(plannycha.org)

On the heels of Mayor Bil de Blasio's major affordable housing plan announcement on Monday, May 5, an extremely important housing-related meeting will take place Monday evening in downtown Manhattan.

Every year, the staff of the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) collects and analyzes volumes of data on housing affordability, incomes, and the expenses associated with operating housing in New York City. This work underlies faith in the power of this research and accompanying analysis to allow RGB members – representing landlords, tenants and the public – to determine how much rents should rise in about one million apartments in New York City.

This annual process, perhaps unsurprisingly, not only involves research and data analysis, but lots of shouting, ranting, predictions of apocalypse and the imminent end of the city as we know it.

This year is no different in that respect – there will be lots of shouting – but it is different in one crucial way: it looks like, for the first time since this process was developed in the late 1960s, the landlords will be complaining much more than the tenants. The Rent Guidelines Board appears poised to freeze rents for New York City's roughly one million rent-regulated apartments – the city's largest stock of affordable housing - for the first time since the RGB was established in 1969.

Why this historic possibility that is making tenants and tenant advocates nearly giddy? Well, the RGB's nine members are appointed by the mayor - and there's a new mayor in town; a mayor who ran on a platform of reducing inequality and protecting affordable housing, and who called for a rent freeze during his campaign.

Bill de Blasio has appointed six RGB members since taking office, including representatives for tenants, landlords, and the public, and many will be watching to see how those new members perform at the RGB meeting set for Monday night, May 5, at 6 p.m. at U.S. Customs House in Manhattan. At Monday night's meeting, the RGB will set preliminary guidelines leading up to a final vote on June 23. In the past the board has set an initial range for increases such as "2.5% to 4.5% for one-year leases and 4% to 7% for two-year leases."

The rent guidelines increased by 4% and 7.75% last year; in 2012, they were the greater of $20 or 2% and the greater of $40 or 4%; in 2011, they were 3.75% and 7.25%.

Will the range start at zero this year?
Indications so far are auspicious for advocates seeking to make history: at its first meeting, the board's staff conceded that the price index of operating costs, which had long been a big part of justifying rent increases, is flawed. And, the board's schedule now shows that it will take public testimony at meetings in each of the city's boroughs in evening hours, when tenants are more apt to attend. This is a first in and of itself - in previous years, only one "outer borough" meeting was held during the process.

The board's nine members include two representing tenants, two representing landlords, four representing the public and one chairperson.

In recent weeks, the mayor appointed two public members, one landlord member and a board chair, Rachel Godsil. The public members and chairperson, by all accounts, appear more open to the call for a rent freeze, the promise for which clearly aligns with the mayor's focus on reducing economic inequality. Tenant members are, of course, all but certain to favor a freeze.

The housing stock
Rent stabilized apartments are in buildings of six or more units, generally built before 1974, that are not co-ops or condos. Easily more than two million New Yorkers live in these apartments - they comprise approximately 59% of rental apartments in the Bronx, 43% in Brooklyn, 45% in Manhattan, 42% in Queens, and 15% in Staten Island, according to the RGB.

These apartments are important not only because their rent can increase solely through the board's annual guidelines; these apartments fall under laws that guarantee tenure (landlords must renew their leases) and set strict rules on grounds for evictions. The laws also require services to be maintained and a state agency, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), has administrative processes to enforce these rules. How well DHCR does so is a topic of frequent debate among tenants and landlords.

The number of rent stabilized apartments has been falling for years - at minimum, landlords have convinced DHCR to deregulate more than 90,000 apartments; advocates estimate the number as high as 200,000 units.

Arguably, the bigger fight over these apartments is not around this year's RGB hearings - as historic as a rent freeze may be; instead, it may very well take place next year when the laws expire and must be renewed by the State. The laws will almost certainly be renewed but advocates are hoping they are renewed with rules that make it more difficult for landlords to deregulate apartments.

The process and the members
The nine-member Rent Guidelines Board holds several meetings to review the data and analysis its staff collects and collates, and to hear the views of landlords and tenants and the general public before it determines what to do with the rents. The board's approach has historically involved a three-step process: first, the board sets a range for the new rent guidelines, then it holds hearings and further analyzes data, and then, at its final and usually especially raucous meeting, votes to set the guidelines.

The guidelines themselves appear two-fold: one guideline for one-year lease renewals and one guideline for two-year lease renewals. Last year, for example, a tenant renewing her lease for one year saw a 4% increase in the rent; and a tenant renewing her lease for a two-year lease saw a 7.75% increase.

The board's nine members are appointed by the mayor and Bill de Blasio has appointed six since his election - to represent tenants, he renewed the term of tenant representative Harvey Epstein, associate director of the Urban Justice Center, which litigates on behalf of tenants, and appointed Sheila Garcia, a tenant organizer from the Bronx; to represent landlords, he appointed Sara Willard, a senior project manager at the Hudson Companies, which develops both market-rate and affordable housing, who joins Magda Cruz, a real estate attorney.

Mayor de Blasio also appointed two new public members: Cecilia M. Joza, the housing counseling director at Mutual Housing Association of New York, a nonprofit that owns and manages affordable rental apartments; and Steven Flax, vice president for community reinvestment at M&T Bank in New York, where he oversees community development lending. De Blasio's final appointment came just before the last public meeting: Rachel Godsil, an attorney and professor specializing in issues of housing, land use and social justice was appointed as RGB chair.

"It's not exactly the best job in city government," said Michael McKee of TenantsPAC, a statewide tenant lobby group that watches the proceedings carefully. "They get $100 a day to have people scream at them, the chair gets $125 a day. You have to ask yourself why would anyone want to do this - it's the classic thankless job."

A 'historic' rent freeze?
A rent freeze is not novel. In times of economic crisis in the city's history, state authorities have frozen rents – the last time that happened was 1950, and prior to that, 1943. A full history of the rent regulation system is available via the City's RGB site. Meanwhile, it is important to note that the state laws are not solely or even mostly about rent – in fact, as important as their instructions on rent, the rent regulation laws establish very important tenant protections.

But if it occurs this year, it would be the Rent Guidelines Board's first rent freeze since the board itself was established in 1969 under state law.

The reason is simple: the politics have changed. Finally, it appears, enough board members are sympathetic to the arguments put forth by tenant advocates: especially that the price index of operating costs is flawed and that tenant incomes have not increased enough to justify another hike.

The price index of operating costs is one key data point the board considers in its deliberations and has shown the costs of operating apartment buildings rising every year. The price index looks mostly at the changes in the prices landlords pay for the things needed to operate a building: oil, water, etc. It's similar to the federal consumer price index. But, advocates point out, it does not look at actual expenditures. Worse, they say, the index is one-sided - it only looks at expenditures but does not consider the profits landlords obtain from their buildings.

The RGB staff conceded problems with the price index at the board's first meeting this year. At the very least, the lead researcher said, the index is long out of date and has not been revised because doing so would cost about $200,000 in data collection and analysis.

But it comes down to politics
"The fundamental flaw of the process is that the board is usually dominated by pro-landlord appointees," said Moses Gates of the Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development, which is comprised of hundreds of groups across the city that work on housing affordability, among other things. "It's a political process.

