Manhattan (photo: wiki commons)

After the Bloomberg administration's plans were rejected in late 2013, the next phase of planning for the redevelopment of East Midtown has focused on the public benefits, especially infrastructure, that are integral to complementing the large-scale commercial growth at the heart of the project.

An ambitious plan to rezone and upgrade 73 blocks around Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, a version of which died in the waning months of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 12-year tenure, has been back in the works since September and, in a new iteration, is expected to be approved by spring.

East Midtown rezoning has been a contentious issue ever since it was fast-tracked by the Bloomberg administration only to be publicly rejected by the City Council, led by then-Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Dan Garodnick, a Democrat whose district includes much of the East Side. Bloomberg was forced to withdraw the land use application, which would have failed to pass in the Council without Garodnick's seal of approval.

In a March editorial for this publication, Garodnick outlined his demands. "The proposal should be for a vibrant 21st Century business district, and not an isolated set of new skyscrapers, disconnected to the world around them," he wrote. He also insisted that any future development should improve pedestrian and transit circulation, open space, and "be mindful of the historic fabric of midtown and consider which important buildings should be preserved."

With Mayor Bill de Blasio in office, rezoning negotiations were revived in a two-phase approach: the first phase will rezone Vanderbilt Avenue between 42nd and 47th Streets, allowing developers to apply for permits to build beyond existing zoning rules and to purchase air rights. The second phase is being led by the East Midtown Steering Committee, co-chaired by Garodnick and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, which is looking at how the rezoning of the greater East Midtown area should proceed.

The Steering Committee, which meets every two weeks, includes around ten different stakeholders representing the City, the East Midtown community, the real estate industry, labor unions, and local businesses that stand to benefit from the proposed rezoning. Negotiations are being led by John Shapiro, chair of Pratt Institute's Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, along with a team of facilitators. The committee is set to meet again on Tuesday, Feb. 24, and the elected officials at the helm told Gotham Gazette that a reimagined process is showing progress.

In a sign of the more aligned approach that has marked the relationship between the de Blasio administration and the City Council, de Blasio's Chair of City Planning Carl Weisbrod, stated in May that the steering committee "exemplifies our approach to ground-up community planning that coordinates new development with appropriate infrastructure and city services."

Gotham Gazette sought comment from Shapiro and local Community Board representatives but requests were directed to the offices of Garodnick and Brewer.

Garodnick, seen as the key decision-maker in the process because the area falls within his district, is more confident of the new, more collaborative approach. It has proved itself already with regard to One Vanderbilt, a megatower proposed by SL Green Realty to be built across from Grand Central Terminal.

"The Vanderbilt rezoning provides more security to the public than the past proposal did because there is no as-of-right development," Garodnick told Gotham Gazette in an email. "The public will have a chance to review and approve or disapprove all development projects in the corridor," he explained.

The intended economic benefits to the area are far-reaching. Most buildings in the largely commercial district date back to World War II, with antiquated infrastructure in and around them. New rules will establish standards to bring the buildings up to date, with higher environmental efficiency requirements. New, modern office space will be created. The plan will aim to create thousands of middle class jobs, broaden the city's tax base, and also include upgrades to the transit system with improved access to Grand Central Terminal and enhancement of public space.

In all, according to City estimates, nearly 10 million square feet of commercial space would be revamped and 4.5 million square feet would be added.

One of the key stipulations, which Garodnick stressed in testimony before the City Planning Commission earlier this month, is ensuring that public works are completed before new buildings are occupied - making it clear that community and public interests are paramount. The Commission was hearing testimony on the Vanderbilt Corridor rezoning and the proposed One Vanderbilt tower, which has become a sticking point between SL Green Realty and Andrew Penson, the owner of Grand Central.

Although buildings in the East Midtown area in question are mostly commercial, residential development has also not been left off the table. With the mayor's focus on affordable housing, evidenced by his making it the theme of his recent State of the City speech, it is likely that certain portions of new living space could be set aside as affordable. Garodnick acknowledged that the Steering Committee could consider allowing development of mixed-use buildings, with both commercial space and residential units.

Borough President Brewer, who co-chairs the committee with Garodnick, said, "It's still to be decided whether it'll be commercial or residential. I'm sure there will be a push for residential development."

Brewer has already given her conditional approval to an application for zoning text amendments regarding One Vanderbilt after she negotiated a slew of added community benefits with SL Green. As part of the agreement, announced on January 29, SL Green will invest funds in the public plaza on Vanderbilt Avenue, contribute to its maintenance, and ensure that it is more public-friendly, with benches and bathrooms. They also agreed to pull back retail space at the planned 42nd Street/Vanderbilt corner, making the subway entrance more prominent.

Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod believes the development of East Midtown is essential to the continued economic growth of New York City. Addressing members of the Real Estate Board of New York at their annual Commercial Holiday Luncheon in January, he said, "It is the engine of our economy, and the office stock is too old to support that," he said, according to Real Estate Weekly.

At the heart of the plan is the long-term view of creating a world-class commercial district. Announcing his intention to move forward with the rezoning plan in May, 2014, Mayor de Blasio said, "We are going to keep New York City competitive, and do it through strategic investments and ground-up planning. These are the kind of policies that won't just pay off today, but will lay the groundwork to keep districts like east midtown thriving and attracting new business for decades to come."

As the Steering Committee continues to hammer out the details, the final recommendations will be decided by consensus and then presented to the Department of City Planning, which has been supporting the committee throughout. The plan, once approved, will head to the City Council where it will likely pass, considering Garodnick's role in its formulation. A hearing could very well be on the docket come spring, bringing a process that has been in the works for more than three years closer to resolution. As Weisbrod stated in May, "We believe the result will truly be a Greater East Midtown."

***
by Samar Khurshid, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid

Note: this article has been updated to remove mention of a District Improvement Fund, which is not part of the current planning, but had been part of prior negotiations, and to expand the time frame during which a City Council hearing is estimated to occur.

New York City Hall

What to watch for this week in New York politics:

As this holiday week begins we're watching the following top storylines:

• Budget hearings and doings: we're expecting City Comptroller Scott Stringer to soon give his response to Mayor Bill de Blasio's preliminary fiscal year 2016 budget and we're awaiting further developments in Albany legislative budget hearings and negotiations. De Blasio and Stringer are set to testify in Albany the week after this one, on Feb. 25. We're watching for news from Albany as Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, and new Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie negotiate the state budget and other legislation that may not be part of the budget.

• Democratic movement in NY11: as we await word from Governor Andrew Cuomo on a special election in New York's 11th Congressional District (a Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn seat vacated by the disgraced Michael Grimm), the Democrats are still trying to decide on a candidate to take on Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan.

We're coming off a busy weekend in Albany, where it was the 44th annual caucus weekend held by the state Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, according to State of Politics. Gov. Cuomo hosted a brunch at the executive mansion to celebrate the caucus and also honor Heastie – the first African American to hold the position. More and more, word is coming out about Heastie's approach to the position, which is appearing far more member-centric than his predecessor's.

