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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Justin Wood from NYLPI on strengthening the charter's Fair Share provisions
1:57:49
·
3 min
Justin Wood from New York Lawyers for the Public Interest calls the commission's attention to the city charter's Fair Share provisions, intended to ensure equitable distribution of city services and burdens.
Citing city reports and NYLPI's work, he argues these provisions have largely failed, pointing to ongoing disparities in solid waste facility siting (burdening North Brooklyn, South Bronx, SE Queens), unequal access to mental health crisis response programs like BeHEARD (which excludes Staten Island), and transportation inequities (lack of BRT, bus lanes, bike share on Staten Island).
Wood urges the commission to explore charter changes to make Fair Share principles more effective.
- Fair Share provisions (1989 Charter) aimed for equitable distribution of burdens/benefits.
- Multiple city reports show persistent inequities decades later.
- Examples: Concentrated waste transfer stations, limited/uneven BeHEARD mental health response, lack of transit options/bike share on Staten Island.
- Urges commission to find charter mechanisms to bolster Fair Share enforcement.
Justin Wood
1:57:49
Good evening, chair Burry and members of the commission.
1:57:53
Thanks for the opportunity to testify.
1:57:55
My name is Justin Wood, and I'm the director of policy at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
1:58:00
Founded in 1976, we're a civil rights community legal organization with programs in disability justice, environmental justice, and health justice.
1:58:09
I actually wanted to draw your attention to a different area of the charter, and that's the fair share provisions that were part of the 1989 charter review commission, and passed that year by the voters.
1:58:24
In the deck, the intent of the fair share provisions was to ensure that New Yorkers more equitably share in environmental burdens and environmental goods, same with other forms of city service, access to health care, pretty much anything that's within the city's control.
1:58:41
In the decades since that reform was passed, multiple reports by the city council in 2017, the comptroller in 2019, and again by the city comptroller recently in 2023 showed continue to show large disparities between community access to these goods and burdens.
1:59:00
So we wanted to encourage the commission to look at whether there are additional, changes to the charter that could be put before the voters make this fair share a lived reality for more New York communities.
1:59:13
I'll just briefly draw your attention to three examples that we're actively working on in in partnership and in representation of of grassroots community groups.
1:59:22
One is solid waste.
1:59:24
I'm also a Staten Island resident.
1:59:27
Solid waste comes up a lot here.
1:59:30
In the years since this has passed, solid waste has remained one of the most unequal burdens in the city.
1:59:37
There's still 75% of solid waste being processed in a few communities where private waste transfer stations dominate in North Brooklyn, South Bronx, and Southeast Queens.
1:59:48
We've simply not seen the commitment in areas like waste and those and those aspects of the transportation system that were are within the city's control to following through on legislation duly passed by the city council and signed by the mayor, to seeing that through to equitable development and equitable relief of burdens in these areas.
2:00:09
Another example from our disability and health justice practice would be the city's BeHEARD program, the, mental health crisis response.
2:00:17
We have major issues with this program and think it needs to be substantially reformed to be a true nonpolice mental health crisis response.
2:00:24
But even having said that, it's a limited program that applies to limited parts of the city.
2:00:30
Staten Island, where we are tonight, is completely excluded.
2:00:34
We could draw your attention to many other aspects of the transportation system where we have local examples here on Staten Island, lack of access to bus rapid transit, lack of access to bus lanes, which remain highly concentrated in Manhattan.
2:00:49
We're in a borough that has zero city bike or bike share.
2:00:53
So I invite the commission to, explore ways in which fare share can be bolstered.
2:01:01
Couple of other areas.
2:01:02
Actually, I'll leave it there, and we'll submit the other areas as a nonprofit contractor in our our written testimony.
2:01:07
Thank you so much.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
2:01:08
Thank you so much.