"[But] it's a new day and there's a paradigm shift," Gates added. "That's why we had an election." Gates was referring, of course, to the election of Mayor de Blasio, who said as a candidate he supported a rent freeze. The mayor appears to be following up on his promise. The board ultimately reflects the mayor's wishes because he appoints its members.

"I'm excited to have a board that I think has some members on it who will actually follow the statute and consider not only landlords' profits but tenant incomes," said Ellen Davidson of Tenants and Neighbors, a large tenant advocacy organization. "That's something the previous board was completely uninterested in taking into consideration.

"They've protected landlord profits," Davidson said. "That's not the mission. They've completely ignored tenant struggles."

Michael McKee of TenantsPAC, the statewide political action committee which endorsed de Blasio in the Democratic primary, agreed.

"The board over-compensated landlords so severely under Bloomberg – especially in 2009 and last year," McKee said. "[Landlords] knew that last year was their last chance for a big increase.

"Look," he went on, "some of the same landlords have been testifying at these meetings for 20 years saying they're going out of business, but one I know who has said that has only kept buying buildings."

In the same time, however, homelessness has only increased and now stands at record levels with more than 50,000 people in shelters, advocates point out.

"We've always talked about how tenants suffer - and how rent stabilization is the largest source of affordable housing in the city," Davidson said. "The board in the past has made sure profits go up and up and up while ignoring what's happening to tenants. It's been ignored by most politicians up to now."

Landlords, to be clear, beg to differ
"The bottom line is that you cannot operate housing without money," said Frank Ricci of the Rent Stabilization Association, the largest landlord's lobby group in the city and state. "Hopefully all of these new people on the board will understand that unless you have money you cannot operate buildings."

The operating costs include oil for the boiler or natural gas, insurance, water, a doorman's wages, repairs and, of course, taxes. Costs have increased dramatically this year, according to the RGB's price index of operating costs. The latest research by the RGB staff points to highly increased costs for landlords and has led to further dispute of a potential rent freeze, though the index to assess those costs is under question.

Housing in the city will suffer from a rent freeze, Ricci said. "Owners will do less maintenance and the number of buildings in tax arrears will increase," he said. "They'll throw up their hands and look for a way to get out of the business."

***
by Joe Lamport for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette

What to look for this week, via the City and Albany:

Mayor Bill de Blasio kicks off what will be an especially significant week - one promising "profound" and "historic" developments, as the mayor himself might say - with the announcement of his affordable housing plan on Monday, May 5th. Monday's announcement was pushed from Thursday, May 1, due to the revelation of the City reaching a preliminary contract deal with the teachers union (expect further news this week about the details and ratification of that deal and the ones the administration is negotiating with other municipal unions).

De Blasio will unveil details of his promise to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade and thus relieve some of the housing crisis and drastic inequality the mayor has targeted. De Blasio's announcement will come via a two-borough tour, with a press conference in Brooklyn set for 10:10 a.m. and another in the Bronx scheduled for 12:30 p.m.

Side note: according to his public schedule, the mayor will also spend part of Monday in a closed-press meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti at City Hall.

As of Sunday evening, de Blasio's other major announcement this week is set to come on Thursday, May 8, when the mayor will release his much anticipated executive budget. When de Blasio released his preliminary budget in March, the big omission was money for labor contracts. The deal with the teachers union, the UFT, now negotiated, the executive budget will provide details as to how the administration is accounting for made and pending union contract deals. The City Council will also see if key elements of its response to the mayor's prelim budget will be included - an additional $257 million for items such as 1000 more police officers (which de Blasio has already said he does not support), providing universally free public school lunch, and tech incubators.

In the long shadow of the mayor and these two imminent announcements, there's a lot more to look for in the city this week:

More on Monday
While de Blasio is talking housing in Brooklyn on Monday morning, the City Council Committee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a 10 a.m. hearing on a bill that would require the newly appointed inspector general of the NYPD to submit quarterly reports to the Council, the Comptroller, and the CCRB detailing the number and disposition of civil actions filed against the NYPD. Newly appointed IG Philip Eure is not expected to testify, according to committee chair Vincent Gentile's office on May 2. The CCRB as well as several police reform advocacy groups are expected to participate though.

Tuesday
The Council's Committee on Education will meet for the highly anticipated (and twice delayed) oversight hearing on charter school management and accountability on Tuesday at 10 a.m. The hearing was originally called by committee chair Daniel Dromm in early March after Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz closed her schools and bused her students to Albany for a political rally (which was attended by a supportive Gov. Andrew Cuomo). Much has changed in the political climate related to charter schools since then. It will be interesting to see what the tone of the hearing is after the mayor took some hits related to charters through the State budget. Gotham Gazette reached out to see if Moskowitz would be testifying at the hearing, but a spokesperson for Dromm's office could not confirm if she would be attending or if she was invited.

Wednesday
On May 7, the Council's rules committee will meet to hear the proposed rules reform package released by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito on April 29. The rules would make significant changes to how member items are allocated and would remove roadblocks to getting bills to the council floor. If the package of reforms passes the committee it would be voted on by the entire City Council at the next stated meeting, which will be May 14.

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Staten Island will host another in a series of Vision Zero town hall meetings, this one at Curtis High School.

Thursday
Thursday features de Blasio's release of his executive budget and a light council schedule (followed by no council committee hearings on Friday as council members begin to digest de Blasio's new budget iteration and plan for the executive budget hearings that will begin on May 15).

Thursday evening features two key political events that very much signify the new, more progressive political climate in New York City. One way to tell is that both are honoring Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. On Thursday evening the Participatory Budgeting Project is holding it's first annual benefit - at which donations will, naturally, be sent to causes per attendee voting, and honorees include NYC PB "visionaries" Mark-Viverito, Brad Lander, Eric Ulrich, and Jamaane Williams (the first class of PB-participant New York City council members).

The other major Thursday evening event is the Working Families Party gala. Mark-Viverito is the lone city elected among the honorees at the WFP's 16th annual event, which is sure to have an especially celebratory tone, along with the elephant in the room of what the party will do about endorsing Gov. Andrew Cuomo's re-election.

Bonus: Friday evening a film, Fed Up, hits theaters. The film is from executive producer Katie Couric and all about sugar addiction. Let's see how it might affect the City's continued push for regulations on large sugary drinks, among other policy and practice around the country.

And in Albany:

The legislative session has about seven weeks left and the major focus issues remain the same: GENDA, campaign finance reform, medical marijuana, among others. Many are awaiting the governor's reaction to the speed camera bill passed by both houses of the legislature.

Watchers are also following the fallout from the governor's disbanded Moreland Commission on Public Corruption and everyone is eyeing the upcoming elections.

Specifically this week in the capital:
On Monday environmental advocates from across the state will celebrate the 24th Earth Day Lobby Day in Albany. Advocates will meet in the Legislative Office Building's Meeting Room C at 10 a.m. to discuss issues such as a fracking moratorium, GMO food labeling, the Child Safe Product Act and toxic waste cleanups. There will also be a Pete Seeger musical tribute.

Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins will be in town on Monday and Tuesday meeting with press and taking part in environmental lobby day activities. Hawkins and his supporters want the Working Families Party to back him as an alternative to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and will continue to make their case.

Over 100 activists are expected to turn out to push for a bill that would eliminate solitary confinement in state prisons. The bill's sponsors Sen. Bill Perkins and Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry will be in attendance. Advocates will meet at the capitol's LCA Press Room on Monday at 10 a.m.

