Commentary/Op-Ed - July 2016
Rethinking New York’s Summer Jobs ProgramCity officials should be commended for expanding the city's flagship summer-jobs program, but a large gap remains between six weeks of summer employment and the beginnings of a career. Christian Gonzalez-Rivera, senior researcher at the Center for an Urban Future, argues for a new approach that invests in quality of experience over quantity of program participants and helps young people prepare for success in the workplace.
Commentary/Op-Ed - June 2016
Op-ed: Albany blows a chance to streamline city projectsIn this Crain's op-ed, CUF's Adam Forman calls out the New York state legislature's failure to pass a bill allowing cities to benefit from "design-build" contracting for public works, noting that state agencies already enjoy this advantage. In New York City, where infrastructure projects regularly blow through budgets and deadlines, design-build offers an opportunity to save time and reduce costs.
Commentary/Op-Ed - June 2016
Op-ed: City’s New Arts Funding Should Be Shared More FairlyThe city's recent budget agreement includes a $10 million boost for the Department of Cultural Affairs. In an op-ed for City Limits, CUF's Adam Forman argues that this welcome influx can be spent most effectively by prioritizing individual artists and small and mid-size organizations whose continued presence in the city is in jeopardy.
Commentary/Op-Ed - June 2016
Op-ed: A small boost in arts funding would go a long wayThe arts provides thousands of jobs, enriches communities, enlivens public spaces, and gives voice to immigrant and low-income residents. In this New York Daily News op-ed, CUF's Adam Forman urges the city to prioritize spending on cultural affairs.
Commentary/Op-Ed - April 2016
New York City Must Support Its Immigrant Population to Ensure a Successful WorkforceIn this City & State op-ed, CUF's Christian González-Rivera and CPD's Kate Hamaji argue that Career Pathways—New York City's new framework for its workforce development system—doesn't address the unique workforce challenges faced by the city's immigrant population. They lay out several steps that policymakers could take to better incorporate immigrants into the new workforce development strategy.
Commentary/Op-Ed - April 2016
Closing the NYCHA Funding GapIn this City & State op-ed, Senior Researcher Adam Forman urges Governor Cuomo and state legislators to help alleviate NYCHA’s $17 billion funding gap and ensure that state funds are dedicated to its most important long-term needs, like the Authority’s aging and decaying building facades and roofs.
Commentary/Op-Ed - February 2016
Catapulting New Yorkers into the Middle Class, ASAPIn this City & State op-ed, CUF senior researcher Tom Hilliard argues that the upcoming expansion of CUNY ASAP to cover all students at Bronx Community College presents an opportunity to catapult thousands of New Yorkers into the middle class each year – but only if state and city policymakers commit to more fully supporting ASAP.
Commentary/Op-Ed - February 2016
The City’s Next Steps to Ensure Vibrant, Creative CommunitiesThe city’s new Building Community Capacity initiative aims to fortify small and midsized art organizations in communities outside of Manhattan. In this Gotham Gazette op-ed, CUF Senior Researcher Adam Forman shares several ideas for making the initiative a success – helping strengthen cultural organizations in the midst of neighborhood change.
Commentary/Op-Ed - January 2016
6 Ways the State Can Expand Economic Opportunity in 2016As Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature set priorities for 2016, they should put economic opportunity for New Yorkers at the top. CUF Senior Researchers Christian González-Rivera and Tom Hilliard offer six concrete and affordable ideas to build the skills of the New York workforce, boosting low-income workers and their employers.
Commentary/Op-Ed - December 2015
Why I support the plan to redevelop the Brooklyn Heights LibraryDespite the essential services the city’s public libraries provide to residents across NYC, their physical infrastructure is in trouble. In this City & State op-ed, CUF Executive Director Jonathan Bowles highlights the Brooklyn Public Library’s innovative approach to addressing its crumbling infrastructure.
Commentary/Op-Ed - November 2015
Open up schools to priced-out artists: A resource that’s sitting underutilizedIn this Daily News op-ed, CUF Senior Researcher Adam Forman advocates for opening up underutilized spaces in public schools and churches to New York City artists. With leadership and collaboration between government agencies, philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, he argues that these spaces would allow New York City’s creative community to continue to create and thrive in the city.
Commentary/Op-Ed - August 2015
Help artists revive NYC neighborhoods: Build up culture and housing at the same timeIn this Daily News op-ed, CUF Senior Researcher Adam Forman makes the case for integrating cultural planning with city planning to provide much needed affordable space for New York artists, designers and cultural organizations, and jobs for local residents — ensuring a more diverse creative sector.
Commentary/Op-Ed - July 2015
Boosting Adult Education in New YorkWith 1.6 million adults in New York lacking a high school diploma, Tom Hilliard and Brenda Dann-Messier argue that the state needs a bold new commitment to strengthening its adult education system. In this commentary, they lay out several steps policymakers could take to rebuild the adult ed system for the 21st century economy.
Commentary/Op-Ed - June 2015
The Virtuous Cycle of Keeping Your City Affordable for ArtistsIn this Next City op-ed, CUF researcher Adam Forman discusses how New York’s affordability challenges are threatening its remarkable community of artists, nonprofit arts groups, and for profit creative industries. He outlines three ideas for what the city should do to support and retain New York’s now thriving creative economy in the years ahead.
Commentary/Op-Ed - June 2015
City Officials Must Do More To Boost New York’s Creative SectorIn this City & State op-ed, CUF executive director Jonathan Bowles calls on the de Blasio administration to support the arts and the broader creative sector. He argues that the creative sector provides the city with its greatest competitive advantage, but notes that New York faces growing competition from other cities that are aggressively cultivating their creative economies.
Commentary/Op-Ed - June 2015
What can cities do to nurture the arts & the creative sector?In an online essay for Zócalo Public Square, the Center’s Jonathan Bowles argues that the healthiest creative economies owe their success not to gilded performance halls, but to large and sustainable clusters of artists, musicians, dancers, designers, writers, and other creative professionals. He writes that cities wishing to bolster their creative economy should start by developing policies that attract and retain artists.
Commentary/Op-Ed - May 2015
Make Commercial Spaces Affordable TooIn this City & State op-ed, CUF executive director Jonathan Bowles analyzes the growing demand for commercial spaces in New York. He argues that as Mayor de Blasio develops innovative proposals to address the city's affordable housing crisis, the administration should also move to unleash the potential of commercial spaces that have long gone vacant or underutilized.
Commentary/Op-Ed - May 2015
Fulfilling CUNY’s workforce promiseIn this commentary, CUF senior fellow David Jason Fischer takes a close look at the City University of New York’s role as a workforce development provider. While he finds that CUNY’s adult and continuing education programs provide a path to economic advancement for thousands of New Yorkers, he argues that CUNY must address several structural, funding and cultural obstacles if it is to reach its potential as an engine of economic mobility and high-volume source of workforce talent for city employers.
Commentary/Op-Ed - April 2015
Keeping the Water On: New York Must Address Infrastructure, CostsIn this op-ed in the Gotham Gazette, CUF researcher Adam Forman argues that with last year’s spike in water main breaks throughout all five boroughs, Mayor de Blasio should hold firm on increasing water rates and consider additional methods to finance and modernize New York’s water infrastructure.
Commentary/Op-Ed - April 2015
The MTA needs to get on the age trainIn this op-ed for the New York Daily News, CUF researcher Adam Forman argues that New York’s public transit system is not ready for the city’s booming senior population. He urges Governor Cuomo, as well as City Hall to make dramatic investments to improve accessibility for aging New Yorkers.
