Desegregating Nyc Twelve Steps Toward a More Inclusive City

DESEGREGATING NYC TWELVE STEPS TOWARD A MORE INCLUSIVE CITY

A REPORT BY COUNCIL MEMBER BRAD LANDER DEPUTY LEADER FOR POLICY NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL

APRIL 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A REPORT BY This report was co-authored by Brad Lander and Annie Levers (Policy & COUNCIL MEMBER BRAD LANDER Budget Director). Caroline Iosso and DEPUTY LEADER FOR POLICY Varun Gulati provided essential research NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL and assistance. The agenda builds upon the work of many civil rights activists, students, parents, educators, researchers, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH and other elected officials. We are Council Member Robert Cornegy especially grateful to Matt Gonzales and Council Member Laurie Cumbo David Tipson of Appleseed NY; Sarah Council Member Stephen Levin Camiscoli, Sarah Zapiler, Hebh Jamal and Council Member Carlos Menchaca the student leaders of IntegrateNYC; Council Member Keith Powers Ingrid Gould Ellen of the Furman Center; Council Member Antonio Reynoso Barika Williams of ANHD; Chanera Council Member Donovan Richards Pierce of the Fair Housing Justice Center; Council Member Carlina Rivera David R. Jones, Esq. and Lazar Treschan Council Member Ritchie Torres of the Community Service Society, and Council Member Jumaane Williams the work of Nikole Hannah-Jones for pushing our thinking. We have sought to credit public, policy, and activist leadership in this report, and apologize where we have fallen short. INTRODUCTION

New York City rightfully takes great reality that New York’s schools are pride in its diversity. However, fifty among the most segregated in the years after the Fair Housing Act of 1968 country, with 85 percent of black (passed one week after Martin Luther students and 75 percent of Latino King Jr. was killed), our city remains students attending “intensely” more segregated than most metropolitan segregated schools (schools that are areas in the United States. In recent less than 10 percent white). This is true decades, many cities around the country both for geographically-zoned became more integrated; the average elementary schools, for non-zoned high- black-white “dissimilarity index” (the schools, and for most of what’s in- most common measure of residential between. segregation) fell from 73.1 to 59.4 between 1980 and 2010. New York City’s Public transportation and infrastructure remained stagnant at 81.6. That means policy has also furthered segregation. over 80% of white or black New Yorkers While we acknowledge the history of would have to move to a different Robert Moses using highways and park neighborhood in order for blacks and construction to divide communities by whites to be equally distributed across race, we often ignore the ways that NYC. disproportionately siting waste-transfer stations and other locally-unwanted Like our neighborhoods, our schools are land uses in communities of color segregated. In 2014, the UCLA Civil perpetuate health disparities and cycles Rights Project exposed the of disinvestment.

1 INTRODUCTION

Segregation is corrosive, for both There’s no inherent benefit to living or opportunity and democracy. Extreme learning around white people (as is levels of segregation—like those we sometimes implied or inferred from have in NYC today—perpetuate integration conversations). There are racialized inequality, since residential very real concerns about racial animus mobility and high-quality public schools and displacement. Our goal cannot be are primary avenues of social mobility. moving a few black kids into a white Whiter neighborhoods school, or displacing low- and disproportionately feature high-quality moderate-income families through schools (with well-funded PTAs), well- gentrification. tended parks, health-food stores and gyms, and good transit connections. Still, if we want a city of equal Communities of color are opportunity and inclusive democracy, we disproportionately transit-deserts, with have no choice but to aim for purposeful higher crime, poverty, and asthma rates. integration. Segregated neighborhoods cannot offer our families equal access to Over the past few years, we have begun opportunity. Segregated schools cannot to renew conversations about teach our kids inclusive democracy. segregation after several decades of denial. They are not easy conversations. At this moment in history, in a world It is uncomfortable for many white New increasingly motivated by tribalism, New Yorkers to acknowledge the ways that York City has a profound opportunity. segregated schools and neighborhoods We can show that it is possible to have amount to hoarding privilege. a vibrant, creative, inclusive city where no one race or ethnicity is in the At the same time, there are real reasons majority, where equal opportunity is that people of color are skeptical of meaningful, and where the diversity of traditional conversations about our schools and neighborhoods reflects integration. the diversity of our city.

2 INTRODUCTION

Public policies in housing, education, and infrastructure helped to create a segregated New York City. At this critical moment, 50 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the passage of the Fair Housing Act, they must help to desegregate it.

This report lays out an agenda for desegregating New York City, 12 steps after we get past denial. These steps will not undo the federal, state and local policies that have contributed to NYC’s segregation over many decades (along with private acts of discrimination, and countless individual choices). But they would put us on a path to a more inclusive and equitable city, where our diversity truly was our strength.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Step 1: Make “Affirmatively Furthering 8 DESEGREGATING Fair Housing” (AFFH) the law and ongoing DESEGROEUGRA TING OUR NNEEIGIGHHBBOORHOOOODDSS practice of New York City

Step 2: Commit to inclusionary housing 9 through neighborhood rezonings in “high opportunity neighborhoods,” not just in low-income communities of color

Step 3: Fight housing discrimination in 12 co-ops (and rentals, too)

Step 4: Strengthen rent regulations as a 13 strategy for integration without displacement

Step 5: Reform high-school admissions 17 DESEGREGATING policies OUR SCHOOLS Step 6: Adopt district-wide “controlled 19 choice” approaches for middle schools in diverse but segregated community-school districts

