Pratt Center

In this Issue:

• A Message from Pratt Center Director Brad Lander
• Better Jobs for New Yorkers
• COMMUTE Puts Bus Rapid Transit on the Map
• Pushing a New Vision for Willets Point
• Meet the Pratt Center Staff: Michael Bogdanffy-Kriegh and Rebecca Reich
• Pratt Center Receives EPA Environmental Quality Award
• Helping New Orleans Rebuild
• Introducing Energy Matters
• Contribute

 

Investing for a Downturn

A Message from Pratt Center Director Brad Lander

The challenges facing low-income neighborhoods in New York City have changed dramatically in recent months. Last year at this time, it looked like gentrification was destined to sweep across even the poor places in the city. With condos on the rise in Bushwick and Corona, with Starrett City on the sales block for $1.3 billion in Brownsville/Canarsie, could any community be far behind?

Rising real estate prices are still a problem, of course. Even in places that never saw wealthy people moving in, rent burdens have been steadily increasing. In the Bronx in recent years, residents moving in were actually poorer, on average, than those already living there...but rents still kept rising, leaving more and more people paying more than half their income for rent. And some real estate companies and private equity funds started to bank on rising prices in rent-stabilized buildings, promising outsized returns for investors by moving rapidly to evict tenants, turn over units, and constantly increase rents. These problems aren't going away, and so we still need attention to strengthening the rent laws, and making sure that low-income families benefit -- rather than being displaced -- as their neighborhoods improve.

But we now also need to deal squarely the challenges of communities facing large concentrations of foreclosures, places like Southeast Queens, East New York, and Wakefield. Some of these neighborhoods are now facing the challenges of abandonment that we thought we had solved. In many precincts, crime has begun to creep back up. Employment is slowing. The problem is different than it was in the 1970s, of course. The risk now is to small buildings, rather than multifamily. And we aren't yet seeing arson or dramatic abandonment.

We need to act quickly to help strengthen these neighborhoods, and the families that live there. The City and its partners have started to take some action. The Center for New York City Neighborhoods -- created to address the foreclosure crisis through a partnership between the City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, a range of banks and foundations, and not-for-profit partners like the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project and Neighborhood Housing Services -- has hired staff and started to make grants to community groups helping homeowners facing foreclosure.

But there is much more to do if we want our city's neighborhoods to survive and thrive through the challenging days ahead. Working with the private sector, government -- at all levels -- needs to make "counter-cyclical" investments, allocating resources to stabilize communities that are at great risk of sliding into decay, and provide a starting point for future prosperity.

One example of such an investment is a community land trust -- a nonprofit entity that acquires or finances property, which can then be used for affordable housing, open space, or whatever a neighborhood needs. On the blocks of Oceanhill, foreclosed homes stand next to vacant lots that last year were assumed to be sites for new condo development. Creeping abandonment brings the potential for more crime, lower property values, and a downward cycle. But this is also a neighborhood right next to Broadway Junction, with great transit options, and a likely site of economic investment when the market turns around in a couple of years.

A land trust could help existing homeowners refinance and keep their homes. If they can't afford to, it might be able to purchase the home but let the family stay in place as tenants. And where there are vacant properties, the land trust could acquire them for affordable housing development, now or in the future. Current residents would be helped, and the long-term value of the neighborhood -- and its increase in the next market cycle -- would strengthen and benefit working families and a strong, diverse community.

Community land trusts are just one example of a relatively small investment we can make now to both dampen the blow of a declining economy and position neighborhoods for recovery. There are many others, such as retrofitting affordable housing for energy efficiency (and creating good job opportunities in the process); launching Bus Rapid Transit widely, which would let workers take advantage of job opportunities that would otherwise be inaccessible; and developing a workforce linkage system that not only helps New Yorkers access training opportunities but also connects them with employers looking for those skills. Community organizations around the city are pushing for these policies, in part through One City, One Future, a coalition of community, civic, labor, and environmental organizations convened by the Pratt Center, NY Jobs with Justice, and the National Employment Law Project.

New York can't do this alone. We need Congress and the (next) president to act, especially to revive the Community Development Block Grant, which has seen billions in cuts in recent years, and make it work to help neighborhoods facing foreclosures. And we need new rules that push banks to work with cities and communities on creative workouts that give homeowners and chance and support communities destabilized by predatory lending.

