City Council Pushes for $25 Million in Next Budget for Implementation of Noncitizen Voting
Then-Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez leads a rally for noncitizen voting (photo: William Alatriste/NYC Council Media Unit)
In January, the “Our City, Our Vote” law went into effect, allowing hundreds of thousands of noncitizens in New York City to vote in municipal elections. While there’s many months until they’ll be able to cast their votes, the New York City Council wants city officials and election administrators to be well prepared and conduct outreach to raise awareness, and is calling for $25 million in the next city budget to fund the implementation of the law.
The new law allows legal permanent residents and those with work authorization to participate in local elections for Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate, Borough President, and City Council. According to estimates from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs based on , it will make about 808,000 city residents, including 622,000 legal permanent residents (green card-holders), eligible to vote starting January 9, 2023. As of February 21, there were about 5.1 million registered voters in New York City, according to data from the state Board of Elections.
The law was championed by former City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez, now the commissioner of the city’s Department of Transportation, as well as other Council members like Carlos Menchaca, the immigration committee chair, and advocates like the New York Immigration Coalition. Then-Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams expressed support for the proposal while running for mayor last year.
Under the law, the New York City Board of Elections has until July 1, the start of the new city fiscal year, to submit a report to Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council with an implementation plan. But the mayor, in his $98.5 billion preliminary budget proposal, did not allocate any new funding for the BOE to carry out such a plan, nor funding for any city entity, like the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, the DemocracyNYC office, or the city’s Civic Engagement Commission, to perform other outreach efforts.
The City Council, in its official response to the mayor’s preliminary budget, called for the $25 million investment to support the implementation including community outreach to inform potential voters, registration assistance, Get-Out-The-Vote efforts, language access, interpretation and translation services. Some of those efforts are already carried out by the New York City Campaign Finance Board, an independent city agency that does voter outreach and education, often through its NYC Votes initiative, whether additional funding is provided to it or not.
“This is absolutely critical for us to center immigrant communities especially through…the impact that the pandemic has had on our immigrant communities,” said City Council Member Shahana Hanif, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the Council’s immigration committee. Hanif also co-chairs the Council’s progressive caucus, for whom implementing the law is a top priority. “We ought to be a city that is forthright about expanding democracy and making it more representative and ‘Our City, Our Vote’ is the path forward,” she said.
“The mayor showed commitment to ‘Our City, Our Vote,’ and so I hope that he remains firm in that commitment…Now we need the dollars to really match the needs of implementation,” she added.
A spokesperson for the mayor did not provide comment on whether the mayor would add the requested funding to his executive budget, which is expected to be released Tuesday, April 26.
“The mayor has to put the resources behind it,” said Council Member Shekar Krishan, a Queens Democrat who represents another district with a high percentage of immigrants and immigrant communities. “It is the law of the land in the city of New York and it's finally a way to make sure that so many New Yorkers who have not had a voice in the political process yet are the essential communities of our city, now finally have a voice.”
“We are enfranchising people who have systematically been disenfranchised,” he added.
Ben Weinberg, director of public policy for Citizens Union, a government reform group, said that the funding will be necessary for the Board of Elections to set up technology to handle a new category of voters, including a protected database, new voter registration forms, and separate ballots. Noncitizen voters will only be eligible to cast ballots in elections for city government positions. The BOE will also have to train poll workers to implement new procedures and figure out how to maintain voter lists that interact with the state voter database.
“These are new but very solvable issues, and the implementation of [Ranked Choice Voting] has shown us that the city BOE is very capable of implementing new, somewhat complex voting technologies,” Weinberg said. “We’ll need to see the Board’s implementation plan, due on July 1, to assess their progress and timelines, but implementation needs should be fully funded in the coming budget. Of course, the city will need to spend a lot more time and money on an effective, multilanguage public education and outreach campaign.”
