Commentary/Op-Ed - January 2018
Op-Ed: Putting Automation on the Mayor’s AgendaA fully automated city may still be more science fiction than fact, but era-defining changes are already here. The city must prepare for the wave of automation or be left in its wake.
Report - January 2018
Work to Do: How Automation Will Transform Jobs in NYCIn a first-of-its-kind analysis, CUF studied the automation potential of every occupation in New York City, evaluating the likelihood that a machine could perform each job’s component tasks and revealing which ones are most likely to be done by machines in the decades to come.
Report - December 2017
State of the Chains, 2017Our 10th annual ranking of national retailers in New York City shows that the number of chain store locations across the city increased for the ninth year in a row, but fewer chains have expanded this year than in the past.
Report - December 2017
Struggling to the Finish Line: Community College Completion in New York StateWhile a college credential has become the single most important platform for the middle class today, only one in four New York State residents who enroll in the state’s community colleges end up earning a degree.
Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2017
Assessing NYC’s Plan to Create 100,000 Good JobsMayor de Blasio deserves credit for developing a plan to create 100,000 good jobs. But a recent CUF forum made it clear that there are several other promising ideas that, if added to the city’s plan, could bolster middle class job creation and help more low-income New Yorkers access them.
Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2017
Op-Ed: Tapping NYC’s Community-Based Organizations to Boost College SuccessThere is a vital ally in the campaign to help more New Yorkers reach graduation day: the city’s constellation of community-based organizations. But policymakers and education officials need to do more to ensure these organizations are integrated throughout the system.
Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2017
Op-Ed: Next Step for Mayor’s Inequality Agenda: Tackle NYC’s College Success ProblemIf Mayor de Blasio is serious about making headway on his signature issue of reducing inequality, his administration should now turn its attention to boosting the rate at which New Yorkers earn a college credential.
Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2017
Op-Ed: Making Small Business a Bigger Part of the Workforce EquationThe nation’s workforce training and job placement programs have long focused on large businesses. But with small businesses driving economic growth and job creation in cities nationwide, it’s time for smaller employers to become a larger part of the workforce equation.
Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2017
Op-Ed: Want to Expand Economic Opportunity, Governor Cuomo? Help NYC Tackle Student SuccessGovernor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature took steps to make college more affordable by launching the Excelsior Scholarship program. Now it’s time to tackle another critical challenge: making sure more students actually graduate with a degree.
Report - December 2017
Degrees of Difficulty: Boosting College Success in New York CityNew York City has a college success problem. Today, far too few New Yorkers who graduate high school are succeeding in college, with serious consequences for their economic mobility. To lift more of its residents into the middle class, the city will need to make dramatic improvements to its college completion rates.
Testimony - December 2017
New York State’s Excelsior Scholarship ShortcomingsIn this testimony before the New York State Assembly Committee on Higher Education, CUF's Senior Fellow for Economic Opportunity, Tom Hilliard, argues that the Excelsior Scholarship program has shortcomings that threaten to cripple its effectiveness, while offering little to help more college students graduate with a degree.
Commentary/Op-Ed - November 2017
Commentary: Taking Career Pathways from Vision to RealityMayor Bill de Blasio's administration has made important progress on Career Pathways, a vital plan to overhaul New York City's workforce development system. But in order to realize the full potential of this transformation, the city needs to commit to implementing what it began nearly four years ago. Here’s how policymakers can take Career Pathways from vision to reality.
Testimony - November 2017
JFK’s Air Cargo Industry Provides a Runway to the Middle ClassIn this testimony before the New York City Council Committee on Economic Development, CUF's policy director, Matt Chaban, argues that the city, state, and Port Authority must address the woes of JFK's shrinking air cargo industry. Not just global commerce but thousands of good-paying jobs are at stake.
Commentary/Op-Ed - November 2017
Op-Ed: NYC’s Infrastructure Woes Run Deeper than the SubwayIf the ongoing subway crisis should remind New York City of anything, it is the dangers of neglecting infrastructure. The city faces at least $47 billion in unmet infrastructure needs just to reach a state of good repair, and any major expansions or sweeping modernizations would cost billions more. With infrastructure in crisis everywhere, officials need to direct sustained funding to these critical needs.
Report - October 2017
Making the Connection: Aligning Small Businesses and the Workforce Development SystemSmall businesses have been sparking much of the recent job growth in New York City. However, there is a major disconnect in the city's workforce development system when it comes to working with small businesses. This report explores how to achieve greater alignment between the city’s thousands of small businesses and the workforce development system.
Commentary/Op-Ed - October 2017
Op-Ed: On New York’s Amazon Wishlist? More Homegrown College GraduatesBids are due today for Amazon’s new headquarters and it seems cities across North America have joined the fray. New York City alone has multiple neighborhoods vying for Bezos’ bounty. However, New York’s ability to lure the world’s fourth largest corporation will hinge on whether its workforce is primed and ready.
Commentary/Op-Ed - September 2017
Op-Ed: Libraries Can Be More Than Just BooksNew York has an opportunity, one shared by cities across the country, to improve library infrastructure while creating badly needed housing. By using aging branches as sites for development, new libraries may rise with affordable apartments on top.
Report - July 2017
Freight Forward: Boosting NYC’s Sagging Air Cargo Sector Should be Part of NYC’s Good Jobs StrategyWith global trade again on the rise, nearly every major airport in the country is experiencing increases in air cargo volumes. But New York’s dominant air cargo hub, JFK International Airport, is trending in the opposite direction.
Commentary/Op-Ed - July 2017
Op-Ed: New York’s Cultural Plan Should Tackle the Affordability CrisisThe de Blasio administration's CreateNYC plan is a promising step forward and follows months of dedicated outreach efforts to nearly 200,000 New Yorkers. However, as the city’s arts communities face a deepening affordability crisis, the plan offers little by way of solutions to this existential threat. The mayor should act now to help put more artists and organizations on the path to sustainability
Report - July 2017
Artists in Schools: A Creative Solution to New York’s Affordable Space CrunchDespite fears that New York City is no longer welcoming to artists, there are more artists living here now than ever before, and the share of artists has increased in the majority of the city's neighborhoods. Yet the same forces that have led artists to spread across the five boroughs have made it harder for them to find work spaces. The arts facilities available in local schools, many concentrated in the same neighborhoods as artists, offer one possible solution to the affordable space crunch.