This week there's nothing happening at the City Council as a large delegation led by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is in Israel.  Council members are at work in their districts, of course. Plenty of other events are happening around the city to be aware of...read on 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 this Presidents' Day week in detail:

Tuesday
On Tuesday morning, City & State NY hosts its annual State of Our City event, a series of remarks and panels assessing New York City on several key topics: "City & State will convene New York City's leaders in government, business, and advocacy to discuss some of the most important issues the City will face in 2015: Technology and Shared Economies; Education; and Affordable Housing and Development." Panelists may include: TECH & SHARING ECONOMIES: Carlo Scissura, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; Josh Gold, Hotel Trades Council; Meera Joshi, Commissioner, Taxi & Limousine Commission; Michael Woloz, Partner, Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz; David Hantman, Global Head of Public Policy, Airbnb. EDUCATION: Richard Buery, Deputy Mayor of Strategic Initiatives; Josh Wallack, Chief Strategy Officer, NYC Department of Education. AFFORDABLE HOUSING & DEVELOPMENT: Councilman Jumaane Williams; Ed Wallace, Co-Chairman, Greenberg Traurig New York; Kyle Kimball, President, NYC Economic Development Corporation.

State of Our City will be followed by City & State's "Power 100," 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at NYU: "Each year, City & State highlights 100 of New York City's most powerful leaders across industry sectors in a special magazine.

Tuesday morning is also "Food Policy for Breakfast: Race, Racism and Food Justice: Advancing a More Equitable Food System in New York City," 9 a.m. at CUNY Graduate Center.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has no public events on his Monday schedule.

According to City & State, "10:30 a.m. State Sen. David Carlucci unveils his Investing in Our NY Seniors proposal, Nanuet Library."

Also via City & State: "11 a.m. - The New York Immigration Coalition holds a press conference to call on the Department of Education to improve translation and interpretation services for immigrant parents, 137-139 W. 25th St., 12th floor, Manhattan."

And: "1 p.m. - New York City Councilman Daniel Dromm, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and activists reaffirm their boycott of the New York City St. Patrick's Day parade, City Hall steps, Manhattan."

On Tuesday evening, Comptroller Scott Stringer will deliver remarks at the general meeting of the Queens Civic Congress at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing.

Also on Tuesday evening Mark Blyth will discuss, "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea" - 6 p.m. at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. "Professor Blyth will discuss recent examples of a policy that he shows has failed for a century. While it makes sense for any one state to try and cut its way to growth, Blyth argues, it simply cannot work when all states try it simultaneously: all we do is shrink the economy."

There will be a "Lecture on Shirley Chisholm by Prof. Barbara Winslow" at the CUNY Graduate Center, Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday evening is also the monthly general meeting and happy hour of the Manhattan Young Democrats club - 7 p.m. at Gramercy Park Bar.

Wednesday
At There will be a meeting of the Assembly Standing Committee on Health to discuss "the use of antipsychotic medication in nursing homes," 10 a.m. on Wednesday in Manhattan.

Also Wednesday morning, the Newman Institute at Baruch College will hold a housing conference, "Implementing Affordable: New York's Affordable Housing Crisis," at which Commissioner of the New York Department of Housing Preservation and Development Vicki Been may keynote.

On Wednesday morning, there will be a "press conference demonstrating support for bold action to fix failing schools crisis," 11 a.m. at Girls Prep Bronx Elementary. It is being organized by Families for Excellent Schools and will feature state Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., Assembly Members Marcos Crespo, Mark Gjonaj and Latoya Joyner, "prominent members of clergy" and "dozens of parents."

Jeffrey Fagan presents "No Runs, Few Hits, and Many Errors: Street Stops, Bias, and Proactive Policing" - "Join us February 18, when Professor Jeffrey Fagan will discuss his research using equilibrium modeling to detect racial discrimination in pedestrian stops in the contentious Stop and Frisk (SQF) program of the New York City Police Department and the implications of his findings for law and policy," says the VERA Institute of Justice.

"The Inequality Forum" will be Wednesday at noon, Borough of Manhattan Community College: "The Inequality Forum, organized by the Social Science Department at BMCC, will discuss the problem of inequality today and its consequences for democracy and citizens' well-being and life chances. The event will feature a roundtable discussion involving members of the social science department at BMCC. This will be followed by a keynote address to be delivered by Rich Benjamin, a Senior Fellow at Demos."

Wednesday evening, "Please join People First PAC for a special event Wednesday, February 18, at the Women's National Republican Club from 6 to 8pm with our guests Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor George Pataki,Congressman Peter King and special invited guest Dan Donovan. People First PAC fights for the forgotten middle class in New York City and throughout New York State."

Wednesday evening, Queens Council Member Julissa Ferreras will give her State of the District address at the Langston Hughes Library.

The Digital NYC tour comes to Brooklyn Wednesday evening: Made in NY Media Center by IFP, "Come hear some of Brooklyn's leading entrepreneurs and investors discuss scaling a creative startup in Brooklyn/NYC. Panelists will discuss their experiences, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of creative startup business in the City."

The Brooklyn Young Democrats' 2015 Elections will be Wednesday evening: "The Brooklyn Young Democrats will hold elections for its Executive Board on Wednesday...This is a great opportunity for you to play a role in the future of Brooklyn politics."

Thursday
At "Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will deliver his annual "State of the Borough" address, his sixth since taking office in 2009. During the speech, Borough President Diaz will discuss the successes of the previous year while also offering new proposals on a variety of topics, including economic development, housing, legislation and more." 10 a.m., The Mall at Bay Plaza.
[Read from our series on this year's 'State of' speeches, including coverage of the President's State of the Union, Governor's State of the State, and more]

Thursday evening, "a coalition of neighborhood groups, merchants associations, and elected officials representing Downtown and Brownstone Brooklyn invite you to a town hall meeting to discuss how to address the challenge posed to all New Yorkers by crumbling transportation infrastructure, growing congestion, and rising tolls and transit fares. The focus of the town hall meeting will be a plan put forward by Move NY, a transportation policy group." The event will feature "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz.

Thursday evening, Council Member Costa Constantinides in collaboration with state Senator Michael Gianaris, Assembly Member Cathy Nolan, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, the Astoria Houses Residents Association, The Floating Hospital, H.A.N.A.C. Astoria Cornerstone, and Minor Miracles will host "I Have A Dream" Black History Month Community Celebration event, 7 p.m., Astoria Houses Residents Association.

Thursday evening is the New York City Young Republican Monthly Meetup.

Friday and the weekend
At Friday is the deadline to apply for discretionary funding application for fiscal year 2016 from the City Council.

Friday morning is another CityLaw Breakfast at New York Law School, this one with New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) Commissioner Meera Joshi.

Also Friday morning: The Murphy Institute at CUNY School of Professional Studies presents: Is There a Future for Low Income Housing in New York City? - "The highlight of Mayor de Blasio's State of the City address on Tuesday was his affordable housing initiative, starting with East New York, one of the city's least well-served neighborhoods. His words were greeted with demands for more details, particularly with regard to balancing the needs of diverse stakeholders."