Step 7: Pilot new approaches to integrate 20 elementary schools

Step 8: Ensure equity and inclusion, 21 through the “5Rs of real integration” (including culturally responsive education, equitable access to resources, restorative justice, and a diverse teaching staff) RECOMMENDATIONS

Step 9: Fix NYC’s broken “fair-share” 25 DESEGREGATING system to insure that every OUR INFRASTRUCTURE community gets and does their fair share

Step 10: Turn around NYC’s bus 27 system to connect more New Yorkers to opportunity

Step 11: Establish a NYC Office of 30 OVERSIGHT AND Integration to drive progress across ACCOUNTABILITY agencies and systems

Step 12: Create a shared public 30 dashboard on segregation in NYC, to hold agencies—and all us— accountable for progress DESEGREGATING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

New York City has an extraordinarily That means that about 4.9 million New diverse population. As of the last Census Yorkers, three quarters of us, are living in 2010, no single racial group made up in neighborhoods that are isolated from more than 33 percent of the city’s people of other races. 1 population. The immigrant population has grown to 3.3 million, or nearly 40 As Richard Rothstein has described in percent of New York City’s population as detail in his 2017 book, The Color of of 2017. Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America, this Despite this diversity, New York City segregation did not happen “naturally,” remains more segregated than most or simply as a result of individual metropolitan areas in the United States. choices within the marketplace. Between 1980 and 2010, cities around Segregation was built and preserved—in the country became more integrated; the NYC and everywhere else in America—by average black-white dissimilarity index a long list of policies implemented by (the most common measure of federal, state and local governments residential segregation) fell from 73.1 to over many years: redlining, segregated 59.4. New York City remained stagnant public housing, exclusionary zoning, at 81.6. That means 81.6 percent of neighborhood schools, and many more. white or black New Yorkers would have to move to a different neighborhood in Unfortunately, even before the roll- order for blacks and whites to be backs by the Trump Administration, too equally distributed across NYC. little has been done by the Federal government to enforce the promise of Put another way, only about 26 percent desegregation in the Fair Housing Act of of New Yorkers live in meaningfully 1968, or to fulfill the promise of school integrated neighborhoods. integration from Brown vs. Board of Education fifteen years earlier.

1. Housing: The Paradox of Inclusion and Segregation in the Nation’s Melting Pot.” Co-authored with Maxwell 7 Austensen and Jessica Yager. In Benjamin Bowser and Chelli Davedutt, Eds., Racial Inequality in New York City: Looking Backward and Forward. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, Forthcoming DESEGREGATING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

Step 1.

Fair Housing Act enforcement has been Make “Affirmatively Furthering Fair limited to a couple hundred private and Housing” (AFFH) the law and ongoing non-profit fair housing organizations practice of New York City. who investigate, resolve and remedy acts of housing discrimination across While the Fair Housing Act prohibits the entire country; but broader patterns discrimination in housing, it has done of residential segregation have little to combat long-standing patterns remained shielded from policy of segregation, many of which were intervention. created and reinforced by decades of public policy. In response to this issue, Residential segregation affects housing the Obama administration adopted a options, poverty rates, school new rule in 2015 that required localities performance, college access, levels of that receive federal funds to assess their safety and crime, rates of asthma, and segregation patterns and develop plans the long-run outcomes for children. As to “affirmatively further” fair housing recently as this past spring, Mayor de and work proactively to integrate those Blasio said in response to a question neighborhoods. The rule explicitly about segregation that “we cannot required localities to take steps to change the basic reality of housing in expand housing options for all New York City.” But we simply will not households, reduce segregation and be able to eliminate these disparities concentrated poverty and invest in high- without reducing rates of segregation. poverty communities to expand Here are some next steps we can and opportunities for low-income Americans. should take. The Obama-era AFFH rule was a long- overdue step toward ensuring we meet the obligations and intent of the Fair Housing Act.

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Under Donald Trump and Ben Carson, Planning for fair housing and HUD has reversed course and announced integrated communities should be made it will delay implementation for five the law of New York City, to build a years (HUD has also moved backward on legally mandated, durable platform for the enforcement of more basic types of our work to confront segregation. This housing discrimination as well). week, the City Council will hear Intro 601-2018 (Speaker Johnson), which Thankfully, the NYC Department of would require this process by law, and Housing Preservation and Development insure that once completed it is (HPD), under the leadership of updated on an annual basis, and Intro Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer, 607-2018 (Council Member Richards), has committed to move forward with its which would require that the city AFFH planning process nonetheless. This review each new affordable housing spring, Torres-Springer announced the project to make sure it furthers fair launch of Where We Live NYC, “a housing goals. comprehensive fair housing planning process to study, understand, and address patterns of residential segregation and how these patterns Step 2. impact New Yorkers' access to Commit to inclusionary housing through opportunity.” The process will include neighborhood rezonings in “high community conversations, data and opportunity neighborhoods,” not just in policy analysis, and will culminate with low-income communities of color. a report in Fall 2019 that includes goals and strategies “to foster inclusive Historically, most affordable housing communities, promote fair housing programs have built low-income choice, and increase access to housing in low-income neighborhoods. opportunity for all New Yorkers.” Sometimes, the goal was explicitly discriminatory, to keep low-income people out of wealthier, whiter neighborhoods.

9 FAIR HOUSING TOOLS FOR A 21ST CENTURY NEW YORK CITY

HUD’s traditional fair housing enforcement tools were developed during a time of disinvestment and suburbanization, rather than one of gentrification and displacement. That means NYC will need to pilot a new set of tools.

