Union Square 'Tech Hub' Set to Open in Coming Months After Covid Delays
Rendering of the lobby of Civic Hall @ Union Square (via Civic Hall website)
Zero Irving, at times referred to as the Union Square Tech Hub, is set to fully open later this year after construction lagged amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Built on a city-owned site that for years housed a PC Richards on East 14th Street in Manhattan, the tech hub was originally proposed as part of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2017 “New York Works” plan, aimed at creating 100,000 jobs by 2027, with 30,000 coming from the technology sector.
“This new hub will be the front-door for tech in New York City,” de Blasio said in a February 2017 press release announcing the Union Square project. “People searching for jobs, training or the resources to start a company will have a place to come to connect and get support. No other city in the nation has anything like it.”
De Blasio said the project would create 800 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs. It was spearheaded and to be anchored by Civic Hall, a non-profit civic technology organization with a broad mission to grow the tech sector in an inclusive way. In part, Civic Hall would train and provide resources to help underrepresented communities find jobs in the growing technology sector, which cuts across virtually every industry.
Civic Hall was founded in 2015 and, after pandemic-era setbacks including the shut-down of in-person events and the 2020 departure of one of its two co-founders, purchased in 2021 by The Fedcap Group. Fedcap is a non-profit holding company that houses 20 subsidiaries in the broad fields of education, health, and workforce and economic development. Civic Hall remained key to the city’s overall plan for the project, for which it contracted with RAL Development to lease the land and build what became known as Zero Irving, a 21-storey building.
In October 2022, RAL Development finalized a 25-year lease with The Fedcap Group to house Civic Hall in Zero Irving. While COVID-19 delayed the entire project, Civic Hall’s opening is especially behind schedule — tardiness that a Fedcap representative partly blamed on the pandemic.
Civic Hall will be housed across six floors and will collaborate with technology partners and sponsors in order to provide centralized resources for New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds. New programs and courses will be added over time, and will range from cybersecurity to web development to eSports, according to a Fedcap representative.
“The idea is to create a fully integrated new community center at the crossroads of New York City’s technology district that will allow all New Yorkers regardless of background to develop digital skills and thrive in the 21st century economy of New York and beyond," says Andrew Rasiej, Civic Hall Co-Founder & CEO, on its website. (Co-Founder Micah Sifry left Civic Hall in September 2020.)
As of mid-March of this year, the only open part of Zero Irving was the ground-floor food hall available to the public, which launched in December 2022. No other tenants have announced they are operational yet, though a number of lease agreements have been made public.
Tenants that have announced lease agreements include payment platform Melio, data analytics software company Sigma Computing, private equity firm Alpine Investors, Dick Sporting Good’s live streaming and scorekeeping platform GameChanger, KeyBank’s digital banking platform Laurel Road, and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital which backs Apple and Airbnb.
Project Genesis
“Significant investment in tech jobs ensures a stronger future for New Yorkers and our City,” said Miguel Gamiño, then the city’s Chief Technology Officer, in 2017, echoing de Blasio. “Cybersecurity and emerging technologies are growing fast, creating many good-paying jobs that will be critical for years to come. We are positioning tech as an opportunity for thousands of New Yorkers to do those jobs, while strengthening equality and diversity in New York City’s tech economy.”
Given that the de Blasio administration identified the publicly-owned site in Union Square for the development of the tech hub, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) was charged in 2015 with soliciting bids for execution of the project. RAL partnered with Civic Hall to become anchor tenant and won the bid in 2016 to handle the construction of the site.
The proposed 21-floor building, constructed on city-owned land at 124 East 14th Street in between two New York University dorm buildings, University Hall and Palladium Hall, needed City Council approval for the rezoning for additional height. The key City Council committee unanimously approved the rezoning in August 2018, followed by the full Council.
With City Council approval, the city then finalized a 99-year lease of the site to NYCEDC, which then accepted RAL’s bid to develop the site and offered it a reduced ground rent in exchange for the project’s components that benefit the public, particularly the space for Civic Hall. After the 99-year lease expires, NYCEDC will lease the site in full to RAL.
