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Hoping to Dictate City Rezoning and Stem Gentrification, Locals Put Forth Bushwick Community Plan


bushwick today 19

photo via Bushwick Community Plan


A years-long endeavor to protect a Brooklyn neighborhood from unwanted development and plan for its future took a major step forward over the weekend: the Bushwick Community Plan, an ambitious and collaborative effort, was formally released.

The creation of the plan has at times been contentious, indicative of the fraught nature of virtually any community planning process and the high stakes involved in addressing affordability, transportation and other crises facing many neighborhoods across New York City. The effort was organized by local City Council Members Antonio Reynoso and Rafael Espinal with Brooklyn Community Board 4 and a variety of other stakeholders.

At the release event on September 22, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez told the more than 200 people who packed into the cafeteria of the Academy of Urban Planning to learn the details of the plan that the development of the community plan was an example of democracy in action.

“You will empower our member of the City Council, Reynoso, to go to the city and say, ‘This is a community-driven rezoning plan – and this is how it should be done,’” she said.

The Bushwick Community Plan includes a number of goals – including slowing displacement, preventing out of character development, and supporting both small- and large-scale manufacturing businesses – and is being presented from the community and its leaders to the Department of City Planning as it begins to evaluate the area for changes to land use rules and new city investments, similar to processes that have taken place in areas like East Harlem.

Like several others the de Blasio administration has rezoned already, including East New York and the Jerome Avenue corridor in the Bronx, Bushwick is home to many low-income people of color at risk of housing displacement. But more like East Harlem and Inwood, Bushwick has already seen significant gentrification and locals are concerned about how the pace has accelerated without a coherent plan.

The comprehensive 74-page community plan covers six areas: land use and zoning, housing, economic development, community health and resources, open space and transportation and infrastructure. Under land use and zoning, the key issue, recommendations include not allowing areas currently zoned for manufacturing to become residential unless certain requirements are met; allowing higher density development in some cases when it will increase the number of affordable housing units; and proposing historic districts as well as individual landmarks throughout the neighborhood. The plan also calls for increased funding for anti-displacement legal services, the creation of a program that would incentivize homeowners to keep rents affordable in their buildings, more sanitation funding for commercial corridors, and improving Maria Hernandez Park and Irving Square Park, the two largest parks in the neighborhood.

But at issue is how feasible the plan is, how the de Blasio administration approaches its efforts to rezone and invest in the area, and how far Reynoso, Espinal, and their partners can push the city to adopt the community’s vision. The Department of City Planning may use the community plan as something of a guide as it designs a rezoning proposal, but it remains to be seen to what extent the community proposals shape the process, which will ultimately come to a vote before the City Planning Commission and the City Council, where Reynoso and Espinal will have outsized sway. Bushwick residents, both for and against a rezoning, worry about how the city might mangle or ignore the plans altogether.

A democratically-designed rezoning plan
Under current land use rules, otherwise known as zoning, significant new development is allowed in Bushwick without consideration of affordable housing or the aesthetic character of the neighborhood. There are many properties that have extensive as-of-right powers, meaning developers can build taller buildings without any real negotiation with the city for community benefits.

One such property is near the Myrtle-Wyckoff transit corridor, where developers plan to build a 27-story tower with retail space, office space, and 400 apartments, according to the minutes from a February meeting of the community board’s Housing and Land Use subcommittee. That particular high-rise wouldn’t be allowed under the zoning rules that are being proposed as part of the Bushwick Community Plan, according to Community Board 4 District Manager Celeste Leon.

In 2013, concerned by overdevelopment happening in nearby neighborhoods, members of the community board wrote a letter to then-City Council Member Diana Reyna seeking to explore the idea of rezoning Bushwick. The goal was to preserve the character of the community. In particular, preventing taller buildings, which have been referred to as “middle finger buildings,” from being wedged in between two- and three-family homes, according to current Reynoso, who succeeded Reyna in 2014.

“Affordable housing would have been icing on the cake,” Reynoso said in a late August interview.

After his election, Reynoso, along with Espinal, who took office the same year after moving from the state Assembly, initiated the Bushwick community planning process, an effort to allow residents to democratically design a rezoning plan that would best suit their needs. Over the course of the next several years, the steering committee – comprising of more than 200 participants, including the members of the community board, organizations like immigrant-advocacy group Make the Road New York, the RiseBoro Community Partnership, and Churches United for Fair Housing, as well as 21 individual Bushwick residents – held a dozen workshops, town halls, and other issue-specific meetings.

