Adrianne Shropshire

Development, Development Everywhere

From Brooklyn to the Bronx, from Queens to Yonkers the bustling business of development is thriving. But we've come up with too few answers to the inherent tensions that exist in growth and economic development - who should pay for it, what do we get for our financial investment, what's the real impact on local communities, and who get's to decide.

The sheer scale of the public subsidies that are doled out to private, incredibly wealthy developers should intensify our efforts to come up with good progressive answers to the questions. What we've managed to come up with is a well-known tool called the community benefits agreement or CBA, not to be confused with a collective bargaining agreement or CBA. CBA's have been used all over the country to extract compensation or benefits for local communities that are being disrupted by large-scale development and as a defense against development gone wild.

CBA's in the hands of self-organized community coalitions have won important benefits for local communities but CBA's in the hands of developers looking for good PR are dangerous. As we look at the ongoing controversy surrounding the Bronx Terminal Market and numerous developments in Yonkers and related subsidy abuse we must ask ourselves are CBA's always the best answer and who should be leading the process?

Legislating CBA's has to be part of the answer. Taking key segments in CBA's out of the arbitrary negotiation process and making them public policy should be one goal. There is no negotiating over job quality. Wage and benefit standards are non-negotiable. Prevailing wage and living wage shouldn't even be on the table. Environmental standards and containing sprawl are non-negotiable. Local hiring is non-negotiable. A clear role for community residents in the decision-making process is non-negotiable. Setting a floor will allow local communities to focus their negotiations on other desperately needed community benefits like affordable housing, childcare centers, open space, etc.

Now, to be sure there are countless other issues to be addressed including what's the compensation for those who lose like homeowners in downtown Brooklyn or small businesses in greenpoint/Williamsburg that no longer fit into the rezoned vision of the neighborhood. But establishing conditions as public policy that set the parameters for our expectations for developments that receive public money will take us a long way toward comprehensive, inclusive economic benefits for all.

Adrianne Shropshire: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 9:49 AM, Feb 10, 2006 in Community Development
Permalink | Email to Friend