The city does face some hurdles over the law. The day after it went into effect, Republican Party members and elected officials filed a lawsuit claiming it was unconstitutional and violated state election law. The lawsuit is ongoing and, on April 13, a state supreme court judge gave the parties until May 9 to file a motion for summary judgment. A number of voting rights and advocacy groups have also joined the lawsuit to defend the law including LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
At a February 28 hearing of the City Council, BOE officials testified that they were on track to meet the deadline for an implementation plan, though they await the conclusion of the legal challenge. BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan said the agency doesn’t necessarily need a significant allocation to administer the various requirements of the law. “From a budgetary perspective, it is not a house-on-fire emergency to deal with right this minute,” he said.
All 51 seats of the City Council will be on the ballot in 2023, as mandated due to the decennial Census and redistricting process. Then there will be another full city government election cycle in 2025. There could be special elections at other times.
Theodore Moore, vice president of policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, said the Council’s $25 million request is in line with previous allocations to the BOE for implementing new election law changes including the expansion of early voting and automatic voter registration. “So this is actually right in line with what the city has done in the past,” he said.
The funding, Moore said, should go to community-based organizations that can conduct outreach in immigrant communities. “There's gonna be over 800,000 eligible new voters…and obviously, these new voters are not just in one area of the city. So we're going to have to have a truly citywide effort,” he said.
Under the law, noncitizens would need to be residents of the city for at least 30 days before they can register to vote, a provision Mayor Adams expressed some reservations about, calling it a short duration, despite his support for the bill. Those residents would have to otherwise meet the state law’s requirements to vote.
According to MOIA’s estimate, that would be 808,000 new eligible voters, a number derived from the U.S. Census’ 2019 American Community Survey data, augmented with a separate analysis of the economic profile of immigrants in the city conducted by the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity. Out of the 622,000 green card holders among those residents, 34.9% live in Queens, 27.1% in Brooklyn, 18.6% in the Bronx, 16.2% in Manhattan, and 3.2% in Staten Island. Immigrants from the Dominican Republic and China are the two largest ethnic groups.
Besides the additional $25 million, Moore said he would like to see budget increases for all the other related agencies which will also have a part to play in implementing the law including the Civic Engagement Commission, the Campaign Finance Board, the Department of Youth and Community Development, and the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
Supporters of the law don’t seem concerned about the lawsuit.
“In spite of the lawsuit, we're seeing parts of the law that are being implemented, because all parties involved understand that we need to move forward with this,” said Moore.
“I'm not worried. I know we can get this done,” said Hanif. “And I'm fully committed to ensuring that we stay on track with the timeline.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Adams Administration Officials Outline Preparations for Massive Influx of Federal Infrastructure Funding
Infrastructure underway (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)
The $1.2 trillion infrastructure law enacted in November by Congress and President Joe Biden is expected to funnel about $27 billion to New York State, with a hefty portion of that funding flowing to New York City. The City Council wants to ensure that those resources will be used well and distributed equitably across the city, and at a hearing on Tuesday, Council members sought plans from Mayor Eric Adams’ nascent administration to accomplish that goal.
Tuesday’s joint hearing was held by the Council’s Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, chaired by Council Member Selvena Powers-Brooks, and the Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts, chaired by Council Member Ari Kagan. Over the course of more than three hours, the chairs and their colleagues pressed Adams administration officials on the various pots of money that the city will receive and the funding streams they are competing for. They asked about broader infrastructure priorities and about individual projects in their districts, while urging the administration to take full advantage of the historic amount of funding that will be available over the next five years.
“[It’s] not hard to see that the city has serious work to do,” said Brooks-Powers, a Queens Democrat, in her opening statement. “For too long, we've prioritized the short-term and deferred preventative maintenance and investment in things like our roads and bridges, leading to much higher costs down the road. Failing to prioritize infrastructure investments doesn't just impact our ability to deliver positive outcomes in the areas of transportation and resiliency. It also has ripple effects that put safety at risk and cripple our ability to promote access to jobs and economic growth.”
The pandemic further exposed many infrastructure inequities in the city, including the lack of health facilities, transit, affordable housing, and green open spaces in communities of color, which have been disproportionately harmed by COVID-19. It has prompted a broad debate about reinvesting in underserved communities, which was a central issue at the hearing.
