Overview
The Thriving Communities Coalition includes grassroots organizing, advocacy, policy and technical assistance groups who work across various issue areas and neighborhoods. We believe that the status quo approach to planning and land use in New York City does not work for most New Yorkers, and that without meaningful changes, the processes we have now will only continue to exacerbate inequality, segregation, and displacement. We are working together to win meaningful reforms to create a City where everyone has a chance to thrive.
The Coalition
Click here to read our 2021 platform
The Thriving Communities Coalition is dedicated to developing, organizing, and advocating for policies that will advance the following principles:
Fair distribution of resources and development
We call for an equitable allocation of burdens and benefits related to investment, infrastructure, new growth, and economic development that meets both citywide and neighborhood needs, and corrects for historic disinvestment, marginalization, and displacement pressure to eliminate disparities across race, geography, and income.
Enforceable commitments – No more empty promises
We call for the enforcement of commitments made to mitigate impacts from development and investment.
Integration without displacement
We call for the right to stay in and access neighborhoods with quality housing, good-paying jobs, and cultural and social connections.
Transparency and accountability
We call for transparent planning shaped by early and ongoing community engagement.
Real community power and ownership
We call for self-determination in the planning process, community-led development, and solutions that are responsive to our identified needs and opportunities.
Our Principles
- Fair distribution of resources and development
- Enforceable commitments
- Integration without displacement
- Transparency and accountability
- Real community power and ownership
Our Policy Demands
- Capital Investment & Budget Equity
- CEQR Reform
- Comprehensive Planning
- Equitable Access to Community Planning
- Inclusive, Equitable Climate Resiliency Planning
- Shift Power to NYCHA Residents in Planning & Land Use Decisions Impacting Them
Take a look at the details of our policy demands here.
Coalition Members
Ascendant Neighborhood Development
Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development
CASA – Community Action for Safe Apartments
Communities Resist
Cypress Hills LDC
East Side House
Fifth Avenue Committee
Good Old Lower East Side
Inwood Legal Action
Municipal Art Society of New York
New Economy Project
New York Appleseed
Pratt Center for Community Development
Regional Plan Association
Riders Alliance
United Neighborhood Houses
Statement on the City’s Report Release & Legislation Introduction December 16, 2020
NYC Needs Enforceable, Equity-Based Comprehensive Planning
New York, NY – The Thriving Communities Coalition is pleased to see Speaker Johnson put the need for planning and land use reform front and center with the report and legislation released today. There is a broad and growing consensus that the City’s current approach to planning is broken. Over the course of many years of neighborhood rezoning battles — and more recently as COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter Movement have further highlighted longstanding, stark racial and economic inequality in New York City — it has become increasingly clear that our current process reinforces existing inequalities and undermines efforts to properly address our current needs and plan for the future.
We need a wholesale change to our City’s planning frameworks and processes. An enforceable, equity-based comprehensive plan has the potential to bring us from a status quo that does not work for most New Yorkers to a more fair and sustainable approach for all of our communities. The Thriving Communities Coalition looks forward to working with the Speaker, the City Council, and the Administration on legislation to help achieve that goal.
Statement on the Restarting of ULURP August 12, 2020
Don’t Reinforce Systemic Racism as ULURP Restarts
The Thriving Communities Coalition calls on the City to implement an anti-racist approach to expanding access to the ULURP process as it restarts. At a time when the public health, economic, and social crises we face are compounding the negative impacts to low-income communities of color, we need our leaders and decision-makers to commit to doing everything they can to ensure an anti-racist and equitable process for collaborating with the people of New York.
We understand the need to start moving projects forward that advance recovery and address the needs of our hardest hit communities. However, the City needs to address the very serious gaps in access our communities face and ensure that marginalized communities are able to meaningfully and consistently participate in the City’s public processes. Virtual engagement creates a tremendous opportunity to expand the capabilities of city agencies and community boards to reach more people, especially communities of color and low-income communities, where barriers to participation are common. However, simply looking at the raw numbers of people viewing hearings or testifying online does not equal success.
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Statement on NYC Council’s Land Use Hearings April 22, 2020
Land Use Justice Advocates are Disappointed to See Private Land Use Actions Moving Forward
The Thriving Communities Coalition is disappointed to see the New York City Council moving forward with hearings that include a list of private land use actions, at a committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday April 22nd. On March 16th, an order from Mayor de Blasio suspended the ULURP process in light of the COVID-19 crisis. This was an important measure to prevent land use changes from proceeding without even the minimal opportunities for public engagement and input the process generally includes. The scheduled hearing seems to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the suspension of ULURP actions, and sets a dangerous precedent for potential future zoning actions during this crisis.
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Statement on NYC Charter Revision Commission Decision August 2019
The Thriving Communities Coalition – a group of community-based and policy-oriented nonprofits focused on equitable land use and planning processes – is extremely disappointed that the Charter Revision Commission has chosen to advance a slate of ballot proposals that will maintain the status quo when it comes to land use planning. New York City is one of the most segregated and unequal cities in the nation, and tackling the root of these issues by reforming the land use process that contributes to them was a leading reason why the City Council, the Public Advocate, and the Manhattan Borough President took the unprecedented step to form a non-mayoral Charter Revision Commission last year.
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Press
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