containerization program. “Are you all going to be prioritizing schools in environmental justice communities first, or are you going to be building out with different types of criteria?” Nurse asked. 

Tisch said those decisions have yet to be made. “I agree with you, equity needs to inform all of our decisions in this department, but in particular the ones around smart bins and access to organics education,” she added.

Council Member David Carr, a Staten Island Republican, pressed Tisch on increasing litter basket pickups in his district and borough, which were a casualty of pandemic cuts. Tisch promised she would look into the possibility if the department receives additional funding. 

Council Member Ari Kagan, a Brooklyn Democrat, called for harsher enforcement measures from the department. “Enforcement is a tool that we can and will use,” Tisch promised.  

Council Member Erik Bottcher, a Manhattan Democrat who is among those Council members who have made sanitation issues a major early focus of this term, questioned why the mayor’s executive budget did not include funding for rat mitigation programs, as the Council had requested. 

Tisch said the city’s rat mitigation efforts – as part of a citywide task force – are being led by the Health Department. “So the sanitation budget isn't exactly the right place for rat mitigation,” she said, though she reiterated that the containerization program would facilitate those efforts. “If containerization works, that is a fabulous rat mitigation strategy. Obviously it's a long term strategy. I would say for the short-term tactical stuff though, the budget for rat mitigation is and should be in the Department of Health.”

[Read: How Trash Became a Top-of-the-Heap City Budget Issue]

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

At City Council Budget Hearing, Commissioner Previews Adams Housing Plan


Housing (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


In his State of the City speech last month, Mayor Eric Adams promised that he would in the coming weeks release a comprehensive housing plan to address perhaps the most intractable problem facing New York. At a hearing of the City Council on Monday, housing officials from his administration outlined the main principles of that agenda and gave a preview of the city's broad approach to building affordable and supportive housing, preserving public housing, and tackling the homelessness crisis.  

Monday’s hearing concerned the mayor’s $99.7 billion executive budget, which allocates about $1.19 billion to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the city agency that leads building and preservation of affordable housing. HPD’s operating budget saw a $142.8 million increase, or 13.7%, since the mayor’s preliminary budget mainly because of federal funding for housing assistance, funding for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, and an increase in planned staff at the agency. The $1.19 billion also includes about $236 million in funds that will be funneled to the New York City Housing Authority, the city’s public housing agency.

In the accompanying capital budget, a separate plan from the expense budget, the mayor added $5 billion over ten years for housing – $3.6 billion for HPD and $1.4 billion for NYCHA – bringing the city’s total capital commitment for housing to $22 billion over the decade ahead. The funding is far lower than the $4 billion annually that Adams had pledged to allocate for housing capital when he ran for mayor last year. But the budget is not yet set, with public hearings and private negotiations ongoing between the Adams administration and the City Council, and a final budget due by the July 1 start of next fiscal year.

The City Council wants the mayor to double the proposed annual capital commitment toward housing and to add operational funds for various initiatives including running supportive housing for justice-involved people and foster care youth, among other demands. At Monday’s hearing, Council members pressed their demands as they questioned representatives from the mayoral administration about what to expect from the mayor’s housing plan.

“Critically, the investments continue to fall short of the Council's call to radically reshape the city's dedication to increasing the supply of new, deeply – and I'm going to again emphasize – deeply affordable housing,” said Council Member Pierina Sanchez, a Bronx Democrat and chair of the Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings, in her opening remarks. 

“We know that housing is public safety, and that we can't have housing without deeper investment by the city and this administration,” added Sanchez, who was an urban planner and a housing advisor in the mayor’s office under Mayor Bill de Blasio before being elected to the Council last year.

HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión said that the administration has been busy working on a housing blueprint that they will present “in several weeks.”

“We are working on developing a strategic housing blueprint that prioritizes people over process for New Yorkers in need of housing and related services,” he said. “In our plan, we are seeking to accelerate and increase capacity for new housing supply, increase access to affordable home ownership, and improve the quality, sustainability, and resiliency of affordable housing to keep New Yorkers safe and healthy. Most importantly, we are unequivocally affirming that homelessness is a housing problem.”

