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| Cuomo’s $1.4 Billion Plan Targets Brooklyn in Fight Against Poor Health and Poverty | Cuomo’s $1.4 Billion Plan Targets Brooklyn in Fight Against Poor Health and Poverty |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Citing persistent problems of poverty, violence and poor health, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday announced a comprehensive plan that would direct $1.4 billion of New York State’s resources to long-suffering areas of central Brooklyn. | Citing persistent problems of poverty, violence and poor health, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday announced a comprehensive plan that would direct $1.4 billion of New York State’s resources to long-suffering areas of central Brooklyn. |
| Obesity, murder and unemployment rates are all higher in central Brooklyn than the city and state averages. The plan would allot the biggest chunk of money, $700 million, to health care. It will also create 3,000 affordable housing units, 7,600 new jobs and more than five acres of recreation space at state-funded housing developments, according to the plan. | Obesity, murder and unemployment rates are all higher in central Brooklyn than the city and state averages. The plan would allot the biggest chunk of money, $700 million, to health care. It will also create 3,000 affordable housing units, 7,600 new jobs and more than five acres of recreation space at state-funded housing developments, according to the plan. |
| Mr. Cuomo said the plan also includes anti-violence programs and job-training efforts — a “soup-to-nuts” approach that he said was designed to give central Brooklyn enough resources so its residents could be “in a position to help themselves.” | Mr. Cuomo said the plan also includes anti-violence programs and job-training efforts — a “soup-to-nuts” approach that he said was designed to give central Brooklyn enough resources so its residents could be “in a position to help themselves.” |
| The initiative, which Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, held up as a national paradigm, comes at a time he is burnishing his credentials with a string of progressive moves that have stirred talk of a possible run for the presidency in 2020. It also comes as anti-poverty initiatives have all but dropped from the national political agenda. | The initiative, which Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, held up as a national paradigm, comes at a time he is burnishing his credentials with a string of progressive moves that have stirred talk of a possible run for the presidency in 2020. It also comes as anti-poverty initiatives have all but dropped from the national political agenda. |
| In unveiling his proposal, Mr. Cuomo likened the plan to another ambitious approach to confronting poverty — the empowerment zone program of his former boss, President Bill Clinton, for whom Mr. Cuomo served as secretary of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Clinton’s empowerment zones were intended to spur private investment into cities like Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit, as well as hard-pressed rural areas. | In unveiling his proposal, Mr. Cuomo likened the plan to another ambitious approach to confronting poverty — the empowerment zone program of his former boss, President Bill Clinton, for whom Mr. Cuomo served as secretary of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Clinton’s empowerment zones were intended to spur private investment into cities like Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit, as well as hard-pressed rural areas. |
| Mr. Cuomo’s plan would mark a similarly striking investment in one geographic location, not unlike the targeted focus that state officials have put on places like Buffalo, which has seen half its population decline since World War II. (Mr. Cuomo’s “Buffalo Billion” initiative was a focus of federal investigators who brought a multi-pronged indictment in November.) | |
| Experts on anti-poverty efforts said the multifaceted approach could, indeed, serve as a model for dealing with intractable problems associated with poverty, which are often overlapping, from inadequate housing to a lack of preventive health care. | Experts on anti-poverty efforts said the multifaceted approach could, indeed, serve as a model for dealing with intractable problems associated with poverty, which are often overlapping, from inadequate housing to a lack of preventive health care. |
| “It’s unusually comprehensive,” said Indivar Dutta-Gupta, co-executive director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown University. “I can’t think of another example where you have a huge state investment intended to stabilize or turn around a distressed urban area.” | “It’s unusually comprehensive,” said Indivar Dutta-Gupta, co-executive director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown University. “I can’t think of another example where you have a huge state investment intended to stabilize or turn around a distressed urban area.” |
| Most of the elements of the initiative, called Vital Brooklyn, are contained in Mr. Cuomo’s proposed executive budget, or in proposals previously highlighted by the governor. Much of the money has already been identified; while the affordable housing would be new, the money will come from a 10-year, $20 billion affordable housing plan announced in last year’s State of the State address. | |
