Commentary/Op-Ed - March 2018
Weather Emergencies and Emergency RoomsDuring severe weather, getting around New York City can be all but impossible. Yet these moments are also the times when doctors, nurses, home health aids, and other medical professionals are most desperately needed. Given the unique challenges storms present, we wanted to share that story here, which ran as a sidebar in our report, An Unhealthy Commute.
Commentary/Op-Ed - March 2018
Op-Ed: NYC’s New Schools Chancellor Should Make College Success MatterIt’s a rare moment when the city’s attention is focused on what it takes to lead the city’s schools. Yet the most important item on the next chancellor’s to-do list is hardly being discussed: preparing vastly more students to succeed in college.
Commentary/Op-Ed - February 2018
Op-Ed: The Transit Crisis Without a Rescue PlanEven as the subways reach the breaking point, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers face an additional commuting crisis: the lack of fast, reliable transit service in huge swaths of the boroughs outside Manhattan. No industry has felt the effects of these punishing commutes more than the city's healthcare sector.
Commentary/Op-Ed - January 2018
Op-Ed: How To Prepare New Yorkers to Benefit from AmazonMany New Yorkers are worried that a new home base for the world’s largest internet company would be more burden than boon. But a bold proposal to land 50,000 good jobs deserves an equally ambitious plan to invest in the city’s workforce. New York should want Amazon’s jobs, while ensuring more New Yorkers get them.
Commentary/Op-Ed - January 2018
Op-Ed: Taking on Rochester’s College Success ProblemGraduation rates are alarmingly low at community colleges in Rochester and surrounding counties, and they are making very little progress. College leaders are already developing new models to support student success, but they need state backing to scale up their best ideas.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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).
