PHOTO: Mayor de Blasio presented his 332-page OneNYC plan in April 2015. Courtesy of the Mayor’s Office
By Forum Staff
With its freshman year in the rear-view mirror, and seemingly no sophomore slump in sight, Mayor Bill de Blasio last week touted the past 12 months of One New York: The Plan for Strong and Just City – his sweeping, ambitious vision for a robust five boroughs – and forecasted a bright future for the plan, and for NYC.
Launched in April 2015, OneNYC aims to preserve and enhance the Big Apple’s role as a leading global city as it approaches its 400th anniversary in 2025.
“Environmental and economic sustainability must go hand in hand—and OneNYC is the blueprint to ensure they do,” de Blasio noted last year. “Today, we are laying out specific goals to make sure that as we build a stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient city, we are also creating a more equitable one. From our unprecedented goal of lifting 800,000 New Yorkers out of poverty, to sweeping environmental initiatives such as Zero Waste, the cleanest air of any large city, and a dramatic reduction in emissions, this is a bold and ambitious plan—and New York City requires nothing less. OneNYC builds on the strong foundation created by the Bloomberg administration, and ensures that our city can meet the challenges we face today and in the future, while inspiring others around the world to do the same.”
OneNYC is premised on four visions for the five boroughs, each including goals, specific initiatives, and detailed metrics and indicators to address the significant social, economic and environmental challenges ahead: Our Growing, Thriving City; Our Just and Equitable City; Our Sustainable City; and Our Resilient City.
Over the last year, the city has made “significant progress” toward OneNYC’s goals – over 95 percent of OneNYC’s 202 initiatives are already underway.
Vision 1 – Our Growing, Thriving City
Workforce Development: Launched HireNYC to provide job opportunities to thousands of New Yorkers.
Thriving Neighborhoods: Committed $1 billion to support new infrastructure and community resources in growing neighborhoods.
Broadband: Began installation of over 500 Wi-Fi kiosks in all five boroughs.
Transportation Network: Expanded Citibike with 140 new stations and 2,000 new bikes.
Transportation Network: Contributed $2.5 billion to MTA Capital Program.
Infrastructure Lifecycle: Secured $500 million in federal funding for NYC transit over next five years.
Vision 2 – Our Just and Equitable City
Early Childhood: Every 4-year-old in NYC now has access to free, full-day pre-K.
Integrated Government & Social Services Delivery: Opened 130 community schools
Healthy Neighborhoods, Active Living: Established five new urban farms in low-income communities.
Healthcare Access: Launched ThriveNYC – an $850 million investment comprised of 54 initiatives to transform our mental health care system.
Criminal Justice: Resolved 77.5 percent of target cases through Justice Reboot that had been pending for longer than a year.
Vision Zero: 2015 was the safest year on New York City streets since record-keeping began in 1910.
Vision 3 – Our Sustainable City
80×50: Solar capacity has tripled since 2013: City is now at almost 75 MW.
80×50: Launched NYC Clean Fleet: On track to purchase 500 EVs by the middle of 2016.
Brownfields: Completed cleanup of 236 tax lots since 2014 (165 of which were cleaned up last year).
Water: Broke ground on 3,400 green infrastructure projects since 2011.
Water: Conducted 500,000 water quality tests – for more than 250 contaminants including lead – from reservoirs to neighborhood streets.
Parks: Completed 60 targeted improvements and 35 renovation designs through the Community Parks Initiative.
Parks: Planted over 1,000,000 trees, two years ahead of schedule.
Zero Waste: Signed up 39 businesses – from across all boroughs – diverting at least 50 percent of their waste from landfill and incineration by June 15, 2016 as part of Mayor’s Zero Waste Challenge.
Vision 4 – Our Resilient City
Neighborhoods: Invested $54 million in Superstorm Sandy-impacted small businesses to create and retain thousands of jobs.
Infrastructure Resiliency: Secured $9.2 billion for the City’s infrastructure and public services.
Diverse & Inclusive Government
Diverse & Inclusive Government: Women and people of color now represent the majority of administrators and officials in City government.
M/WBE: Awarded $1.6 billion in contracts to Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises.