Opinion: Mayoral Candidates—It’s Time for NYC’s Elite to Live for the People, Not off the People

As the race for who will be the next mayor takes shape the city lies at the intersection of vast private wealth and inhabitants squalor We need to hear who among the candidates has a new vision and narrative for our city s future New York City Hall The next mayor s term will start Jan Benjamin Kanter Mayoral Photo Office It was only five years ago as COVID raged across New York City that there was a glimmer of a new sense of locality taking hold Mutual aid groups sprang up in neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs A large number of New Yorkers took part in a daily ritual of clanging pots to acknowledge the sacrifices of essential workers But this spirit of area hurriedly faded it was not just ephemeral but chimerical Maybe it should not have been a surprise As Adam Gopnik wrote in The New Yorker in May Far from making us revise our fundamentals and modification our thoughts major historical emergency almost inevitably reinforce our previous beliefs and make us entrench deeper into our dogma COVID affirmed the grip of self over neighborhood in our civic beliefs In the wake of the pandemic private wealth exploded and economic inequality grew There are now billionaires and centimillionaires in our city yet the rest of New York has struggled and experienced loss hardship and financial insecurity More than million New Yorkers including children are living in poverty and struggle to afford such basic necessities as food and housing Of the more than million residents who are employed more than half earn less than COVID affirmed and hardened our city s already coarse beliefs and brought brutal economic harm Currently our city is grounded in exploitation As the pandemic receded the primacy of our blinkered institutions from Wall Street banks developers financiers corporations and sports owners to foundations well-endowed private universities private hospitals wealthy museums and their dominance over the city s political and social landscape grew There were no consequences or even expectations that their accumulated wealth would be shared Clearly these institutions and their leadership have left the city bereft of a moral compass The upshot a glaring contrast in private wealth and inhabitants squalor plagued by values where only power self-interest and growing wealth matters We need a new value proposition for the a multitude of not the insufficient Policies that move away from the donor class ending their further enrichment Five years into COVID we are a city less about locality and more about the individual As David Remnick of The New Yorker wrote The influence of money is hardly new But the grip of the monied elite a grip they have held for decades has tightened The contrast of blinding wealth and constituents squalor has become the norm and core services are poorly and inadequately delivered This is where we find ourselves this day Compare it to another moment in our city s history when city leadership positioned itself to serve inhabitants demands in generous solutions Our community colleges were free and population housing was a national model and the city built an expansive physical condition and hospital organization And in an earlier period in our city s history over years ago our past leaders in and out of establishment left us subways opened in and the Parks Department as we know it opened in the nation s first urban park system Our inhabitants library system opened in Our elders embraced the importance of inhabitants stake to leave a stronger city Our elders not only built essential buildings and space they embraced preventive maintenance to preserve investments instead of subsidizing wealthy private maturation Can we as a city be worthy custodians once again of the inheritance our past leaders left us Will the next mayor understand our city s history and end the begging for what the city demands and end the ladling of billions in what the donor class wants We need to end our current fixation on subsidizing shining objects like the super-tall buildings and Hudson Yards both playgrounds for the wealthy and instead invest in our crumbling inhabitants infrastructure we need a new value proposition allocating massive population support for general space and infrastructure necessities I spent more than a decade in city authorities including as head of the Mayor s Office of Operations under David Dinkins as well as years at a major foundation and a large non-profit organization I ve come to understand an arc since the s a shift in institutions from generosity to grifting a shift in what is subsidized and who is being subsidized A moral collapse undergirds too several of our city s institutions and their leaders Choosing to address this collapse is daunting also quite telling about the city s future I ve come to understand the failings of our major institutions and how they hold us back These institutions their lobbyists and the associated donor class have fought hard to protect their power and wealth and erected obstacles that impair change We need a new governing narrative one that emphasizes social and economic stability forging systemic and structural changes for a fairer economic activity We also need a well-managed regime where our finances are honestly presented and services are effectively delivered I ve seen too plenty of wrong turns that have hampered the city from bringing about a fair and just commercial sector A prime example is the delivery of basic safety net services Staff shortages and an ossified bureaucracy have led to lengthy delays in processing food stamp applications delays