| But the initiative announced on Thursday seeks to funnel the disparate resources into communities like East New York, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Those neighborhood have lagged on a number of indicators, such as unemployment and the number of families receiving food assistance, as other areas of Brooklyn have prospered. | |
| The $700 million capital investment in health care would help create a network of 36 ambulatory care centers, which would include partnerships with existing community-based providers. The health measures were designed, in part, to end the reliance on emergency room care, which can be costly and ineffective. Such an infusion of money could prove especially helpful in a borough that lost Long Island College Hospital in 2014. | The $700 million capital investment in health care would help create a network of 36 ambulatory care centers, which would include partnerships with existing community-based providers. The health measures were designed, in part, to end the reliance on emergency room care, which can be costly and ineffective. Such an infusion of money could prove especially helpful in a borough that lost Long Island College Hospital in 2014. |
| Mr. Cuomo’s initiative would devote a surprising amount to financing improvements in parks and recreation, aiming to eliminate so-called park deserts by building green spaces and renovating athletic facilities within a 10-minute walk of every neighborhood. That is more than Mr. de Blasio spent in the first year of his signature Community Parks Initiative, which targeted three dozen parks in low-income areas across the city. | |
| Other parts of Vital Brooklyn would invest in healthy food, education and youth development, and climate resiliency. | |
| The nearly $700,000 devoted to economic empowerment and job creation would, among other things, add 7,600 new jobs through the governor’s Unemployment Strikeforce, and would train 1,200 people in the construction trades. The $1.2 million investment in youth development and education would have an environmental focus, expanding an oyster restoration program and creating 30 new environmental education sites across the community. | |
| But the plan was short on specifics. It was unclear, for instance, where the state would find the space to build the affordable housing or the vacant land with which to create new parks. | |
| Mr. Cuomo delivered his speech at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn hours before Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, was to hold a town-hall meeting a few miles away in Crown Heights, where he planned to discuss his own redevelopment plan and a strategy to fight homelessness, which would call for 90 new shelters, with one of the first in Brooklyn. | Mr. Cuomo delivered his speech at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn hours before Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, was to hold a town-hall meeting a few miles away in Crown Heights, where he planned to discuss his own redevelopment plan and a strategy to fight homelessness, which would call for 90 new shelters, with one of the first in Brooklyn. |
| “Anytime someone wants to invest and supplement the work we’re doing to make New York City stronger, we welcome it with open arms,” said Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman for Mr. de Blasio. “As the mayor has said, New York City succeeds when the state succeeds and vice versa.” | |
| Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat who represents central Brooklyn, lauded the governor’s proposal, saying it would foster healthy lifestyles. “This plan is a dramatic and comprehensive effort to solve problems that have existed in central Brooklyn for decades,” he said in an interview. “We think it’s a meaningful initiative.” | Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat who represents central Brooklyn, lauded the governor’s proposal, saying it would foster healthy lifestyles. “This plan is a dramatic and comprehensive effort to solve problems that have existed in central Brooklyn for decades,” he said in an interview. “We think it’s a meaningful initiative.” |
| Still, experts on poverty cautioned that such a plan must be sustained, with continued funding over time, to be successful. And laws and regulations, such as those that prevent the hiring of convicted felons, could be impediments to revitalizing an area like central Brooklyn. | Still, experts on poverty cautioned that such a plan must be sustained, with continued funding over time, to be successful. And laws and regulations, such as those that prevent the hiring of convicted felons, could be impediments to revitalizing an area like central Brooklyn. |
| “One in three adults have some sort of criminal record and there is a huge amount of discrimination in hiring,” Mr. Dutta-Gupta, the poverty expert, said. “So there are structural challenges that make it hard to imagine how any major investment alone will solve these problems.” | |
| In New York, Mr. Cuomo has made efforts to reduce barriers for New Yorkers with criminal records, including a $10 million program to help released convicts re-enter the job market, and a program to pardon minors who committed nonviolent crimes when they were 16 or 17. | In New York, Mr. Cuomo has made efforts to reduce barriers for New Yorkers with criminal records, including a $10 million program to help released convicts re-enter the job market, and a program to pardon minors who committed nonviolent crimes when they were 16 or 17. |
| It was unclear how the plan would be received in Albany, where legislators are negotiating the state budget, due April 1. A spokesman for the Senate Republicans, many of whom represent rural areas upstate, said only that Mr. Cuomo’s entire budget proposal was under review. |