Manhattan - State of the Borough conference at CUNY by Borough President Mark Levine

Hey Manhattan, how you doin’? 

That is certainly a great question to ask the wealthiest and most famous New York City borough after two and a half years of pandemic-related measures and restrictions that heavily harmed the Big Apple.

The occasion to receive some answers was the Manhattan State of the Borough conference by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine that took place last January 31st at the sumptuous Shepard Hall at the City University of New York campus.

Cristina Contreras - Photo © jrfstudio

The ceremony was hosted by Cristina Contreras,  CEO of NYC Health  and Chair of the Dominican Day Parade. A brief salute was given by Vincent Boudreau, President of CUNY, who reminded the audience that the institution is celebrating its 175th anniversary and, with pride, stands as the oldest school in America that provides free public education.

Vincent Boudreau - Photo © jrfstudio

After the performance of the national anthem, executed by the young talent Denaijiah Pimentel, and the invocations by local religious leaders, the main stage welcomed the City Mayor Eric Adams, who, after a quick acknowledgment and remark of the City's effort to get back on its feet after the pandemic, then introduced the Borough President Mark Levine for his speech.

Mayor Eric Adams - Photo © jrfstudio

Mr. Levine started by addressing that over the last 20 years, Manhattan has faced many challenges:  from 9/11 to the 2008 financial crisis, from Sandy Storm to the covid-19 pandemic, but on every occasion, the people of Manhattan have shown character, resilience, and the firm will to build back, rise, and keep growing. And he showed confidence in believing that it won’t be different for the necessary rebuild required by the post-pandemic.

Manhattan Borough President Mark D. Levine - Photo © jrfstudio

He also stressed right away the two main issues for the city, which are also the challenges on which the administration will focus as a priority in the immediate future: homelessness and the eviction crisis. But before addressing the solutions that will be implemented, he went over a brief and omnicomprehensive report on the main initiatives and activities of and for the borough for the upcoming years.

Manhattan will support workers and small businesses as well as its schools by monitoring the activities of the unions, adding a $2 million small businesses loan program by a local Jewish organization, and increasing the number of teachers in computing and robotics. 

When it comes to Public Health and the environment, the president announced the plan to plant 1 million more trees on the island of Manhattan, especially in those areas with less public green, which often are also those were leave underserved communities.

In addition will be created a new agency, the Waterfront Protection Agency, which will consolidate 11 previous different offices. The City will also focus on improving air circulation and filtering in buildings and will improve trash collection in the areas that most need it. 

Mr. Levine also announced an ambitious project to finally implement an effective system of public bathrooms, promising that there will be one public restroom facility for each Manhattan zip code. 

He also mentioned the support given by the state government to fund the re-qualification of East Harlem and Chinatown with two contributions of respectively 10 and 20 million dollars.

In the conclusive part of his speech, the president outlined how he plans to solve the crisis of homelessness and evictions. He underlined that he envisions a common solution for the two problems, which he believes have a common origin in the shortage of rentable units and affordable housing; Those factors have caused the rents in the City to skyrocket to an unacceptable height, considering that the average rent in Manhattan is $5,000.

That is why he announced the program ‘Housing Manhattanites:’ In several areas of the island have been identified more than 170 suitable sites, and the program aims at building 70,000 new homes and 30,000 affordable units.

Certainly, the issues addressed are essential and prominent, and the city urgently needs implementations on those plans that, to be fair, sounded effective and auspicable. We are looking forward to, and we hope to see them becoming a reality.

On the downside, we were quite baffled to see that it wasn't mentioned or addressed all the very concerning spike in crime and violence all over the City, and the fact that the citizens of Manhattan feel and are much more unsafe now compared to just few years ago.

Deafening was also the silence about the profound economic crisis in key areas such as Broadway, Wall Street, and the Lower East Side.

We will surely keep monitoring the Borough’s activities and keep you, our readers, informed and update

Article and photos by Joseph Ralph Fraia - @jrfstudio - jrfstudio.com