Friday is the 5th Annual NYU Social Innovation Symposium: "Join leaders in the NYC social enterprise community to explore the use of market-based mechanisms to create lasting solutions to the world's most pressing social problems. The 5th annual NYU Social Innovation Symposium, New Rules, Bold Ideas: Innovations for Sustainable Social Impact, will discuss innovations and collaborations that span the private, public, and civil sectors to create positive social impact. This year's symposium will welcome Jim Brett, President of West Elm, and Kees Kruythoff, President of Unilever North America, as the 2015 keynote speakers."

Friday evening is the CodeAcross NYC 2015 Kickoff & Town Hall with Dr. Mashariki, NYC's Chief Analytics Officer.

Saturday and Sunday is "CodeAcross NYC 2015 - NYC's #OpenData & #CivicTech Festival!" from BetaNYC: "#CodeAcross NYC is a two day festival of, or related to, liberating government data and civic technology. We are bringing together government, community based organizations, innovators, academics, and individuals to create effective uses of NYC's data. CodeAcross NYC is open to all ages and all who want to improve NYC's data! Join us on February 21 and 22 as we teach, make, and create tools relating to NYC's data...Problem we are addressing: With the signing of the City's transformative open data law, thousands of datasets have pouring out of NYC agencies. New York City is the number one "open data" city in America. Yet, this data can seem daunting. Through CodeAcross NYC, we reach across the city and demystify the City's data. For two days, will teach about existing datasets. Second, we will crack open PDFs and databases to make new data sets. Lastly, we challenge you to create tools and visualizations on top of the largest collection of municipal data!"

City Council Member Robert Cornegy Jr. will give his first State of the 36th District speech on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Uncommon Charter High School.

Saturday: #HackHarlem Hackathon - "Using Technology to Build a Better Harlem" - "Harlem Business Alliance's #HackHarlem is a day long hackathon dedicated to using technology to build a better Harlem, #HackHarlem will take place on February 21, 2015 in NYC at Creative Workspace @HBA. The goal of #HackHarlem is to encourage the development of solutions to the problems facing the Harlem and other New York enclaves by those who live, work, and learn in those communities."

Also Saturday, "Join the New York Urban League Young Professionals for its fifth annual State of Young Black New York (SOYBNY) symposium, taking place Saturday, February 21st, 10 AM to 4 PM at CUNY School of Law in Queens. This year, the theme is "Civil Rights 2.0" and we have partnered with the CUNY Black Male Initiative. It's 2015 and the Black community has made tremendous progress in the push for civil rights and equality of opportunity. However, with the recurring abuses of power by police, perplexing gradual repeal of voting rights, and the erection of barriers to affordable housing, home-ownership, living wage employment, and entrepreneurship, it feels like we are having to re-fight many of the battles of those that came before us, and on a very different terrain."

Free CUNY Citizenship Application Assistance event with Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, Saturday, 11:00 a.m.

***
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 Rati Mukhuradze and Ben Max
@GothamGazette

Civic tech work often leads to data visualizations, interactive tools (@zubinwadia via @betanyc)

With the data available these days, there is no shortage of app ideas and app makers. In cities like New York, which have a robust civic technology community, hacknights to dive into government data and solve civic problems are held on a regular basis.

While the creation of apps, and the push by civic technologists for even more data, is common, getting those apps picked up and used by cities and citizens is a different story. There are a variety of roadblocks, many involving government regulations not designed for the 21st century.

Bureaucracy is set up to say "no" to disruption. Often, mechanisms are in place to protect a city from fraud and corruption. But in a time when technological advances far outpace the speed of government, innovation can be stifled and frustration rampant.

So how do you prepare the next wave of civic innovators to deal with the "no" machine? Furthermore, how do you create and design a project that will not only benefit citizens, but also get a "yes" from government and its constituents?

Until recently those answers have been hard to come by for people without government experience. But the GovLab at NYU is working to change that. On March 2 the GovLab Academy will offer an eight-week course on civic tech for local elected officials and their staff members. The class will meet online every other Monday and include one-on-one coaching sessions.

"What we add is an integrative piece that brings that expertise and those who understand how to actually get it done," Alan Kantrow, chief learning and communications officer of the GovLab, said by phone.

[Related: De Blasio, City's Tech Community Ready for Big Year Two]

The "Civic Tech for Local Legislatures and Legislators" class will be co-taught by City Council Member Ben Kallos, a long-time civic tech advocate and chair of the Council's government operations committee, and Arnaud Sahuguet, a recent product manager at Google. Beth Noveck, the former Director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama is also expected to help facilitate.

"Whenever possible, I have tried to partner with civic technologists to create change," Kallos said by email. "It is important to mentor the next change-makers who are working on projects to open and improve government."

Kallos is no stranger to seeing the benefit of government and technologists partnerships. In the fall of last year Kallos got the City to team up with civic technologist to unlock 50 years of the City Record Online. The historical data had been put online in PDFs, making the data, including its searchability, very difficult. The project, one of several initiatives Kallos has been involved with that leverage technology, is expected to be complete some time this year.

For the GovLab class, participants are encouraged to enroll in teams of three to five members and with projects in mind they are hoping to develop. Topics can include but are not limited to "constituent engagement, crowdsourced lawmaking, enhanced drafting and archiving of local laws and rules, and other tech-enabled strategies for enhancing legitimacy and effectiveness in municipal legislatures and among local regulators," according to the class website.

Kallos said he will not be bringing a project to the class, as his focus will be on teaching. But he added his personal focus as a council member has been to upgrade constituent services so work and resources can be shared among multiple legislative bodies. His larger vision: a "one-stop shop open democracy platform."

Kantrow said early interest in the class was high, but didn't provide a number of sign-ups. Enrollment for the class, which is open to anyone, is open through February 25.

[Related: In New Civic Tech Hub, A Family Legacy of Community Building Continues]

***
by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Council members and other experts discuss Right to Counsel on NY1 (photo: @MarkLevineNYC)

"Justice should not be reserved for only those who can afford it," said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito during her State of the City speech Wednesday as she promised civil legal aid to vulnerable New Yorkers through a new Office of Civil Justice Coordinator.

By law, all defendants in criminal matters are provided with an attorney if they cannot afford one themselves, but this is not the case in civil court proceedings such as in deportation cases or in housing court.

The speaker's pledge, along with one made by Mayor Bill de Blasio in his own State of the City address that heavily focused on affordable housing, dovetail into a City Council bill aimed at providing legal representation for all low-income tenants facing eviction.

Intro. 214, also called the Right to Counsel Act, was introduced in March of 2014 by Council Members Mark Levine and Vanessa Gibson, and aims to reduce wrongful evictions, in turn inhibiting predatory landlords and minimizing the related costs of homelessness - both to New Yorkers' lives and the city coffers.

The Mayor has already announced that in areas rezoned for affordable housing, "victims of landlord neglect and harassment" would receive free-of-cost legal representation. "Protecting our tenants – through whatever means necessary – isn't just the moral thing to do," he said, "It's a critical step in making New York City a more affordable place for everyone."

The mayor's legal help plan is earmarked $36 million for next fiscal year, Capital New York reports. But the mayor's proposal is limited to the rezoned areas and the Right to Counsel bill would make the program universal - and, significantly, it would codify it into law, not easily reversed by a less tenant-friendly mayor.

