ALIGN

In 2008, the City of New York proposed to rezone 47 acres in Coney Island and set the stage for a massive redevelopment project. Although the City’s plan promised thousands of new jobs and housing units would arrive in Coney Island, residents feared they had more to lose than to gain from the proposed revitalization. The Coney Island for All coalition developed a policy platform and pushed for the plan to include guarantees for good jobs, increased affordable housing, a stronger amusement area, and the creation of much needed public amenities.

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 needs the kind of economic development that will allow workers to move up the career ladder and into the middle class, guarantee healthcare and other benefits for low-wage workers and their families, attract and keep college-educated workers in Upstate communities to create a diversified workforce, and to ensure that workers remain Upstate for the long-term.

Big business lobbyists and the corporate special interests that are fighting against IDA reform repeat the same talking points about how wage standards will kill jobs, that IDAs don’t contribute to sprawl, or that small changes will be enough to fix our broken economic development system.…

General resources Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy (U.S. Conference of Mayors) Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities: Building Pathways out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy (Apollo Alliance and Green For All) Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy (Center for American Progress and Political Economy Research Institute) Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-carbon World (United Nations Environment Programme) PlaNYC 2030 PlaNYC 2030, (City of New York) PlaNYC 2030 Progress Report, (City of New York) Energy Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (New York State Public Service Commission) New York State Renewable Portfolio Standard New York City’s Solar Energy Future, Part I: the Market for Photovoltaic Systems in New York (The Center for Sustainable Energy at Bronx Community College) Weatherization Assistance Program – New York State (Division of Housing and Community Renewal) Home Performance with Energy Star Program (NYSERDA) Multifamily Performance Program (NYSERDA) New York City Puts Out Call for Renewable Power (Clean Tech Group, LLC) Decoding the Code: How Can NYC’s 2007 Building Code Help Meet PlaNYC 2030 Energy/Carbon Reduction Goals?…

Urban Agenda, the New York City Central Labor Council and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance have convened the Green Collar Jobs Roundtable in response to the growing need for workers with the green skills to make New York City more environmentally sustainable.

On April 22nd Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued his long-awaited plan to improve New York City’s environmental sustainability over the next 25 years while adapting to the impacts of global climate change and accommodating a projected 1 million more residents. PlaNYC 20301 is a comprehensive blueprint with 127 separate initiatives addressing 10 major goals – from reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% to assuring every New Yorker has access to a park within a 10-minute walk to achieving the cleanest air quality of any major US city.

We applaud Mayor Bloomberg for the scope of his vision. PlaNYC addresses many of the demands summarized in the NYC Apollo Alliance 10-Point Plan for the 21st Century. We are especially pleased to see concrete proposals to promote solar energy, clean up brown fields and bolster energy distribution systems. PlaNYC also estimates 5.000 new green collar jobs in the energy sector alone.

In 2007, New York Jobs with Justice released Getting Our Money’s Worth, our first report that comprehensively analyzed the performance of Industrial Development Agencies, our main engines for economic development throughout New York State.

Today, New York City finds itself at a place of great promise and great peril. The City’s enormous energy needs and reliance on fossil fuels are rising as we continue to grow and welcome new residents. Although New York City can achieve much on its own, State action is needed on several fronts if the city is to build a new energy, high performance economy. This report calls on New York State to help us realize this vision by spearheading ten new initiatives.

In July 2005, The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law released a practical guide to developing a strategy for creating and keeping high-quality construction jobs for local residents.…