To the limited extent that HUD officials have been concerned about segregation, they have primarily sought to insure that cities did not concentrate new affordable housing for low-income families in high-poverty, disinvested neighborhoods. This meant seeking to limit the use of low-income housing tax credits in those neighborhoods, pushing against “community preference” requirements that offered a set-aside of affordable units to households already in those neighborhoods, and introducing “small area fair market rents (FMR)” for housing vouchers.

But these policies make little sense to low-income families in communities experiencing rapid gentrification and displacement. The community preference set- aside (currently 50% of affordable units in most NYC-subsidized affordable housing) is the primary reason why local residents support new construction of affordable housing in their neighborhoods. And the “small area FMR” rule had a bizarre consequence. While a tenant would have been able to pay $2,365 (up from $1,815) to rent a unit in downtown Brooklyn—a welcome change—they would only have been able to pay $1,287 (down from $1,727) in the South Bronx, making it difficult for families who lived there to find any housing at all.

New tools are needed to achieve integration. We need stronger policies that achieve the development of significant new affordable housing in wealthier neighborhoods, without eliminating the ability to build and preserve affordable units in poorer ones. It is reasonable to leverage development to mandate affordable units (without subsidy) in high-cost neighborhoods, and to balance that with deploying subsidies to achieve affordability in neighborhoods where the market is not strong enough to cross-subsidize. We also need to implement stronger rules to help low-income families stay in their neighborhoods, if they choose, as gentrification increases the rent. And we need to better connect housing, education, transportation, infrastructure, health, and economic development policy.

NYC’s fair housing planning process must put forward a set of new, concrete, measurable strategies that make sense for NYC at this moment. This report is an attempt to lay out what some of those might be.

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Other times, the motive was less Community organizing efforts in these nefarious: as New York City worked to neighborhoods have resulted in some confront the abandonment crisis of the concrete wins through the rezoning 1970s and 1980s, the City used process, including meaningful subsidies to renovate abandoned investments in infrastructure, buildings in low-income communities to community services, and more deeply combat the ravages of disinvestment. affordable units. Still, thus far, Regardless of the motives, though, the communities of color have carried the policies functioned to further burden of easing New York City’s segregation. housing crisis through MIH—thought the crisis affects neighborhoods across Mandatory inclusionary housing (MIH)—a every borough. core part of Mayor de Blasio’s housing plan—has significant potential to To realize the potential of MIH to support the intentional desegregation of increase overall housing opportunities New York City. citywide, and to achieve integration without displacement, the City must The program, which requires low-income also rezone whiter, wealthier housing units to be included in new neighborhoods to create affordable market-rate and mixed-income housing housing opportunities all across NYC. in areas that have been rezoned to allow for additional development, has the The first neighborhood rezoning with potential to increase and improve the potential to achieve this is Gowanus, housing options across the city for low- where an integrated neighborhood could income people and people of color. be created through new inclusionary housing development, in-between the However, all of the MIH neighborhood mostly white neighborhoods of Carroll rezonings thus far have taken place in Gardens, Boerum Hill, and Park low-income neighborhoods: East New Slope. To achieve this goal, the plan York, Far Rockaway, East Harlem, and must not only create new affordable Jerome Avenue in the South Bronx. housing in mixed-income development, but must also strengthen and preserve

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strengthen and preserve the public Over the past four years, that has been housing units in the neighborhood, and changing, with strong new leadership insure that the residents of Wyckoff from Chair Carmelyn Malalis and Gardens, Gowanus, and Warren Street significantly increased funding. houses are better connected to opportunities in the neighborhood. In 2015, the New York City Council passed a bill requiring a fair housing But adding one or two wealthier testing program at the NYC Commission neighborhoods to a list that remains on Human Rights (CCHR) to identify and predominantly communities of color is prosecute illegal housing discrimination not sufficient. If the fair housing (including race, ethnicity, immigration planning process is real, it must lead to status, LGBTQ, and source-of-income comprehensive citywide planning, with discrimination). During these testing desegregation as one of its goals, that programs, undercover “testers” from sets the City’s agenda for growth and protected classes, and others who are development going forward. not, apply for rental housing units in order to uncover any differences in treatment. In 2016, Commission testing Step 3. found 75 incidents of housing discrimination based on gender identity Fight housing discrimination and source of income. The City should in co-ops (and rentals, too). further increase funding for CCHR to ensure the agency can proactively Discrimination in the selling, renting, combat housing discrimination through and leasing of housing is illegal under its testing program and effectively local, state and federal law. For too enforce the law as the City continues to long, however, little has been done to expand the classes protected under the enforce these laws. For most of the City's Human Rights Law. Giuliani and Bloomberg Administrations, the NYC Commission on Human Rights Unfortunately, housing co-ops present a (CCHR) was allowed to atrophy, and particular challenge in rooting out little proactive action was taken. housing discrimination

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Step 4.

Testing programs do not work for co-op Strengthen rent regulations as a sales, since testers do not have credit strategy for integration without reports and equity in their bank displacement. accounts. The application process to purchase a co-op is notoriously onerous Rent regulations are an and opaque, with little transparency. underappreciated, but perhaps most While many co-ops are diverse and free important, policy for a diverse city. of discrimination, allegations of Strong rent regulations enable low- and discrimination in co-ops abound, but are moderate-income tenants to stay in difficult to prove. their neighborhoods as rents rise—a critical policy to preserving integrated Given the staggering black/white wealth neighborhoods, especially as gap—much greater even than the gap in gentrification continues to roll across income—in a nation where most NYC’s neighborhoods. people’s primary asset is their home, it is particularly important to combat Unfortunately, loopholes in New York’s discrimination and segregation in NYC’s rent laws cause thousands of units to be co-op marketplace. To do so, the Council lost every year, 65 percent of which are should pass Intro’s 1458-2017 (Council occupied by people of color. Through Member Lander) and 1467-2017 the “preferential rent” loophole, (Council Member Jumaane Williams) landlords are allowed to raise the which would require co-op boards to regulated rent over many years (even provide a reason for the rejection of an when the market will not bear it), and applicant and insure that applicants then dramatically increase the rent receive timely approvals and denials. when gentrification suddenly makes it Fair housing and civil rights experts achievable. Vacancy decontrol and agree that this simple requirement vacancy bonuses—loopholes won would make it more difficult to hide through landlord lobbying over decades outright discrimination. Suffolk County —incentivize landlords to harass rent- already has such a law in place. New regulated tenants out of their homes so York City should follow. they can dramatically increase rents for

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future renters and ultimately deregulate the units entirely.