City Council Member Carlina Rivera, who represents the district including the rezoned land, was the key Council negotiator with the de Blasio administration over the details of the deal. She supported and voted in favor of the proposal with excitement about the tech hub but also responding to some community concerns about what increased development in the area might mean for its surroundings. She approved the rezoning on conditions including that the Council also approve legislation to preserve historic buildings nearby. Seven buildings south of Union Square, including the Strand’s building and the Roosevelt Building, have since been declared individual landmarks.
Some neighborhood preservation organizations have criticized Rivera, arguing that the Council member has not adequately followed through on nearby down-zonings after approving the rezoning. Asked about that criticism, Rivera’s office touted the landmarkings.
Rivera has continued to support the tech hub project during its construction and is eager for Civic Hall’s launch, she said in a statement to Gotham Gazette.
“I am delighted to work with community stakeholders and service providers on realizing this innovative approach to workforce development and bringing with it direct investments to the community that include an eye for the future in the preservation of seven landmarks in a neighborhood with distinct character and architecture,” Rivera said this week. “As the project nears completion and programs begin to start, we must ensure that all New Yorkers have access to opportunities that build skills to meet the challenges of a changing economic landscape, and I look forward to further collaboration in protecting and supporting our neighbors and community through investments like this one.”
Construction and Delays
The building home to the Union Square tech hub was named Zero Irving and started construction in August 2019. While the project was originally supposed to open in 2020, the onset of COVID-19 slowed it considerably.
Then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all non-essential construction projects halted in March 2020, which lasted until early June. Though many construction companies nationwide suffered supply shortages, RAL President Spencer Levine said the Zero Irving project got most of its materials prior to COVID-19 lockdowns.
“The vast majority of our curtain wall system is actually coming from Colombia,” Levine told Commercial Observer in April 2020. “We’ve been working on the curtain wall for two years. The vast majority is ready to ship. We have a small portion that is being fabricated in China. There is a slight delay in that and we’re seeing how we can work with the sequencing of construction to fit that in afterwards.”
The rescheduled opening was partly due to RAL shifting construction plans to accommodate for a post-covid world. Employees will be able to enter the building without touching anything besides their phone, as apps will open doors, turnstiles, and call for and set the destination of the elevators. The building will also feature two separate lobbies to reduce congestion, touchless toilets and sinks in bathrooms, isolated air circulation systems on every floor, and extra bike storage and fitness center showers to accommodate more biking to work than prior to COVID-19.
Zero Irving Open for Business
Zero Irving opened its ground floor food hall with Urbanspace, which manages and hosts food halls throughout the city, in December 2022. The 10,000-square-foot food hall is open to the public and hosts 13 vendors with an outdoor patio. As part of the conditions from the City Council’s 2018 approval of the project, Urbanspace had to reserve 25% of the available vendor spaces for first-time entrepreneurs or new start-up companies. But Urbanspace went beyond the requirement, as six out of the 13 vendors are new businesses, according to a prior statement by Ed Janoff, Acting Executive Director of Union Square Partnership.
Aside from the food hall, the ground floor of Zero Irving consists of the two lobbies, one for Civic Hall and one for other organizations. Six floors, floors 2 through 7, have been leased to Civic Hall. Another five floors are mandated by the City Council to be dedicated to leases with smaller technology companies with five to 15 employees. The remaining nine floors are being leased out to established technology companies at market rate, and have an event space and conference center for building tenants to use.
Civic Hall's Future
The Civic Hall facility will span 85,000 square feet across its six floors, consisting of a community space, a conference and events center, and a 42,000-square-foot Digital Learning Center that includes 22 classrooms that partners of Civic Hall will share. The Digital Learning Center will centralize Civic Hall and technology partners’ resources for students to utilize and collaborate together.
Jim Malatras, Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President for Education at The Fedcap Group (and former SUNY chancellor and director of state operations under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo), said construction has begun following the finalization of the lease after COVID-19 stalled progress on the project.
“The overall status [of the project] is one of excitement,” Malatras wrote by email to Gotham Gazette on March 16. “Construction is ongoing and quickly progressing, and we are working with high quality and diverse training and education partners in order to have a number of programs up and running when Civic Hall @ Union Square opens in the upcoming months. We’ve had amazing support from the team at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, local community members, public officials, and industry partners. They are all helping to make this the nation’s leading digital skills and tech center.”
