Completed Right to the City Policy Platform!

 Right to the City NYC (RTTC-NYC) alliance is very excited to share with you the recently completed 2009 Right to the City NYC Policy Platform.  This platform is the result of an in-depth, collaborative, and participatory process involving all Right to the City-NYC base building organizations, resource allies, as well as many other allied individuals and organizations.  The alliance created this document to articulate the principles and document the policy concerns most important to low-income communities of color.  This platform is being distributed to elected officials as the 2009 citywide elections approach. In the upcoming months, RTTC-NYC will meet with these candidates to ensure that our platform’s demands will be met.  

In early 2007, Mayor Bloomberg released PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater, New York, a set of principles to guide long-term planning and economic development for the City. While this plan set goals to address many important policy concerns affecting New York City, including housing, open space, transportation congestion, and air quality, RTTC-NYC member organizations felt this plan did not adequately address many of the issues most pressing to low-income communities. In addition, PlaNYC did not include any significant role for communities to play in implementing these economic development plans.

To address the gaps in PlaNYC and to create a set of economic development principles rooted in community needs, RTTC-NYC developed this citywide, grassroots policy platform. This platform unifies the demands of the RTTC-NYC member groups related to community development, gentrification and displacement. The goal of the platform is to help build the power of low-income people of color in urban areas and to create urban policy that is central to the needs of low-income people. It is the result of an in-depth, collaborative, and participatory process, which included all the RTTC-NYC member-based organizations.  This document was ratified by the membership of the Right to the City-NYC on May 8, 2009.

This platform has six sections, including: Federal Stimulus Funds; Community Decision-Making Power; Low-Income Housing; Environmental Justice & Public Health; Jobs & Workforce Development and Public Space. Each of the sections lays out the following:

·         An analysis of the current political context in New York City;

·         A set of principles based on a grassroots vision for the future of New York City;

·         A series of polices that New York City should implement to create a more livable, sustainable, and democratic city for all New Yorkers.