"It's a question of justice we have to address," Council Member Levine said during a recent appearance on NY1's Inside City Hall. Levine says that 90 percent of tenants in housing court go without representation. Eviction is the number one cause of homelessness in the city, which is at an all-time high, and this bill is one part of a solution, Levine, Gibson, and other proponents argue.

The bill has gained momentum with the backing of numerous affordable housing advocates, legal service providers, and experts. A coalition of such groups, the Right to Counsel NYC (RTCNYC), has been fighting for the issue since June.

"The Mayor acknowledged the explicit connection between increased harassment of tenants and the City's rezoning," said Susanna Blankley, Director of Housing Organizing at the Community Action for Safe Apartments. "We don't want the help to come at the final stage of the process. We want strong anti-harassment and anti-displacement policies in place. People are being brought to court not for failure to pay rent but as a tactic of harassment."

Blankley, also a member of RTCNYC, believes the number of evictions could be halved if this law is passed. "Our main issue is essentially with wrongful evictions that could be prevented," she told Gotham Gazette in a phone interview. "Many of these people have the law on their side but don't have the resources."

Blankley works in the Bronx, which saw nearly 11,000 evictions in both 2013 and 2014. She believes the bill will reduce the number of cases taken to housing court once landlords realize they cannot use eviction as a form of harassment.

More than just a human issue, it is a matter of due process, according to Andrew Scherer, Policy Director of the Impact Center for Public Interest Law at New York Law School. "It's impossible for an unrepresented tenant to navigate the court system without having an attorney and it's a matter of fundamental due process. It's also good, solid public policy," he told host Errol Louis on the Inside City Hall panel alongside Council Members Levine and Gibson.

Scherer also emphasized that the problem is two-fold. Not only do evictions lead to homelessness, but they also reduce the number of affordable apartments in the city, a point that Blankley reiterated. Most of these tenants are forced out of rent-stabilized units, after which landlords can legally increase the rent by 20 percent, creating what Gibson called an "affordability crisis."

While many advocates and elected officials clearly agree on the premise of legal representation for all, it all comes down to funding. Comptroller Scott Stringer, the city's chief financial officer, has already come out in support of the Right to Counsel bill. At the Bronx Housing Court last week, he told the press, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So if you stop an eviction, you stop someone from going through a system," according to the Norwood News. Stringer said he is looking at the mayor's preliminary budget to find the funding for the bill.

The council members are confident that the Right to Counsel is an investment that gives back to the city. By keeping people in their homes, the City can reduce it's nearly $1 billion a year spending on homeless shelters. Instead of spending more than $30,000 on a family in a shelter, "it's far more prudent to spend $2,000 up front to get them an attorney so they can keep their apartment," Levine told Gotham Gazette.

Levine also pointed out the sort of trickle-down effect of the bill. By reducing homelessness, he said, it will also limit related costs including spending on emergency room visits, mental health counselling, termination and unemployment benefits, and the negative effects on children's education.

"It clearly seems like a wise investment," said Denise Miranda, Managing Director of the Safety Net Project at the Urban Justice Center. Miranda estimates the annual spending on homeless families is as high as $36,000. "We should commend this administration for it's commitment in tackling homelessness and evictions. It's a step in the right direction," she said.

The City has already put in funds over the last two years to pilot programs that the bill would make citywide. Speaker Mark-Viverito committed to expanding these programs and to increase funding, mentioning the successful Court-Based Homelessness Prevention Project that will receive $7.5 million this year. The civil justice coordinator, once established, will create a five-year plan for legal aid access for all city residents.

"Providing this access to New Yorkers is not only fair, it's also the fiscally responsible thing to do," said Mark-Viverito in her speech.

The move is being lauded by many. During Mark-Viverito's speech, Council Member Robert Cornegy Jr. showed enthusiasm for her call, rapidly responding on Twitter, "Yes, [Speaker]! Central BK tenants need & deserve representation in housing court!"

With the Mayor having presented his preliminary budget, the Council will hold hearings and formulate its budget response in the next several weeks. Levine is pushing for the funding for the Right to Counsel, which he estimates would cost between $100-150 million in the first year - a figure that is gross, not net. "It's tricky because there is significant up-front spending, but we'll recoup the money on the back end," he said. "Arguably, it'll be a money saver." He said the legislative agenda will also move quickly, expecting a committee hearing on the bill by early spring and the introduction of the Civil Justice Coordinator bill in the next few weeks. The Right to Counsel bill currently has 36 sponsors (35 of the 51 council members and Public Advocate Letitia James), including Jumaane Williams, who chairs the housing committee, in which the bill would be heard.

The speaker's address indicates that legal services for tenants is going to be a key aspect of budget negotiations and Levine stands encouraged by Mark-Viverito's pronouncements. State rent control regulations are set to expire in June and de Blasio has called on Albany to take action to protect tenants. In the meantime, the City can step in and lead the nation by creating a law unprecedented across the country, Levine says.

"This bill will change the climate nationally," said Levine, "and spark similar action all over the United States. It's a game change for tenants and housing. The ripples will be far-reaching."

***
by Samar Khurshid, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid

Speaker Mark-Viverito delivers her State of the City speech (photo: @RobertCornegyJr)

NEW YORK - In her home district, in El Barrio, or East Harlem, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito gave her first State of the City address on Wednesday.

In lieu of a local college or the City Council Chambers, Mark-Viverito opted to hold the address at the Johnson Community Center, part of a public housing development and a place for which she helped secure funding. It was the first time a Council Speaker gave a State of the City address in a NYCHA property and the first time one was held outside of lower Manhattan.

Guests were greeted with doughnuts as they arrived and food trucks, typically vying for spots at the nearby La Marqueta food market, lined the streets.

The location and local fare were among several elements that played into Mark-Viverito's speech theme of "lifting every voice." The audience of several hundred was not just politicians and those looking to do business with the City. Many were NYCHA residents, local advocates, and others who live nearby, according to Council staff.

The speaker's speech, which lasted just over 50 minutes, consisted of policies and pronouncements aimed at bringing greater access and opportunity to the large numbers of New Yorkers struggling in what is, by many measures, a flourishing, wealthy city. Mark-Viverito made her focus clear right from the start of her speech, which was broadcast online in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Tweets from the Council Twitter account were also sent in all three languages.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's State of the City, delivered last week, dealt primarily with affordable housing, a major area of focus for the first-term mayor. Mark-Viverito's speech had a singular theme, but included a lengthy set of legislative and policy action items spread across a broad spectrum.

One of the central areas of focus for Mark-Viverito was criminal justice reform. Stop-and-frisk had an outsize presence in the 2013 elections, but with the numbers of stops having plummeted, attention has largely shifted to other areas of policing and public safety - and many are aiming to ensure large swaths of black and Latino youth don't continue to populate the city's jails.

Mark-Viverito said she wants to see the City expand the use of summonses and desk appearance tickets for minor, non-violent offenses instead of sending people to Rikers.

