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.
Commentary/Op-Ed - July 2017
Expanding Economic Opportunity in a City of Aging ImmigrantsThis essay by our own Christian González-Rivera draws on personal history and analysis of Census data to highlight the contributions of grandparents to the economic mobility of immigrant families in New York City.
Commentary/Op-Ed - June 2017
Op-Ed: Small Investment, Big Return: Federal Microlending Programs Under ThreatThe president’s 2018 executive budget contains trillions of dollars in cuts to some of the nation’s most vital and popular public programs. Overlooked are plans to gut the nation’s premier microlending program, with dire consequences for entrepreneurship in New York and nationwide.
Commentary/Op-Ed - May 2017
Op-Ed: Preparing for an Automated FutureThe forces of automation will likely lead to a reduction in jobs in a range of New York City industries, from accountants and X-ray technicians to paralegals and taxi drivers. Rather than wait until it’s too late, New York’s policymakers must take swift action.
Commentary/Op-Ed - May 2017
Op-Ed: From Summer Pell to Summer TAPThe recently passed federal budget bill will do college students around the country a huge favor: extend Pell Grants for year-round study. New York should follow the federal government's lead by adopting this reform for its own need-based financial aid program, the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).
Report - May 2017
The Aging Apple: Older Immigrants a Rising Share of New York’s SeniorsThe growth in New York’s older immigrant population is far outpacing that of the U.S. born senior population. There are now more people over the age of 65 in the city than there are children ages 10 and younger. And for the first time since the end of World War II, the share of older New Yorkers who were born outside of the U.S. reached 49.5 percent—nearly equal to the native-born share.
Commentary/Op-Ed - May 2017
Op-Ed: To Keep His Promises, Trump Should Invest in Human CapitalAlthough the Trump administration continues to tout its support for American workers, workforce development and job training programs are conspicuously absent from the White House’s list of accomplishments in the first 100 days. If President Trump and Congress are serious about putting more Americans on the path to the middle class, then Washington should be investing in a 21st century human capital system.
Report - April 2017
More Time in the Stacks: Library Hours in NYC Still Lag Behind Other Big CitiesCUF's third annual assessment of library hours compares New York City’s public libraries with library systems in the nation’s ten largest cities and New York State’s ten largest counties. Although New York City’s branch libraries are now open significantly more hours per week than at any point in the past decade, NYC's libraries are still open fewer hours than most of the largest library systems in the nation and large New York State counties.
Commentary/Op-Ed - April 2017
Op-Ed: Time to Let New York DanceNew York City's vibrant DIY music venues are creating opportunities for emerging artists and new voices, offering a first show, a supportive crowd, and a sense of community. However, archaic laws and a punitive bureaucratic mindset are stifling these small, local spaces that are already struggling to cope with skyrocketing rents.
Testimony - April 2017
The Trump Travel Ban and New York’s EconomyIn this testimony before the New York City Council Committee on Economic Development, CUF's policy director, Matt Chaban, presents data from the Center's decades-long work documenting immigrants central role in New York's economy, and how the White House's travel ban and other policies might undermine this bedrock of the city.
Commentary/Op-Ed - April 2017
Preparing NYC for the Next Wave of AutomationEmerging technologies have the potential to displace workers in range of New York City industries, from accountants and x-ray technicians to paralegals and taxi drivers. Although many of these changes are still years away, a recent Center for an Urban Future policy symposium discussed the steps that policymakers, business executives, and educational leaders in New York should be taking now to prepare for the oncoming wave of automation.