“We’ll have an announcement shortly — but we will be up and running in the upcoming months,” Malatras wrote.
According to the City Council’s 2018 land-use approval, around 80% of Civic Hall’s partners will be non-profit organizations and will offer free tuition and programs to students of all ages. All for-profit organizations partnering with Civic Hall will offer “at minimum 20% of tuition income as scholarships, broken down as follows: 10% at 50% of tuition rate and 10% at 100% tuition rate. Scholarships must be need-based, and exclusively for CB 3 residents, and prioritize women and minorities.”
CB 3 is Manhattan Community Board 3, which encompasses the tech hub site and includes 14th Street east of Union Square, the East Village, and the Lower East Side — largely overlapping with Rivera’s City Council district. CB 3 was, overall, a proponent of the tech hub since it was first proposed, and will continue to monitor the project’s progress after it launches, according to the community board district manager.
“We see this as a great benefit for our community, particularly to have really good jobs,” said CB 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer, in an interview this week with Gotham Gazette. “For a lot of our youth and lower income people who can't go straight through college and get into tech, they will be able to advance in their education while they're working at a decent job.”
CB 3 will also work with Civic Hall on outreach following its launch, and Stetzer hopes to host a community board meeting within the space so people can see what Civic Hall has to offer.
According to Malatras, Civic Hall will be open seven days a week, with classes in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Beyond educational courses, the Civic Hall space will be open to the local community at specific times to be determined and will use a reservation-based system for classroom and community bookings.
“Civic Hall will be the leading innovation hub for the City of New York, but also an important community space,” Malatras wrote by email to Gotham Gazette. “In addition to the training programs, for instance, we will be holding job fairs, benefits screening, recruiting, and other events for the broader community.”
Students at Civic Hall will also have the opportunity to take part in The Fedcap Group’s other programs and resources, including Single Stop — a platform that connects users to economic resources and programs in their area — and staff dedicated to job placement, academic advising, and admissions. According to Malatras, The Fedcap Group partnerships with companies in the technology industry will also set up job networks for Civic Hall students, and Civic Hall is planning on working with different partners and programs over time as the industry changes and progresses.
“One of our partners, Apex Technical School, will be offering a new high demand Home Automation workforce certificate at Civic Hall,” Malatras wrote. “We have partnered with universities to provide college credits for students who complete the program — a value add for those looking for future upskilling opportunities. We will be building these types of upskilling pathways across different providers and programs to maximize job opportunities for anyone who walks through the door.”
According to Malatras, Civic Hall will soon announce an update on its expected launch date, and will eventually have programs in cybersecurity, web development, graphic design, data visualization software, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, clean tech, eSports, and more.
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by Kristian Burt, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
Advocates, City Council Members Push Mayor to Invest More in Parks
City Council Members & advocates rally for parks funding (photo: William Alatriste/NYC Council)
As Mayor Eric Adams continues to propose sweeping cuts across city agencies, Council members and advocates are calling on him to restore, and increase, funding for the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Mayor Adams’ proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget provided $520 million to the parks department, a drop of $42 million compared to the budget adopted last June and nearly $58 million lower than the latest budget modification in November.
“As our council budget response made clear, the mayor's proposed cuts to parks in his preliminary budget are absolutely unacceptable,” said Council Member Shekar Krishnan, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Committee on Parks and Recreation, in a phone interview.
Since taking office, Adams has sought to reduce wasteful city spending and make agencies more efficient. His administration has also been forced to make tough financial decisions spending as it faces several significant fiscal challenges including almost $4.3 billion in projected costs in the current and next fiscal year from the migrant asylum seeker crisis, the cost of municipal labor agreements (projected at $16 billion through fiscal year 2027) and more than $1 billion annually in cuts and cost shifts in Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed state budget.
Since November, the mayor has instituted two Programs to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), mandating 3% cuts to most agencies each time and implementing a major vacancy reduction initiative. Earlier this week, just after the City Council issued its official response to the preliminary budget, the mayor announced another round of cuts ahead of the release of his executive budget, calling on agencies to reduce spending by another 4% (CUNY and the Department of Education will be subject to a 3% cut).