As tax revenues decline, it might seem like the worst possible time to start spending money. But New York City's experience from the 1970s and 80s shows the value of acting decisively to invest in low-income neighborhoods -- in the long run, it's actually more cost effective. New York faces an urgent choice: We can allow neighborhoods to fall, and all pay the price later (nobody more so than the people who live there). Or we can get our priorities straight and invest in our own city's future.

 

Equitable Development Policy
Better Jobs for New Yorkers

In recent years, New York City witnessed building booms in neighborhoods that only a few decades ago were in seemingly irreversible decline. However, both working poverty and chronic unemployment in these areas remain disturbingly high. How can more community members share in the prosperity?

In pursuit of one solution, the Pratt Center is collaborating with New York City Economic Development Corporation and the New York City Department of Small Business Services to encourage connections between city-sponsored real estate development projects and job opportunities for residents of the neighborhoods where they are located. After conducting a national scan of best practices and publishing a report, Building in Good Jobs, Pratt Center staff proposed a "linkage process" -- clear steps for how to successfully integrate workforce and economic development -- for New York City, and helped shape a process for collaboration between EDC and SBS. "Developing a targeted hiring system with Pratt," says Josh Winter of EDC, "is helping individuals most in need of job opportunities and strengthening the overall impact of our projects."

These recommendations are now being implemented in a pilot project, the 168th Street Garage site in Jamaica, Queens. NYCEDC is in the process of selecting a developer for the redevelopment of this parking garage into 323,000 square feet of retail space and mixed-income housing. Based on Pratt Center recommendations, EDC is looking favorably upon proposals that demonstrate a commitment to workforce development via, for example, designation of a workforce development liaison; prioritizing hiring, retention and advancement of local job applicants; and participation in monitoring and tracking efforts. The Pratt Center has also provided guidance on how to evaluate the workforce development sections of each proposal.

In addition to this first pilot project, SBS and EDC are moving quickly to extend the reach of the program. New requests for proposals integrating the workforce development linkage approach have just been posted for the redevelopment of the former Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital and the development of an alternative fueling site in the Bronx's Hunts Point. SBS and EDC are planning to expand the pilot program to eight to ten other sites throughout New York City, including Coney Island. SBS has created and staffed a new position, Manager of Workforce Economic Development Initiatives, to work with targeted communities to identify resources and increase the capacity of local organizations to prepare residents for upcoming employment opportunities.

To learn more about workforce linkage programs, download the Pratt Center report Building in Good Jobs: Linking Economic and Workforce Development with Real Estate-Led Economic Development.

 

Sustainability and Environmental Justice
COMMUTE Puts Bus Rapid Transit on the Map

As part of our Transportation Equity Project, the Pratt Center has been working with COMMUTE, a coalition of community-based organizations advocating for mass transit investments for New York's poorest, and poorest-served, commuters.

For COMMUTE, this spring's push by New York City to implement congestion pricing was an important opportunity to advance transportation equity in New York City. Revenues from congestion pricing, paid by higher-income private vehicle commuters, would have provided a vital source of funding for improving and expanding public transit. After many long hard months of advocacy and individual meetings with legislators at the City and State level — advocacy that helped ensure City Council support for congestion pricing — COMMUTE was extremely disappointed with the Assembly's failure to even bring the measure to the floor for a vote.

Still, the highly visible debate on congestion pricing gave COMMUTE and the Pratt Center an opportunity to advocate Bus Rapid Transit as a cost-effective way to make sure that revenues would go to help the riders and neighborhoods that need the funds most. COMMUTE's advocacy efforts put Bus Rapid Transit on the public agenda, through media coverage, legislative meetings, advertising in community newspapers, public appearances, fact sheets, and maps that illustrated what a built-out BRT network could look like. COMMUTE's vision for an extensive BRT network that connects boroughs captured the imagination of some lawmakers, and as the deadline for a congestion pricing vote grew near, city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan highlighted BRT as one of the plan's core benefits.

In April, the Pratt co-hosted a symposium at the New York Botanical Garden on "Buses in the Boroughs," with Transportation Alternatives, the Tri-State Transportation Commission and the Straphangers Campaign. Commissioner Sadik-Khan spoke about plans to move forward with BRT, in the aftermath of the defeat of congestion pricing.

