17 for 17: The Policy Blueprint

A Comprehensive Guide of Common Sense Plans, Solutions, & Initiatives for a Cleaner, Safer, Stronger, & More Affordable Community

Making City Services Work For Us

Our city’s services do not currently prioritize everyone; they unequally place higher importance on the wealthy and well-connected. It's time to make city services work for us!

Build the largest and most effective constituent services team to ensure residents can easily access the City services they qualify for, without any unnecessary hurdles or delays.
Tackle our garbage problem by installing more public trash cans and holding Sanitation accountable
Make civic engagement more accessible to our community — start by returning our community to the Participatory Budgeting program.

Tackling The Opioid Crisis

Everyday - as we walk our kids to school, as we get on the train or the bus to work - we are confronted with the debilitating health crisis that has plagued our community for far too long: addiction. Together, we can take back our community and help those suffering get on a pathway towards recovery!

Empower local addiction-focused nonprofits with the resources, trust, and partnership they need to move people off the streets and into effective treatment programs.
Close down excessive methadone clinics, replacing them with community-oriented facilities that champion rehabilitative measures.

Improving Our Community's Education System

Education is the number one pathway to the middle class, but the students in our community continue to get left behind. We deserve and must demand better. Our taxes dollars seem to go everywhere else except right back here to our classrooms.

Properly fund our public schools by working with our State partners to give them the money they need and are owed
Expand access to free GED programs
Fight for universal after-school and weekend programming throughout our community

Making Higher Education Career Development More Accessible

Outside of apprenticeships and workforce training programs, college degrees are the main path to a majority of well-paying jobs. But, many of our Bronx students aren't getting that opportunity. We must ensure that well-paying jobs are widely available to our community's residents, and that starts with making college and union employment more equally accessible.

Fully fund CUNY in efforts to bring back free tuition
Expand access to early college programs for high schoolers
Create programs that are tailored for returning students and adult learners to complete their degrees
Host job fairs with city agencies and trade unions to connect our young people with well paying employers

Improving Public Safety, Holistically

The overreliance on the punitive tools of mass arrest and incarceration have only harmed our community's citizens; it has not made us any safer. If we really want to reduce violence, we need to see approaches that are far more community-oriented, and ultimately seek to address the root causes of crime rather than ineffectively attempting to treat the symptoms. Instead of needlessly throwing more people in jail, we need initiatives that stop conflicts before they even escalate. Truly reducing violent crime, specifically gun crimes, means that we treat violence as if it was an infectious disease, helping and identifying individuals who are at risk of committing such an act. We can have real public safety that doesn't consist of excessive policing and surveillance within our communities of color.

Expand and fund public safety approaches that are community- and neighborhood-centered, such as the Cure Violence or Advance Peace models
Support the creation and distribution of "community violence interrupters" who are skilled in conflict intervention and who support rehabilitation, instead of relying solely on police presence
Invest in programs that use individual mentoring and street outreach to support the health and well-being of those affected by and involved in gun violence

Making Housing More Affordable

The rent is too damn high! There's barely any actual affordable housing left in this city, let alone in our community. Solving the crisis requires taking concrete steps with urgency, and developing large quantities of rent-stabilized, truly affordable housing. We're ready to build on the progress of past administrations and take their work even further.

Develop genuinely affordable housing that is in line with people's actual incomes
Repurpose underutilized lots for community land trusts, ensuring that nonprofits can use the land for the creation of deeply-affordable housing
Working with our State and City partners to develop a "CMI" model or "Community Medium Income" for new housing

Expanding and Improving Community Youth Services

A large part of public and community safety is ensuring that we are promoting and safeguarding our youth and their well-being. And yet, rather than investing in young people and their futures, the "solution" has been to increase the criminalization of our community's youth, particularly young people of color. Instead of relying on punitive measures that don't lead to successful outcomes, we must invest in our youth's futures, prioritizing initatives that support them physically, mentally, and economically, before they enter the criminal justice system.

Fund our community's nonprofits so that they're able to provide enriching weekend and afterschool programs
Provide greater funding for youth employment pipeline programs such as SYEP and Work Learn Grow
Invest in the construction of more recreation and community centers that facilitate programs to keep our kids off the streets

Making Homeownership More Equitable

Unless you're super rich, buying a home in NYC feels nearly impossible. A combination of citywide housing scarcity, high mortgage rates, and high asking prices ultimately means that middle-class prospective homebuyers are left without many options. Add in rising utility and homeowner's insurance costs, many people who already own homes are struggling to keep them. We must prioritize initiatives that not only relieve the burdens of middle-class homeowners, but also increase the share of affordable purchasable homes, ensuring more equtiable pathways to homeownership.

Explore ways to convert existing apartment buildings into affordable co-ops making home ownership more readily accessible
Push for comprehensive property tax reforms
Advocate for the creation of programs and funding that generate social and public housing models
Advocate for a prohibition of investor/private equity purchasing of single family homes
Ensure that 3 unit family homes are regulated as "Private Houses" rather than as "Multiple Dwelling" buildings

Fighting for the Working Class

Far too many of us are trapped in jobs where we are not only underpaid but also receive little to no workplace benefits. Meanwhile, CEOs are raking in record profits and record checks. Stagnant wages and union-busting leave far too many struggling to make ends meet. Instead of siding with the ultra wealthy and their interests, we must prioritize policies that empower our community's working-class—that means strengthening unions, raising the minimum wage, and ensuring that every job provides a well-paying, livable wage. It's time that we put the working people first and build an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few.

