One City/One Future Blueprint is the product of four years of collaboration by civic leaders, neighborhood advocates, community development organizations, labor unions, affordable housing groups, environmentalists, immigrant advocates, and other stakeholders to make economic development work for all New Yorkers. It’s been endorsed by 65 leading organizations.
Ours is an ambitious new vision for economic development, in which growth delivers living wage jobs, affordable housing, environmental sustainability, and livable neighborhoods. It provides an urgently needed framework for recovery from the current economic recession. It is a vision for shared prosperity that puts the needs and voices of communities front and center. And it is a vision that is attainable, using concrete policies that can be implemented here and now.
New York City can and should help our city emerge from the current recession with a combination of forward-looking commitments as outlined in the One City/One Future blueprint. Retrofitting housing for energy efficiency will create jobs while achieving cost savings. Bringing supermarkets and healthy food to low-income communities will build on untapped market potential. The cross-harbor rail tunnel will relieve neighborhoods of noxious truck traffic while increasing the flow of goods in and out of the city. Living wages for underpaid service workers will send more money coursing through their neighborhoods’ economies, revitalizing our economy from the ground up. This time of crisis offers a unique opportunity to make investments that will lead the way for our city’s recovery, and at the same time adopt policies to ensure that all New Yorkers enjoy the benefits of economic development and growth.
The One City/One Future policies follow three fundamental strategies:
1. Raise the standards: Government should set clear standards for economic activity in New York City, especially activity that benefits from public spending or actions. Meeting these standards—whether they concern the quality of jobs created or the environmental sustainability of new buildings—must be a prerequisite for anyone doing business with the city.
2. Invest for shared growth: The city and state currently spend billions keeping New York’s economy humming. These investments in housing, transportation, and employment need to be designed and managed with the explicit objective of improving opportunity and strengthening all neighborhoods.
3. Reform the process: Planning and development must take place in an open and democratic environment, in which communities and the city work as partners, not adversaries, with the objective of building a prosperous city on the strength of diverse, livable neighborhoods.
To learn more, download a summary of our recommendations or the One City/One Future Blueprint.
One City/One Future Endorsers
One City/One Future endorsing organizations include:
ACORN
Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
Bronx Initiative for Energy and the Environment
Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation
Center for New York City Neighborhoods
Center for Working Families
Church of St Paul & St Andrew
Community-Based Planning Task Force
Community Service Society
Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation
Domestic Workers United
Downtown Art
Dr. Francine Moccio, Director, Institute for Women and Work, Cornell University
Drum Major Institute
EWVIDCO
Fifth Avenue Committee
Fiscal Policy Institute
Garment Industry Development Corporation
Good Jobs New York
HabitatMap
Hotel & Motel Trades Council
Housing Here & Now
Insight Center for Community Economic Development
Judson Memorial Church
LaLuna Consulting Services
Mason Tender’s District Council PAC
Metro NY Healthcare for All
Morningside Heights/West Harlem Recycling Coalition
Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership
Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project
Neighbors Together
New Immigrant Community Empowerment
New York City District Council of Carpenters
New York Immigration Coalition
New York Industrial Retention Network
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
NYC Employment & Training Coalition
NYC Environmental Justice Coalition
Pratt Area Community Council
Stacey Sutton, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University
Queens Community House
Right to the City, which includes: CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, Community Voices Heard, Center for Social Inclusion, FIERCE, Families United for Racial and Economic Equality, Good Old Lower East Side, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Make the Road New York, Mothers on the Move, NYC AIDS Housing Network/VOCAL NY, Picture the Homeless, Tenants & Neighbors, UNO of St. Nicholas CDC, Urban Justice Center, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Restaurant Opportunities Center-NY
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union
Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ
South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation
St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corp.
United Food and Commerical Workers, Local 1500
UNITE HERE
UPROSE
Urban Agenda
Women’s Housing & Economic Development Corporation
Youth Ministries for Peace & Justice