“While all communities in the city will benefit from increased funding for infrastructure, it's important that we not miss this chance to pay back some of the debt owed to communities that have experienced decades of disinvestment, had their neighborhoods divided by highways, or watched the city fail to address the growing threat of climate change in their neighborhoods,” Brooks-Powers said.
Recognizing those growing threats of the climate crisis, Council members were focused Tuesday on the city’s plans for resiliency and sustainability, particularly after recent adverse weather events that were fatal for many New Yorkers. “Even simple heavy rain yesterday caused a lot of serious problems for ordinary New Yorkers,” said Council Member Kagan, a Brooklyn Democrat.” We have a huge task in front of us and we must be proactive in how we make our city, our shorelines, and our infrastructure more resilient.”
Under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), there are various streams of funding at the city’s disposal, many of which will be available over five years. Direct formula funding will flow to New York State, which will then distribute it to municipalities through direct grants and competitive awards. There are also competitive federal grants that the city will apply for, and the federal government is expected to release guidelines for those grants over the next year.
Some of the direct funding includes $10.7 billion for the MTA, $2 billion for bridges and tunnels in the city, $685 million for airports, and $50 million for street safety infrastructure. At the state level, $100 million was allocated for broadband infrastructure and $175 million for electric vehicle charging stations. Another $8 billion in federal funding is going to the Gateway Project, which includes the crucial repair of the Gateway Tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, will also invest about $6.8 billion in climate mitigation projects in the state.
Testifying on behalf of the Adams administration were officials from the newly-created Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Kizzy Charles-Guzman, MOCEJ executive director, outlined the city’s many efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, shift towards a greener economy, and protect against the various adverse effects of climate change, all of which will be bolstered by federal funding. “The city is going after every dollar we can as this once-in-a-generation level of investment that presents an opportunity for the city to access funding for many critical infrastructure projects will benefit residents for decades to come,” she told the Council.
Charles-Guzman said the bipartisan infrastructure legislation funds more than 350 distinct programs, including many new ones. “Our office is coordinating with [the city’s Office of Management and Budget] and city agencies to take full advantage of these resources as they become available,” she said, outlining several grant programs the city has applied for including for resilient street projects, electrification for transit alternatives, stormwater and clean air projects, programs to “weatherize, decarbonize and flood proof” homes, among others.
Will Carry, assistant commissioner for policy at DOT, said that despite the major infusion of federal cash, most transportation capital projects will continue to be funded with city dollars.
In total, the DOT expects to receive $1.3 billion over five years in highway formula funding, of which $470 million was already allocated in the city’s expense and capital budgets prior to the infrastructure bill being passed. Carry said the state’s initial allocation of formula funds to the city will be about $193 million, 23% higher than the $157 million it previously received. He also said the state has allocated about $3.6 billion in formula funds for discretionary grants, for which the city will compete.
For newly-created programs, however, while Carry said the city has received some indication of the federal funds it will receive through the state, the administration is still waiting for details of those awards. “Ultimately, the state has broad discretion over how much of this new funding will flow to New York City,” he said.
In terms of discretionary funds, Carry said the DOT can now compete for roughly double the amount, about $10 billion through 30 different programs. “Our work to pursue these funds is well underway,” he said.
Among the main changes in the new infrastructure law is that it adds resiliency projects as an allowable use for Federal Highway Performance Program funds. The bill includes $7.3 billion in formula funds and $1.4 billion in competitive grants over five years. “This new funding and flexibility will help us to advance our resiliency efforts,” Carry said.
With the several streams of funding on the table, Council Member Brooks-Powers pressed the administration to explain its coordination efforts to pull the most it can from the federal government.
“We agree that in order to be successful in securing as much BIL funding as possible, we need to be extremely organized,” Carry told her. He said the administration has created a working group to track 30 different discretionary grants, while his colleagues are coordinating with the state on formula funding.