While eliminating these loopholes will require action in Albany, we include it here because it is the most important public policy step we can take to achieve integration without displacement in many neighborhoods. If they are on the side of desegregation, Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature must act to close these loopholes.

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Sixty years after Brown v. Board of A 2017 analysis by the Center for New Education declared that “separate York City Affairs found that our schools but equal” schools are inherently are even more divided than our housing. unequal, New York City’s schools Forty-five percent of New York City’s have re-segregated. In 2014, UCLA’s elementary schools have student Civil Rights Project published a populations that are 90% black and report that found that New York has Latino—and nearly 20 percent of these the most segregated schools in the schools are located in relatively country, owing largely to New York integrated neighborhoods. This suggests City’s deeply stratified system. Over that residential segregation is not the the last 20 years, the uneven only factor in school segregation. distribution of white, black, and Latino students has increased, Middle schools and high schools are despite growing diversity. Between highly segregated as well. In Brooklyn, 1989 and 2010, intensely segregated for example, three of the 12 middle schools, or those that are over 90 schools in District 15 contain 81 percent percent minority, increased by 70 of the white student population. Within percent in NYC. Almost all of the those three middle schools, fewer than City’s black and Latino students 30 percent of students come from low- attended schools with 50 percent or income families. Meanwhile, the three greater minority students. The vast middle schools at the other end of the majority of those students were at spectrum have student bodies that are schools with at least 90 percent only 10 percent white, and more than 90 minority students, while 30 percent percent low-income. attended schools with less than 1 percent white students. Charter According to a report by NYU Steinhardt, schools present even more there are nearly 7 times the number of disturbing patterns. Seventy-three racially isolated high schools as there percent of charter schools have less are diverse ones (192 versus 28). than 1 percent white enrollment, and 90 percent enroll less than 10 percent white students.

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When it comes to specialized high To be clear: there is no inherent benefit schools, the statistics are also to the mere presence of white students deeply troubling. In a city where in a racially isolated school, or to a Black and Latino kids are 68% of the student of color in a predominantly student population, they made up white school. Purposeful integration is only 9% of the incoming class. While not about making sure that students of 55 percent of Asian high-performing color are around white students. It is 7th graders and 27 percent of white about making sure that we treat all high-performing 7th graders attend students equally; and decades of history specialized high schools, only about show that we cannot achieve this in 14 percent of high-performing Black racially and economically segregated and Latino students attend these schools. schools. As the result of persistent advocacy Decades of national research from students, parents, educators, and demonstrates that diverse schools civil rights advocates (including yield benefits for all students. In an IntegrateNYC and the Alliance for analysis of 2015-2016 New York City School Integration and Desegregation), school performance, third and eighth NYC has finally begun to recognize the grade students from more diverse harms of school segregation and the schools performed better on state vast potential that diverse, inclusive standardized tests in English and schools hold for our kids’ futures. math than students in less diverse schools. High school students in New In 2014, the 60th anniversary of Brown York City’s more diverse schools are v. Board, the City Council held a 10-hour also more likely to graduate within 4 hearing on the topic, leading to the years than students in segregated 2015 passage of the School Diversity schools. And there are many other Accountability Act (sponsored by Council positive outcomes for students Members Lander and Torres). The Act attending diverse schools, including requires the Department of Education to higher college attendance and publish an annual report with detailed graduation levels and higher income school-by-school demographic data, and occupational attainment. down to the grade level (and within specialized

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efforts and initiatives to strengthen Now is the time for heavier lifting. The diversity. An accompanying resolution New York Times’ to-do list for incoming called on the DOE to officially make Chancellor Richard Carranza places school diversity a priority in admissions action on segregation as #1. If he’s and related policies, and to develop a looking to answer the call, here are strategy for addressing segregation. some steps he will take.

Two years later, in June 2017, the DOE released Equity and Excellence for All: Step 5. Diversity in NYC’s Public Schools. The plan made clear that diverse schools are Reform high-school admissions policies. a policy priority for the City. For the first time, it set numeric targets for At the elementary school level, and in increasing the number of students in many middle-school districts, our racially representative schools (by schools are segregated because our 50,000), and decreasing the number in communities are segregated. At the economically stratified ones (by 10%). It high-school level, there is no such began to set out strategies for achieving excuse. DOE organizes the high-school those targets. And it established a admissions process through a broadly School Diversity Advisory Group unified citywide assignment system. We including students, educators, and assign all the students, to all the advocates to oversee the process. schools.

Unfortunately, the plan falls short on Nonetheless, our high schools remain as many fronts. The plan failed to use the segregated as our elementary schools, words “segregation” or “integration,” with black and Latino students just as instead relying on the more anodyne isolated in schools with dramatically “diversity.” An analysis by the Center for higher rates of poverty. There are three NYC Affairs found that “achieving [the key ways the DOE should reform NYC’s plan’s numeric goals] will require little high-school admissions policies: or no systemic changes to the city’s schools. No heavy lifting will be needed to meet them.”