Planning this way is time-consuming and complicated, but the process allows for many voices to be heard, Reynoso said.

Shortly after Bill de Blasio was elected mayor, he put forth an agenda to rezone 15 different neighborhoods throughout the city in an effort to create more housing, especially affordable housing, and infuse communities with new resources, in part to handle an influx of new residents. His predecessor, too, used rezoning to manage development in New York City, though with a somewhat different lens: during his three terms, Michael Bloomberg oversaw more than 100 rezonings. Before de Blasio began to move through his rezonings, he worked with the City Council to pass significant changes to the city’s land use rules, including Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, which requires developers to include certain percentages of affordable housing in new buildings that receive a city variance to build denser.

Bushwick was not on de Blasio’s original list of neighborhoods, but city officials have been closely involved as the community has crafted its plan and appears ready to move into its planning process.

The city will hold its own listening sessions and do its own studies, then release its own initial plan. Once the Department of City Planning certifies a Bushwick rezoning application, the Uniform Land Use Review Process, which takes roughly seven to ten months, begins. After the community board offers its advisory vote, the plan moves to the borough president for review and additional nonbinding feedback, then the City Planning Commission for formal approval, followed by the City Council for final say. Throughout the process, local leaders, especially the City Council member(s), typically continue to negotiate with the mayoral administration to make tweaks to the city’s proposal and secure additional investments.

Pushback against the plan
As in most rezonings, at issue in Bushwick is that the mayoral administration’s interests may not be in line with the community’s. One example is the neighborhood’s manufacturing zones. Bushwick is known for its old factories and warehouses, which developers often eye as potential for new residential space. The community plan would oppose changing most manufacturing zones to residential zones unless special conditions are met. That is one point the city has tried to ignore, said Leon, the community board district manager.

Another example: at a February meeting, Winston Von Engel, the Brooklyn director of the Department of City Planning (DCP), reportedly told Bushwick residents that the city was interested in preserving the aesthetic character of the neighborhood, more so than preventing displacement, according to several residents who were present. Von Engel later told the Bushwick Daily that he had been misinterpreted and that there should be a balance between preservation and expansion.

In June, a group of activists shut down that month’s Community Board 4 meeting so that the board could not discuss the rezoning plans at all. One of the activists, Pati Rodriguez, of the anti-gentrification group Mi Casa No Es Su Casa, stood up to plead with the board: “I want to continue to live in the neighborhood that raised me, and I wish I could keep raising my daughter here too, but if this goes to DCP, I don’t think that is ever going to happen.”

Activists like Rodriguez oppose the rezoning entirely.

“The community board has no veto vote,” Rodriguez said in a later interview. “It makes the community powerless. That’s why we have decided the only way we can stop anything from happening is to disrupt the process.”

Michael Higgins, a member of the Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network, said that the plan itself could cause Bushwick residents to panic, from which landlords can then benefit.

“I think trying to address overdevelopment with rezoning is a backwards solution,” he said. “It comes from the belief that we can meet market forces with government, and unfortunately that’s just not the way the City of New York works in fundamental ways.”

He said the community has more leverage when individual properties are rezoned, rather than whole swaths of a neighborhood, because residents have the opportunity to negotiate requests like more affordable housing and community space.

Tom Angotti, professor emeritus of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College and the author of “Zoned Out! Race, Displacement, and City Planning in New York City,” said he understands the skepticism over the rezoning.

There have been no citywide studies that explain the relationship between rezonings and gentrification, but individual case studies do show that zoning changes lead to displacement, particularly in low income communities and communities of color, Angotti said.

Reynoso acknowledges the community’s concerns, but said that Bushwick’s geography, as well as the way it is built out, leaves fewer opportunities for growth compared to other neighborhoods around the city, referencing the recently-passed Inwood rezoning, which drew criticism from local housing activists concerned about density, neighborhood character, and gentrification. But Inwood, Reynoso said, encompasses waterfront property that the city could capitalize upon.

New development of that nature just isn’t possible in Bushwick. The Bushwick plan envisions growth near transit hubs, but otherwise is mostly designed to downzone the neighborhood, Reynoso said, and disallow large new residential buildings.