Tuesday will be telling regarding what bills might actually become law this session as the Senate has 10 committee hearings scheduled throughout the day, including meetings of the finance, transportation, health and cities committees.

On Friday at 10 a.m. the Assembly will hold a hearing on the impacts of radon from natural gas on indoor air quality. The hearing is part of a larger look at the state's gas delivery system. The meeting will take place on the 19th floor of 250 Broadway in Manhattan.
***
by Kristen Meriwether and Ben Max in New York City and David King in Albany
@GothamGazette

*This article has been amended to include the location of Wednesday's Vision Zero town hall and the Friday release of Fed Up.

From left: UFT President Michael Mulgrew, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chancellor Carmen Farina (Diana Robinson)

NEW YORK - Dating back to his time as a candidate, Mayor Bill de Blasio made one thing clear regarding retroactive pay to the city's roughly 150 municipal labor unions: find savings to pay for it, or it's off the table. He often mentioned healthcare costs, which have ballooned in recent years and, if left unchecked, are expected to top $7 billion by 2017.

On Thursday, May 1, de Blasio announced an agreement on a contract with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which has been operating under an expired contract since 2009. The deal gives the UFT four percent retro pay for two of the four years their contract was expired, with the payments starting in 2015 and running until 2020. The UFT will receive one percent raises for pay from May 2013 to May 2015, a 1.5 percent raise in May 2016, a 2.5 percent raise in May 2017, and a 3 percent raise in May 2018.

With raises given, how did de Blasio come out on the healthcare savings to help pay for them?

The UFT and the City agreed to a series of cost-cutting measures that are projected to save a total of $3.4 billion over four years if adopted by all the city's municipal unions through ratification by the Municipal Labor Council (MLC), as required.

The savings are said to be $400 million in fiscal year 2015, $700 million in fiscal 2016, $1 billion in fiscal 2017, and $1.3 billion in 2018.

The details of the savings plan given at Thursday's City Hall press conference were extremely limited. Changes in the healthcare benefits must be ratified by the MLC because they would affect all labor unions (which are still in contract negotiations of their own). Other than generalities and flashy numbers, officials appeared cautious about releasing details of the healthcare changes since the MLC is expected to meet on Friday to discuss, and possibly ratify, the proposals.

"Working together, we identified significant healthcare cost savings, the kinds of savings that have been talked about for years, but never achieved until this group of individuals got together and found common ground," said Mayor de Blasio.

Multiple reporters asked for details as to what these measures would include, but the questions were largely dodged. Robert Linn, the City's director of labor relations, gave two examples of potential cost savers: having radiology and blood work done in a central location as opposed to a doctor's office, and purchasing prescription drugs through a single entity. UFT President Michael Mulgrew mentioned there would be a joint committee at the MLC that would come up with cost cutting measures in a transparent way.

One possible change noticeably missing is having workers contribute to paying their healthcare premiums, something fiscal watchdogs have been suggesting for years. Linn hinted that measure was not a part of the conversation: "We think there are menus that we have put together that don't involve shifting cost to employees and to provide much more efficient, effective healthcare."

The healthcare benefits New York City municipal workers enjoy is rare in that they do not pay any money toward their healthcare premiums. Only the city of Los Angeles offers a comparable benefit, according to a 2013 report from Citizens Budget Commission (CBC). By comparison, New York State workers have been contributing to their healthcare premiums since 1983 with the current rate being 10 percent for most single coverage employees and 25 percent for family coverage.

In addition, New York City retirees do not contribute to their healthcare costs and once retirees hit 65 and are eligible for Medicaid Part B, the City reimburses the cost 100 percent. No other municipality in the country offers either of these benefits, according to CBC.

Municipal workers contributing to their healthcare premiums would provide reliable cost savings to the city. The hodgepodge of measures the City has negotiated with the UFT, which appear to be bulk buying and saving methods, are less predictable.

"Pursuing cost control measures is a worthy effort, but the savings that will materialize from such an effort are unclear," Maria Doulis, cities studies director at CBC, said by email on Thursday. " More predictable savings are available by asking employees to contribute to the cost of health premiums; this would mirror the agreements virtually all other public and private employees have with their employers and would provide savings the City could bank on to help fund wage increases."

Linn all but guaranteed the programs would be a success. "We feel certain those targets are achievable and my guess is we will hit them, if not go beyond them," he said.

A Missed Opportunity?
De Blasio is in a unique position when negotiating these expired contracts. The unions, especially the UFT, want an enormous sum of retro pay. The City, which has watched healthcare costs eat up considerably larger portions of the budget year after year, needed to find ways to lower these costs - as de Blasio has repeatedly said.

"This was a time when they would have the most leverage to push something more dramatic," said Dan DiSalvo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an assistant professor of political science at CUNY, by phone on Thursday.

If the City would have negotiated municipal workers contributing in line with State employees (10 percent for single coverage and 25 percent for families) the City would have saved $715 million in fiscal 2014, according to the CBC report. Although a jump that large was highly unlikely, the numbers exhibit the amount of savings possible with employees contributing to their healthcare costs.

"Even if the city had gotten the workers to pay a small amount on the premium side at least that would have crossed the threshold of having them pay anything," said DiSalvo. "That would have been a big step forward in terms of shifting the cost out of the city budget to more cost sharing with workers for their healthcare - especially if healthcare costs are rising."

DiSalvo argues cost cutting measures have not been shown to generate the type of long-term savings that employee contribution has.

"The amount of savings they say they are going to get and the policy levers they are pulling, at least so far as has been reported, just don't correspond," DiSalvo said. "What you end up with is a cosmetic concession that makes it look like the union is giving up stuff but these don't translate over the long term into real savings."

He continued, "Then costs rise over time and then you cycle back to the same set of things you are confronting."

***
by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Public Advocate Tish James (left) & her city council successor, Laurie Cumbo (NY Daily News)

New Public Advocate Letitia (Tish) James sat down with Gotham Gazette for a video interview to discuss her first few months on the job, the causes that she has focused on, the structure she has established in her office, and the work that lies ahead. James touches on policy issues, her use of litigation, the structure of her office, focusing on social justice causes, and encouraging women to run for office.

We published the first two clips of the interview on homelessness policy and other focus areas for James, as well as the four-part structure James has created in her public advocate office.

Below are the third and fourth segments of the interview, with a focus on James' work encouraging other women to seek public office.

On her office staff and budget, social justice causes, and encouraging women to seek public office:

More on encouraging women to run for office, scrutiny, personal choices and sacrifice:

***
[Video production generously donated to Gotham Gazette by GZIPUSA.HumanityCode.com]

Ben Max, executive editor, Gotham Gazette
@TweetBenMax
@GothamGazette

Public Advocate Tish James at a March rally (@JLopez_MRNY)

New Public Advocate Letitia (Tish) James sat down with Gotham Gazette for a video interview to discuss her first few months on the job, the causes that she has focused on, the structure she has established in her office, and the work that lies ahead. James touches on homelessness policy, her use of litigation to fight school co-locations and address other issues of importance, and more.