Council members and park advocates are urging the administration to blunt the impact of that PEG, which could potentially decrease the parks budget by another $20 million, and restore all proposed cuts while adding tens of millions more to the department’s budget.
“We know that our parks are essential for our public health and well being and they are cared for every single day by parks workers across our city who are really the beating heart of our parks system,” Council Member Krishnan said. “The mayor's proposed cuts to parks directly impact workers, jobs, they directly impact services in our parks. We should really be investing far more in our green space than we do and certainly not cutting from them.”
In its response to the preliminary budget, the City Council – which identified $2.7 billion in additional revenue over the administration’s projections – called on the mayor to provide $46 million in new baselined funding for 1,000 additional entry-level park workers and to restore and baseline $2.5 million for natural forest maintenance and $4.1 million for 50 Urban Park Rangers. “From the start of this year’s budget process, the Council has prioritized the people of New York City and what they need to be successful,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said in part in a statement accompanying the budget response. “This requires investments in housing, libraries and parks, schools, early childhood education, mental healthcare, and many other fundamental needs.”
Citing an uptick in crimes against people in parks from 179 to 231 in the first quarter of this year, the Council also called for additional expense funding to hire 300 more Parks Enforcement Patrol officers, doubling their numbers, as well as capital funding to install security cameras in parks.
Mayoral spokesperson Jonah Allon defended the mayor’s proposed budget, citing the “significant fiscal and economic headwinds” that the city has to contend with. “In Mayor Adams’ Preliminary Budget, the administration made critical investments in public safety, affordable housing, clean streets, and so many other areas New Yorkers care deeply about — while simultaneously continuing the mayor’s strong record of fiscal responsibility and investing in our city’s future,” Allon said, in part in a statement. He also noted that the Council’s response did not incorporate the full costs of the asylum seeker crisis. “The City Council’s failure to account for $4.2 billion in related asylum-seeker costs or potential state cuts is unrealistic and does not properly recognize the city’s current and upcoming fiscal challenges. We appreciate the Council’s partnership and look forward to working with them in the coming months to negotiate a budget that delivers for New Yorkers,” he said.
Krishnan, however, said the mayor’s proposed cuts to parks were “inexplicable” when compared to his campaign commitment to a five-point parks equity plan – released by New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy group – which included dedicating 1% of the city budget, roughly $1 billion, to the parks department. “New York City is behind every single major city in America when it comes to parks investments. Washington, D.C., Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Minneapolis,” Krishnan said. “We spend $72 per capita when it comes to green space in New York City, which is one of the lowest in the country when it comes to major cities.”
“The mayor ran a successful campaign and got a lot of votes committing to our city's parks system which has been underfunded for generations,” said Adam Ganser, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, in a phone interview. “The administration continues to reiterate that commitment…but their actions don't seem to be following that policy commitment.”
Ganser pointed to the height of the pandemic when the city cut the parks budget by about $84 million. The cuts affected maintenance and cleanup, leading to littered parks and overflowing trash as people flocked to outdoor spaces in droves. “What we're talking about now between the PEG cuts and the preliminary budget is a cut to the parks department that isn't far off from what that cut was during COVID. So this is really myopic thinking,” he said.
New Yorkers for Parks recently released a report highlighting the impact of allocating 1% of the city budget towards parks including cleaner and safer parks, quicker repairs to avoid longer closures, better air quality and protection from the heat, and better conditions for parks workers, among other benefits.
The mayor did fulfill one of the major commitments in the parks equity plan this February when he appointed Ya-Ting Liu as the city’s first-ever chief public realm officer, charged with coordinating quality-of-life improvements to the city’s public spaces. Among the major initiatives she is leading is a massive reimagining of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, from Bryant Park to Central Park.
“We have 30,000 acres of parkland, 14% of the city is parks, and we need to be planning and maintaining these spaces so that they're serving all of New Yorkers in an equitable way,” Ganser said. “I think it's a little bit counterintuitive for the administration to invest in that position [of a public realm officer], and then go ahead and cut funding for the very assets that that position is supposed to be looking at.” said.
