Urban Agenda - Updates

Update — November 2009

Dear colleagues,

Thank you to everyone that participated in the launch of the Green Collar Jobs Roadmap, the culmination of the year-long Roundtable campaign. Special thanks to the Center for American Progress and the AFL-CIO Green Jobs Center for their support. If you have not already, I encourage you to read more about the launch and check out the Roadmap.

Many of you participated in the Roundtable and were instrumental in making the Roundtable and Roadmap so successful. Thank you for your continued participation and support. Now, the hard work begins as we work to implement the recommendations put forth in the Roadmap. I look forward to continuing our work together and on behalf of all of us at Urban Agenda thank you, again, for all your support.

In Solidarity,

Joanne Derwin
Executive Director, Urban Agenda

Our Fifth Anniversary - Celebrate with us!

It seems like only yesterday that Urban Agenda was established by co-founders Joanne Derwin and Jeremy Reiss. We started Urban Agenda in response to 9/11, taking advantage of the unprecedented willingness of New Yorkers to work together and rebuild our City. As New York City began its recovery from the crisis, Urban Agenda set out in 2004 on a mission to promote policies and ideas to rebuild in a way that would create better jobs, shared prosperity, and a more sustainable and livable city.

Five years later, we continue to do just that. Through our network of labor, business and community partners, and the dynamic NYC Apollo Alliance coalition, we work to bring diverse stakeholders together around a shared agenda of progressive policies, good jobs and thriving neighborhoods for all New Yorkers. Today, once again, our city is in crisis-this time an economic one-and we believe that, once more, there is an opportunity for all of us in the progressive movement to collectively recreate a better New York City.

As part of our Fifth Anniversary Celebration, we will be presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Theodore W. Kheel, a lifelong New Yorker and renowned lawyer and arbitrator. His approach to identifying common ground has made it possible for him to settle some of the most difficult labor disputes of the 20th century. The author of The Keys to Conflict Resolution, Kheel has concentrated more recently on resolving what is possibly the most serious challenge the world faces today: the intensifying conflict between the indispensable goals of environmental protection and economic development. In recognition of his accomplishments, Pace Law School recently established the Kheel Center on Environmental Interest Disputes. Kheel's commitment deeply inspires Urban Agenda's work to promote the idea that environmental sustainability can be an engine for prosperous economic growth for all New Yorkers.

Please join us on December 1st at the NYC District Council of Carpenters! To rsvp and for more information on placing a greeting in our celebratory journal please visit www.urbanagenda.org/events.htm.

List of Resources

The following are a number of new or updated resources on jobs and the economy:

Urban Agenda and the Center for American Progress: New York City Green Collar Jobs Roadmap offers a strategy to ensure that the green economy's growth creates broadly shared prosperity for businesses, communities and workers in New York City.
Read the report.
Office of Vice President Biden: A new report, Recovery Through Retrofit is a blueprint to develop a self-sustaining home energy efficiency retrofit industry, making it easier for American families to retrofit their homes, and thereby helping them save money while reducing carbon emissions and creating a healthier environment. The report is meant to build on the foundation laid by the Recovery Act to expand green job opportunities and boost energy savings by making homes more energy efficient.
Read the report or watch the video.
Pratt Center for Community Development: Public Housing in New York City: Building Communities of Opportunity provides an in-depth look at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the nearly 500,000 New Yorkers who live in its 286 developments. Funded by the Brooklyn Community Foundation, the report outlines strategies that would help create and increase opportunities for public housing residents, nearly half of whom live in poverty.
Read the report.
Community Service Society (CSS): The Unheard Third 2009: Job Loss, Economic Insecurity, and a Decline in Job Quality examines issues topping the list of New Yorkers' concerns for the city and themselves, with a particular focus on economic security (including healthcare, unemployment, access to public benefits, and housing hardships).
Read the report.
Community Service Society and A Better Balance: Sick in the City: What the Lack of Paid Leave Means for Working New Yorkers found that nearly half of New York City workers do not have paid sick leave, and nearly two-thirds of low-income New Yorkers lack paid sick leave. An estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers have no paid leave whatsoever-neither paid sick leave nor paid vacation leave. The report is an analysis of eight years of findings from The Unheard Third, and provides some of the most compelling evidence to date supporting public health arguments for paid sick leave laws in New York City and around the nation.
Read the report.

SPOTLIGHT

New York State Public Service Commission Approves 'Demand Response' Programs

n a big victory for the environmental justice community, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) recently approved new programs designed to reduce electricity demand and toxic emissions from Con Edison facilities that operate during "peak" hours. The programs, referred to as demand response, specifically targets at least 50 megawatts in the Greenwood, Brooklyn area, identified as an environmental justice community.

Reducing the peak load could lead to lower emissions and prices by deferring the need to build new infrastructure for carrying power. Con Edison has proposed four new demand response programs to decrease the peak demand:

Commercial System Relief Program for large commercial or industrial customers - customers able to curtail load when called upon will receive capacity reserve payment, and conversely, if a customer is called upon and does not respond, the customer will be assessed a penalty.
Residential Smart Appliance Program for residential customers - allows Con Edison to control a participating customer's electric appliance, which will allow for an override of the company's control by the customer, if needed.
Critical Peak Rebate Program - provides payments for participants who reduce their usage.
Network Relief Program - request for proposals and an open enrolment process will be used for relief in certain hours to defer the need to build additional transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The PSC decision is a huge victory for environmental justice advocates, who have been fighting the issue of poor air quality in their communities for years. Congratulations to UPROSE and other environmental justice advocates for leading the charge! For more information about the conference, please see http://uprose.org/index.php?doc_id=123.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

3 Track Technology Training Program - For Women Only

Classes begin November 20.
Training in one of 3 tracks (Computer Network Techician, Office Operations, Customer Service/Retail Sales). Preference will be given to TANF eligible youth and adults, those on Public Assistance, or those who are eligible for Public Assistance.

For more information:
STRIVE East Harlem Employment Services
240 East 123 St., 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10035.

Download flyer.