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1) applying a controlled choice admissions policies, these ed opt approach, citywide 2) increasing the schools would have a fighting chance at number of “Educational Option” schools, filling their quotas for above-average and 3) reserving 50% of the seats at students. specialized high schools for top achievers from every NYC middle For the specialized high schools, the schools. most achievable proposal is to offer half the slots to top achievers in every NYC Applying a “controlled choice” approach middle schools (as proposed both by the across the NYC high-school application Community Service Society and City process would balance student choice Council Member Keith Powers). Those with the goal of integration by top achieving students are far more weighting factors including income reflective of the diversity of NYC (free/reduced lunch eligibility), English students than their current students. Language Learners, homelessness, etc. The other half of the slots would still be At present, only 5 high-schools take a allocated based on test scores (either “diversity in admissions” approach. the SHSAT, or NYS tests), making room Every NYC high school—and especially for those with strong potential who are every screened high school—should do not at the top of their middle-school so. class. For Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech, these changes would As recent work by Teens Take Charge require a change in New York State law. shows, increasing achievement diversity For Brooklyn Latin, the High School for is a great way of increasing socio- Math, Science and Engineering, the High economic diversity. Increasing the School of American Studies, Queens number of “Educational Option” (or “ed High School for the Sciences and Staten opt”) schools, which admit students who Island Tech, we believe the NYC DOE have high, middle and low reading could re-designate these schools as levels, has the potential to increase screened schools and implement the student diversity. In the context of new approach on its own. NYC’s current high school admissions process, these schools often struggle to attract high performers, namely to competitive screened and specialized high schools. In combination with controlled-choice and reforms to specialized high schools’ 18 DESEGREGATING OUR SCHOOLS

first district-wide “Diversity in Step 6. Admissions” pilot program in NYC for the elementary schools of District 1 in Adopt district-wide “controlled the Lower East Side and Chinatown. The choice” approaches for middle plan (developed with DOE leadership schools in diverse but segregated from Deputy Chancellor Josh Wallack community-school districts. and District 1 Superintendent Daniella Phillips, and supported by Council The DOE’s “Diversity in Admissions” Members Margaret Chin and Carlina pilot, first announced in 2015 in Rivera) is a version of “controlled response to a proposal from school choice,” a policy originally implemented principals, marked the DOE’s first in Cambridge, MA and used around the concrete step toward reforming country (often in response to civil rights school admissions policies to lawsuits). Controlled choice adjusts proactively encourage integration. In admissions formulas to balance parents’ a handful of majority-white preferences with integration goals, so elementary schools, students who that each school in a district better qualified for free and reduced lunch, matches the overall demographics of the English language learners and district. The plan for District 1, students in the child welfare system including a “family resource center” to were given a certain percentage of help make it work, is set to go into priority seats. This pilot, however, effect this fall. focused exclusively on individual schools rather than entire school The next stop for a district-wide plan in districts, limiting its scope and New York City is likely the middle impact. schools of District 15 in Brooklyn, a diverse but highly segregated district. In This fall, in response to years of response to advocacy from Council advocacy by parents in Community Members Brad Lander and Carlos School Districts 1, 3, and 13 Menchaca, the D15 Community (especially Lisa Donlan and Naomi Education Council (including former Pena for CEC1, the Parent Leadership President Naila Rosario), and Parents for Project/District 3 Equity in Education Middle School Equity, and with a strong Task Force, and David Goldsmith of of CEC13), the DOE announced the

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Step 7. leadership role from DOE’s Director of Community Affairs Sadye Campoamor, Pilot new approaches to elementary DOE hired the planning firm WXY to schools. develop a community plan for more integrated middle-schools. When initial Elementary schools present the greatest meetings of a potential steering challenge, since they are zoned committee met with pushback, WXY geographically within a residentially conducted additional outreach, segregated city—and many parents developed a deeper process, and agreed across races want the option to send to focus on what happens inside of their child to a neighborhood school. schools in addition to the admissions Nonetheless, Vox recently outlined in process. The result, so far, is an detail how districts can draw school inclusive planning process that has won zones to make classrooms less praise from many stakeholders who are segregated. The DOE should commit to traditionally skeptical. The goal is to the following steps four steps to achieve have a plan by the end of the year. more integrated elementary schools: 1) commit that all school rezoning (for new Controlled choice only works in schools, or to alleviate overcrowding) geographies with a diverse student will achieve greater levels of population, and where families have the integration 2) in rezoning racially opportunity to choose from among an homogenous school districts, set-aside array of schools. Sadly, many of NYC’s seats for students outside the school community school districts (whose lines zone 3) pilot “school-pairing” and 4) are set by State law) lack sufficient ensure classrooms remain diverse within diversity. However, about 14 of the 32 integrated schools. districts are fairly diverse, though often internally segregated (Districts 1, 3, 13, In fiscal years 2016 and 2017, the New 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31) York City School Construction Authority —exactly the right kind of geography to constructed a total of 54 new schools implement controlled choice. The DOE and additions. should look to shift the middle-school systems of these district (which generally already involve choice within the community school district) to controlled choice.