Charles-Guzman also noted that internal efforts are underway and are being coordinated under the oversight of Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi and the city budget office.
Brooks-Powers urged the administration to ensure that equity is the focus for infrastructure projects and that underserved communities are a top priority. It’s a goal shared by Mayor Adams, and DOT commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Carry said. “We wholeheartedly endorse the idea of focusing new resources on communities that have previously seen less investment in the past,” he said.
“[Mayor Adams] is firmly committed to investing in the outer boroughs and specifically in historically underserved neighborhoods,” Charles-Guzman said.
The officials made several commitments through the hearing and emphasized the various priority areas for the administration. They spoke of their focus on street safety and Vision Zero projects and a commitment to contracting with Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs), all areas of focus for the Biden administration when crafting the infrastructure plan.
On one question, at least, they had little to offer without additional details from the federal government. When asked how the city will track the use of federal dollars, Kathleen Schmid, deputy director of MOCEJ, said, “I think we will work with OMB and City Hall to think about how best to track the receipt of federal grants…and can return to talk about that at a future time.”
Other Council members pressed the administration on various infrastructure issues and individual projects during the hearing, and officials promised that they were either currently working on a solution or would address them in the future.
Council Member Kagan pushed for using federal funds for the restoration of the Coney Island Boardwalk, and for accessibility projects across the city. “DOT and the administration are committed to making our transportation and our street networks accessible to all New Yorkers, regardless of level of ability,” Carry said, mentioning several projects underway.
Council Member Carlina Rivera, a Manhattan Democrat, asked for new investments in greenways. Carry said the city has already applied for funds to expand the greenway network.
Council Members Linda Lee and Vickie Paladino, a Democrat and a Republican of Queens, spoke of the need for parking for commercial trucks in their districts. Though Carry said part of the solution may be greater enforcement of DOT regulations, he also spoke of a larger vision to shift freight from trucks to rail and boats to reduce truck traffic.
Council Member David Carr, a Staten Island Republican, argued for the extension of the HOV lane on the Staten Island Expressway, a proposal that has languished for years. Carry said the administration supports the project and promised him more information on its status.
Council Member Joann Ariola, a Queens Republican, asked for a study on improving the blighted neighborhood known as “The Hole,” a five-block long triangular stretch between Brooklyn and Queens that is 30 feet below surrounding areas and is prone to flooding.
“it's definitely on our radar,” Charles-Guzman said.
Representatives from the Comptroller Brad Lander’s office, urban policy think tanks and members of the public also testified at Tuesday’s hearing.
Louise Yeung, the first Chief Climate Officer at the Comptroller’s office, said the city should advance shovel-ready projects while reforming capital project management and planning, be laser-focused on climate justice, improve coordination between city agencies and develop a proactive local hiring plan. “New York City needs to prepare now for this opportunity, both to maximize the federal funds we receive, and to maximize the benefits of the funds we get,” she said, according to her written testimony.
Kate Slevin, executive vice president of Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, said the city should prioritize “health, equity, prosperity and sustainability” in spending infrastructure funds. “If projects don’t align with health equity and environmental justice outcomes, they should be reevaluated,” she said.
“The city, state, MTA and all other eligible partners must take advantage of the opportunities [the IIJA] presents to build a stronger, more resilient, sustainable and equitable transportation network and region,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. Federal funding will be critical to meeting our transit needs and our climate resiliency goals.”
Daglian called on the city to prioritize citywide sewer capacity projects to help prevent subway flooding from extreme weather events, and to expand dedicated bus lanes, busways and transit signal priority to help speed up bus service in the city.
“If there's money to be had, let's have at it,” she said.
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Note - this article has been updated.
City Council to Examine Adams Administration's Preparations for Spending Billions in Federal Infrastructure Funding
Infrastructure in action (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)
In November, Congress approved President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan, which is expected to deliver tens of billions of dollars to New York City for crucial needs. As the city prepares for the influx of federal funds, experts are pointing to several priorities that they believe Mayor Eric Adams should pursue, and the new Democratic mayor will no doubt be evaluating his priorities as he continues to map out his own infrastructure plans, including through budget negotiations with the City Council.