The video interview is posted below in segments, with two initial clips now up and others to follow soon:

On homelessness policy:

On other initial causes the public advocate office has taken up and the office's structure under James:

***
[Video production generously donated to Gotham Gazette by GZIPUSA.HumanityCode.com]

Ben Max, executive editor, Gotham Gazette
@TweetBenMax
@GothamGazette

Council Speaker Mark-Viverito announces rules reform proposals (William Alatriste)

NEW YORK - Reforming member items has been a top priority for the City Council dating back to October, a time before 21 current council members were even officially elected or sworn into office. Members had grown tired of the inequity and perceived favoritism under former Speaker Christine Quinn and became anxious to codify a more equitable process in the rules that govern the 51-member body.

On Tuesday, just four months into the new council's term, a package of rules reform was unveiled by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who campaigned to lead her colleagues with a promise to take the politics out of member item allocation.

Member items, or discretionary funds, are given to council members to fund programs like neighborhood sports leagues, soup kitchens, and arts groups (which use expense funding), or to build things like a little league field (which uses capital funding). In the past the speaker decided how much each council member received and multiple members claimed Quinn punished them for disagreeing with her or upsetting her in some way.

"I know firsthand what it is to suffer under rules that make no sense," said Council Member Fernando Cabrera at City Hall on Tuesday. "If you look at the allocations I was receiving, because I was speaking out on certain issues that differed with the previous speaker, I was penalized. Actually it wasn't me who was penalized, it was the constituents."

The new rules proposed by the speaker, and to be vetted by the Council's rules committee on May 7th, require that member item allocations are determined by a "fair, objective formula that is publicly disclosed," according to a press release. The rules will not set a formula, but will require funds be distributed equally or by a data-driven formula.

The proposal includes a recommendation for fiscal year 2015 with equal distribution of core member items and a bump of up to 25 percent for districts with the greatest number of people living in poverty. Speaker Mark-Viverito said the Council will use data already collected to determine the number of people in poverty, but it has yet to be determined how that number will correspond to an increase in funding for certain districts.

In fiscal year 2014, the member item expense fund pot was $34,173,872, with a base rate of $340,464 for each member, according to an analysis conducted by Citizens Union (Citizens Union Foundation publishes Gotham Gazette). While every member received more than the base, some, like Dan Halloran of Queens and Andy King of the Bronx, received barely above that threshold. On the flip side, five members received over $1 million in funds.

While the total discretionary funding amount to be distributed is unknown, using fiscal year 2014 numbers, it is estimated that council members will each receive between $600,000 and $700,000 given equal distribution. In fiscal year 2014, there were 14 members who received over $700,000, meaning those districts stand to lose some funding under the new method.

Capital funding is also expected to be nearly equal for fiscal year 2015. This pot is typically much larger. In fiscal year 2014 the capital funding for members was $253,048,000. If distributed equally, each member would have received roughly $4.96 million. Ten members received more than that in fiscal 2014.

While Quinn was often accused of playing politics with member items and using them as a form of control, some have argued that by making the current reforms on the table, Mark-Viverito is giving up control. On Tuesday, the speaker disagreed.

"I don't see that as relinquishing power," Mark-Viverito said. "To me, power is in being able to have a legislative body that is collaborative, that is engaged in having a vision for New York City."

While she will have less control over the entire sum of discretionary funding going out to individual council members, Mark-Viverito will still have a substantial pot of money at her discretion. In addition to the money Mark-Viverito gets for her own council district, which spans parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, she will have control of the Speaker's List. Council members who do not have enough funding in their own districts or organizations who do not receive the funding they request through a council member can go directly to the speaker's office. In fiscal year 2014, Speaker's List funding was $15,045,000 of expense money and $143,186,000 of capital funds.

By the rules being proposed by Mark-Viverito, the Speaker's List would be limited to 50 percent of the total discretionary expense funds, but no ceiling for capital. Historically, the Speaker's List has rarely exceeded that 50 percent threshold.

When asked by Gotham Gazette if there were any changes that would be brought to the Speaker's List selection process, Mark-Viverito replied, "That is something we are looking at now. We are looking at the way it was done before and we are going to make some changes in terms of what gets funded or what we use the money for."

***
by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Flooding from Superstorm Sandy, October 2012 (Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Last week, Gotham Gazette sat down with Daniel Zarrilli, recently appointed director of the city's newly created Office of Recovery and Resiliency, to get a sense of the City's approach to resiliency and climate change. Zarrilli is now one of the three top officials in city government responsible for crafting and overseeing the de Blasio administration's Sandy recovery and climate resiliency planning efforts (along with Bill Goldstein, Senior Advisor to the Mayor for Recovery, Resiliency, and Infrastructure; and Amy Peterson, director of the Housing Recovery Office). 

Zarrilli, a licensed engineer, is no stranger to the daunting challenge of preparing New York City for climate change: he was interim director of the Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability at the end of the Bloomberg administration.

Gotham Gazette sought to understand, first, how the new administration plans to utilize the extensive resiliency planning already put in motion by de Blasio's predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and, second, how the de Blasio administration views the future of the city's coastal communities as sea levels rise.

A third focus of the conversation is how the administration plans to work with local communities on the front line of climate change. Only time will tell, but the de Blasio team's purported commitment to community engagement might be what ultimately sets apart its approach to climate change.

In part one of the interview, Zarrilli discusses the City's general approach and where plans stand in terms of those inherited from the previous administration, the logistics of his office and the administration's other offices doing similar work, and the challenges involved in forecasting out 30, 50, and more years into the future.

Below, read Zarrilli's thoughts on buy-out programs, flood zones, community engagement in resiliency efforts, and more.

Gotham Gazette (GG) talks with Daniel Zarrilli (DZ), director of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency (Part 2 of 2)

Buy-outs and Flood Zones
GG: The City's just-released "One City, Rebuilding Together" report briefly mentions homeowners on Staten Island who may participate in a State buy-out program.

DZ: We've been cooperating with the State's buy-out program. The City doesn't have a buy-out program where we return land to nature. What we do have is an acquisition program where we can help people, through the Build it Back housing program, acquire their homes, and then ultimately we can rebuild, whether it's an elevated or otherwise more resilient home on that piece of property. So that's what we've been doing.
The state's been advancing three different buy-out areas in Staten Island, and we've been cooperating with them on how that's going to work.

GG: Would you consider expanding buy-out or acquisition as time goes on?
DZ: That question remains to be answered in the future. You could look at this across the city - there's 160,000 or so people who live in the Rockaways. We're not going to buy out the Rockaways. Our analysis shows that with coastal protection investments, with building investments, and with infrastructure investments, we can actually reduce that risk to what we think is a manageable level into the time horizon that we've laid out as our planning horizon.

GG: Do you think that the risk from rising sea levels is "manageable" in the city's Zone-A areas?
DZ: It's confusing terminology. Our evacuation maps used to have a "Zone A" on them. And the [FEMA] flood maps have an "A-Zone" on them.
We've done away with Zone A on the evacuation maps: instead of A, B and C, now we have 1 through 6. It used to just be based on the intensity of the storm that was coming towards the harbor. Now it's actually two variables: it's intensity and it's storm track, whether it's going northeast or northwest, it makes a big difference. The evacuation zones go 1 through 6...I just want to establish that first.