If the parks cuts are ultimately included in the budget the city adopts, both Krishnan and Ganser said that it's low-income communities of color that will bear the brunt. “For a mayor that is talking about creating a more equitable city, this decision is directly inequitable for those New Yorkers,” Ganser said.
“The reality is when you're cutting from workers' positions, when you're cutting maintenance funding instead of increasing it, the impact is not going to be felt equally,” said Krishnan. “It'll be felt by the communities that so often have suffered from lack of investment and lack of green space.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
City Council's Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus Releases City Budget Priorities
Council Speaker Adams with BLAC members (photo: Emil Cohen/NYC Council)
As Mayor Eric Adams prepares to release his executive budget proposal, the New York City Council's Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus (BLAC) is making a push for investments in education, economic mobility, housing, and health care in neighborhoods of color.
The BLAC, co-chaired by Council Members Kevin Riley and Oswald Feliz, two Bronx Democrats, includes 34 out of 51 members on the City Council, giving it significant influence in legislative matters and city budget negotiations. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is an ex-officio member of the Caucus, which also includes Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, and Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers.
In an agenda released Sunday, the Caucus outlined fifteen budget priorities in five categories – education, legal services, workforce development, housing, and health – intended to ameliorate new and longstanding hardships faced by communities on the sidelines of the city's pandemic recovery. The list focuses on social services at a time when Adams is calling for across-the-board cuts and facing criticism for prioritizing funding for law enforcement, which is completely absent from the BLAC agenda.
The Caucus members pointed to the disparate impact of the pandemic on non-white New Yorkers and stressed the need for the budget to "reflect these realities." The statement called for universal 3-K, right to counsel for tenants facing eviction, and more affordable and supportive housing – all programs that have faced cuts or uncertainty during Adams' tenure.
“The BLAC chose to center its Fiscal Year 2024 budget priorities around five core items: education, legal services, workforce development, housing and health," said Council Members Riley and Feliz in a joint statement to Gotham Gazette. "We felt these five encompass the most pressing issues our city faces as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic."
On Monday, the day after the agenda was released, Speaker Adams and Council Member Justin Brannan, the Council finance chair, released the full Council’s response to the mayor's $102.7 billion preliminary budget, in which they identified an additional $2.7 billion in revenue compared to the administration’s projections, calling for nearly half of it to be invested in housing, social services, criminal justice initiatives, and education. Then, on Tuesday, the mayor's budget director, Jacques Jiha, sent a letter to city agencies instituting a new Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), requiring a sweeping 4% cut to most city agencies (the exceptions were CUNY and the Department of Education, which must cut 3% of their budgets). The announcement, which comes after two previous 3% PEGs and an agency vacancy reduction initiative, was swiftly criticized by the Council and several progressive Democrats.
"We cannot improve the well-being of our students, support our legal service providers or meet the city's housing production needs as things stand," Riley and Feliz said in their statement. "The common denominator in addressing each of these critical areas is the need for a budget that provides the resources our city's essential services need to effectively function, and the BLAC will be a voice ensuring this happens."
The BLAC is also seeking investments in schools to promote social-emotional learning, mental health, and financial literacy. The lawmakers also want to replace temporary classroom buildings with school extensions.
The Council's budget response included a number of the BLAC proposals, according to a caucus spokesperson. Among them are $61 million in additional funding for 3-K and early-childhood education programs, $14.1 million for school social workers and guidance counselors, $33 million for school-based mental health clinics and support, and $500,000 for a financial literacy pilot program for middle and highschools. While it doesn't fully-fund right-to-counsel for tenants, the Council budget response includes $195 million for legal service providers and a $570,000 baseline for the Office of the Tenant Advocate.
In addition to right-to-counsel, the BLAC is pushing for funding for public defenders and legal services for immigrants. The BLAC also wants to see more workforce development programs, including for NYCHA residents and high schoolers, a subject Adams has also frequently spoken about.
The Council budget response included restoring $10 million that was cut from Small Business Services workforce development programs. It included another $12.5 million for workforce services supporting immigrants, NYCHA residents, and minority- and women-owned businesses.
