It’s time for a public-private funded climate WPA and PWA in NYC
“If I don’t work, I don’t eat so I have to be out here, even when there’s a flood.” This was a quote from a NYC delivery worker on the news during the September 29th, 2023 flash floods. His electric bike failed in the knee-deep water. He was pushing it against the current to deliver food.
NYC now has the largest income gap of any large city in the country — the top 20% make 53 times more than the bottom 20%. We’re failing our people with no social safety net, no protection from climate hardship, and few pathways out of their circumstances. City workers often live in temporary shelter and public housing because they don’t earn enough to make rent but residency is often required for their jobs.
This city is run by service workers. They are the lifeblood that keeps the city moving. Failing them will cause the city to crumble.
We also have the migrant crisis. Right now at the U.S.-Mexico border, the city is distributing these fliers:
I cried reading it. This has been the city of dreams for decades. Now it is the city of dreams only for those who are already of means. That cannot continue.
New York is a city of immigrants. It always has been. They enrich and enliven the social and economic fabric on which this city’s creativity thrives. Without them, we lose who we are and what we stand for.
The economics and business side of my brain spends the bulk of my waking hours thinking about how to support New Yorkers, present and future. How do we boost the economy and provide opportunity to everyone who wants to be a New Yorker? How do we rebuild this city, not just for the privileged few but for all the huddled masses yearning to be free so that everyone wins together?
The historian and storyteller side of my brain always sifts the sands of the past to see what I can find and use. As the late great John Lewis, who was at one time a New Yorker and is one of my greatest inspirations, often said, “We must make a way out of no way.”
We have an immense amount of capital—NYC is the wealthiest city in the world with 340,000 millionaires. We also have staggering gaps in our economy that need attention: 24,000 city jobs vacancies, 20% office space vacancies, and city infrastructure that desperately needs repairs, particularly to prepare for climate impacts. We have people who want to work and make a difference but are being left behind—5.3% unemployment, 11.5% underemployment, 17% youth unemployment, 90,000 migrants and asylum-seekers over the last 18 months, and over 100,000 people without housing.
Now imagine this: New Yorkers of means collaborate hand-in-hand with policy makers and city agencies to put all of this wasted human capital to good use to rebuild this city through a Works Progress Administration / Public Works Administration that focuses on nature-based solutions. Good jobs. Good work. A way out of no way. They fortify our 520 miles of coastline with reefs, mangroves, and natural defenses, clean up, restore, and regenerate the 10,000 vacant lots for productive use like bioswales that reduce floods and the pressure placed on the water, sewer, and transporation systems, install green roofs and rooftop gardens, and build and connect wildlife corridors and habitats.
That’s just a start of how NYC can work with nature so that everyone is cared for. There are dozens of other solutions that are relatively low-cost, efficient, and proven to clean the air, water, and land—benefits that benefit every resident, visitor, and commuter.
This doesn’t have to be a concrete jungle. It can be a green, verdant, healthy, thriving place for all beings who want to be New Yorkers. It’s going to take a massive mobilization, and the relentless pursuit to match needs with resources to transform our challenges into opportunities. We have to do this work, and we have to do it now while we still have time. I’m tired of a dirty, flooded, and unequal New York. Aren’t you? I love this city. I love New Yorkers. And I want us to do better. We have to do better, and we can—together.