The A-zone is the 100-year floodplain as FEMA defines it on their flood insurance rate maps. We've been working with FEMA. There's things on [federal flood] insurance [for homeowners] where there's been big changes to the insurance program. Some of those were causing insurance to be unavailable and unaffordable. We've helped advocate and provide technical support, ultimately a new law that was passed through Congress to reduce the impacts from flood insurance, and make sure that it was available and affordable.

At the same time, we're advancing a number of mitigation efforts to buy down that risk in those zones. So we think, yes, that absolutely applies in the A-zone properties, in the 100-year floodplain, that we can make the right investments and it's incumbent upon us to make those investments, but we can make them to buy down that risk.

GG: In terms of working with developers in those areas...You're not going to be eventually cutting off areas of the city to development?
DZ: It's maybe counter-intuitive but the safest place to have been [during Sandy] on the Rockaway peninsula was right on the coast in the newest development, Arverne by the Sea...It really boils down to the fact that building codes work. And the newest buildings fare the best because they have these protections built into them. Our real challenge is about how do we incent building owners [of] older buildings to make upgrades, to get their boilers or their electrical equipment out of the basement, or to otherwise elevate their home in certain areas.

Amy Spitalnick, director of public affairs at the Office of Management and Budget: As part of the ["One City, Rebuilding Together"] report, we've expanded eligibility for acquisition for re-development to incentivize just that [building flood resistant homes] for homeowners who live in floodplains. We've expanded, on the recovery side, eligibility for a number of programs. This is one piece of that to help make sure that homeowners who were hit hard who would be interested in selling their home to the City and the State for re-development have that opportunity, no matter their income level. And then it can be built back in a more resilient way.

DZ: Over time, we can upgrade our entire city building stock that is at risk in these flood zones by doing exactly that: building better and newer structures where we may have older, more vulnerable structures currently.

GG: The program that you're describing is not the buy-out program we hear about?
DZ: [This] is different than the buy-out. When people talk about buyouts, they're generally talking about the New York State buy-out program, which is buying a home and turning it over to nature. That's one set of properties. It's only three neighborhoods in Staten Island. It's Oakwood Beach, Ocean Breeze, and Graham Beach. And the State's said very explicitly that it's shutting down the buy-out program after those three neighborhoods in the city.

Separately from that is the acquisition program where the City and the State are cooperating to acquire homes from homeowners that want to sell...That [damaged] home can be demolished and then the parcel can be disposed of and sold for new housing development that meets all the most recent building codes. It's probably elevated; it probably has all the features of the most modern home construction.

Spitalnick: That's run out of our housing recovery office as part of Build it Back..."Acquisition" is the city program, "Buy-out" is the state program.

DZ: But we are partnered with the State on the acquisition program.

GG: What is the overall time frame for the City's climate resiliency [SIRR] plan?
DZ: It's a ten-year plan from when it was released - it has milestones and metrics; an action plan with 2013 milestones, 2014 milestones, and 2020 milestones. But ultimately we expect to see the entire plan, all 257 initiatives, can be implemented in 10 years. Some of those are subject to available funding and we still have work to do on securing that funding, but that's the timeframe that we're talking about.

GG: For the lay person, is it correct to understand that the measures in the SIRR plan fully protect all NYC neighborhoods (whether they are in A-Zones or not) from the projected increase in sea and flooding levels?
DZ: We prefer to approach this from a risk management perspective, and our goal is to significantly buy down future risk. But we can't expect to fully eliminate risk.

That being said, the City conducted a comprehensive risk analysis of our entire 520-mile shoreline, looking at the likelihood of flooding and what that flooding would impact (building density, critical infrastructure, vulnerable populations, etc). Our approach is to invest first in areas of highest risk.

GG: A very basic question: will all structures in NYC eventually be compelled to storm-proof themselves because of new building codes?
DZ: All new structures will be required to build to the most recent codes, including the 16 new building code local laws which were passed by the City Council and adopted into the code. These codes will require resiliency and flood mitigation measures based on the best-available flood hazard information. New codes, however, do not apply to existing building, except in limited cases. So we will also work to encourage and incent existing buildings to make resiliency upgrades.

Communities and Community Engagement
GG: What is the status of Seaport City?
DZ: One of our initiatives in the Southern Manhattan chapter was to study a multi-purpose levee on the eastern edge of Southern Manhattan.

It's really a recognition of the risks in that part of Lower Manhattan, from roughly north of the Brooklyn Bridge all the way around the tip of the Battery. There's huge transportation infrastructure that's at risk, hospitals, vulnerable populations living in NYCHA properties and other low-income neighborhoods, economic activity of global importance - all of that combined - and really low-lying property that was built and filled right into the river at-grade [at the same level].

We learned from places like Arverne by the Sea or Battery Park City or other newer, modern developments that they can weather these types of events if they're built to the most modern standards and they're elevated.

We started thinking about different ways to provide that same level of protection in highly vulnerable neighborhoods, and landed on this concept which is tested globally: multi-purpose levees that can provide that sort of protection.

The alternative is potentially a 13 or 15 foot wall right on South Street...under the FDR, blocking people off from the waterfront. Not really in line with us trying to encourage waterfront access and use, just a big wall.

And so instead, if you can slope that protection in over a much longer run, you can build that in and make it slope...more naturally build it into the urban fabric. So that's what we're studying.

We commissioned the team that is looking at the engineering feasibility, does it even work? The environmental feasibility, can this be permitted? And third, is the financial feasibility: could a project like this potentially pay for itself with the created land that you've now developed with this multi-purpose levee?

We expect to be releasing the feasibility study results soon on that, and we'll have more to say on it when we do.

GG: We spoke with you last fall about community involvement in the City's resiliency planning process, specifically two advisory task forces: one made up of local elected officials and community board members, the other made up of representatives from community organizations. What has happened to them?
DZ: Yes, the CBO [community-based] task forces. I think it's really important for us to engage the local communities into this process. We very much want to do that. It's very much in line with the mayor's goals of bringing people into the emergency planning and resiliency planning in their own neighborhoods.

There will be more to come on this, but this is something that we absolutely want to do. We want to continue to engage local organizations in this planning and development process because the people that know their neighborhoods best are the people that live in their neighborhoods. There is more to come on that.

GG: So those task forces could essentially be re-activated?
DZ: It might not take the exact same form as we had in the last administration. We want to make it as effective as possible, and we might be re-thinking some things, but we absolutely want to engage with local organizations.

GG: Is this connected to the City's statement [in "One City, Rebuilding Together"] that they want to engage local communities as they develop the next iteration of PlaNYC?
DZ: It has to be. It can't be disconnected. We're planning and moving forward initiatives, but, at the same time, we're thinking about how we want the next plan update to work by April, 2015.

GG: That's soon.
DZ: It is soon. We'll be having those conversations out in the affected areas.
GG: Are the Climate Change Task Force and the Panel both fully in effect as they were under Mayor Bloomberg?
DZ: Yes. All the members of those serve at the pleasure of the mayor. We're working through the mechanics of those bodies. The New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) is as active as ever and is looking towards their next work [the Panel will be releasing an updated analysis of climate change data and what it means for New York City later this year].

The Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, which is city agencies as well as state, and private infrastructure providers, is really hungry for the data that's coming out of NPCC in order to apply that to their own capital decision-making process.

