Report - April 2020
Supporting Older Adults Through Coronavirus: Ideas from Experts and Leaders Across NYCNew York's growing older adult population is facing unprecedented barriers accessing meals, groceries, medicine, and support services, and new levels of social isolation brought on by the novel coronavirus. CUF asked nearly two dozen experts in older adult services for specific recommendations on how city and state policymakers can support older New Yorkers during this crisis.
Report - March 2020
A Blow to the Boroughs: Many Industries Hit Hardest by Coronavirus Concentrated Outside ManhattanWith the novel coronavirus already devastating New York City's economy, many of the industries suffering the most—including restaurants, retail, personal care services, childcare services, and air transportation—are overrepresented in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island and have grown fastest outside Manhattan.
Report - March 2020
Supporting small business through coronavirus: ideas from experts and leaders across NYCNew York’s small businesses are facing an existential threat from the novel coronavirus. CUF asked two dozen small business owners and small business experts for recommendations on how city and state policymakers can help them survive this crisis.
Report - March 2020
New York’s Free Tuition Promise Falling ShortFaced with major economic disruption, New Yorkers are likely to turn to higher education. But while the Excelsior Scholarship program is growing, CUNY students and community college students statewide continue to be underserved.
Report - March 2020
Growing and Diversifying Brooklyn’s Innovation EconomyBrooklyn is now a national leader in the innovation economy—tech start-ups, creative companies, and innovative manufacturers—but it still has a ways to go. This report outlines the key obstacles to continued growth and considers how the borough can realize its immense potential to develop a larger and more inclusive innovation economy.
Commentary/Op-Ed - February 2020
NYC tech jobs for all types: Improve education across the boardIn this Daily News op-ed, CUF Executive Director Jonathan Bowles and Tech:NYC Executive Director Julie Samuels call on city leaders to commit to a bold, long-term agenda to expand and improve the tech skills-building ecosystem.
Report - February 2020
Plugging In: Building NYC’s Tech Education & Training EcosystemThe fast-growing tech sector has become NYC's most reliable source of new well-paying jobs. But while tech companies are hungry for talent and increasingly eager to hire locally, too few of the good jobs in tech are going to New Yorkers from low-income communities. The city can do more to expand access to tech careers by strengthening the city's tech skills-building ecosystem and preparing thousands more New Yorkers for the jobs of the future.
Report - January 2020
A Blueprint for Expanding & Improving Older Adult Services in New York CityThese 63 achievable policy recommendations from CUF's forthcoming report on older adult services in New York City form a blueprint for how city and state policymakers can meet the needs of New York’s fast-growing older adult population—in policy areas such as housing, financial security, social isolation, elder abuse, and transportation.
Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2019
Apprenticeships Can Help Expand Access to Tech Careers in NYCNew York City’s thriving tech sector has become a crucial source of middle-class jobs. But too few of those jobs are accessible to New Yorkers without a college degree and work experience, which means thousands are being left out of the boom. To help more residents access these powerful opportunities, New York will have to build much stronger pathways into tech employment—and tech apprenticeship should be part of the solution.
Report - December 2019
State of the Chains, 2019Our twelfth annual ranking of national retailers in New York City finds a year-over-year decrease in the number of chain store locations for the second consecutive year, and the largest overall decline since this study began.
Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2019
Op-Ed: NYC’s Creative Industries are the Future of Middle-wage JobsNYC's creative economy has seen record-setting job growth but gotten only modest support from city officials. In this Crain's op-ed, CUF Executive Director Jonathan Bowles and Winston C. Fisher make the case that the creative industries should play a much larger role in the city's middle class jobs strategy.
Report - December 2019
Expanding Tech Apprenticeships in New York CityTech apprenticeships present a major opportunity for New York to expand pathways into well-paying technology careers, all while strengthening and diversifying the talent pipeline for the city's booming tech sector. New York can do more to greatly expand tech apprenticeships in the city and realize the promise of this powerful model for boosting economic mobility.
Testimony - November 2019
Preparing New York City’s Workforce for the Coming Impacts of AutomationIn this testimony before the NYC Council Committee on Civil Service & Labor, CUF editorial and policy director Eli Dvorkin outlines the potential effects of automation on New York City's workforce, and offers policy solutions that can help the city get ahead of these powerful economic forces.
Testimony - November 2019
Fixing NYC Parks Capital Construction Process to Revitalize Aging ParksIn this testimony before the NYC Council Committee on Parks and Recreation, CUF editorial and policy director Eli Dvorkin details the issues facing New York City's aging parks infrastructure and identifies key steps to improve the capital construction process for parks projects.
Insight - October 2019
The Creative Economy is a Key Source of Middle-Class JobsOn October 16th, the Center for an Urban Future hosted a policy symposium exploring how the creative industries have grown and become a key source of tens of thousands of middle-wage jobs. The expert panelists convened by CUF helped us identify key policy takeaways around what policymakers and other stakeholders can do to sustain the creative industries and ensure more New Yorkers from low-income backgrounds can access the good-paying jobs in the creative sector.
Testimony - October 2019
The Pivotal Impact of New York City’s Tourism EconomyIn this testimony before the NYC Council Committee on Economic Development, CUF executive director Jonathan Bowles details the growing impact of tourism on the city’s economy and highlights the challenges to sustaining this key economic sector.
Commentary/Op-Ed - October 2019
Op-Ed: Securing the future of New York’s independent workersAcross the state, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are now working independently, subcontracting, or earning income in the gig economy. In this Times Union op-ed, CUF Editorial and Policy Director Eli Dvorkin and Winston C. Fisher argue that while the rise of independent work has clear benefits for New Yorkers and New York’s economy, it is also bringing a host of new challenges that could be addressed through a first-of-its-kind system of portable benefits.
Insight - September 2019
Statement on Mayor de Blasio’s proposal for a national robot taxOn September 6, Mayor de Blasio published an op-ed in "Wired" laying out his vision for a "robot tax." While we applaud the mayor's commitment to helping workers displaced in the transition to a more automated economy, what’s needed is a massive new investment in up-skilling and lifelong learning.
Commentary/Op-Ed - September 2019
Op-Ed: NYC, get ready for the robotsOur new op-ed in the Daily News makes the case for a bold new plan to prepare New York City's workforce for the coming wave of automation.
Report - August 2019
Caution Ahead: Five Years LaterIn this five-year update to our landmark report on New York City’s aging infrastructure, we find that the city has made record-level capital investments, but results have been mixed. Increased usage and new stresses from climate change make bringing the city's core infrastructure to a state of good repair all the more essential.