“The basic principles of what’s happening in other locations don’t necessarily apply here,” Reynoso said in the interview. “The fears that people have are not necessarily apples to apples.”

That’s true, Angotti said, but that still doesn’t mean the Bushwick Community Plan will prevent displacement. He points not so much to the community plan itself, but to the Department of City Planning and the City Planning Commission.

Angotti said the city has rejected every community-based rezoning proposal of which he is aware over the last 25 years.

“In every instance that I know of, the community plans get ripped up and changed to the point of being unrecognizable to the people in the community,” he said. “The city planning department has its own way of looking at land use in the city, and it doesn’t include communities. It doesn't include people.”

In a statement, the agency did confirm that rezoning applications, even those by city agencies, are usually changed during the public review process.

Jose Lopez, the co-director of organizing at Make the Road New York, has been heavily involved with the Bushwick Community Plan, serving on its steering committee. He recognizes that DCP will craft its own proposal for the ULURP process, but has some hope for the influence that the community plan may have.

“If there is a good rezoning where we can control growth, generate affordable housing, where we see effective tools that keep people in the homes they live in – if it’s a good rezoning, that is something we can get behind,” he said. “But our members believe that a bad rezoning is worse than no rezoning at all.”

Reynoso said that the discretion and authority to rezone really lies with the City Council, not with any city agency, and “the Council member’s job is to advocate on behalf of the community” – which he plans to do.

Typically, when the City Council votes on a rezoning plan, the expectation is that the Council will vote to support what the local City Council member(s) – in this case, Reynoso and Espinal – want. Yet, in May, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said that his approach is “deference” but “no veto” for Council members on land use matters.

“Michael Bloomberg did 140 rezonings,” Angotti said. “Everyone of them passed. So the track record pretty much demonstrates how difficult it is, once something gets into ULURP, to derail it under the current system because of the overwhelming power of the mayor.”

Robert Camacho, the chair of Community Board 4, has been involved with the planning process since the beginning. He said he is satisfied with the final plan, but does worry for its future.

“If we don’t do anything, the city will do what it wants,” he said. “And if we submit something, the city can do what it wants anyway. I see it as a lose-lose situation. So why not do something? Something beats zip. If you don’t ask, you’re not getting anything.”

***
Bianca Fortis is a Brooklyn-based freelance journalist. On Twitter @biancafortis & @GothamGazette.

At ‘Museum of Broken Windows,’ NYCLU Exhibits Case for Reform


broken windows museum

(photo: @NYCLU)


The windshield of the NYPD car is shattered, with glass debris all over the ground. The inside of the patrol vehicle is full of greenery, indicating it’s been there a while. Still intact is the side door that reads “Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect.”

This is the centerpiece of the Museum of Broken Windows, a new pop-up exhibit on West 8th Street hosted by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and open for one week beginning this past Saturday through Sunday, September 30. The museum, which features work by roughly 25 artists and will host several evening discussion events over the course of the week, “showcases the ineffectiveness of broken windows policing, which criminalizes our most vulnerable communities,” according to its website. “The strategy of broken windows policing is outdated and has never been proven to be effective at reducing crime,” it continues. “For decades, communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by broken windows policing.”

Artwork at the museum is by people who have felt the effects of broken windows policing, about topics ranging from police shootings of civilians to the use of stop-and-frisk to the War on Drugs. Forms include interactive pieces, photographs of significant historical civil rights events, and paintings.

lr convo broken windows museum

One piece, done by formerly-incarcerated Russell Craig, uses papers the artist received throughout his seven-year journey throughout the criminal justice system — halfway house notes, bail receipts, processing papers — to create his own self portrait. By painting his portrait onto these papers, Craig says that he is sending a message that the system that tried to define him did not succeed in doing so.

The layout of the museum starts with a small hallway containing art on either side, eventually leading to a wider space. This is where the NYCLU will host discussion events on broken windows, police accountability, and the “school to prison pipeline.” Throughout the exhibit, interactive prompts encourage visitors to think about and answer questions while consuming the art on display.

The NYCLU has long-decried the policing approach made popular in New York City in the 1990s by former two-time police commissioner Bill Bratton, which is centered on strict enforcement of low-level crimes such as turnstile jumping or drinking alcohol in public in the belief that such law-breaking and “disorder” erodes quality of life and leads to more serious and violent crimes.