GG: A question on PlaNYC and sustainability: Mayor Bloomberg was a major proponent of expanding the city's use of natural gas. Does Mayor de Blasio have a position on the use of natural gas vis a vis renewables? What's the energy plan for the city?
DZ: The Mayor in his platform was very clear that we're going to be exploring and maximizing our use of renewables. We have an existing gas infrastructure and we want to make sure it's as safe as possible for all our residents in the city, but we're going to be exploring our expansion of renewable sources in any way we can.

GG: Will that be outlined in PlaNYC in more detail?
DZ: We don't have an exact outline on what the April 2015 update looks like, but I'd be shocked if energy is not a major component of the efforts of PlaNYC going forward.

GG: The State is going through an energy policy planning process in which the public has been able to testify. Would you be coordinating with the State on that?
DZ: We talk to the State quite a bit on these issues, and I see no reason why that wouldn't continue.

[This was the second part of our two-part interview with Daniel Zarrilli - read part one here]

***
by Sarah Crean for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette

Daniel Zarrilli, left, is the mayor's director of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency (Dave Sanders/New York Times)

When Superstorm Sandy arrived in New York City on October 29, 2012, the city was jolted into a renewed conversation about climate change, resiliency, and long-term planning. In an interview with Gotham Gazette last year, Klaus Jacob, a geo-physicist advising the City on planning for climate change, said that climate change "truly threatens the livelihood of the city as we have it now — unless [the city] adapts."

The chief concern is rising sea levels, Jacob said. The five boroughs are ringed by 520 miles of coastline, which are becoming steadily more vulnerable to day-to-day inundation and catastrophic storms.

Planning for the long-term consequences of a looming, but largely abstract threat is an incredible task for any local government. Sandy made climate change more real to New Yorkers, but the de Blasio administration is nonetheless forced to work mostly in hypotheticals. The new administration must make calculations for how far to plan into the future, how to allocate precious funds, and how much risk is "manageable."

According to the New York City Panel on Climate Change, an advisory body on which Jacob and other scientists and academics sit, by the 2050s, sea level at the Battery will have risen 11 to 24 inches (middle estimate), or as much as 31 inches (high estimate) relative to 2000-04 levels. Coastal flood heights could increase by almost 3 feet - projected to range from 8 to 17 feet by mid-century, depending on the nature of the flood-inducing storm.

Last week, Gotham Gazette sat down with Daniel Zarrilli, director of the city's newly created Office of Recovery and Resiliency, to get a sense of the City's current approach to these issues. Zarrilli is now one of the three top officials in city government responsible for crafting and overseeing the de Blasio administration's Sandy recovery and climate resiliency planning efforts (along with Bill Goldstein, Senior Advisor to the Mayor for Recovery, Resiliency, and Infrastructure; and Amy Peterson, director of the Housing Recovery Office). 

Zarrilli, a licensed engineer, is no stranger to the daunting challenge of preparing New York City for climate change: he was interim director of the Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability at the end of the Bloomberg administration.

Gotham Gazette sought to understand, first, how the new administration plans to utilize the extensive resiliency planning already put in motion by de Blasio's predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and, second, how the de Blasio administration views the future of the city's coastal communities as sea levels rise.

A third focus of the conversation is how the administration plans to work with local communities on the front line of climate change. Only time will tell, but the de Blasio team's purported commitment to community engagement might be what ultimately sets apart its approach to climate change.

Gotham Gazette (GG) talks with Daniel Zarrilli (DZ), director of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency (Part 1 of 2 [jump to part 2 here])

The Plan
GG: Is the city's climate resiliency plan, SIRR [Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, created by the Bloomberg administration in 2013] intact and essentially going forward as it was envisioned last year?

DZ: We released the report in June [2013]: 257 initiatives based on the best available climate science, meant to be a comprehensive long-term view. But we knew even when we released it, that a new administration was coming in, that they would want to take a look at things, so we built into the mechanism for the local law that even adopted resiliency into the City's practices a regular update process. So every 4 years that plan has to be updated by City Council legislation.

What we've seen so far is that [Mayor de Blasio] has made a major commitment to this plan, and he is in fact expanding this plan. It was a key part of his campaign to make sure that we are expanding upon and enhancing the PlaNYC efforts on both sustainability and resiliency.

He's been very clear in all his public statements about really getting the need for what we're doing, and really wanting to lead on these issues, and make sure that NYC faces down the vulnerabilities that are coming its way in the most responsible and cost-efficient way as possible.

GG: Does that mean that the majority of initiatives that you envisioned last year are going forward as you had originally thought?
DZ: The Mayor's made pretty clear comments that we're adopting this plan as our road map. That's our road map. When it comes to April 2015, we're going to have to release an update to that plan...
GG: You're talking about PlaNYC?
[The SIRR plan is part of the City's overall sustainability "blueprint", PlaNYC]
DZ: Yes. What form that takes will come out of the next year's worth of work - what's working, what's not working, and all of the lessons learned that you have from being in it a little bit longer than we are right now.

The fundamentals are absolutely clear for what we're doing. It's about strengthening our coasts; it's about upgrading our buildings; protecting our critical infrastructure; making our neighborhoods safer and more vibrant so that those that are vulnerable to the risks of climate change see that we have a path forward to reduce those vulnerabilities.

GG: On the notion that Mayor de Blasio is "expanding" on the last administration's resiliency planning efforts. What would be an example for our readers of a policy or project that has been expanded?
DZ: Yes, Mayor de Blasio has challenged his leadership team to accelerate our recovery work and make sure we are maximizing federal dollars for this purpose. So we will expand our efforts to do just that. He has also been very clear on his desire to make sure the recovery works to expand economic opportunities in the affected areas. So we will be enhancing our workforce development and local hiring initiatives in the impacted areas to ensure that local residents can help their own neighborhoods recover.

GG: Do you foresee that most of the initiatives in the SIRR plan will have the funding they need?
DZ: We were clear back in June that we have at least a $4.5 billion gap in order to implement what is a $20 billion program. In that, there's good news and bad news.

The good news is that we expect to have in hand roughly $10 billion through federal sources and city sources for our initiatives, but we also expect additional resources from utility rate payers and, in fact, it's not even utility rate payers, because it's Con-Ed which has made serious investments without rates going up. But it's also the Army Corps [of Engineers] making additional investments. And it's future allocations of federal dollars.
Within that, though, we know that we don't have enough federal dollars to meet all the commitments that we have. We continue to advocate the federal government for more resources and for regulatory and legislative reform to make sure that we can implement these initiatives.

GG: So are you optimistic that the City can meet its resiliency funding goals?
DZ: We're going to have a big gap. That's going to continue. We're going to have to be creative in ways to fill it. The fundamental philosophy behind PlaNYC as a whole, as well as the resiliency plan, is mainstreaming these efforts into city agencies so that sustainability and resiliency aren't something we do off to the side, different than the normal course of business for the city, [rather] they're embedded into what we do as a city.

We have a capital plan. We have a major amount of effort that goes into upgrading our roads, and buildings, and bridges, and drainage systems. Every time we do that over the normal life cycle of asset replacement, we need to be looking at the problem through a new lens of resiliency to make sure that we're getting the best bang for our buck on the dollars we are spending.

That doesn't mean we're not going to continue advocating for the federal government to step up on things like coastal protection where they have a clearly defined role, and we need Congress to authorize new projects for vulnerable areas in New York City. That doesn't mean we're not going to be looking for private parties or the federal government to step in on [safeguarding] the liquid fuels infrastructure that serves New York City, or any number of other sources.

