Community Development Zones

Testimony on Intro No. 346 -- Community Development Zones Designation
New York City Council Committees on General Welfare, Health & Community Development

Rudy Bryant
Associate Director, Pratt Center for Community Development
September 28, 2006

The Pratt Center is grateful for the opportunity to present this testimony, and appreciates the committees' efforts to address these critical issues.

We acknowledge the Mayor's courage to undertake “reducing poverty” (this could define his legacy) and we welcome the Commission on Economic Opportunities report.

While we understand the Commission's desire to target action to specific populations (young children, young adults, and the working poor), we are concerned that this approach misses the critical importance of communities – in both the problems and solutions. The proposed action by the Council to amend the Charter to create the CDZ would address the critical goal of taking a community development approach to these issues.

Recommendations to the Council:

• In the purpose statement (Para. 21-804a), please add a requirement to review city, state & federal rules and regulations governing the use of resources in programs intended to help the poor in order to identify those rules and practices that conflict with each other or otherwise operate to impede and frustrate the objectives of the CDZ program and, further, require efforts to obtain waivers and or changes in such rules and practices. Examples of areas where existing rules may act as barriers include:
  • Asset accumulation limiting social programs & transfer payments eligibility
  • Prohibition of ex-offenders from working at certain jobs
• Make public housing a more explicit part of the effort. For too long, public housing developments have not been central to our community development strategies, and this must change. While public housing provides a critical resource of affordable housing for low-income people, it too often represents isolated pockets of poverty and social problems which need to be addressed through this program.
  • Add Public Housing to the definition in Paragraph 21-802 and again in Para. 21-804g: Public Housing developments that meet the substantive tests to be called zones may be situated in Community Districts that do not qualify. Such developments should be designated and, perhaps, aggregated with a nearby zone.
  • Add NYCHA's chief executive to the zone governance board in Para. 21-804b.
• Add District Managers to governance boards for zones that include some or all of their districts in Para. 21-804c.
• Add Financial Literacy among the human service needs in Para. 21-804e, and First Source agreements and micro-enterprise development to the priorities listed in Para. 21-804f.
• Require in Para. 21-805 & Para. 21-806 Community District Annual Needs Statements and, where they exist, local 197A Plans - whether submitted for approval by City Planning or not, be consulted in the process of preparing CDZ Needs Statements and Action Plans.
• Encourage & support the Mayor to use his business, personal and political prestige to persuade business leaders to contribute personally and corporately to make this a grand experiment in public/private collaboration to reduce poverty in the city.