Brooklyn would get more trees and CitiBikes, allow more multi-family housing, and get a new interborough public transit line under a comprehensive plan the borough president hopes will guide the future.
Antonio Reynoso, in his first term as borough president, recently unveiled the new plan outlining his vision for the borough, which has a population of 2.7 million, with stark differences in socioeconomic conditions among its neighborhoods.
The 201-page document includes an analysis of existing inequities in the borough, including disparities in residents’ lifespan, affordable-housing construction, and tree canopy protection.
Reynoso, who became borough president last year after serving as a council member, has long pushed for New York City to adopt a comprehensive plan, used in most major cities to guide development. He says the absence of such a guide contributed to the inequity.
His plan offers some 200 recommendations on how to reduce disparities, including by improving and boosting access to public transit, health care and affordable housing.
“For me, it's like a blueprint. You wouldn't build a house without a blueprint,” Reynoso said. “And the city is installing the upstairs bathroom shower before it's laid its foundation in some cases. And it's just nonsensical.”
Reynoso says his goal is to be “proactive, versus reactive,” anticipating the borough’s needs before they arise, rather than responding once they’ve become an urgent problem.
One recommendation includes supporting the creation of the proposed Interborough Express—a public transit option connecting underserved neighborhoods in Brooklyn to parts of Queens. The plan encourages the Department of City Planning to change the zoning rules to allow multi-family housing across the borough. It further urges the Adams administration to comply with their legal mandate to build more bike lanes across the city.
The plan recommends planting more trees in areas with high air pollution, ensuring that all Brooklynites live within a half-mile of a "quality health care facility,” and building new affordable housing developments in areas where construction hasn’t kept pace with population growth.
The goal is to rectify some of the stark health and housing disparities uncovered in the report, like in life expectancy. Residents in community districts covering Park Slope and Carroll Gardens have a life expectancy of 82.9 years, versus 76 years for those in Brownsville.
And much of Southern Brooklyn hasn’t seen new affordable housing construction, according to the report. For example, from 2010 to 2020, the community district for much of East New York created or preserved 12,106 units of affordable housing. Meanwhile, that number was just seven units in the community district covering much of Bay Ridge.
Several advocates applauded the report, including those in transit, street safety, parks, and affordable housing. Wayne Ho, President and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council,” call it a “significant milestone in urban planning.”
Chris Walters, senior land use policy associate at the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development, said his organization has long advocated for a similar plan citywide and supported the Brooklyn plan to ensure a more “transparent, equitable, and accountable planning process.”
“Our city’s geography of inequality didn’t happen by chance but was instead the result of decades of decisions that only served to reinforce racial and economic disparities,” Walters said in a statement. “It will take an equally intentional approach to address these disparities and ensure a more equitable distribution of resources, development, and healthy, thriving neighborhoods citywide.”
Adam Ganser, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, said the plan is a “model for addressing disparities in climate change vulnerability, equitable access to parks and expanded green spaces, and less congested streets – all of which are direct indicators of a healthy community.”
Reynoso kicked off the project in February, working with the Regional Plan Association and the New York Academy of medicine to compile data on existing conditions in the borough, and later convening a 25-seat advisory committee of nonprofit, government, and academic institutions from across the borough.
Reynoso says he will use the plan to evaluate new proposals from developers, and when deciding where to focus existing policy efforts, like the city’s redesign of the bus system in the borough.
“You guys are going to know what I'm going to say before I even say it,” he said, before later adding: “What I want to do is have data and facts and information be how we dictate policy, not personal experiences and politics.”