This is going to be a long-term challenge of ours to be creative on filling the gap from our end, as well as making sure that our elected delegation knows exactly what we do need to reduce those risks.

Logistics
GG: How will all of the city's resiliency and sustainability projects be managed? There is a newly created Office of Recovery and Resiliency, and a separate Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability [created by Bloomberg] - what's the relationship between the two?
DZ: Some of this remains to be completely determined, but the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability (OLTPS) housed the resiliency team until this new office was created. So the Office of Recovery and Resiliency - the folks that are in that office - were on the resiliency team at OLTPS.

We know that the effort around [climate] resiliency needed to be expanded, needed its own focus in order to maximize the federal dollars that are coming into the region, to really coordinate the agencies.

We also know that we share a lot of ground with the city's sustainability office [OLTPS] and that whatever form that takes at this point, they're going to be very closely linked. There's a major commitment to sustainability, and we just need to figure out exactly that working relationship. It's going to be hand-in-hand on climate change, both mitigation and adaptation going forward.

GG: What are the actual material resources for the new office of Recovery and Resiliency?
DZ: We're going to expand our staff in order...to maximize the federal dollars, and develop the right projects, and do all the right planning and coordination efforts. Largely it's going to be funded out of federal sources - the dollars that we're looking to spend and will be secured through CDBG [Community Development Block Grants] and FEMA sources are going to fund a good portion of that office going forward. But the City is also going to make some commitments to those functions as well.

GG: What's the size of the staff of the new Office of Recovery and Resiliency?
DZ: Right now we're about ten, and we see that expanding. A final number is yet to be determined.

GG: What's the size of the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability?
DZ: Well, with the Resiliency team, so it was ten - and probably another 15 or so.

GG: Who's running the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability?
DZ: I am also the acting director there right now.

Forecasting
GG: How far in the future should the city be thinking about planning for climate change? 10, 20, 30 years?
DZ: The New York City Panel on Climate Change has planned out projections into the 2020s, and the 2050s, and ultimately they were looking out to the 2080s. If you look at the projections, the error bound, once you get past 2050, is so wide that it's almost impossible to wrap your head around how to react. It can go low, it can go high - it's a really wide bound.

[Note: While the Panel on Climate Change has not yet released updated sea level rise projections for 2080, initial numbers were submitted by the research group advising the federal government's "Rebuild by Design" initiative. The analysis, by Klaus Jacob, states that local sea level could rise from 18 to 39 inches (middle estimate) or as much as 58 inches (high estimate) by 2080, relative to 2000-04 levels.]

So, we chose the 2050s as our planning horizon, which is, I think, long by most planning exercises. It's not necessarily long by climate change. But, we have the benefit of a naturally recurring re-investment cycle in our infrastructure. The changes are going to develop over the long-term. If in 30 years we see climate change taking a different direction than our projections show, then we'll be able to make decisions at that point.

Taking it back to today, we know there's vulnerabilities now so we need to take steps and make decisions now.

It's not practical that we're going to run away from the coast and our analysis actually shows that we can make reasonable investments to buy down risk - out into that time horizon of 2050 - in a way that's cost effective.

It's nourishing our beaches and building dunes; it's wetlands; it's expanding whether [there] are levees or floodwalls in certain areas of the city. It's a broad range of grey and green infrastructure. But it's also the multiple lines of defense, and making sure that we're not just relying on the coastline to protect us from future storms.

It's also buildings and infrastructure, and looking wider than just coastal storms and sea level rise, and looking at heat risk and precipitation risk and looking at wind risk. It's a wide variety of things that we need to approach from a realistic and rational point of view.

And knowing that we're going to be continually monitoring the risks over time to see how they actually pan out relative to the projections.

GG: Do you think that rising sea levels are the core issue in terms of planning for climate change? Heat, for instance, is also a big issue.
DZ: Heat kills more people every year than any other natural phenomena - heat waves. So that's a threat. To make sure that our power grid is able to handle those threats - the work we've done to settle the rate case with Con-Ed and the State. Con-Ed's making a billion dollars of storm-hardening investments that is really going to help buy down that future risk.

But, sea level rise – if you look out 200 years, it can get a little daunting. Where we are though - and I think it's just realistic - we're going to plan for the future of this city out into a reasonable time frame. We chose the 2050s and that's going to be constantly evaluated as we move into the future.

[Read more from Zarrilli's sit down with Gotham Gazette in the second installment of our interview here]

***
by Sarah Crean for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette

New York City Hall (wikimedia)

What to look for this week, via the City and Albany:

Eyes are on Albany as the week begins and the State Legislature returns to session on Monday, April 28. Legislators return to the capital after their post-budget break, with the current session continuing until mid-June. There will be much to follow in Albany over the next eight weeks, both in terms of policy and politics - more details below.

The week also kicks off with State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli releasing "a report on the economic growth of New York City's high-tech industry." DiNapoli will release his report early Monday afternoon in downtown Manhattan and he will be joined by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is scheduled to make his own remarks at the event.

On Monday de Blasio will also greet "student volunteers at the Daily News' Citizenship NOW! phone bank" and speak at the "Lincoln Square Synagogue Holocaust Remembrance Day event," according to his public schedule.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's schedule has him "in the New York City area" on Monday.

More details of the week ahead in the capital and the City:

In Albany:
While GENDA, medical marijuana, campaign finance reform, and more will be on the docket over the next several weeks, don't expect a rush on legislation as the Legislature returns to session. Things in Albany tend to happen last minute, even post budget. Add in developments regarding assembly and senate races in this election year and who knows what might happen - or when. Session will run from Monday to Wednesday this week and for most of May.

Advocates and lobbyists will, of course, be out in full force as legislators return to work at the capitol on Monday:

Two dozen supporters of Sen. Diane Savino's medical marijuana bill will be in town on Monday to meet with legislators and push them to support the legislation, which appears on the verge of support from both houses.

The New York For Democracy Coalition will hold a lobby day and press event on Monday starting at 9:30 a.m. to call for legislators to pass a constitutional amendment to "get the money out of politics" and call for an overturn of the Supreme Court's Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions.

On Tuesday, the New York State Pride Agenda will hold an "LGBT Equality and Justice" lobby day from 9 to 5. Legislators including Sens. Daniel Squadron, Brad Hoylman and Assembly Members Richard Gottfried and Amy Paulin will address the gathering. A rally will take place in West Capitol Park starting at 1 p.m., speakers will include faith leaders and advocates.

Also on Tuesday, Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes will hold a public forum on NYS marijuana regulation and taxation at 9:30 a.m. in Hearing Room A of the Legislative Office Building. Experts and advocates will be in attendance.

On Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. the Assembly Committee on Higher Education will hold a public hearing on new statewide teacher and school-building leader certification requirements in Hamilton Hearing Room B in the Legislative Office building. The committee seeks testimony on the impact of new teacher-certification requirements.

And in New York City:

Monday
The City Council's week kicks off with a few significant items:

The Committees on Public Safety and Public Housing hold a joint hearing, "Oversight: The NYPD's Operation Crew Cut and Crime Reduction Strategies for NYCHA," which could signal further changes in NYPD protocols and the City's treatment of NYCHA complexes and residents.