Support State-level legislation, particularly Raise Up New York, that raises NY's minimum wage to reflect a livable wage
End the "independent contractor" misclassification scam while also extending hazard pay and workplace benefits, such as paid sick leave, to previously excluded workers
Expand apprenticeship and job training programs, providing more pathways to employment

Supporting Our Community's Small Businesses

Small businesses create jobs, strengthen communities, and drive local economies—but the system is rigged in favor of giant corporations that exploit loopholes and crush competition. From predatory lending to complex local regulations leading to excessive fines, small business owners are not being fully set up for success. We must prioritize policies that uplift small and micro businesses, so that current owners and potential entrepreneurs can thrive, not just survive.

Work with local and State partners to develop tax incentives for building owners that rent to local entrepreneurs, allowing them to have storefronts in their own community
Create a program that empowers minority-owned small business with resources and funding, similar to Cincinnati's Minority Business Accelerator

Investing in Our Seniors

Our seniors have given so much to us. While they are supposed to be living in their golden years, they are fighting to barely survive. Many of our seniors are on fixed incomes and are forced to choose between paying for rent, medicine, or groceries. This is unacceptable. We need to protect and expand programs that ensure that every New Yorker can age with the dignity, security, and care that they deserve.

Revive the Access-a-Ride Taxi Program
Fight against any budget cuts to the Department of Aging and call for increased funding
Invest in community services for seniors, start by addressing infrastructure issues at Older Adult Centers
Call for greater investment in senior nutrition services and affordable housing

Investing in Our Community's Libraries

Our libraries are cornerstones of our communities - if we take the time to invest in them. Libraries are our safe spaces, and are often times the only trusted resource for parents, immigrants, young people, and seniors. However, far too often, the funding our libraries receive do not reflect the great significance of libraries in fostering community inclusion and economic growth. Our public libraries have to potential to grow our social infrastructure; it's time that we harness that potential and better recognize their importance.

Increase funding for libraries to extend libraries' hours of operation to extend access to more working New Yorkers
Seek construction proposals that serve a dual purpose of improving library infrastructure and co-locates deeply affordable housing in the same facility
Provide funding for libraries to bring back community investment programs such as adult literacy, job training, and computer programming training

Investing in Our Arts & Culture

Arts and culture are the heartbeat of our community. As the birthplace of hip hop, salsa, and more, we need to be inspiring our people to dream big and be creative. In order to that, we must invest in local artists, theaters, and cultural programs, ensuring that art is both widely accessible and thriving.

Expand and fund arts and culture programming for and with our local institutions like the Bronx Music Hall and Casita Maria
Create more programs and opportunities for our students and young adults to attend culturally enriching events such as Broadway and off-Broadway shows

Combatting Environmental Racism and Improving Our Quality of Life

Every day we bear witness to the effects of the climate crisis. The South Bronx, due to discriminatory urban planning and public policy, has felt the brunt of it. With countless polluting facilities such as powerplants and waste transfer stations, constant cars and diesel trucks, our community continues to see a diminishing quality of life. We must and we will combat environmental racism in the South Bronx and safeguard our right to a livable future, starting by improving our community's air quality.

Put forth green action plans that seek to decrease the South Bronx's power plants' negative environmental impact, starting with the Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant
Accelerate the transition to fully electric public buses
Work with our State partners to Incentivize medium and heavy duty vehicle fleets to transition to electric vehicles
With Congestion Pricing in effect, fight for residential parking permits so that outsiders are not taking parking away from us to avoid tolls

Revamping Transportation

Affordable and accessible public transportation is not a privilege, it should be a staple of life in New York City. Unfortunately, rising fares and unreliable service makes public travel incredibly difficult. We must create significant solutions that makes traveling with the MTA more affordable, reliable, and accessible.

Extend Fair Fares eligibility to 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, allowing individuals who work at a minimum wage job to access the program's benefits
Work with our State partners to make all city buses free for NYC residents, while also expanding express and select bus service in the South Bronx

Enhancing Our Community's Parks

Parks are a huge part of ensuring the physical and mental well-being of our community. And yet, the city continues to not allocate enough funds needed to assist these spaces. Our community's parks are not being well enough maintained, in terms of infrastructure and safety. The goal must be to use city funds to better invest in, expand, and preserve our parks, ensuring that they are welcoming and vibrant for all residents.

Call for the city to increase funding to NYC Parks to 1% of the city operating budget
Prioritize the cleanliness of our South Bronx parks
Increase park community programming and recreation such as exercise classes, movie nights, and free concerts

Safeguarding Our Hospitals and Our Healthcare Workers

Healthcare should be about care, not profit. Our community's patients face long waiting room times, rushed appointments that leave little time with the doctor, and an overwhelmed staff. On top of all this, our EMT personnel and nurses are overworked and underpaid. This isn't just unfair, it's dangerous. We must invest in initiatives that secure fair wages for healthcare workers, and policies that place patients over profits.

Ensure that our city's public hospitals are fully and properly staffed
Fight for wage increases to our registered nurses and our EMT personnel
Advocate for better enforcement of safe staffing in all hospital units

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