Absent the revenue congestion pricing would have delivered, hard questions will need to be asked about MTA capital plan. Cost-effective and quick-to-implement transit solutions like BRT need to be prioritized, and the benefits of some of the large-scale projects -- several of which use billions in transportation funding to pay for what are actually real estate development projects -- need to be scrutinized. The Pratt Center and COMMUTE will continue to advocate for BRT, and to ensure that the voices of underserved low- and moderate- income communities are heard in this time of increased attention to New York's transit.

 

Equitable Development Advocacy
Pushing a New Vision for Willets Point

As the Bloomberg administration presses ahead with its redevelopment plans for Willets Point, the Pratt Center, Queens for Affordable Housing, ACORN, and workers in Willets Point have been collaborating to press for a more responsive redevelopment plan for the area -- one in which affordable housing, living wage jobs, and support for displaced workers are all central components of the project.

On April 8, about 300 Queens community members held a march and rally from a local park in Corona to just outside of Shea Stadium, near the redevelopment site, as fans arrived for the opening day game of the New York Mets game. They were joined by Council Members Hiram Monserrate and Tony Avella.

The demonstrators called on the City to improve its plan for Willets Point by offering guarantees for fair treatment of the workers and businesses on the site, including relocation of businesses in clusters and more training and placement options for workers. The groups also called on the City to make extensive commitments for affordable housing, with a third of all units reserved for those making less than $25,000 a year, and another third affordable for low, moderate, and middle income households.

The Department of City Planning certified their plan for Willets Point rezoning on April 21st, kicking off a land-use review process that requires approval by Queens Community Board 7, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, and the City Council. The City's plan calls for taking 61 acres containing 250 business by eminent domain, rezoning the area to allow for much greater development, and then issuing an RFP to select one large-scale develop to build a small convention center, housing (with no specified affordability), retail and commercial space. In response, 29 City Council members wrote a letter to Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber indicating their opposition to the plan as currently proposed, and their intention not to approve it without much stronger guarantees for affordable housing and support for Willets Point's workers.

Helping Communities Build
Meet the Pratt Center Staff: Michael Bogdanffy-Kriegh and Rebecca Reich

The Pratt Center is pleased to welcome Rebecca Reich as our new Director of Community Real Estate Development, and Michael Bogdanffy-Kriegh as our new Lead Architect. These positions are part of the Pratt Center's expanding efforts to provide community groups with the technical assistance they need to secure and develop new spaces for programs like child care, education, youth programs, and job training. New York's community groups are increasingly challenged to find such spaces, at the same time as the need for these programs deepens.

Reich and Bogdanffy-Kriegh will work together to help community-based organizations assess their needs and capacity for new spaces, and then develop and implement strategies for advancing these projects to financing and construction phases. Reich and Bogdanffy-Kriegh will focus on providing vital technical assistance during each project's initial phases, and then look to partner with or hand off to private architectural firms for construction documents and oversight. "It's a really terrific opportunity to do innovative work with great community partners that will help citizens of New York as well as continue to build the Pratt Center's reputation for solid, innovative projects," says Reich.

Reich has spent her entire career in the field of community development. She was the first director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, where she helped lay a strong foundation for the organization's continuing advocacy for social and economic justice in South Brooklyn. She has since held a wide variety of positions in affordable housing. "I've been a lender, a property manager and worked as a consultant," she says. "It's where my heart is."

Bogdanffy-Kreigh wasn't looking for a new job when the Lead Architect job description came across his desk, but the position seemed perfect. As principal of his own firm for 20 years, he particularly enjoyed working with community groups on affordable housing and other projects and was eager for the opportunity to focus entirely on such projects. "I love this work," he says. "I'm so excited to get out in the community and work with community groups."

 

Sustainability and Environmental Justice
Pratt Center Receives EPA Environmental Quality Award

We're pleased to announce that the Pratt Center received a 2008 Environmental Quality Award from the Region 2 United States Environmental Protection Agency for our environmental justice work. Senator Charles Schumer's office nominated the Pratt Center for our Sustainability and Environmental Justice Initiative, or SAEJ. Directed by Joan Byron, SAEJ supports grassroots organizations and movements that push the New York City region toward environmental sustainability and equity by opposing policies and practice that unfairly burden low- and moderate-income communities. "Today we hear a lot about going green," said guest speaker Congressman James Walsh, "But the honorees here devoted themselves to this work long before ‘green' became a buzzword."