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Every time a new school opens, or lines impact) in response to backlash from are adjusted to address overcrowding, white parents. School pairing is a the DOE should take that opportunity to system in which two segregated schools achieve greater levels of integration. are combined, with one use for lower The DOE has done this in several recent grades (Pre-K to 2), one for upper grades situations: at PS 130 in Kensington, PS (3 to 5). This model would work 133 in Park Slope, PS 8/PS 307 in especially well across the lines of two Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO/Vinegar Hill, segregated community school districts. and PS 191/PS 199/PS 452 on the Upper West Side (with strong advocacy from Finally, the DOE must ensure that Council Member Helen Rosenthal on the diversity seen within a integrated UWS, and Council Members Levin, elementary school is reflected at the Cumbo, and Lander in Brooklyn). It classroom level. In some cases, should commit to do so every time. This elementary schools look diverse, but are analysis by Vox’s Elvin Chang helps to segregated internally between Gifted & point the way. Talented, General Ed, and specialized program classrooms. DOE must ensure When school rezonings take place in that diverse elementary schools are not racially and economically homogeneous segregated internally. neighborhood, the DOE should use that opportunity to increase the diversity of the district’s student population, leaving Step 8. a percentage of seats available for students outside the zone. This would Insure equity and inclusion, through the allow for schools to engage in targeted “5Rs of real integration” (including recruitment efforts to achieve increased culturally responsive education,” diversity. equitable access to resources, restorative justice, and a diverse “School-pairing” is a model that has teaching staff). worked well in Madison, Wisconsin and elsewhere. It was tried briefly in NYC in The work to integrate New York City’s the 1960s, but eliminated rapidly schools only begins with admitting a (before any evidence of its diverse student body.

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As Dr. King stated in 1962: Without such an approach, white school When the desegregation process is 100% staff often have lower expectations for complete, the human relations dilemma of students of color, are more likely to our nation will still be monumental unless suspend students of color than white we launch now the parallel thrust of the students for the same behaviors (which integration process…. In the context of is also supported by this more recent what our national community needs, deep dive into the data), have desegregation is empty and shallow… inadequate book options by and about Desegregation is eliminative and negative, people of color, and want to discuss for it simply removes these legal and race in the classroom, but feel social prohibitions. Integration is creative, unprepared to do so. and therefore more profound and far- reaching than desegregation….Integration CEJ presents a robust proposal for is the genuine intergroup, interpersonal addressing these disparities, which doing… I may do well in a segregated includes: diversity in the teaching staff, society but I can never know what my an inclusive and representative total capacity is until I live in an curriculum, attention to school culture integrated society. and equity in discipline, professional development, and support for parent engagement across lines of difference. IntegrateNYC, the student wing of the The Council and de Blasio school integration movement, provides a Administration should fully back this useful framework for having discussions proposal and prioritize funding for beyond the desegregation efforts, called training, parent engagement, curriculum the “5Rs” of real integration (race & development and diversity recruitment enrollment, resource allocation, efforts in coming years. relationships, restorative justice, and representation). The Coalition for The Council can also play a role in Educational Justice (CEJ) platform for requiring transparency and culturally-responsive education is accountability in addressing these closely aligned with those 5Rs to help close the achievement gap between students of color and white students, once schools are successfully desegregated.

22 DESEGREGATING OUR SCHOOLS

disparities and closing achievement gaps. In recent years, the Council has required that the DOE provide reports on resource allocation of school counselors (Intro 0403-2014), and disparities in discipline (Intro 0442-2010). To address discrepancies in funding for after school athletics programs, the Council should consider Council Member Antonio Reynoso’s Intro 242-2018, which would require the Department of Education to report on funding for athletic teams and facilities, cross-referenced to student demographics.

23 DESEGREGATING OUR INFRASTUCTURE

As with housing and education, districts–Brooklyn 1 (Williamsburg and public transportation and Greenpoint), Bronx 1 (Mott Haven), infrastructure policy has too often Bronx 2 (Hunts Point), and Queens 12 been tool for segregation. (Jamaica)–that are (or were, at the time Throughout the 1930s, most of of the stations’ sitings) overwhelmingly Robert Moses’s public parks and communities of color. These waste playgrounds were built intentionally transfer stations expose communities of out-of-reach of black and Hispanic color to dirtier air, more truck traffic on New Yorkers. His interstate highway residential streets, and more noise, all projects demolished whole of which have a negative impact on communities, clogging community health. neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bronx with cars and traffic, while Without meaningful reform, residential affluent white neighborhoods segregation and unfairness in the City’s remained untouched. facility siting process will continue to reinforce one another in a system that New York City’s “fair-share” process overwhelmingly burdens communities of was intended to address disparities color. A recent national study suggests in the siting of infrastructure. that all people who live in racially Unfortunately, that process has not divided communities are exposed to meaningfully improved how or where higher levels of pollution, regardless of we decide to site our City facilities. race. The report states that: Race and neighborhood continue to be the driving factors, rather than “the correlations could arise from causal fairness and distributional equity. linkages in either or both directions: the Waste transfer stations, for instance, ability to displace pollution onto remain highly concentrated in minorities may lower the effective cost of communities of color: 76 percent of pollution for the total citywide permitted capacity for waste disposal is allocated to stations in just four community