On housing, the BLAC agenda includes more affordable and supportive housing, including for veterans, and the creation of an "Office for Homeowner Advocacy," with scant details on the latter. The BLAC is backing the Council's push on a number of housing proposals, including restoring $31 million in city funding to NYCHA, and $3.3 billion to affordable housing preservation and development.
On health, the BLAC is calling for more community-based health centers; resources for diabetes, mental health, and nutrition; expanded opioid prevention centers; and investments in the mental health workforce. The Council’s response included $200 million to establish four new public neighborhood health care centers, run by New York City Health and Hospitals, and a range of spending on diabetes, mental health, and food insecurity. It also included $20 million to bring overdose prevention centers in every borough.
"A number of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus' priorities are reflected in the Council's Preliminary Budget Response, which presented a responsible path forward for our city that balanced economic concerns with key investments," wrote a spokesperson for Speaker Adams, in an email to Gotham Gazette. "Both documents recognize that the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget must commit funding for the stability and success of our health, education and housing infrastructure to benefit all New Yorkers."
Both the agenda and the full Council’s response also illustrate the daylight between much of the Council and the mayor on key spending questions.
"The Council will continue advancing a vision that prioritizes the City's fiscal health and New Yorkers’ needs in contrast to the Administration’s plan that obsessively focuses on round-after-round of unnecessary, destabilizing cuts," the spokesperson wrote.
The next step in the budget process will come from the mayor in the form of an executive budget proposal, which will serve as the basis of budget negotiations ahead of the July 1 start of the city fiscal year. Hovering over talks is the overdue state budget, which will determine the fate of billions of dollars in state funding to the city.
"In Mayor Adams’ Preliminary Budget, the administration made critical investments in public safety, affordable housing, clean streets, and so many other areas New Yorkers care deeply about — while simultaneously continuing the mayor’s strong record of fiscal responsibility and investing in our city’s future," mayoral spokesperson Jonah Allon said in an email. "The city faces significant fiscal and economic headwinds, including more than $4 billion in migrant costs by next year, funding labor settlements, and potential cuts and cost shifts from the state, which require prudent fiscal planning to ensure that we are spending within our means. We respect the Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus’ role as partners and will work with them to negotiate a budget that delivers for New Yorkers."
The BLAC agenda has the backing of the progressive Working Families Party. “With the Mayor proposing even deeper cuts to agencies that deliver life-saving services and care, we applaud the BLA Caucus for fighting for investments that will support working families and strengthen our communities,” said WFP spokesperson Ravi Mangla, in a statement to Gotham Gazette.
The caucus’ goals also reflect many of the state-level priorities being pushed by some of New York City's Black elected officials. In a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders last month, Speaker Adams, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and twelve other Black elected officials from the five boroughs outlined a separate set of 17 priorities for the state budget. The letter, first reported by Politico New York, highlighted the the economy's impact on an exodus of Black New Yorkers.
"It cannot be ignored that two hundred thousand Black residents left New York City in the past
decade due to the cost of raising a family and lack of economic opportunity," the officials wrote.
The letter calls for funding for public safety, health, education, legal services, and housing, with a number of overlaps with the BLAC priorities. Among them are funding for Pre-K and 3-K in New York City, $90 million for immigrant legal services, and $50 million for legal services for tenants.
Like the BLAC agenda, the letter to state leaders similarly eschews calls for funding law enforcement, as much a priority for Hochul as it is for Adams. It's public safety section calls for the creation and funding of a state task force on missing women and girls of color, victim services funding, and passage of the Clean Slate Act, which they say will eliminate barriers to employment for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers and boost annual earnings by $7.1 billion, predominantly for people of color.
In December, the State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, & Asian Legislative Caucus released its own "People's Budget" priorities with a focus on transitioning from fossil fuels, affordable housing preservation, raising the minimum wage, and raising taxes on the wealthy.
The People's Budget outlined goals in a much broader range of categories than either the BLAC or the coalition of Black New York City electeds. There were a number of parallels with the BLAC, however, including expanding diversity in the medical workforce, funding for diabetes and mental health in communities of color, and expanding workforce development programs.
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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
@GeringerSameth @GothamGazette
Note - this article has been updated with comment from the mayor's office.
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