"We cannot continue to lock up those accused of low level, non-violent offenses without recognizing the dire, long-term consequences to them and to our City," Mark-Viverito said.

The change is not something she can do alone - though council legislation could move the needle. Mark-Viverito will need to work with the NYPD and the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton didn't offer his support for a change, saying it is something the NYPD already does.

"We already engage very comprehensively in [discretion]," Bratton said at an unrelated press conference Wednesday. He used the example of fare beaters, saying that discretion is up to the officer. Unless the offender is without identification, has a warrant, or has a weapon, officers are advised to not arrest.

"We can keep our streets safe, maintain order and preserve our quality-of-life without wasting precious resources and running hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers a year through the criminal justice system, and the Speaker has given us the blueprint for doing so," Council Member Rory Lancman, chair of the Committee on Courts and Legal Services said in a statement.

For those that do end up in the legal system, Mark-Viverito wants to ensure a way out. She noted that without bail, New Yorkers can spend up to 15 nights in jail even for minor offenses. Time away from work and the ability to pay bills can often lead to a cascade of problems, all of which could be fixed with $500 or $1,000 in bail money.

To that end, the speaker announced a proposal to create a citywide bail fund which would give those who qualify get-out-of-jail money. Details on eligibility and where the money would come from were not provided. If the program is to be City-funded, the City would basically be paying itself. Gotham Gazette asked the speaker's office for details, but none were provided by press time.

On the civil, as opposed to criminal, justice side, Mark-Viverito proposed creating an Office of Civil Justice, something she can do through legislation. The office would be charged with finding ways to provide free and low-cost civil legal service programs.

"Justice should not be reserved for only those who can afford it," Mark-Viverito said.

Details of the plan for this new office, such as cost and staffing, were not provided, but legislation could be introduced as soon as Thursday's City Council Stated Meeting.

Mark-Viverito also plans to reboot the Human Rights Commission, a little-known organization tasked with protecting the civil rights of New Yorkers by fighting discrimination and enforcing the Human Rights Law. The commission has suffered an 80 percent decrease in federal funding since the 90s. Mark-Viverito proposed a $5 million boost and doubling the attorneys on staff.

"Quite simply, we're going to put teeth in a Commission that has been ineffective for too long," Mark-Viverito said.

It is unclear if this money will be baked into this year's city budget proposal or if the Council will fund the initiative using its discretionary funding.

On the technology front, Mark-Viverito announced a new partnership with Microsoft, which will ensure all New York City public school students receive free Microsoft Office software licenses to be loaded on any device.The gift will also provide Office licenses for teachers and family members of students.

"Thanks to this nearly half billion dollar benefit, we will close the software gap and put our students on the pathway to success in the 21st century," Mark-Viverito said.

The speaker used her first State of the City address to again draw the issue of inequality into sharp focus - and she has made it no secret she plans to attack the problem head on.

"For too long, many voices in New York have been marginalized, drowned out or forgotten," Mark-Viverito said. "But just because some could not hear them, did not mean they were not there."

***
by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Speaker Mark-Viverito snaps a phot of the crowd (photo: John Kenny via Twitter)

In her first State of the City address, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito aggressively doubled down on the progressive agenda she set in her first year in the role. Speaking from an East Harlem NYCHA development in her council district, Mark-Viverito called for greater attention to those living in public housing, announced plans to increase funding to help tenants facing eviction and New Yorkers who are arrested and cannot afford bail, and promised greater "citizen empowerment" through expansion of participatory budgeting.

The speaker outlined plans to create an Office of the Civil Justice Coordinator, charged with ensuring that all New Yorkers who need legal representation get it, and an Office of Labor to coordinate efforts around protecting workers from wage theft, instituting paid family leave, and proper enforcement of labor laws generally. She promised a renaissance for the city's mostly-defunct Human Rights Commission, with an infusion of cash to help it fill its mandate to enforce the Human Rights Law that protects against discrimination.

Jumping back and forth between English and Spanish, the bilingual Mark-Viverito, a native of Puerto Rico, appeared confident and mostly at ease, reading from teleprompters in the first major televised speech of her tenure as speaker. Her address was entitled "Lifting Every Voice" and its content showed her dedication to supporting and empowering the most disadvantaged New Yorkers. She expressed particular pride over measures that the Council took in 2014 to protect immigrants from deportation and set a program in motion to provide all New Yorkers access to a city photo identification.

The speaker called for a "higher head count" for the NYPD in order to "carry out more community policing," saying that the Council is again fighting for an additional 1,000 police officers to be funded through the budget. This sets the stage for a second straight year of negotiations with the mayor, who again did not include the funding in his recently presented fiscal year 2016 preliminary budget. Additionally, Mark-Viverito said criminal justice reforms must be made: "we cannot continue to lock up those accused of low level, non-violent offenses without recognizing the dire, long-term consequences to them and to our city," she said. Her proposal is to expand the use of summonses and desk appearance tickets as opposed to arrests, and to "look for areas where it makes more sense to impose a civil penalty, rather than a criminal one."

Not a condemnation of so-called broken windows policing, Mark-Viverito instead recommended to alter the consequences of some law breaking. Shifting some offenses from criminal to civil penalties is something that many criminal justice reformers have called for and Mark-Viverito's statement was immediately lauded by advocates.

It was a wide-ranging speech, very different from Mayor Bill de Blasio's State of the City address given last week, during which he focused almost exclusively on his housing agenda. Mark-Viverito dove into education initiatives, drawing wows with an announcement that Microsoft had agreed to provide free Office software to students and their families, as well as to teachers, who will also receive professional development training from the company. Perhaps more connected to much of the rest of her speech, she also called for key changes to the city's school discipline code, including to "B21," which has made 'disobeying authority' result in suspensions for many students, especially black and Hispanic boys. Removal of B21 has been something advocates have long called for, with high hopes that the new mayor and schools chancellor would act, but they have not yet released a new code.

To be sure, there is much, like the school discipline code and Mark-Viverito's call for minimum wage home rule, that the speaker dealt with but is not under her or her council's control. But, she outlined several proposals that largely are, and with a friendly mayor plenty of what she is calling for on the city level is likely to move through the Council and across the mayor's desk as needed.

***
by Ben Max, editor, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax

Note: this article has been updated.

Speaker Mark-Viverito at a recent IDNYC event (photo: William Alatriste)

Council Speaker Readies to Give First State of the City Address After A Year Focused on Supporting City's Immigrants, Working Class

In her first year leading the New York City Council, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito took bold steps to protect and empower local immigrant communities. Key aspects of her agenda have dealt with law enforcement and immigrant services, creating a friendlier environment for the nearly 3 million foreign-born residents of New York.

Set to give her first State of the City speech on Wednesday at the Johnson Community Center in East Harlem, within her council district, Mark-Viverito has defined her early tenure as speaker with a focus on supporting and protecting the city's immigrants. Mark-Viverito herself came to New York City from Puerto Rico as a young adult.

Since taking the mantle, Mark-Viverito has teamed with her progressive council colleagues and close ally Mayor Bill de Blasio to enact immigrant-friendly policies. Some, like an expansion of paid sick leave legislation and the city's new municipal identification card program are aimed at a larger pool of New Yorkers, but are especially helpful to immigrants.