24 pollution burdens may induce whites to invest more political capital in

DESEGREGATING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

industrial firms; and higher average This is increasingly true as pollution burdens may induce whites gentrification pushes people further out to invest more political capital in toward the urban fringe. efforts to influence firms’ siting decisions. The analysis suggests that RPA’s 2017 report, “Pushed Out,” shows improvement in environmental that people with higher income are justice could benefit not only moving into more accessible minorities but also whites.” neighborhoods, while those with low- incomes are pushed to low-access areas. Investing in transit equity should Over the last 25 years, more than 35,000 also be a major factor in low-income households have moved out desegregating New York City. For of walkable, transit-dense, job- over a century, our subway system accessible neighborhoods. In less has threaded together New Yorkers accessible communities, their numbers of every race, ethnicity and remained at steady levels. Meanwhile, background, one of the few place accessible communities gained 132,790 where we come together (and these high-income households. RPA analyzes days, experience frustrating delays “at-risk” neighborhoods, or those together), and—more important—a neighborhoods where households may strong force for opportunity across be vulnerable to increasing housing lines of difference. Access to costs and thus displacement. Of the 1.4 affordable transit means access to million vulnerable households living in jobs, education, health care and such neighborhoods in New York City, opportunity. Unfortunately, not all 29 percent are very low-income (making neighborhoods are provided with less than $25,000 per year), and equal access to this critical 49 percent are already rent-burdened. transportation network. Sixty-nine percent of those at-risk households are black and Hispanic. The Many of our “transit deserts” and concentration of communities of color in underserved neighborhoods these neighborhoods is the result of (especially those where many redlining and housing discrimination; households are too poor to own cars) are located in low-income communities of color that suffer from decades of disinvestment.

26 DESEGREGATING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

now that they are desirable, New As part of the 1989 Charter Revision Yorkers of color are again the ones who Commission, New York City adopted a suffer. So part of desegregating NYC “Fair- Share” policy to promote equity in must come through infrastructure siting municipal facilities. The new investments that promote equity and policy aimed to require the City to plan access. its facility sitings in a thoughtful, deliberative manner that aims – at least in principle – to avoid the uneven Step 9. distribution of these essential City facilities and services. Fix NYC’s broken “Fair Share” system to promote fairness in siting City Unfortunately, the city’s Fair Share facilities. policy is broken. As a 2017 New York City Council report shows, low-income Environmental racism, including neighborhoods and communities of color unfairness in siting municipal facilities, have persistently been treated unfairly is both a cause and result of in the siting of public facilities—both in segregation. As noted earlier in this the under-provision of necessary report, unwanted land uses like waste- community services, and in the over- transfer stations are disproportionately concentration of locally-unwanted land sited in low-income communities of uses. color, driving up asthma rates and making those neighborhoods less Fair Share Statements—which are attractive to households who can afford supposed to explain why a siting is fair to live elsewhere, resulting in lower or to justify why an unfair siting is property values, which leads to more necessary—often never see the light of unwanted uses. Meanwhile, significant day. The City does not disclose enough investments in signature parks (like the data about the current distribution of High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park) facilities for the public debate to be have been concentrated in whiter, well-informed; as a result, claims of wealthier communities, making those neighborhoods greener while driving up real estate values further.

25 DESEGREGATING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

Step 10. unfairness can mask NIMBYism in Turn around NYC’s bus system to neighborhoods that are not actually connect more New Yorkers to overburdened. The Citywide Statement opportunity. of Needs, intended for proactive planning, has been rendered Gaps in New York City’s public transit meaningless by lack of information. system amplify the harms of Most fundamentally, there is no segregation. As housing costs continue consequence whatsoever for a City to rise and well-connected agency that sites its facilities in neighborhoods become unaffordable, patently unfair ways. As a result, unfair more New Yorkers—predominantly low- sitings remain the path of least income tenants of color—are pushed out resistance (because the land is less to neighborhoods with no subway in expensive or because the community is sight. The closest subway stop in perceived to be less powerful in neighborhoods in the North Bronx, organizing against the action). Eastern Queens, South Brooklyn and of course, all of Staten Island, are a long The City Council proposed a bus ride away. As noted, RPA’s 2017 comprehensive Fair Share reform report, “Pushed Out,” shows that people package in 2017, as well as a with high income are moving into more standalone bill (Intro 157-2018, accessible neighborhoods, while those formerly Intro 495-2014, sponsored by with low-incomes (who are less likely to Council Members Stephen Levin and be able to afford to own a car) are Antonio Reynoso) to limit the volume of pushed to lower-access areas. waste transfer stations in low-income communities of color. These reforms would increase transparency for siting City facilities, update the fair-share criteria, promote proactive planning, and limit truly unfair sitings in the most over-concentrated neighborhoods. Most of these reforms can be passed by the Council as local laws. Some would require amendment of the City Charter, and should be considered by the upcoming Charter Revision Commissions. 27 DESEGREGATING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

Most of these low-access areas dedicated lanes, off-board payment, depend primarily on the City’s bus and prioritized signals that system, which is arguably in an even dramatically speed up the route. But worse crisis than our subways. the proposed 10-year time frame is Ridership is down dramatically, and far too slow. If we are serious about speeds are the slowest in the creating a more just and equal NYC, country. This failure affects low- we should double the pace. income New Yorkers of color. Bus riders are 75 percent people-of- color, versus 66 percent of subway riders and 67 percent of all New Yorkers. The median income for bus riders is $28,455 vs. $40,000 for subway riders.