that have far exceeded the federal regulatory timeline of up to days The city has also been slow to process cash advances that can prevent evictions These delays place increased demand on the city s soup kitchens and food pantries that provide urgency food Evictions can often lead to homelessness and the number of unhoused in our city has reached record numbers including nearly children Even as the number of unhoused New Yorkers has swelled a multitude of apartments in our inhabitants housing sit vacant for months When Mike Bloomberg left the mayor s office it took an average of days for a vacated NYCHA apartment to be readied and reoccupied At the end of the de Blasio administration in the wake of COVID it took days It now takes over a year more than days The city s efforts to provide supportive housing for people who have been chronically unhoused is also lagging Last fiscal year people were deemed eligible for supportive housing but only were able to move into a permanent apartment The city is failing not just the neediest among us Society space and its buildings are in varying states of disrepair Blight and squalor has become an acceptable norm in underserved neighborhoods In fact blight comes with a stiff social cost Daily residents are confronted with dilapidated playgrounds in our schools and residents housing developments and too a large number of of our parks are not well-maintained And multiple of the city s daycare early childhood and senior centers along with a multitude of of our libraries museums community hospitals and inhabitants housing developments need maintenance upgrades Take vacant lots as one example In fiscal year the city cleaned of them but by the number fell to In the first four months of the current fiscal year just lots have been cleaned despite more than requests for clean ups Similarly a September City Council assessment uncovered that out of park bathrooms checked two-thirds were either locked or had robustness or safety problems We need a new governing proposition where inhabitants tools and invested in populace space and infrastructure While deficient management can be blamed for chosen of these issues a lack of funding is a major reason for the city s tattered safety net and dilapidated populace spaces Yet the city forgoes hundreds of millions of dollars in feasible revenue each year from the donor class the elite institutions and individuals that call so multiple of the political shots at City Hall Several of the wealthiest developers in the city benefit from substantial tax breaks on their properties But as The City in recent weeks announced that doesn t stop them from seeking even more tax breaks for the same buildings In one example cited One Bryant Park owned by the Durst Organization and Bank of America reaped million in property tax savings since yet in were granted a large reduction in the building s assessment saving an additional million The billionaire owner of Madison Square Garden has an even better deal paying no property tax for decades a savings approaching billion in dollars according to the city s Independent Budget Office Nor do the Mets Nets or Yankees pay property taxes saving the teams and their wealthy owners tens of millions of dollars annually Particular of the wealthiest universities museums and hospital networks also pay no property tax because they are non-profits despite large endowments and extensive property holdings A New York Times article by Matthew Haag and Meredith Kolodner detailed the history of the tax breaks focusing on two major beneficiaries Columbia and NYU The state s tax breaks for non-profits date to long before Columbia and other higher development institution became vast enterprises with multi-million-dollar endowments it reads In the modern day these non-profits have contributed little to the city s property tax revenues while amassing enormous land holdings Salaries and benefits for their executives are approaching corporate wage packages The Times article goes on to state In a city where land is more valuable than almost any anywhere in the nation Columbia now owns more than properties with a combined value of nearly billion The authors continue But as Columbia has expanded its footprint it has also become more of a drain on the city budget because a state law more than years old that allows universities museums and other non-profits to pay almost no property taxes The law saves Columbia million annually according to an analysis by The New York Times In the present day as the race for who will be the next mayor takes shape the city lies at the intersection of vast private wealth and residents squalor We need to hear who among the candidates has a new vision and narrative for our city s future someone who puts forward an honest assessment of where we are in the current era and where we need to be going And we need to hear how values will inform choices that build toward a fairer economic activity and a regime that focuses on what matters majority in the daily lives of its residents A vision that no longer accepts low-bar cosmetic expedient half-measure changes A vision that brings focus discipline decency and better results for the residents of our city An ambitious and reimagined governing body that is willing to go big and the courage to deliver change And the strength to withstand fierce pushback from the donor class and its lobbyists when they bring their full arsenal to the table Implementing changes based on such a vision would be hard in normal circumstances But the Trump administration has assured us these are not normal times We are already facing the threat of losing billions of dollars in federal aid for