Also on Monday, the Council Committee on Cultural Affair, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations will hold an oversight hearing to track how the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) spends, monitors, and discloses capital funding for library and cultural projects. While there is continued scrutiny into Queens Library president Thomas Galante and the capital work done to his office, the hearing will not be solely focused on the Queens Library. In fact, Galante is not expected to testify. Instead, the Council will take a broader look at the capital spending process for libraries and cultural institutions. This plays into broader themes outlined in the council budget response issued on April 23. Representatives from DDC are expected to testify.

Council Member Elizabeth Crowley is headed to Rikers Island on Monday - but it's not for doing anything wrong. She will be leading a group of council members to the prison for a tour and to meet with newly appointed Department of Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte.

Tuesday
The Council will hold its final Stated Meeting of the month beginning at 1:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Tuesday is the annual "Library Day." For the past several years the day has been used to rail against the annual "budget dance" over slashed library funding. With the funds now baselined (at least in the mayor's preliminary budget, which is without the outstanding municipal labor contracts completed), library advocates are expected to call for six day per week library service. Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer and Costa Constantinides are expected to lend their support.

Wednesday
Early on April 30th, the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School is hosting "Youth Justice, Police and NYC's Neighborhoods," another event that may speak to a 'new NYPD' and one that will feature Gladys Carrion, commissioner of the Administration for Children's Services and Joanne Jaffe, bureau chief of the New York Police Department, among others.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday the Council's Committee on Immigration meets to discuss the municipal identification card program that appears imminent.

At 1 p.m. Wednesday, the Council's Transportation Committee is holding a hearing. The monster agenda of 22 items includes eight bill introductions, many of which are related to Vision Zero. Don't forget to pack a snack.

Also at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, the Council's Committee on Civil Service and Labor meets to discuss "authorizing local governments to establish and enforce higher levels of minimum wage." Minimum wage home rule could be a key focus area in City-Albany negotiations this spring.

Thursday
May 1 is International Workers Rights Day (also known as May Day). Occupy Wall Street has events beginning at 8 a.m., according to the Facebook event page. Expect delays around the city due to marches and rallies.

Mayor de Blasio's affordable housing plan is due May 1. No word from the mayor's office if the report will be released to the public on Thursday or if the mayor will repeat the process of the recent Sandy rebuilding report and release it to the public several days after he receives it.

*Under the radar alert*
On Thursday the Committee on Finance will meet jointly with the Committee on Aging at 1 p.m. to discuss senior citizen rent exemptions. A bill, sponsored by Council Member Margaret Chin, would raise the exemption from $29,000 yearly income to $50,000. If passed, the law would make 24,000 more seniors eligible for rent exemptions.

***
by Kristen Meriwether and Ben Max in New York City and David King in Albany

@GothamGazette

The Brooklyn Navy Yard from above (ohny.org)

NEW YORK - The City's industrial portfolio is quite robust, spanning multiple sites in all five boroughs. To date, no spot has been more successful in both attracting business and creating jobs than the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The 300 acre City-owned site has been at or near full occupancy for almost a decade. It currently houses 330 businesses and 7,000 jobs, a number expected to climb to 12,000 in the next five years. In addition, the model has been studied by the Pratt Center, and other cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, and San Francisco are using that study to apply what has worked to develop their own industrial zones.

On Thursday, April 24, the City Council's Economic Development Committee, chaired by Council Member Dan Garodnick, held a hearing to discuss the Navy Yard model and to inquire if it could be used at other City-owned sites like the Brooklyn Army Terminal. In short, the answer is no.

While the Navy Yard blueprint is a good one, the complex system by which the other City-owned properties are run will prevent the replication of a successful model.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard, while owned by the City, is operated by a non-profit (Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation). The model, for the most part, is self-contained. All revenue goes back into the site to rehabilitate buildings, create workforce development programs, and perform maintenance. The Yard has applied for and received some capital funding from the City (including one award of $200 million over ten years), but that money goes to road repair, sewer maintenance, and other infrastructure needs. Capital funding is not used for turning buildings into attractive work environments for businesses.

The Brooklyn Army Terminal, on the other hand, is a part of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which has an industrial portfolio that also includes Hunts Point, among several other sites. The revenue brought in through these properties does not stay within the sites themselves, but goes to fund the vast EDC portfolio. This set-up allows for funding to a variety of programs that have been beneficial to the city such as incubator spaces and workforce training programs. EDC revenue from industrial assets even helped fund the much-anticipated Cornell Technion Campus slated to open on Roosevelt Island in 2017.

There is one shortfall to the EDC model, however. It leaves some of its industrial properties without the funding needed to reinvest and develop existing spaces, a piece that has made the Brooklyn Navy Yard so successful. This has resulted in the EDC looking to the City for more capital funding to build out its sites. EDC sites that are tenant-ready are nearly at capacity.

Currently, Brooklyn Army Terminal has 500,000 square feet of "raw space" that is awaiting capital funding from the City to bring the space up to code. Zac Smith, chief operating officer for EDC, said during a phone interview on Thursday that they are asking the City for roughly $60 million in capital funding to build out the space, an amount he added was a conservative estimate. Smith said that to date the City has not made a decision.

As the city's industrial sector continues to grown and the ever-popular Brooklyn Navy Yard heads toward maxing itself out, it would be advantageous to find the most efficient way to build out prime space (such as that at the Army Terminal). The City already has a highly successful working model in its portfolio, why not just use the Navy Yard model at EDC?

"I think the EDC's position is there are consequences, both good and bad, to adopting a purely Navy Yard model for industrial assets like the Brooklyn Army Terminal," said Smith during his testimony at City Council on Thursday. He added that moving to a Navy Yard model would cut off the revenue for all other things the EDC funds.

"I think that is something that needs to be considered when you talk about truly applying the so-called 'Brooklyn Navy Yard model' to Brooklyn Army Terminal," Smith said.

While the EDC is not utilizing the self-sustaining model for its units at each of the industrial sites the City owns, it is open to using some pieces of the Navy Yard model that have been successful.

He cited the Navy Yard's ability to attract smaller manufacturers by cutting up its assets into smaller units, saying this has been key to gaining quality tenants. At the Army Terminal that will be more difficult because there are only two very large buildings, which are being carved into spaces of 20,000-40,000 square feet. By comparison, the Navy Yard offers average space of 6,000 square feet. While it might not be best-suited for the Army Terminal, this practice may be useful at other sites.

Workforce development has been a huge success for the Navy Yard, due in large part to the opening of Building 92 two years ago. The center, which is accessible to the public from the street, was funded by a reinvestment of the Yard's revenue. The EDC properties do not have anything comparable, but do work with the city's workforce development programs.

"This is an area where there is a lot more potential and we think we can do a lot more," Smith said about workforce development. He added that while something like Building 92 on EDC properties could be good, EDC would not have the opportunity to fund them the way the Navy Yard did because they don't directly reinvest their funds.

"It strikes me as an odd framework for the city," Council Member Garodnick said on Thursday, "to have multiple industrial parks, even in the same borough, where some of them are getting capital funds through some direction of government [and] others are getting capital funds from another direction of government."
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by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK
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Note: this article has been corrected to show that the Brooklyn Navy Yard has applied for and received an award of $200 million over ten years, but does not necessarily receive annual funding from the City.