Many bus riders live in outer- borough neighborhoods that are both segregated and disconnected from opportunity by poor transit—and the new geography of employment makes the problem even worse. The Bus Turnaround Campaign calls a comprehensive set of improvements (including better route planning, all- door board and off-board fare payment, dedicated bus lanes, and more) that would make for better, faster, more reliable bus service. NYC’s Department of Transportation has put forth a plan to expand it’s bus rapid transit program, Select Bus Service (SBS), on 21 corridors over the next ten years. SBS includes

28 OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Half a century has passed since we At this moment, there is both need legally prohibited housing and opportunity for the mayor to discrimination and school take stronger leadership, and for City segregation, yet they remain firmly Hall to coordinate agency efforts to with us. For (at least) the next three combat segregation. The City’s years, the federal government will “Where We Live NYC” planning play no role in moving us forward; process presents an opportunity. The instead, the Trump Administration stakeholder engagement, planning will encourage segregationist and analysis, and recommendations policies. If New York City is going to can and should take a cross-sector take serious steps in restoring Dr. approach, to address the complex King’s dream and moving to ways that segregation is reinforced desegregate our city, we need by housing, education and leadership, shared commitment, and infrastructure policy in NYC. It mutual accountability. should consider each of the recommendations in this report, and Mayor de Blasio has, thus far, work closely with relevant resisted making integration a strong stakeholders (like the School feature of his work to combat Diversity Advisory Group and the inequality and make NYC “the fairest NYC Commission on Gender Equity). big city in America.” While his At the end of the process, City Hall agencies are starting to take some (not just HPD) should adopt a steps forward, those efforts have comprehensive plan with measurable been disconnected, and have not had goals, and establish a clear visible support from City Hall. The mechanism for long-term mayor did not take part in the accountability. announcement of the DOE’s school diversity plan or the first meeting of its School Diversity Advisory Group, or HPD’s announcement of its “Where We Live NYC” initiative.

29 OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

poses for the human rights of New Step 11. Yorkers of color, it is time to do so. The City should establish the NYC Establish an Office of Integration to Office of Integration, as proposed in drive progress across agencies and Intro 1378-2016, introduced last systems. session by Council Member Torres. The Office of Integration could be As noted throughout this report, housed at the NYC Commission on segregation is a matter of housing, Human Rights, the Mayor’s Office of education, and infrastructure policy. Operations, or at City Hall. The office However, there is currently no should coordinate work across coordination among New York City’s agencies (especially, but not only the efforts to address it. When Fiorella Department of Education, HPD, La Guardia took the first steps to NYCHA, City Planning, and DOT) to create what became the NYC combat segregation: to better Commission on Human Rights in understand its causes, develop a 1944, he announced that the goal comprehensive plan to address it, was "to make New York City a place implement policies, track progress, where people of all races and and hold agencies accountable to religions may work and live side-by- shared goals. side in harmony and have mutual respect for each other, and where democracy is a living reality." Sounds Step 12. (almost) like an integrated city (it is worth noting that he did not propose Create a shared public dashboard on that NYC’s students learn side-by- segregation in NYC, to hold agencies side). —and all us—accountable for progress. However, no City agency currently has the responsibility to coordinate It has become a management mantra efforts against segregation. To that “the things we measure are the achieve the vision articulated by things we improve.” Or, as James Mayor LaGuardia, and to address the Baldwin said: “Not everything that is fundamental threat that segregation 30 OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” We have available to the public on school managed for the past several demographics to track the City’s decades to ignore the stark reality of progress in meeting the school segregation. If we want to change it, diversity goals set forth in the DOE’s we will need far more concrete and 2017 plan. Overlaying school, visible tools to face it. housing, and infrastructure equity would open up opportunities for A shared public dashboard—with cross-sector collaboration. Seeing good design, and a little imagination which neighborhoods are set for —could help invest New Yorkers rezoning, with demographics of race across races in that vision, and help and income, would help us make sure hold us to it. It could make clear the we are achieving equity and patterns of segregation in our integration in our housing neighborhoods and our schools, development efforts. A “fair-share” encourages new ideas and map is necessary for evaluating collaboration, outline strategies, and whether claims of over- track our progress (or lack thereof) concentration are well-founded. to achieve them. PolicyLink’s Online tools can help communities National Equity Atlas, Cambridge engage in the hard (and often Massachusetts’ Interactive Equity & offline) work of planning for Inclusion Dashboard, and the integration. Government Alliance on Race and Equity offer models and resources. The dashboard would be developed Well-presented maps and and maintained by the Office of infographics can drive home the Integration. It would reflect the data reality of segregation, and track and track the work of many New York efforts to do something about it. City agencies. But the larger goal would be to hold all of us On New York City’s dashboard, the accountable. DOE could improve on the data it is already required by law to make

31 CONCLUSION

The 12 steps we have outlined here As more New Yorkers are in are public policy steps. Public policy integrated schools and played a central role in establishing neighborhoods, we believe the segregation, and it must play a momentum will grow. central role in undoing it. But we know that segregation exists in a There are few things more hopeful feedback loop between public than a public school graduation, in policies and individual choices. As 5th-grade or 8th-grade or 12th grade Nikole Hannah Jones has explored in or commencement, from an searing fashion, within a system of integrated public school. Amidst segregated and unequal schools and truly integrated pomp and neighborhoods, the choices we make circumstance, you can feel the full about where to live and where to and bright promise of inclusive send our kids to school perpetuate democracy. You can envision what it privilege and poverty every day. If might look like to fulfill the dream we want a more integrated city, we of genuine equality. You can imagine all have a role to play. a city and a country where our diversity is truly our strength. City policy is not the best tool for changing hearts and minds, and of These 12 steps won’t get us all the course it cannot (and should not) way there. But they represent dictate many of the choices people concrete and achievable progress make. We are not naive: we know toward Dr. King’s vision of a city there will be both overt backlash where people all people are created and quiet resistance. Still, in equal, and where their skin color addition to the moral and legal does not determine the quality of the obligations to desegregate, we neighborhood, their school, and their believe that public policy can help life chances. One year into Trump’s move our collective choices in the presidency, and 50 years after Dr. right direction. We can make the King’s assassination, do we really default options far more often ones have a choice? that integrate rather than segregate.