And the 51-member Council wants to ensure that the funds are used smartly and equitably, particularly in underserved neighborhoods. In that vein, the Council is holding an oversight hearing on Tuesday, “Assessing New York City’s Infrastructure: Laying the Foundation for Federal Infrastructure Funding.”
Under the federal infrastructure law, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), New York State will receive about $27 billion for mass transit, roads and bridges, broadband, climate projects, and more, significant amounts of which will flow to the city. There are also billions more available through competitive grants under the law.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which runs the city’s subways and buses and two commuter rails, is receiving about $10.7 billion alone, which will help fund projects like the expansion of the Second Avenue Subway and direly needed accessibility projects across the system. There is about $2 billion for bridges and tunnels in the city and $685 million for airports, $100 million for broadband infrastructure statewide, $175 million for electric vehicle charging stations statewide, and $50 million for street safety infrastructure in the city, according to estimates from former Mayor Bill de Blasio. The overall plan also allocated $66 billion for Amtrak, with about $8 billion going to the Gateway Project, which includes the crucial repair of the Gateway Tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey.
“The bipartisan infrastructure is a record deal and a once-in-a-generation investment in New York infrastructure,” said New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, in a statement when the deal was approved. “A building and jobs boon for construction projects from Westchester to Watertown, and everywhere in between is now brewing.” Schumer touted the many results the funding will help achieve. “Whether it’s our mass transit system, critical bridges or highway repairs, fixing our subway tunnels, safety improvements at our airports, bridging the digital divide, or ensuring clean drinking water for all, this bill will rebuild and revive the Empire State’s infrastructure and create good paying jobs for communities that need it most,” he said.
“What does it mean?,” former Mayor Bill de Blasio said when the bill was approved. “It means more bike lanes. It means more green spaces, more resilient infrastructure, a fight against climate change. All of this combined in one piece of legislation. It's a miracle.”
At the time, Mayor Adams said he wanted federal infrastructure funds to go to the Second Avenue Subway expansion, to repairs to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and to the struggling New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), and that he wanted to create a green bonds program to build green infrastructure. The infrastructure act, notably, did not include major funding for NYCHA or a significant investment in climate infrastructure, with Biden instead proposing both in his “Build Back Better Act,” which has stalled in the Senate.
Later, in January, during his first visit to Washington D.C. as mayor, Adams pushed for a “national urban agenda” and called for even more federal funding for housing, transportation, and climate infrastructure.
The new mayor has since released his $98.5 billion preliminary budget proposal with an accompanying $100 billion four-year capital plan. Most of both budget plans are holdovers from the de Blasio years, as Adams and his team have had limited time to put their fuller imprint on the two budgets and there are also simply many ongoing programs and projects that must continue to be funded. Both budgets will be negotiated with the City Council before their newer iterations are passed by the July 1 start of the city’s new fiscal year. Adams’ updated capital budget did not account for the influx of federal infrastructure dollars given it is still not fully clear how much New York City is getting and when, as there is a somewhat lengthy process involved.
The largest part of the city’s capital budget plan, about 34%, is pegged for infrastructure that includes transportation and mass transit ($16.8 billion), environmental protection ($14.8 billion), and sanitation ($2 billion). Another $17.2 billion is allocated to school construction, upgrades, and rehabilitation, $10.9 billion for housing, and the remaining $48.3 billion to broader government operations including $10.7 billion for courts, police and corrections, and $27.6 billion for parks, hospitals, libraries, and more.
At Tuesday’s oversight hearing, the City Council’s Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure and its Committee on Waterfronts and Resiliency will question officials from the Adams administration about the state of the city’s infrastructure and their plans for using the federal infrastructure funds. Representatives from the city’s Department of Transportation, Department of Environmental Protection, and Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental justice are expected to testify, according to a spokesperson for Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, a Queens Democrat who chairs the transportation and infrastructure committee.