Bratton first began implementing the strategy, which focuses on prevention of as opposed to only reaction to major crimes, under Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani. It remained in place in the city as Bratton moved elsewhere, only to resume his NYPD command in 2014 under Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat who has repeatedly called broken windows policing “the right approach.”

Though its effectiveness has been extolled regularly by some and questioned repeatedly by others, namely around causation between its use and the drop in major crimes that has occurred over decades, but also in terms of the racial disparities in enforcement, it has remained the guiding NYPD strategy. Implementation has changed over time and the city has in recent years under de Blasio, Bratton, and Bratton’s successor, Commissioner James O’Neill, significantly reduced arrests for low-level crimes, though racial disparities persist. Legislation pushed by former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito created a framework for enforcing low-level offenses as civil, not criminal, violations. Bratton has called the relaxing of some aspects of broken windows a “peace dividend” possible due to the dropping numbers of major crimes like murder. He has compared the use of stricter enforcement to medicine given by a doctor to a very sick patient.

Activists and advocates like those at the NYCLU have seen things very differently. “People of color report being surveilled, harassed, abused and punished by police all over New York City,” the NYCLU reports in its most recent survey. “This is felt most intensely in particular neighborhoods, most of which are home to disproportionate numbers of black New Yorkers.”

“It is time for a change,” the new pop-up museum’s website states. “New Yorkers are coming together for important conversations on policing and what it means to feel and be safe. Using art and creativity, the Museum of Broken Windows will provide a powerful and emotional experience that critically looks at the system of policing in New York.”

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, described the principles of broken windows theory as a being instrumental in the creation of policies that began the War on Drugs and increased police presence in schools.

“The ideology of broken windows policing quite logically and devastatingly morphed into the school-to-prison pipeline,” Lieberman said. “It went hand-in-hand with a dramatic increase in suspensions, kicking kids out of school instead of helping them figure out how to solve problems related to this behavior.”

Proponents of broken windows often cite the steady decrease in serious crime rates New York City has seen over the years as evidence that it is working, but the NYCLU claims that these crime rates, and their drops, have been the same in areas where broken windows policing is really employed, namely communities of color, and in areas where it is not.

“It’s 16 for 100,000 and 18 for 100,000,” said Johanna Miller, advocacy director of the NYCLU. “So rates of serious crime are exactly the same if there’s broken windows policing happening or not happening. Which for us is evidence that even if there was more urgent crime-fighting strategy in the 90s, that doesn’t exist anymore, we’re living in a different New York.”

In addition to ending broken windows policing, the NYCLU is pressing for the passage of the Police-STAT Act, which would override section 50-a of the New York State Civil Rights Law and allow public release of police personnel records. Though Mayor de Blasio has been outspoken about his belief that it is problematic, he has supported the NYPD’s relatively recent change to adhering to it, which errs to the side of secrecy. De Blasio and NYPD officials have said they have no choice and want to see a state law change, though the department had revealed much more information for many years, a court decision resulting from a suit by the NYCLU has allowed to the city to shield the records.

In 2016, the NYCLU brought a suit against the city after its Freedom of Information Act request for 10 years of NYPD personnel records had been denied. In the past, the redaction process offered by the FOIA was seen as enough to allow the city to balance an officer’s privacy and a citizen’s right to information. This may be why a lower court ruled in favor of the NYCLU, a decision that was overturned by the First Judicial Department appeals court. Ruling that the request would pose a violation of section 50-a, a precedent was set.

chokehold broken windows museumThe Museum of Broken Windows may help move public sentiment behind what the NYCLU is advocating. Daveen Trentman, co-founder of the Soze Agency and executive producer of the museum, hopes the art will compel New Yorkers to rally to their side.

“What the art can do is open our hearts, make us think more compassionately, and really draw a connection to the statistics and to the policy,” Trentman said.

Using artists who have gone through the criminal justice system, the museum is designed to help others empathize with the cause and be spurred to action.

“[The artists] are experts of their own experience, and that makes their work tremendously authentic,” Trentman said, going on to emphasize that she sees the work as saying, “We’re not hopeless. We aren’t stuck in this set of policies and we don’t have to accept it. What we can do is end broken windows policing.”

