Citywide Vision of Equity: Executive Order 45

Issued in 2019, Executive Order 45 directs the Mayor’s Office of Operations, through the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, to work with agencies to ensure racial and social equity is an integral consideration in all policymaking, programs, and initiatives.

Through EO45, the City committed to:

• Annually publish the Social Indicators and Equity Report (now called EquityNYC), an analysis of social conditions across New York City, including geographic and demographic breakdowns, changes over time, and the Mayor’s plan for responding to racial and social disparities highlighted in the report.
• Work with participating City agencies to identify and report on standardized Citywide Equity Metrics that reveal racial and social disparities based on who agencies serve, where services are located, who they contract with, and who they employ.
• Provide centralized support and coordination to identify additional data and agency practices to promote racial and social equity.

Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity

The Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity (TRIE) was established in 2020 in response to COVID-19 to address racial disparities laid bare by the pandemic. TRIE is comprised of City agency leaders, primarily of color, working collectively to direct new programs, resources, and investment to the hardesthit communities

In partnership with DOHMH, TRIE developed an equity burden rubric to identify neighborhoods disproportionally affected by the pandemic. The rubric, which factors in health and socioeconomic indicators, has resulted in an expansion from 27 to 33 neighborhoods (spanning 74 zip codes) that are being prioritized for response efforts. These neighborhoods inform COVID-19 related efforts – funded through both capital and expense spending - and are expected to be updated every six months to respond to changing conditions on the ground.

Key investments announced through TRIE include expanded healthcare access in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens through new H+H COVID-19 Centers of Excellence, as well as the City’s unprecedented expansion of broadband, focused on NYCHA and TRIE communities, led by the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer.

Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity Priority ZIP Codes, January 2021

Source: TRIE, 2021

HPD’s Where We Live NYC - Agency-led equity initiative with citywide impact

The Where We Live NYC plan is the blueprint for how New York City will advance fair housing. The City engaged hundreds of residents, over 150 community-based and advocacy organizations, and dozens of governmental agencies to discuss difficult fair housing issues. The plan seeks to fight housing discrimination with a combination of capital and expense funding; more equitable housing development that opens communities to more low-income households;preservation of low-cost housing and displacement prevention through stronger tenant protections and new affordable housing investments; and equitable investments to address the neighborhood-based legacy of discrimination, segregation, and concentrated poverty.

DOT Approach to equity

Since 2014, DOT has undertaken an effort to collect and evaluate nearly 20 metrics on all proposed capital projects. Based on these metrics, DOT develops a prioritization framework that assigns a weighted score to each proposed capital project. In 2018, DOT refined these metrics based on updated data and aligned them with the City’s strategic priorities. The equity-focused metrics include areas with long commute times and high-poverty areas.

DOT has individual initiatives that focus on improving equity in specific domains, such as buses. As seniors, persons of color, and low-income New Yorkers make up a disproportionate number of bus riders, DOT is committed to working with the MTA and NYPD to improve buses citywide, ensuring that New Yorkers have service that they can depend on. The Better Buses Action Plan is focused on improving bus speeds citywide by 25% and reversing downward bus ridership trends. This will be accomplished by using DOT’s bus priority toolkit, increased camera and NYPD enforcement of bus lanes, and service management initiatives and bus network redesigns by MTA. The plan contains concrete goals, including improving five miles of existing bus lanes each year, installing 10-15 miles of new bus lanes each year, and implementing DOT street design projects that benefit 600,000 daily riders each year.

DPR approach to equity

The Walk to a Park initiative increases access to open-space resources in areas of the city that have comparatively fewer green spaces. Today, approximately 82% of New Yorkers live within walking distance of a park (half a mile or less). The OneNYC plan set a goal of 85% of New Yorkers living within a walk to a park by 2030. DPR is exploring multiple approaches to reach this target, from forming partnerships and coordinating with public and private institutions to improve existing open space to acquiring and developing private property to create new parks.

A complementary targeted strategy is DPR’s Community Parks Initiative (CPI), which transfers and improves local parks that have not had significant capital investment in 20 years - a generation. Launched in 2014, CPI is a multi-faceted, over $318 million investment in 67 community parks that are located in New York City’s densely populated and growing neighborhoods with higher-than-average concentrations of poverty.

DPR Walk to a Park

Source: DPR, 2021

Accessibility Initiatives

Subways:

Although the MTA and its budget is outside of City control, the City does strive to support investments in public transit for New Yorkers. One such way is through the City’s land use policy. The Elevate Transit: Zoning for Accessibility (ZFA) is a proposed zoning amendment created by MOPD, DCP, and MTA to make planning and building elevators at subway and Staten Island Railway stations more efficient. When passed, ZFA would require developers to work with the MTA to identify potential elevator locations and access points on property adjacent to MTA stations. ZFA also expands zoning incentives to encourage developers to allocate space for station elevators or to build them as part of their work near stations. These shifts in land use regulations will help ensure that more New Yorkers enjoy increased accessibility sooner, and across more stations.

Pedestrians:

One of DOT’s core focuses is maintaining and enhancing pedestrian infrastructure to be free of defects and accessible to all, including upgrading pedestrian ramps to make them ADA-compliant. DOT works closely with the MOPD, the disability community, and advocates to solve for issues that people with disabilities face while navigating city streets. DOT hosts workshops, runs online surveys, and speaks with experts to vet design ideas and test new treatments, materials, and technologies. Considered critical infrastructure, pedestrian ramp work continued throughout COVID-19 and in 2020, DOT and DDC’s Infrastructure Division completed over 4,800 pedestrian ramps.

Schools:

Currently, less than 20% of New York City’s public schools are considered fully accessible. Through an expanded allocation of $750 million, compared to $178 million in its previous capital plan, SCA will be able to make a third of all school buildings in every school district fully accessible and ensure that 50% of all elementary schools around the city are either partially or fully accessible. Capital projects include building ramps and wheelchair lifts, creating accessible bathrooms, widening doors and partitions, and making public assembly spaces compliant with disability access requirements. SCA has also created a separate District 75 Special Education program with a dedicated funding stream to ensure adequate investment to provide students with serious disabilities equitable access to high quality inclusive education programs.

Project Scope, design, and construction:

DDC established a new ADA/Accessibility Compliance Unit to ensure that all of its Public Buildings projects comply with local, state and federal standards. The ADA/Accessibility Compliance Unit reviews project scopes and designs, as well as projects in active construction, to maximize accessibility compliance and ensure all New Yorkers can enjoy the assets that it builds. In addition, the Front-End Planning Unit assesses all capital project proposals to maximize opportunities to include sidewalk accessibility improvements in non-DOT-led projects that may include street alterations.