The spokesperson said the main focus of the hearing will be ensuring that federal funds are used equitably, particularly in neglected communities and through agencies that contract with Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs). They will also focus on agency coordination, Council member priorities, transit infrastructure issues, and climate resilience projects to protect neighborhoods from flooding, the spokesperson said.
After this story was published, a spokesperson for Mayor Adams said city agencies and offices are coordinating with City Hall and the Office of Management and Budget to evaluate infrastructure priorities and corresponding federal funding streams. The administration is applying for each competitive grant under the infrastructure act that it is eligible for and working with the state, which directly receives the funds, to get its fair share of formula funding. The city is also focused on projects that improve safety, equity, resiliency, and sustainability, the spokesperson said, and is committed to environmental justice.
With federal funds expected to bolster city investments, government officials and urban experts say the administration should have “shovel-ready” projects lined up, to hasten construction and to quickly stimulate job creation. In the wake of the pandemic, which laid bare the city’s racial and socioeconomic inequities, and a rapidly worsening climate crisis, they recommend projects that will fix historical environmental injustices, improve public health, boost climate resiliency, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“As the climate crisis demands both resiliency and mitigation, as aging infrastructure urgently requires a state of good repair and as building an inclusive economy requires a platform for a thriving future, it’s utterly urgent for us to pay really good strategic attention to our infrastructure,” said Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat, in a phone interview.
Lander echoed the need to have projects ready that can break ground as soon as possible but “with a long-term strategic eye on our infrastructure systems as a whole.” He said that beyond just building new projects, the city needs to update and improve its systems for assessing the state of good repair and for maintaining those projects over time. “We stood up some pieces of a Public Health Corps. We probably need a green neighborhoods corps that is maintaining the green infrastructure,” said Lander, who focused on problems in the city’s capital construction realm as a City Council member and has vowed to take that effort up a notch as comptroller.
Lander did praise the Adams administration for taking some steps on that front. He is part of the task force to reform the capital process being led by First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo’s, which met for the first time last week – Lander was unable to attend, he said, but a representative from his office was present. “It's such a good moment to do that, because obviously, we can start to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of our capital projects management,” he said.
The Regional Plan Association, an urban policy think tank, said in a March report that state and local governments should try to access all the federal funds possible under the infrastructure act to focus on community investments and health equity. “If projects don’t align with health equity and environmental justice outcomes, they should be reevaluated,” the report reads.
It calls on officials to “heal past harms” through any new infrastructure projects. “Communities that were damaged by or denied the benefits of past highway, transit, water, waste treatment, and power infrastructure can benefit from projects that redress these deep, longstanding inequities,” it states. The report provides guidelines and case studies for achieving health equity through projects that include parks, mass transit, bridges, roads, highways, housing, and utilities.
The Center for an Urban Future, a think tank focused on economic opportunity and equity, has called for a massive public-works style program that will both fund necessary infrastructure projects and create thousands of jobs for a region that is recovering slower than the rest of the country. CUF has particularly focused on green infrastructure, sustainability and resiliency projects, and investments in natural open spaces.
“At a time when New York City is still down nearly 388,000 jobs from pre-pandemic levels, and unemployment is painfully high in many of the city’s lowest-income communities, investing in New York City’s natural areas now could spark thousands of new—and necessary—green jobs, while strengthening the city’s forests and wetlands for years to come,” wrote Eli Dvorkin, CUF’s editorial and policy director, in a March op-ed for Gotham Gazette.
Alex Heil, vice president for research at Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog, said it's important for the city to “not just look at projects in terms of what are the glitzy projects that seem good in a brochure or they appear good on paper, but actually look at some of the projects that are important to keep infrastructure functioning.”
He noted, as Lander did, that the city needs to bring massive parts of its infrastructure into a state of good repair. “The more you let assets deteriorate, the more you have to pay for emergency maintenance,” he said. “Emergency maintenance comes with a massive premium over standard scheduled maintenance costs. And that's true for all assets.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Note - this article has been updated.
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