“Ultimately, whether or not the NYPD continues on the path of broken windows policing is up to the mayor,” said Miller. “Our mayor has done so much great work to end stop-and-frisk, to change police practices and to invest in neighborhood policing, but he continues to say publicly that he believes in and adheres to the principles of broken windows. It’s time to let that go.”

The mayor’s press office declined to comment for this story.

***
by Victor Porcelli, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

The Week Ahead in New York Politics, September 24


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

This Tuesday will mark six weeks until Election Day, November 6. With the primaries further in the rear mirror, the general election is in full swing, especially in the race for governor, but also races for attorney general and comptroller, as well as many state legislative and U.S. House seats around the state. U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is also trying to hold onto her seat this year.

As the week begins, we're awaiting word on what will happen with Cynthia Nixon and Jumaane Williams and the Working Families Party nominations that they have for governor and lieutenant governor. After each lost their respective Democratic primary, it is to be determined whether they remain on the WFP line for the general election, or whether the party finds a way to remove them and give the line to Governor Andrew Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul or some other combination of candidates. Unlike in the primary, for the general election a party's nominees run on the same ticket. Indications are that Nixon and Williams will move off the WFP line, but there are a lot of moving parts and some members of the WFP who are firmly against giving the line to Cuomo and Hochul, who might be open to taking the line because it would enhance their chances of winning in November.

Along with the statewide races, now taking center stage are the swing districts for state Senate and the U.S. House. Democrats believe that they can take the state Senate this year, and are including one Brooklyn district -- the one represented by Senator Marty Golden -- among those they believe they can flip, and that they can flip several House seats, including one in New York City -- the one represented by Rep. Dan Donovan -- to contribute to the party's national efforts to take the chamber from Republicans.

While electioneering will continue to dominate many of the headlines, there is also governing happening this week, including additional meetings of the 2019 charter revision commission, City Council meetings, and more. See our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
The Business Council of New York State's annual meeting began Sunday and continues Monday and Tuesday at the Sagamore Resort on Lake George. The forum will focus on “improving New York’s business climate and economy.” Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele will deliver keynote remarks. Other speakers include Republican gubernatorial nominee Marc Molinaro, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and his Republican challenger Jonathan Trichter, Republican Attorney General nominee Keith Wofford, and State Senator John DeFrancisco, among many others.

At 10 a.m. Monday, "Mayor de Blasio will deliver remarks at the Opening Plenary of the World Economic Forum's Sustainable Development Impact Summit." In the evening, the mayor will make his weekly appearance on NY1's Inside City Hall in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.

At 10 a.m. Monday outside of Kushner Companies Headquarters on Fifth Avenue, "Housing Rights Initiative (HRI), in partnership with the City Council’s Oversight & Investigations Committee Chair Council Member Torres, will release a new report on building permit fraud showing the extent and depth of the problem across the real-estate industry, and the impact it has on reducing the number of tenants across New York City. HRI found that hundreds of landlords falsified over 10,000 work permits over 2 1/2 years. Council Member Torres will also announce new City Council legislation that will close the “Kushner Loophole” which allows companies to falsify documents with city agencies and lie about the amount of rent-regulated units in a building without consequence."

At 11 a.m. Monday at City Hall, "First Lady Chirlane McCray will deliver remarks at the NYC Stands with Survivors Rally. The rally will be co-hosted by Hollaback!, Girls for Gender Equity, and YWCA Brooklyn. Survivors and advocates will share their stories and will be joined by: Cecile Noel, Commissioner of Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender Based Violence, Jacqui Ebanks, Commissioner, Commission on Gender Equity and Carmelyn Malalis, Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights."

At 12:15 p.m. Monday, "Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul Delivers Remarks at Climate Week Opening Ceremony" at The Times Center in Manhattan.

At 2 p.m. Monday, "New York State Senators Kemp Hannon, Elaine Phillips, and Carl L. Marcellino will be holding a press conference...to demand action on setting critical drinking water safety standards. Harmful contaminants like 1,4-dioxane have been discovered in wells throughout the region and in order for communities to protect public health, state action is necessary. The Senators will be calling on the Cuomo administration to: restart a stalled process required to set state standards for 1,4-dioxane, PFOA, and PFOS; ensure local governments have access to the funds needed to remove drinking water contaminants; and improve public notification about emerging health threats. The press conference will be held at the Bethpage Water Plant on South Park Avenue, near the intersection of Sarah Drive and abutting Bethpage State Park."

