My New York Politics Resolutions
It’s almost 2024. That means resolutions. Mine? Continuing the work, alongside all of you, for a more affordable, equitable, sustainable New York.
Hi All,
It’s almost 2024. That means resolutions. Mine? Continuing the work, alongside all of you, for a more affordable, equitable, sustainable New York.
How do we get there? It starts with articulating a big vision for the city and state.
Yes, we will keep fighting to preserve fundamental rights, strengthen democracy, and expand our safety net. But that’s not enough—it’s time to center what too many political power players have long ignored: the stagnation and scarcity that define New York’s status quo.
Skyrocketing rents, displacement, and homelessness. Segregated communities that reinforce unequal access to education and economic opportunity. Sprawl that increases carbon emissions and traffic violence. All have gone on too long, unchallenged by too many across the state and the political spectrum.
During my campaign, I had a daily opportunity to highlight these issues—and the fantastic (but too few) elected officials, policy advocates, and everyday leaders pushing for change. Since then, the challenges have persisted, while the movement to fight back has grown.
Still, these stories are developing under the radar: at Community Boards, City Hall, and the State Capitol. It’s hard to follow them, or to know how to join in changing them.
In hopes of addressing that challenge, I’m planning to email periodically with reading, listening, and viewing that will keep you informed—and with calls to action from (other!) candidates and coalition partners so you can maximize your impact on building the New York we all need.
I’m excited to bring much-needed attention to the stories you might not otherwise have time to seek out. I hope you’re excited to follow along!
Happy new year,
Ryder
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🏠 Want to reduce rents? We need much more housing!
📖 READ the Daily News write-up of a blockbuster new Furman Center report on the need for much more housing in NYC if we want to lower rent growth.
Key quote: "the scholars are saying that the NIMBYs at war with new development help keep rents punishingly high, while those who look for ever more opportunities to ease zoning and other regulations to speed housing production would help drive them lower."
🔎 SUBTEXT: This Furman Center report is important ammunition in the fight against the denialism of the role lack of housing supply plays in the affordability crisis. Many elected officials, and Community Board and Democratic Club leaders, just don’t believe that supply matters. (State Assembly housing chair Linda Rosenthal just said as much in a podcast interview.) Thankfully others are pushing back: Councilman Erik Bottcher recently hosted a virtual town hall with about 100 attendees to walk through the Furman Center report.
⇨ ACT: Sign Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine’s petition for more housing.
🚌 New York city buses are the slowest in the country
📖 READ about how our buses are getting slower, and about the city’s failure to meet legal obligations to build more bus lanes.
Key quote: "New York’s buses, which stop frequently and are constantly caught in traffic, are the slowest of any major American city...The city is required by [the Streets Plan] law to build 30 miles of new bus lanes each year through 2026, but last year the Adams administration fell short by a considerable margin, and it appears on track to do the same again this year"
🔎 SUBTEXT: Eric Adams ran for mayor claiming he’d be the “bus mayor” and supercharge the installation of new dedicated bus lanes to speed up service. Instead, in addition to not creating legally mandated mileage, he’s also empowered his key advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin to pull the plug on long-planned bus and bike projects because of loud local opposition from NIMBY drivers.
⇨ ACT: Sign a Transportation Alternatives petition demanding that the mayoral administration actually meet the legal requirements of the Streets Plan.
🌱 Lower housing prices and help the climate: scrap parking mandates
📖 READ about how current requirements to build new parking spaces for every new home add to carbon emissions and increase housing costs.
Key Quote: “Transportation accounts for 47% of emissions in New York State and is the second highest source of emissions in New York City. Yet our zoning rules require that developments include new parking—regardless of need or demand—which incentivizes car ownership; hampers dense, walkable neighborhoods; contributes to air pollution; and undermines public transit and the safe use of micromobility.”
🔎 SUBTEXT: Lifting parking mandates is one of the planks of the Department of City Planning’s “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” proposal that will be voted on by the City Council next spring. That plan is mostly about creating new housing supply and is supported by housing advocates; but, as you can see from the op-ed (jointly written by the staff from the New York League of Conservation Voters), climate advocates also recognize that dense, walkable neighborhoods are a critical tool to reduce emissions.
⇨ ACT: Go deeper into resources from Open Plans about how parking mandates work and why they should be lifted.