New York City has a well-established housing and homelessness crisis that is in part the result of new housing production coming far short of keeping up with population growth.

Carrión said the plan would also invest in jobs and technology, improve and streamline housing development processes and procurement, cut administrative hurdles for people seeking housing, and promote contracting with Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises. 

The commissioner, a former Bronx borough president and urban affairs official in the Obama administration, said the blueprint would incorporate all the agencies involved with housing and homelessness – HPD, NYCHA, the Human Resources Administration, and Department of Social Services. He also said the administration will undertake a larger efficiency effort to improve processes for all stakeholders whether its developers, landlords, tenants, or community boards.

“Things just take too darn long. There's a lot of redundancy,” said Carrión. The blueprint — being developed by Carrion, Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz, and others in the Adams administration — is expected to include new web portals for tenants and building owners to navigate city regulations and application processes. 

“What you're going to see is, one, a recognition of the history of silos. And silos don't work. We're one government. We should be rowing in the same direction,” Carrión later added, echoing the ways the new Democratic mayor has promised to make government more efficient and effective.

Carrión conceded that the city will likely miss the necessary target for building and preserving affordable housing in the current calendar year – the city has built or preserved 11,000 units so far and will likely reach 16,000 units, he said, when it should be exceeding 30,000 units a year. And that’s only a portion of the overall housing that should be built each year in the city.

But Carrión insisted that the funding allocated by the mayor is adequate to meet that demand. He did note that the agency faces major hurdles. “One of the biggest challenges that we face is that we have lost a significant number of staff. The pandemic really slammed government, business, increased attrition rates beyond norms,” he said, noting that the new expense funding in the executive budget will be used to hire 77 more staff for HPD and that there are hundreds more vacancies to be filled that have also been budgeted for. 

Some Council members raised concerns that the new capital funding for housing may be all but eliminated if interest rates should rise and increase the cost of production. HPD officials agreed that interest rates could be an issue and that they were monitoring them constantly.

Council Member Charles Barron said, however, that the funding was far too spread out to meet the urgency of the city’s housing crisis. He insisted that the money should be concentrated over the next five years. “It's backloaded and we need it frontloaded,” said the Brooklyn Democrat. 

Barron also said the money should be distributed to Community Land Trusts rather than for-profit developers, urging the administration to take concrete measures to tackle increasing gentrification and displacement. “Right now white men and profit-making corporations dominate the contracts, by far,” he said. 

Carrión said the administration’s blueprint will deal with “discrimination and racial inequities of opportunity, in housing, in all its manifestations,” and that the administration was committed to using Community Land Trusts to help low- and moderate-income New Yorkers obtain home-ownership. In particular, he said the administration supports a bill before the State Legislature that would establish the Affordability Plus program, giving the city expanded loan authority to help people buy homes and provide financing to CLTs, which are typically nonprofit entities.  

Council Member Diana Ayala, a Democrat representing East Harlem and part of the South Bronx, urged the administration to ensure that an adequate amount of the $5 billion in new capital funding is used to build senior housing. “By the year 2030, we're expecting to have more older adults in New York City than we have children in public schools. And even throughout the de Blasio administration, we did absolutely nothing to prepare for that influx of older adults,” she said. 

Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, a Queens Democrat, pushed for more funding for affordable homeownership programs and legal resources for low-income homeowners. Council Member Farah Louis, a Brooklyn Democrat, asked about legalizing basement apartments, also called Accessory Dwelling Units, as a means to homeownership. 

Carrión reiterated that the housing plan would in part focus on affordable homeownership and noted that the administration supports a state bill to legalize and regulate ADUs. “We think this is one of a number of tools that we can use to create affordable housing and to create housing in general,” he said.

[LISTEN: Max Politics Podcast: City Council Member Pierina Sanchez on Solving NYC's Housing Crisis]

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.



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