Principles 

To this end, we propose that a new city government must enact public policies informed by the following principles: 

Democratic Self-governance: 

The goal is to incentivize the promotion of the “consent of the citizen” (Including African Diasporic Citizens) beyond the limited procedural political process by extending city governance to empower community-led associations that incorporate democratic habits and practices. This governing philosophy and practice will be an alternative to a centralized command bureaucracy that aborts the achievement of an affordable city by administering traditional policies that prioritize social-welfare colonialism and exclusive, market-driven economic development projects that primarily benefit powerful bureaucrats and plutocrats.

Community Empowerment: 

A New York City government that prioritizes the importance of community in the functioning of political life, in analyzing and evaluating governmental institutions, and in understanding a citizen's identity and well-being as part of a larger community. This principle must be enacted as an essential driver of affordability. Our coalition proposes that a citizen’s social identity and personality are primarily shaped by community relationships organized within a framework that supports a working, operational unity, ensuring a citizen’s well-being and a local community’s common health and wealth. 

Economic Democracy: 

An affordable city must enact and administer policies that promote economic democracy. This essential governing philosophy will promote capital's instrumental yet subordinate nature to the dignity inherent in human labor. We confirm that economic democracy is a moral philosophy prioritizing enhancing a local community’s commonwealth and health. Our coalition proposes that the mayor must orchestrate the intrinsic power and inherent resources within our city government to shift economic development projects (e.g., EDC projects) from elite decision-making power brokers (e.g., corporate managers and shareholders) to a larger group of public stakeholders that includes workers (union members), community empowerment actors, social entrepreneurs, consumers, and a broader public as represented by an active and critical voting citizenry. 

Our coalition confirms that the core values of Economic Democracy are equity, shared decision-making, self-governance, and democratic accountability. Therefore, citizen taxpayers (including African Diasporic Citizens) residing in unaffordable and distressed areas should be empowered with the values that provide a Citizen’s Share of public resources and wealth. An affordable city will not condemn distressed communities to an anti-democratic standard that gives life to a modern version of “taxation without representation,” benefiting only elite plutocrats and bureaucrats. 

Human Justice: 

Our coalition advocates for an unbending commitment to Human Justice within our city government. As we define it, a city government informed by a Human Justice imperative will ensure that all citizens and denizens are treated fairly and equitably, with their fundamental Human Rights respected within the legal system and in the city’s civil society and political economy. The core values of Human Justice incorporate the following:

Legal treatment should be impartial, and opportunities should be provided proportionate to what a citizen or community requires to thrive. 

The right to essential services (e.g., healthcare, childcare, education, public safety, transportation, etc.) is shared in a just and equitable manner. 

Ensure a city-wide commitment to distributive justice, ensuring the fair allocation of resources across diverse neighborhoods and community residents. Distributive justice acknowledges that some citizens and denizens live in traditionally marginalized communities and need the affirmative enactment of progressive public policies that will ensure equal judicial, social, and economic outcomes. Validate that the enactment and administration of Human Rights are common to all citizens (including African Diasporic Citizens) while serving as a universal framework and anchor for a democratic and just city. 

Ensure democratic accountability where harm occurs, and appropriate remedial action and restorative justice for the accuser and the accused to address injuries and prevent future damage to the citizenry. 

Equitable and Representative Appointment of Public Administrators: 

Our coalition charges that a significant cause of New York’s affordability crisis is directly related to an appointment process that is corrupted by a tradition of racialized and classist discrimination. Moreover, the traditional appointment process is anchored in a corrupt system of elite cronyism. Our coalition can confirm that a disproportionate number of New York City public administrators have no origins or lived experience in poor, working poor, and working-class Communities of Color (COC) where unaffordable conditions abort social and economic mobility. This corrupt appointment process has inculturated a monastic groupthink environment within the city government. Consequently, we suffer from a governance that disproportionately prioritizes enacting policies to provide a comfortable and exclusive quality of life for wealthy New Yorkers at the expense of others. Given this crisis, our coalition calls on the new mayor to ensure fair outcomes for New York’s African Diasporic citizens by dismantling systemic racial and class barriers that prevent the full participation of underrepresented and historically marginalized communities in the public administration of our city.

A Public Policy Program for Democracy & Justice