On the eve of a new administration, it is critical that Mayor de Blasio does everything in his power to address both the public health crisis and economic devastation that threatens the future of New York City and deepens existing inequalities amongst New Yorkers in the months he has left in office.
In a memo delivered to the Mayor, Carlo A. Scissura, President & CEO of the New York Building Congress, has outlined 3 actionable policy recommendations that will have an almost immediate impact on New York's recovery by advancing infrastructure and land use projects across the city. These proposals will stimulate the economy, create jobs, advance public works projects, and increase the city's housing stock.
Read the memo below:
Hon. Mayor Bill de Blasio
New York City Hall
New York, New York 10007
RE: Memo to the Mayor regarding priorities for final months in office
Dear Mayor de Blasio,
This is a critical moment for New York City. We face both a public health crisis and economic devastation that threatens the future of our city and deepens existing inequalities amongst New Yorkers. The City of New York should be applauded for its recent efforts to safely get people back to work, create new opportunities and make this recovery a fair one. Yesterday’s announcement to preserve the triple cantilever of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway as we seek long-term solutions to wholly reimagine this highway is just one example of those efforts.
We ask for your continued leadership during your final months in office to advance infrastructure and land use projects. With the largest infrastructure package in generations due for a vote in Washington, your administration can clear red tape now that will allow future public works projects to thrive. The following three proposals are actions that the City can take that will have an almost immediate impact on New York’s recovery.
• Develop guidance on the use of drones for building façade inspections
• Rezone SoHo/NoHo and Gowanus
• Adopt methods from the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s COVID-19 response
Here is how City Hall can make a meaningful impact with these three actions:
1. Pass guidance on the use of drones for building façade inspections.
Cities like Los Angeles and Chicago are reaping the benefits of drone technology to speed up the building process and reduce costs. In New York City, however, the use of drones is currently inhibited by an outdated law intended for helicopters and airplanes.
It’s time for New York to embrace this technology. City laws require building owners to inspect their façades every five years by erecting scaffolding over entire buildings. This process is extremely expensive, tedious and drawn out. Drones will save time and money when performing these façade inspections, as well as help monitor workplace safety and expedite site surveys. NYCHA alone could save millions of dollars per year, when you consider traditional inspections cost as much as $18,000 per building and several days.
The City no doubt already recognizes this, as the New York City Department of Buildings is currently conducting a feasibility study on drone inspections. We ask that this feasibility study be concluded expeditiously, so that we may use those findings, along with best practices already in place across the country, to develop new guidelines for drone inspections in New York City. The Big Apple’s ability to thrive hinges on its capacity to embrace cutting-edge technology like drones. We must catch up with and then lead the rest of the nation on this front.
2. Rezone high-income, resource rich neighborhoods like SoHo/NoHo and Gowanus for a more equitable New York City.
The City’s housing crisis is at a boiling point. The devastation of the last year and a half has only made the inequities ingrained in our City’s systems ever more apparent.
Over the last several years, neighborhood rezonings have taken place in communities that are mostly Black and brown and lower income. We applaud the administration for moving forward rezonings in white, wealthy communities to address the housing shortage, the first to truly meet fair housing standards. The City has two solid proposals to reimagine SoHo/NoHo and Gowanus currently under review and anticipated to be considered by the City Council in the coming months. Rezoning transit- and resource-rich neighborhoods like SoHo/NoHo and Gowanus will help absorb our housing demand and in turn take pressure off gentrifying neighborhoods where longstanding communities of color face displacement.
As these proposals continue to be negotiated, we cannot not lose sight of their goal to create a more inclusive city and must see these rezonings through to the end in as close to their current form as possible. We need fewer barriers and more housing stock to recommit New York as an equitable, progressive city.
3. Adopt methods from the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s coronavirus response to expedite contracting and procurement processes on major capital projects.
When COVID-19 hit New York City, emergency authorization allowed DDC to take advantage of vital procurement and construction management methods. The building industry quickly delivered critical pandemic response infrastructure that included field hospitals, testing sites, laboratories and later mass vaccination centers. We applaud your leadership in advancing timely and innovative solutions to get these projects off the ground.
The emergency procurement rules allowed the DDC to forgo the design-bid-build model that awards contracts to the lowest bidder, rather than to the most qualified contractors that could deliver quality work with no delay. As a result, the average testing site opened in one week and field hospitals in four weeks (including design). This move also increased contract awards to minority and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs), who received nearly half of the $117 million budgeted for three COVID-19 Centers of Excellence.
Though the authorizations that enabled much of this work may be ending, it should not take a pandemic for us to rethink how we execute capital projects. The City must leave no stone unturned in using existing charter authority to responsibly clear the bureaucratic red tape that traditionally stalls infrastructure projects and withholds funds. While we understand that the most impactful policies may require changes in legislation, we ask that you explore all avenues at the local level to improve outcomes for the city and its business partners.
The Building Congress thanks you for your leadership during this tumultuous time and we look forward to the opportunity to work with you in realizing these policies over the next five months.
Very truly yours,
Carlo A. Scissura, Esq.
President & CEO
New York Building Congress
