News from Pratt Center: June 2022
- HUNTS POINT FORWARD
- PRATT CENTER IN THE NEWS
- WHAT WE’RE READING
Table of Contents
1. HUNTS POINT FORWARD
Around this time last year, Urban Health Plan’s Paloma Izquierdo-Hernandez sat with Pratt Center’s Tara Duvivier for an interview with BronxNet:“And so we figured that if we didn’t actively go in and try to create a vision for what we wanted to happen in Hunts Point, all these projects were going to happen around us and we were one day going to wake up and say: What happened? Why didn’t we have input here?”
The vision is here and it’s called Hunts Point Forward.
A collaboration between over twenty-two community-based organizations brought together by the Hunts Point and Longwood Community Coalition, Hunts Point Forward outlines over 73 short- and long-term recommendations made possible by the concerns, ideas, and dreams from the people who call Hunts Point home.
The plan presents a unified vision centering the need for healthy bodies, healthy minds, a livable environment, connectivity, accountability, and a shared prosperity that will take the community fifteen years to a more equitable future. Pratt Center is honored to have been involved in this project by facilitating the community engagement process that informed the plan. From administering surveys outside COVID vaccination drives to tabling at various neighborhood events, Pratt Center relied on the generous collaboration of the Hunts Point and Longwood Coalition in order to gather community input. “When it comes to community planning, I'm not sure I've seen anything better than this,” says Andrew Kimball, President and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, “I think this is really a national model that we're celebrating here today. We're celebrating it because it's a plan by the community, for the community.”
2. PRATT CENTER IN THE NEWS
Politics NY | Mayor Rolls Out Community-Drafted Plan to Revitalize Hunts Point Nabe
The Mayor's Office praise the Hunts Point Forward release event and commits over $40 million to the future of the neighborhood.
PIX11 | State Assembly Looks For Ways to Legalize and Improve ‘Unsafe’ Basement Apartments
Pratt Center’s Rebekah Morris calls for the need to ensure the safety of basement apartment tenants.
SPECTRUM | Leaders to Appoint Affordable Housing Commission Members in Weeks
Pratt Center study on the positive effects of tenant protections cited as Albany appoints an Affordable Housing Commission.
3. WHAT WE’RE READING
When the Only Way to Get to Work is This Slow Bus 5/31/2022 | New York Times
A beautiful love letter to the Q23, one of the slowest buses in Queens where many residents live beyond the subway’s reach and more people ride buses than anywhere else in New York City
To Get to Net Zero, This City is Making a Map
6/10/2022 | CityLab
Ithaca, New York, has committed to fully decarbonizing by 2030. To achieve that goal, the city is creating a “digital twin” that can model energy use, building by building.
New York City Gay Bars Are Declining—and Covid Isn't All To Blame
6/24/2022 | CityLab
What’s preventing NYC’s nightlife from continuing to thrive? Paperwork...and lots of it! While gay bars across the nation close their doors, New York still has a chance to protect this community staple.