When Mark-Viverito gives her address, she is likely to highlight work the City has done to protect immigrants from deportation, provide New Yorkers with a new form of photo identification regardless of citizenship status, and enact a variety of other measures that are beneficial to immigrant and working class communities. In a clear indication of her priorities, Mark-Viverito has titled her speech "Lifting Every Voice."

In the first city budget of Mark-Viverito's tenure as speaker, the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), a pilot program launched in 2013 with $500,000 in funding, received nearly $5 million in 2014. The NYIFUP is a first-of-its-kind public defender system that offers legal representation to immigrants under the threat of deportation.

"The Speaker has been a tremendous champion for immigrant rights over the last year," said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, citing her creation in September of a $1.9 million fund for legal defense, social and health services for unaccompanied minors. The Council partnered with the Robin Hood Foundation and the New York Community Trust, which pitched in half the fund, to help with cases that were being fast-tracked through the New York Immigration Court under a federal mandate.

The Council's local efforts were largely made in the face of federal policies adversely affecting local immigrant communities. In attempting to further assert home rule and insulate immigrant New Yorkers from federal action, Mark-Viverito moved two pieces of legislation through the Council which significantly reduced cooperation between local law enforcement and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mark-Viverito expressed pride about these two bills in an interview with Gotham Gazette the November night they were signed into law.

The ICE bills effectively directed the NYPD and the Department of Corrections to no longer honor detainer requests that can lead to unnecessary deportation of immigrants unless the requests were backed by warrants issued by a federal judge.

"She's been a real leader especially in the fight to stand up to unjust federal policies," said Alisa Wellek, co-executive director of the Immigrant Defense Project. "Thousands of New Yorkers were being funnelled into detention and deportation through city jails. She took a stand years ago [against ICE] and has been able to follow through on the vision. She helped the mayor enact a much broader and protective policy."

Wellek says, though, that with evolving immigration enforcement policies, the City has to remain vigilant. "Historically, Immigration Enforcement has been good at rebranding their programs in cities that have pushed back across the country," she said. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security changed its Secure Communities program (which relies on biometric data collected through local and state cooperation) into the Priority Enforcement program.

"Our hope is that the Speaker and the Council will continue to push back against that," Wellek added. A more specific measure Wellek hopes the City will enact is removing immigration orders from criminal databases - orders which routinely show up during arrests for minor crimes as part of so-called broken windows policing and lead to deportations of immigrants.

Mark-Viverito has looked to set trends in New York City that can be modeled elsewhere, perhaps even federally. Days ahead of President Obama's November executive order on immigration, which aims to ease the deportation burden, Mark-Viverito sent an open letter to the president calling on him to take "broad Executive Action to provide desperately needed relief" for immigrants.

She called for broad expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, reform of ICE procedures, and relief for parents of U.S. citizens and those who have lived in the U.S. for 10 years. She stated, in her letter, "It is apparent that Congress will not act on comprehensive immigration reform. This failure has had tragic consequences across the nation and particularly in New York City. Families, the very fabric of our community, have been needlessly torn apart, children are suffering, and we've lost our moral compass."

In November, Mark-Viverito told Gotham Gazette that she is focused on "mak[ing] New York City a model of how government can work on behalf of those we represent." In Tuesday's speech, expect Mark-Viverito to follow a typical 'state of' script, touting recent accomplishments and outlining ongoing and upcoming initiatives. With the mayor having just presented his preliminary budget for the next fiscal year, expect Mark-Viverito to highlight aspects of the Council budget that she is proud of and plans to enhance. While Mark-Viverito's office declined to comment on the speech ahead of time, the speaker did tweet a word cloud preview in which words like "justice," "rights," and "NYCHA" are highlighted. 

NYIC's Choi hopes that the City will provide support to organizations that help immigrants once the president's administrative relief orders kick in over the next few months. Mayor de Blasio has already dedicated funds and is working with city leaders on making sure that the City is indeed ready to handle the effects of the new mandates. Outreach and access to healthcare for immigrants are key priorities, Choi said.

Choi also spoke highly of efforts Mark-Viverito has been instrumental in to engage immigrants with their local government. He is hopeful that with more immigrants feeling secure to come out of the shadows, this will only increase. "There's also a real chance to break down barriers to civic engagement. Through participatory budgeting immigrants can have a voice in how the Council's money is spent," he added.

***
by Samar Khurshid, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid

CM Vallone asks Commissioner Sutton questions at Tuesday's hearing (photo: @PaulVallone)

NEW YORK - With support from the de Blasio administration, and veteran advocates, it appears a third round of reform is headed to the Veteran Advisory Board (VAB).

The VAB, established in 1987, is charged with advising the Mayor's Office of Veterans' Affairs (MOVA) on all matters concerning veterans. After years of VAB inactivity, advocates pushed for reform via City Council legislation and in 2002 and 2006 changes were made to better organize the board.

But as the new City Council and mayoral administration took office in 2014, advocates once again began to press the Council on making the board more professional and transparent. An oversight hearing in October, 2014 gave the Council's Veterans Committee a road map for reform.

Through discussions with the de Blasio administration, the VAB, and advocates, Council Members Eric Ulrich, chair of the Veterans Committee, and Mathieu Eugene drafted legislation that will up the total of VAB members from nine to 11, ensure VAB members get City email addresses, and increase the required number of annual meetings from four to five.

To promote transparency, which advocates have long voiced concern about, the legislation will ensure public notice of VAB meetings are on the MOVA website and the meetings are recorded and put online.

"We really engaged the stakeholders throughout the process and we didn't have the hearing until after we had the chance to get the very valuable input from the members of the VAB and the advocates all along," Ulrich said during the council hearing for the bills on Tuesday.

MOVA Commissioner Loree Sutton delivered detailed testimony on the bills and lent her support for the VAB reform bills, as well as a bill sponsored by Council Member Paul Vallone requiring data reporting on veterans receiving city agency services.

"The provisions of each of these bills will actually contribute greatly to the future of the Veterans Advisory Board," Sutton said Tuesday. "As we bring in not only a larger and more inclusive membership that reflect current needs, as testified last fall, I think we will also be able to benefit greatly to this increased public access."

The bills had little pushback but there were a few issues that committee members will review before the bills could be ready for a vote.

There are currently no requirements for the VAB to make policy recommendations in their annual report. That report, which is posted online, contains meeting minutes and this past year began to list attendance. Council Member Ulrich asked for input on requiring some type of policy recommendation, be it administrative, legislative, or other.

Commissioner Sutton said she would welcome recommendations, but did not weigh in on requiring them. Current VAB Chair Vince McGowen said "it couldn't hurt," but added, "be careful what you wish for."

Jason Hansman, director of external program relations for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) believes it is something the VAB should be doing. "If the role of the VAB is to advise the city, then absolutely, they should be on the hook for some recommendations," Hansman said Tuesday.

He also suggested students be considered for VAB appointments. Of the nine VAB positions, five are currently expired, although some members have continued to serve. Over a year into their own terms, neither Mayor de Blasio or Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito have filled the VAB positions.

