Center for an Urban Future 2024 Gala
Wednesday, October 23rd | Tribeca Rooftop
Photos | Webpage

The Center for an Urban Future's 2024 gala celebrated a year in which CUF's research helped raise the visibility of several other opportunities to strengthen our city, from the potential to generate new revenue streams for New York's parks to the need to improve the transfer process for students who enroll at CUNY community colleges and struggle to move on to four-year colleges. 

We also celebrated three oustanding honorees:

FUTURE OF NEW YORK AWARD
Presented to: Julie Samuels, Tech:NYC
Presented by: Maria Torres-Springer, NYC First Deputy Mayor
Julie, the President and CEO of Tech:NYC, has helped New York’s tech sector reach new heights and has been a driving force behind efforts to increase the sector’s involvement in New York’s civic life. She helped spark many of the successful initiatives now underway to diversify the city’s tech workforce, was an architect of the state’s widely heralded Empire AI initiative, built Tech:NYC into one of the city’s most influential civic organizations, and helped create NY Forever, a nonprofit that played a key role in the city’s remarkable resilience and recovery from the pandemic.

URBAN VISIONARY AWARD
Presented to: Susan Fine, Fine Development Partners
Presented by: Janno Lieber, Chair and CEO, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
Susan is a quintessential urban innovator, and one of New York’s most creative and forward-looking real estate leaders. She has worked on some of the most iconic developments in the city, leading the renovation and retail transformation of Grand Central Terminal and contributing to transformative projects from Rockefeller Center and Battery Park City to a major affordable housing project in Queens. Susan also conceived and implemented a variety of public-private partnerships, including the Turnstyle underground market, a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the MTA inside the Columbus Circle subway station.

STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES AWARD
Presented to: Sherry Wang, Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group
Presented by: Margaret Anadu, Board Member, Center for an Urban Future; Board Chair, NYCEDC
Sherry, Co-Head of the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs, is one of New York’s most innovative leaders in the field of housing and community development. The investments she made to establish the NYC Small Business Opportunity Fund and the NYC Minority Business Enterprise Guaranty Facility have been game-changers for entrepreneurs of color. She also helped spur the development of thousands of new affordable and environmentally sustainable homes, which are strengthening underserved communities, boosting the housing supply, and lowering carbon emissions.