New York’s Realignment
Progress Amid the Pandemonium in New York Politics
Big news: we’re launching a policy agenda on Tuesday, March 3 and we would love for you to join! Come hear from elected, administration, advocacy, and community leaders on what New York’s abundance agenda entails, and what it will take to build a durable coalition to implement these policies. RSVP required.
After two weeks of sub-freezing weather, it’s clear that New York’s politicos are getting a little stir-crazy. Verbal spats are breaking out in the Assembly. The Mayor’s announcement of a $12 billion deficit in late January led to a budget blame game; he blamed Adams and Cuomo, they shot back, and former and current comptrollers showed receipts of having raised the alarm. Brooklyn Democratic Party leader Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn got herself in hot water when she rescinded the party’s endorsement of Governor Hochul; she reversed course after widespread outcry. And Mayor Mamdani left Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso—whose opponent Mamdani has endorsed in the NY-07 primary—out of a recreation center opening in his own borough.
If you look past the petty personal politics, though, you’ll see a New York that is—surprisingly—more united than divided on the issues that matter to abundance policy. Just this morning, Governor Hochul, Mayor Mamdani, and four Borough Presidents shared a stage to rally for SEQRA reform. Hochul and Mamdani, who just a few months ago might have been seen as strange bedfellows, recently came together to announce a historic investment in universal childcare; now they’re tackling the less sexy, but critical, issue of environmental review reform.
Hochul, playing the elder stateswoman, offered a historical perspective peppered with gritty personal anecdotes about growing up near a toxic Lake Erie. We needed environmental review processes in the 1970s, she argued, but “somewhere along the way we got buried in bureaucracy. The status quo has failed miserably.” Mamdani picked up the baton here, repeatedly chanting “who’s ready to build the future?” and painting a vision of a city and state where working families can “afford to dream.”
The two gave the last words to Annemarie Gray, the Executive Director of Open New York, who deftly tied together both the populist and technocratic appeals of SEQRA reform. “Just because you can afford a lawyer,” she said, referring to recent litigation that has sought to challenge rooftop solar and infill housing by requiring years of additional environmental review, “doesn’t mean you can deny your neighbors the housing they need.” It was striking to see Gray, a pioneer in New York’s abundance movement, flanked by the mayor and the governor: in just a few years, we’ve witnessed—and helped drive—a realignment in New York politics. Our establishment-bred governor and Democratic Socialist mayor don’t align on much, but they’re in lockstep on cutting red tape to allow New York to build again.
We’re proud to join Open New York and other abundance allies in the Unlock New York’s Future coalition, supporting SEQRA reform. Environmental review is just one part of a broader agenda to make it easier, faster, and cheaper to build what New Yorkers need, and we’re eager to unveil this agenda in just a few weeks. We hope you’ll join us for our Abundance Agenda launch—and an afternoon of policy discussion with city and state abundance leaders—on Tuesday, March 3 at NYU Wagner.