"Having these seats effectively sit empty gives the appearance that this board is not important to the City of New York," Hansman said.

For the data reporting bill, several advocates suggested defining the term "veteran" better. The VA has a particular definition they use to dispense benefits. But that often excludes veterans that served but were less than honorably discharged. It is referred to as "having bad paper."

"We are not here to pre-screen for the VA, so let's track all veterans," Coco Culhane, director of the Veteran Advocacy Project at the Urban Justice Center said Tuesday. She added that city services is often where veterans with bad paper go when they are turned away from the federal VA.

With the bills being warmly received and only minor tweaks to be made, the legislation is expected to be voted on during the next Veterans Committee hearing on February 25. If voted out of the committee, as expected, the full Council would vote on it at the first March Stated Meeting, which has not currently been scheduled. 

***
by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Members of the city's tech team at a recent panel event (photo via City Hall)

NEW YORK - The challenges facing women in the technology industry continue to run rampant despite years of lawsuits, academic studies, and media scrutiny. The stories coming out of Silicon Valley, most recently highlighted in February's issue of Newsweek magazine, are disturbing.

In the article, women describe Mad Men-style office culture, complete with male colleagues' inappropriate text messaging, use of sexual nicknames, and trapping women in their offices. Investors refused to put money into a female-owned company because they "don't like the way women think."

The article was meant to shine light on these important issues. But the magazine cover, which featured a graphic of a computer mouse cursor lifting up the short skirt of a woman, only further showed the uphill battle women face in being taken seriously and welcomed in the tech industry.

Some point to not only a lack of women being hired, but a lack of female executive leadership as reasons the "good old boys" culture continues to survive in the tech industry. Tech giants like Google (21%), Facebook (23%), Apple (28%), and Twitter (21%), all have embarrassingly low percentages of women in senior or leadership positions.

As New York continues to nip the heels of Silicon Valley as the second largest tech hub in the U.S., the City is trying to avoid making the same mistakes as its competition.

In doing so, City Hall is addressing the problem from the top.

Though it frustrated the New York City tech community, Mayor Bill de Blasio took nearly a year to fill out his tech team. But, by the time the latest appointment was made in September, de Blasio had a tech leadership team that was not only highly-qualified to meet his ambitious goals, but five of the six are women. As the sometimes hyperbolic mayor likes to say, it was, by definition, literally historic.

By the end of September, de Blasio's tech leadership team included: Counsel to the Mayor Maya Wiley; Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication (DoITT) Commissioner Anne Roest; Chief Technology Officer Minerva Tantoco; Founding Director of the Tech Talent Pipeline Kristen Titus; Digital Director for the City of New York Jessica Singleton; and Chief Analytics Officer Dr. Amen Ra Mashariki. It is a team that is not only almost all female, but also diverse, including three people of color.

According to Wiley, who was tapped to lead the push for more equitable broadband across the city, the mayor wasn't looking to make a statement by hiring nearly all women.

"One thing I appreciate about this administration is, the mayor didn't say to me, 'I want a woman responsible for broadband, so will you do it?'" Wiley said by phone last week. "He recognized the experience, interest, and dynamism that was available from the top candidates he could select for positions, which meant we got a very female leadership on tech."

De Blasio, who made it no secret during appointment press conferences he wanted his entire team to represent the diversity of New York City, concurred.

"Our senior tech team is comprised of mostly women because they're the best and brightest for the mission before them," de Blasio said in an emailed statement. "They got where they are because of their skills, drive, experience, and commitment to serve New Yorkers across the five boroughs."

Tantoco, who is the City's first CTO, has been in the technology industry since the early 1980s, working mostly in the private sector. She has thrived in the male-dominated industry, including co-founding a tech start-up and holding four U.S. patents. But it never slipped her mind she was often the only woman in the room. The new dynamic she faces at City Hall has been a refreshing change.

"Not being the only woman in the room for the first time in 30 years is mind blowing," Tantoco said at recent event at Google event, The New Face of Tech and Innovation. "It reminds me of the power of being around other people that look like you."

In her new role, Tantoco leads the Mayor's Office of Technology and Innovation. It's a new position and one that will be critical as the City tries to modernize, innovate, and form new partnerships with the civic technology community. She will play a very visible role in encouraging public participation in government.

De Blasio's Tech Team (L-R): Titus, Singleton, Tantoco, (event moderator Leslie Bradshaw), Roest

Style Changes
The hiring process for women in tech can often be one of the biggest barriers to entry. At the Google event both Roest and Tantoco spoke about changes they will be making as they fill out their own teams.

Roest will use her years of relevant experience to ensure the City's IT infrastructure continues to tick, a tall order considering the modernization that is needed in some agencies. She will also oversee the some of the city's franchise agreements, which include the newly approved LinkNYC system set to turn the city's outdated payphones in Wi-Fi-equipped multi-use hubs.

"We need to be really affirmative about hiring women," Roest said. "It can't be a casual byproduct of the hiring process."

Tantoco pointed out the importance of having a woman in the interview process, something that shouldn't be an issue for the City with five women in tech leadership roles.

"Imagine having a series of interviews with only men. People don't think about it." Tantoco said at the Google event. "You have to think through what is the culture and how you are presenting yourself to the candidate in that critical moment."

Job descriptions have also proved troublesome for women in tech. Job postings often contain what is known in the industry as "brogrammer" language. At a job fair at Stanford University in 2012 Klout, a social media analytics company, posted a sign that read, "Want to bro down and crush code? Klout is hiring."

That type of language wouldn't necessarily exclude a women from applying, but it is not the type of culture that is inviting to women either. Studies have shown women are less likely to apply for a job unless they feel they are 100 percent qualified for the position.

To help lead hiring changes, the City is currently interviewing candidates for a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer that will oversee hiring practices for DoITT, as well as its sister agencies, NYC311, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, the Mayor's Office of Data Analytics (MODA), and the Mayor's Office of Technology and Innovation.

In addition to ensuring job descriptions remain gender and race neutral, and getting women engaged in the interview process, Roest hopes to see a focus on keeping mid-career women from falling out of the tech sector. A 2009 report from the National Center for Women and Information Technology showed that 56 percent of women in the tech sector quit mid-career.

Roest almost fell into that statistic in the mid 1980s while working in the private sector. As a single mother she found herself struggling in a less family-friendly environment. She moved to the public sector and began working at the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Her career flourished and she now mentors women in situations similar to what she faced, including those who work for her.

"Thinking about the approach to empowering an all-female tech team to lead this work and to collaborate is really walking the walk and addressing the problem head-on," Singleton said by phone last week.

Singleton used her savvy social media skills to develop a winning online strategy that helped propel then-Public Advocate de Blasio to a mayoral victory. She now runs a team of seven out of City Hall and is responsible for the creating the City's digital footprint, directing roughly 80 social media coordinators. As citizens are now getting more information online, particularly through social media, her role in creating and pushing content will only become increasingly vital.

"What this administration has done is give a platform, a voice, and space to what it means to be a women in tech," Titus said by phone last week.