In the 1990s, the Pratt Center began working closely with an emerging cadre of leaders in the urban environmental justice movement. These organizations are based in the low-income communities of color that continue to bear a disproportionate share of the environmental burdens (waste transfer stations, power plants, truck routes) created by infrastructure that serves the entire region. Recent SAEJ projects include advocating for transportation improvements like congestion pricing and Bus Rapid Transit, developing the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance's proposal to remove the Sheridan Expressway and redevelop its footprint, and collaborating with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to encourage energy efficiency in affordable housing.

Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, a long-time partner in the Pratt Center's environmental justice work in the South Bronx, was also honored with an Environmental Quality Award this year. Joan Byron and Alexie Torres-Fleming, Director and Founder of YMPJ, chose to receive their awards jointly. "We won the award thanks to our work together," said Byron.

 

Community Planning
Helping New Orleans Rebuild

While the Pratt Center usually works in New York City's neighborhoods, the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina created an urgent need for community planning and design assistance in New Orleans. In partnership with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Pratt Institute sent faculty, students, and professionals to the Gulf Coast to participate in the rebuilding effort. The Pratt Center coordinated and participated in the project, which was funded by HUD and is now coming to a close.

Pratt/NJIT's project developed architectural models and neighborhood plans for Plum Orchard, a neighborhood in New Orleans East hit especially hard by flooding. Half of the homes in the community were heavily damaged following the storm, and the low-lying neighborhood was one that local decision-makers and planners considered for "a return to wetlands" -- which might have meant the eradication of a 50-year-old community of middle class African-American families. During the months following Katrina, when there was little or no relief money trickling to homeowners and no clear plans for where and how to rebuild, dedicated property owners in New Orleans East began returning to their beloved city on weekends to clean up their homes. Pratt and NJIT partnered with ACORN Housing Corporation to reach out to and assist residents in Plum Orchard as they began the difficult process of assessing the damage and figuring out whether and how to rebuild.

More than 300 planning and architecture students participated in the two-year project under the leadership of Pratt's Deborah Gans and NJIT's James Dart, along with other architecture and planning faculty from the two schools and Pratt Center planners. Students surveyed some 6,000 homes to assess their condition and help identify strategies for their repair. They developed a series of handbooks on home rehabilitation, sustainable building and water management techniques. Determined to engage community residents in planning, even as they lived in exile, students visited a trailer village where displaced residents were living to engage them in discussion about their sense of their neighborhood and their needs and visions for its future. While design studios focused on sustainable and affordable new construction, planners looked into financial models for redevelopment and researched funding streams to help the community rebuild. Infrastructure planning studios assessed the environmental conditions of the neighborhood and developed innovative water management techniques on both the individual property scale and community-wide.

While many of the homes are being re-occupied by owners, the project also addressed the need for rehabilitating rental housing, on which nearly half of New Orleans households depend, but which has been woefully neglected in rebuilding efforts. One of the Pratt graduate students who worked on the project, Annie Clark, has gone on to be the point-person on the ground in New Orleans for PolicyLink, a national equitable development advocacy organization, around the need to invest in rebuilding rental housing.

By the end of the project, the Pratt/NJIT team developed design prototypes for ACORN to use at 150 redevelopment sites spread between the Lower Ninth Ward and our study area of Plum Orchard.

 

Sustainability and Environmental Justice
Introducing Energy Matters

Be on the lookout for the upcoming launch of Energy Matters, a new web resource center providing managers and owners of New York City buildings -- especially affordable housing - with information about how to make buildings more financially sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Coordinated by Wendy Fleischer, Sustainability Projects Manager and NYSERDA Energy $mart Coordinator, Energy Matters will be regularly updated with training opportunities, information about financial incentives, energy-saving tips, and more. Each month we'll send an email update on the new resources available: if you're interested in receiving these, contact us.

New York City's one million buildings are responsible for 79 percent of the city's carbon emissions, virtually all of it from energy consumption. Affordable housing is the least efficient of all: by focusing on improving their energy efficiency, we can improve environmental conditions as well as support financial stability for those New Yorkers likely to be hardest hit by sharply increasing energy costs.

Energy Matters is part of the Pratt Center's ongoing work with community development organizations, neighborhood associations, housing industry groups, and management companies to give all New Yorkers the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of living in an energy efficient environment.

CONTRIBUTE

Please support the Pratt Center for Community Development's vital work to help New York City's communities plan and build their own futures. Your gift enables us to continue supporting community organizations in pursuit of their visions, and to link their efforts to opportunities to influence city and state policies. To help us, visit our secure online donation page.