At 6 p.m. Monday, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will meet at the College of Staten Island to hear public testimony.

At 6 p.m. Monday, the governor’s Regulated Marijuana Workgroup will hold a listening session at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Queens on the legalization of marijuana in New York.

At 6 p.m. Monday, Attorney General candidate Letitia James and State Senate candidates Alessandra Biaggi, Zellnor Myrie, and Robert Jackson will speak at the launch event for Planned Parenthood NYC Votes PAC at 620 Loft and Garden in Midtown.

At 6 p.m. Monday, the New York League of Conservation Voters, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and other advocates will hold a town hall meeting discussing the need for replacing the diesel school bus fleet with electric buses, for both health and environmental reasons. The town hall will take place at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

At 6:30 p.m. Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will host his African Immigrant Heritage Event at the National Black Theatre in Manhattan.

Tuesday
Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day. NYC Votes, the voter outreach arm of the city’s Campaign Finance Board, will hold several voter registration events across the city, at all public libraries, YMCA locations, Patagonia store locations, Medgar Evers College, and Brooklyn College.

At 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Homeless Services Commissioner Steve Banks and City Council Member Steve Levin will hold a town hall meeting to discuss rental assistance programs for individuals. The town hall will take place at the LGBT Center in the West Village.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the governor’s Regulated Marijuana Workgroup will hold a listening session at Long Island University’s Kumble Theater in Fort Greene, Brooklyn on the legalization of marijuana in New York.

Wednesday
The City Council will hold a stated meeting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. It will be prefaced by the customary pre-stated press conference led by Speaker Corey Johnson.

Also at the City Council on Wednesday: the Committee on Finance will meet at 10 a.m.

The latest episode of Max & Murphy on WBAI radio will be from 5-6 p.m. Wednesday, including interviews with gubernatorial candidates Howie Hawkins, of the Green Party, and Stephanie Miner, of the Serve America Movement party. The show can be heard at 99.5FM or wbai.org, or as a podcast afterward.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, there will be a public scoping meeting at Queens Borough Hall to discuss the mayor’s plan to place a new jail in Queens, as part of the replacement plan for Rikers Island.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the governor’s Regulated Marijuana Workgroup will hold a listening session at the College of Staten Island on the legalization of marijuana in New York.

Thursday
At the City Council on Thursday:
--The Committee on Higher Education will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “African American studies and the hiring of black faculty at the City University of New York.”
--The Committee on Justice System will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding the “cost of justice.”
--The Committee on Contracts will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding the “administration’s efforts to expand contracting with minority and women-owned businesses.”
--The Committees on Housing & Buildings, Health, and Environmental Protection will meet jointly at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “the City’s enforcement of existing lead laws,” as well as to discuss several proposed laws relating to lead hazards.
--The Committee on Consumer Affairs will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “gas stations in New York City,” as well as to discuss a proposed law to conduct “a study on the decline of the number of gas service stations in the city and exploring methods to prevent their further decline.”
--The Committee on Cultural Affairs will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “Culture Pass and other partnerships between New York City’s cultural organizations and public libraries.”

At 2 p.m. Thursday, Health + Hospitals CEO Mitchell Katz will join the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism’s Center for Community and Ethnic Media to discuss how H+H is addressing both long-term financial challenges and delivering high quality care to the city’s uninsured and immigrants. Katz will be questioned by CUNY’s and NY1’s Errol Louis, BRIC TV’s Martine Granby, and El Diario’s Pedro Frisneda.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will meet at City Hall in Manhattan to hear public testimony.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, there will be a public scoping meeting at the Manhattan Municipal Building to discuss the de Blasio administration's plans to replace the Manhattan Center of Detention, as part of the replacement plan for Rikers Island jails.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the governor’s Regulated Marijuana Workgroup will hold a listening session at Hofstra University in Hempstead on the legalization of marijuana in New York.

Friday and the weekend
Mayor de Blasio will travel to Austin, TX, on Friday to participate in a panel discussion at the Texas Tribune Festival. The following day, he’ll attend events with the United States Conference of Mayors in Columbia, SC. He’ll return to New York City on Sunday.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette



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