"We are creating our own covers in that way," she added, referring to Newsweek.

Beyond City Hall
The City is also pushing the tech culture change beyond the walls of City Hall. Titus, who was hired to head up the Tech Talent Pipeline, is no stranger to empowering women in tech. She was the former executive director at Girls Who Code, a national organization working to close the gender gap in the tech sector.

In her new role, she will lead the City's push to fill what are often high-paying tech jobs with local talent. The mayor set a goal to have the majority of skilled tech jobs filled by New York City students within eight years. Diversity will be a key tenant of the program.

The third NYC Web Development Fellowship recently launched, which gives tech training to 18-26 year olds without a college degree. This program features 32 students, up from 28 in each of the previous two programs. In the first class, 50 percent of the students were people of color, and 57 percent were women. The five-month course take place at the Flatiron School and following the classes, students begin a 12-week paid internship at companies like BuzzFeed, Microsoft, and the New York Times.

"We have to break down some of those barriers and we have to reach the hardest-to-reach population with a message of, 'this is a real and viable career path,'" Titus said at the Google event. "That is what we are building out."

Moving the Needle
The tech leadership team has been in place for less than six months, so it is far too early to say what, if any, effects its members' presence is having on tech industry hiring practices here in the city. Stats on diversity in New York tech are hard to come by anyway.

A 2013 HR&A Advisors report titled, 'The New York City Tech Ecosystem," showed women holding 40 percent of jobs in tech industries, but only 20 percent of jobs in tech occupations (meaning women are often not necessarily doing the tech work within the industry - the report does not include an explanation for the difference).

Diversity stats for the larger tech team at City Hall are also hard to come by. Gotham Gazette asked the mayor's press office for the gender and racial makeup of the tech agencies, including DoITT, MODA, and the Tech Talent Pipeline. A spokesperson said there are six women working on the Tech Talent Pipeline (including one person of color), but, despite multiple email requests, the spokesperson did not provide diversity stats for DoITT or MODA.

"I think having women working in such visible technology roles means that young girls aspiring to work in technology have even more women to look up to as role models," Jessica Lawrence, executive director of New York Tech Meetup, said by phone last week. "It means people who are tech conference organizers who claim they can't find any female speakers will start to realize they are wrong and that there are actually women out there in leadership roles, in technology."

There is already some anecdotal evidence of the effect this change is having on young girls. Wiley said last summer her then-10-year-old daughter, Kai, attended the iD Tech Camp at NYU. Wiley said her daughter was the only female in the coding class and it made Kai uncomfortable.

"The fact she could come home and I could point to all these women who I work with and she could actually see...it was really important for her," Wiley told Gotham Gazette. "The fact you have women leading in all kinds of ways to connect all kinds of people to tech and the opportunities it creates makes a huge difference."

Maya Wiley (photo: Rob Bennett)

Since it has not yet been six months since de Blasio's tech team was formed, it is also difficult to see what implications the city's female tech leadership will have outside of New York. The mayor was careful in his response to the question, not naming Silicon Valley, but making his intentions known.

"The strength of our tech team signals to the rest of the nation—and the rest of the world—that New York City has anchored its place as a global tech leader," the mayor said by email. "With these talented and accomplished leaders on board, we're decisively forging our way to become the most progressive, tech-friendly, and innovation-driven city in the world."

As the problems for women in tech continue to persist almost unabated in Silicon Valley, the de Blasio administration hopes its approach will give New York City the competitive advantage needed to give the Valley a run for its money, especially in terms of drawing more talented women to the city.

"We are putting out the welcome mat," Tantoco said by phone last week. "I hope all the women techies on the West Coast decide to move to New York because you are welcome here, ladies. Come on over."

***
by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Note: this article has been updated to more accurately capture the staff that Jessica Singleton oversees.

Mayor de Blasio during his preliminary budget presentation (photo: @BilldeBlasio)

NEW YORK - With a gravely throat and working through two cups of tea (herbal lemon, he said when asked), Mayor Bill de Blasio released his preliminary budget for fiscal year 2016 on Tuesday.

The $77.7 billion balanced budget includes targeted expenditures on issues near and dear to the mayor, including public safety, education, economic development, and the city's vulnerable populations like children, the homeless, and immigrants.

But one area the mayor has expressed particular care about but additional funding was missing from the preliminary budget is support for military veterans through the Mayor's Office of Veteran Affairs (MOVA). The mayor has spoken many times about his father's service in World War II, and his post-war struggles. While the issue is personal for the mayor, de Blasio has yet to add substantial funding for the tiny agency.

For the current fiscal year (FY2015) MOVA has a budget of $549,112, which pays for five staff members (including the commissioner) and $25,000 in non-personnel costs. The preliminary budget shows an increase of just under $30,000, which includes a $3,000 increase for supplies.

"We will be making some bigger decisions about how we approach the work we do around veterans and how we support veterans," de Blasio said on Tuesday at City Hall. He said the City is looking to April's Executive Budget where additional funding could be made.

"Clearly, as I said in the State of the City, we are going to end chronic homelessness among veterans and that is already baked into the efforts we have delineated into the preliminary budget," de Blasio added, referring, it seems, to money going to the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). "But that is just the beginning of the discussion. We are going to see if there are other things we need to do."

At his State of the City last week, the mayor announced the City's commitment to ending veteran homelessness by the end of the calendar year. This program is based on a federal mandate to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015. Federal funding and resources have been pouring in since the program began in 2010 and greater coordination among federal, state and local agencies has also been helpful.

In 2010 there were 3,739 homeless veterans in New York City and in 2014 that total had dropped to 1,316, according to statistics provided by DHS.

De Blasio said funding for ending veteran homelessness was baked into the preliminary budget, but it is unclear how much and where. Preliminary budget documents for DHS do not show a line item for anything specifically related to addressing veteran homelessness, although there was more funding for programs to reduce homelessness in general.

In a briefing following de Blasio's press conference, officials said there was likely some city funding for the initiative, but could not provide exact numbers.

The mayor may be waiting until April as he continues to work with MOVA Commissioner Loree Sutton on a plan for enhancing services for veterans in the City. Upon her hire, Sutton was given 90 days to review her department and the veterans community here in New York City. The report Sutton produced has been submitted to the mayor, but as of January 27 he had not yet read it or met with Sutton about it.

De Blasio is much more likely to provide additional funding to a smaller office with a solid plan and vision to move forward. That plan will likely be hashed out before the Executive Budget is released in April.

The veterans community will be anxiously awaiting the April budget to see if MOVA gets more funding. If no additional funding is provided, the heat could be turned up even more on the bill to turn MOVA into its own department - legislation which has been introduced to the City Council and has seen increasing support.

The bill, which has 27 sponsors, could allow for additional and steady funding, budget hearings, and an easier process to provide veterans groups with discretionary funding.

The mayor said recently he was not convinced turning an office into a department is the best way to get things done, but deferred to his commissioner. On the other hand, many veterans advocates believe this is the best way to get MOVA properly funded. In the middle of the equation is the City Council, which will hold budget oversight hearings and issue its preliminary budget response, expected in April.

***
by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK