Initiatives

The action plan outlines three goals, 10 strategies, and 40 initiatives to reimagine a “New” New York.

Reimagine New York’s Business Districts as Vibrant 24/7 Destinations

Strategy 1: Create flexibility to repurpose space and fill vacancies with a variety of uses

● Initiative 1: Make Midtown and other business districts more live-work-play
● Initiative 2: Update zoning to provide flexibility for businesses to thrive
● Initiative 3: Align incentives to help maintain vibrant business districts

Strategy 2: Invest in beautiful, permanent public space

● Initiative 4: Create a world-class network of public space in Midtown
● Initiative 5: Make public realm improvements across all five boroughs

Strategy 3: Improve quality-of-life issues across our business districts, such as sustainability and cleanliness

● Initiative 6: Update zoning to facilitate green energy investments and energy efficiency retrofits
● Initiative 7: Support innovative financing mechanisms for green building retrofits
● Initiative 8: Reimagine waste containerization and collection
● Initiative 9: Create a permanent Open Restaurants Program
● Initiative 10: Create Director of Public Realm position within City Hall
● Initiative 11: Invest in public space maintenance to achieve clean streets
● Initiative 12: Make sidewalk shed reforms
● Initiative 13: Launch City-affiliated public-private partnership to build capacity of local organizations to support commercial corridors and spur innovation

Strategy 4: Offer new reasons to go to business districts

● Initiative 14: Activate storefronts
● Initiative 15: Expand Open Streets
● Initiative 16: Enliven public space with programming, art, and tactical transformations
● Initiative 17: Invest in culture, supporting artists, artist spaces, and artist organizations

Make It Easier for New Yorkers to Get to Work

Strategy 5: Increase supply of mass transit options

● Initiative 18: Create a sustainable operating budget model for the MTA
● Initiative 19: Maintain Peak Subway Service and Improve the Frequency and Reliability of Subway Service During Off-Peak Hours
● Initiative 20: Create an affordable and integrated regional rail network
● Initiative 21: Increase bus speeds
● Initiative 22: Make transit more accessible for people with disabilities
● Initiative 23: Advance key transit service enhancement and system expansion projects
● Initiative 24: Invest in protected bikeway infrastructure and improve access to bikes, e-bikes, and bike storage

Strategy 6: Reduce demand for cars and trucks

● Initiative 25: Firmly support congestion pricing
● Initiative 26: Develop a new approach to curb management
● Initiative 27: Enable widespread use of sustainable alternative freight

Strategy 7: Strengthen employment hubs and workspaces across all five boroughs, so that people can work closer to their homes

● Initiative 28: Invest in employment hubs around transit, industry clusters, and anchor institutions
● Initiative 29: Leverage City agency office space to anchor commercial hubs
● Initiative 30: Accelerate modernization of libraries to support remote work across the city

Generate Inclusive, Future-Focused Growth

Strategy 8: Establish New York City as a hub for future industries and innovation

● Initiative 31: Make New York the hub for urban innovation
● Initiative 32: Invest in future-focused sectors where New York has a competitive advantage
● Initiative 33: Develop regional strategies that foster mutually beneficial connections between NYC and the surrounding region

Strategy 9: Ensure that workers have access to housing by dramatically increasing our supply, with a "moonshot" goal of meeting the need for 500,000 units over the next decade

● Initiative 34: Make regulatory and legislative changes to reduce barriers to housing growth
● Initiative 35: Update zoning code to increase the supply of supportive housing

Strategy 10: Ensure that growth and access to opportunity is fair and equitable

● Initiative 36: Ensure that all New York families have access to affordable, high-quality childcare
● Initiative 37: Reduce barriers to entering the workforce for people with disabilities
● Initiative 38: Connect workers and students to jobs of the future through a workforce infrastructure that is simple, transparent, and coordinated with industry and academia
● Initiative 39: Improve access to capital and technical assistance for BIPOC entrepreneurs with a one-stop program
● Initiative 40: Reduce the burdens required to establish and maintain M/WBE certification