physical condition care housing transportation and other critical demands And that s before adopting a governing vision for the city that couldn t be more antithetical to the kleptocracy emanating from the White House This can be more challenging if as various economists predict we see a recession Despite the threats from Washington we need a mayor ready to commit to a major change in the relationship between the city and our local elite institutions and power players A sparse antidotes to these dark times To start with we need to stop the deep subsidies to private non-profit universities and hospitals and wealthy museums by negotiating payments in lieu of taxes from these institutions as a substitute for foregone property tax revenue In the private hospitals and universities in the city saved billion on property taxes according to the Independent Budget Office In Boston these hospitals and universities pay the equivalent of percent of their forgone property tax Likewise the teams that play in our stadiums and arenas must also ante up and make payments in lieu of property taxes We should divest from Wall Street banks and create a population bank in New York City A broad coalition led by New Market system Project has been campaigning since for a inhabitants bank in New York City that would hold municipal deposits and reinvest locally to reclaim community money for the citizens good serving the community interest rather than to maximizing profits for shareholders and executives Presently New York City deposits billions of dollars in Wall Street banks institutions notorious for exploiting low-income neighborhoods perpetuating racial and economic disparities and fueling the state emergency In fact the bulk of the city s funds are concentrated in just three big banks Bank of America Citibank and JPMorgan Chase By establishing a general bank the city could channel its financial power toward long overdue investments in district requirements A masses bank would better safeguard city deposits from federal overreach and ensure society dollars serve New Yorkers A constituents bank would invest in affordable housing small business development and sustainable infrastructure often in partnership with local Society Rise Financial Institutions and other responsible lenders Divesting from Wall Street would put an end to the city subsidizing these rogue institutions It would also put an end to this broken financial system and build something better key to achieving transformational change in underserved neighborhoods While we need to stop rampant subsidies for the city s elite we also need to craft honest budgets and commit to more effective management This means being candid in projecting revenue forecasts so that information are allocated accurately to meet core requirements It also means identifying operation inefficiencies and addressing them in timely and systemic tactics Additionally it means confronting another major institution in the city the often sclerotic and self-interested municipal labor unions This requires renegotiating work rules with municipal labor that are costly and sustain system provision inefficiencies Examples of considerable changes include expanding where suitable hybrid work schedules designed with the goal of increasing productivity to meet agency performance targets as well as increasing the work week to hours equivalent to the state s work week Such changes would improve productivity reduce the work force by attrition and help pay for future salary increases Ending unlimited sick leave for cops firefighters sanitation and correction workers should also be on the table These are just a scarce of the examples of how we can craft a robust establishment that delivers for those who depend on the city to thrive Or as Robert F Kennedy not junior stated succinctly numerous decades ago The concern of power is how to get men of power to live for the residents rather than off the inhabitants We can no longer continue to prop up private wealth through populace subsidies We can no longer base our fiscal decisions on austerity budgeting and our guidelines choices on neoliberal precepts We need to set an agenda that fits currently s moment a fundamental rethinking of what kind of city we want and who the city commits to serve We need a mayor who both embraces this vision and has the experience courage and stamina to get it done Anand Giridharadas reminds us that the first Gilded Age eventually gave way to the New Deal an era defined culturally by renewed inhabitants purpose and politically by the restoration of the state in areas where people are too powerless to solve problems on their own defined by the use of shared institutions to solve shared problems It s time for a new social contract in the city one that diminishes economic precarity At the same time we need an effectively managed regime where the cornerstone of its work is to achieve a just city where the principle of economic justice and fairness guides citizens choices The challenges are daunting But it is the hand the new mayor must play at City Hall on Jan Harvey Robins has worked in various positions in city regime non-profits and foundations for more than years This includes the NYC Human Guidance Administration as first deputy administrator the Board of Learning as deputy chancellor for finance and administration the director of the Mayor s Office of Operations the Children s Aid Society as director of strategic planning and the Edna McConnellClark Foundations as director of strategic planning and operations The post Opinion Mayoral Candidates It s Time for NYC s Elite to Live for the People Not off the People appeared first on City Limits