NYC’s Fil Am Deputy Mayor assumes...

PAGE 1 mortar — it’s about creating opportunity and improving lives,” said Deputy Mayor TorresSpringer.

Since January 2022, Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer has played a crucial role in advancing the Adams administration’s endeavors to expedite the development of much-needed housing.

She has provided oversight to the New York City Department of City Planning and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), demonstrating exceptional leadership. As a co-chair of the Building and Land Use Approval Streamlining Task Force, she has contributed significantly to Mayor Adams’ “Get Stuff Built” plan, which aims to accelerate housing construction. Furthermore, she has been instrumental in driving the “City of Yes” citywide zoning text amendments, which seek to support small businesses, foster the creation of new housing, and promote sustainability.

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer has also been involved in transformative initiatives such as the construction of 2,500 affordable homes in Willets Point and community planning efforts in various areas, including the East Bronx, Central Brooklyn, the North Shore of Staten Island, Midtown South, and Jamaica.

“In a year and a half with this administration and throughout her career in public service, Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer has shown clearly that she is ready to take bold action to tackle the city’s affordable housing crisis,” added Mayor Adams. “She has a proven record of creating affordable housing and economic opportunity for New Yorkers, and her leadership of our economic recovery efforts has delivered real results. She is the right person at the right time to create and preserve the safe, high-quality, affordable housing New Yorkers so desperately need, and I congratulate her on this expanded role that will allow her to serve even more New Yorkers.”

“Under Mayor Adams’ leadership, we came in with a bold agenda to change the paradigm for how we grow equitably as a city. I am incredibly humbled to further serve New Yorkers as we strive to provide stable housing for our neighbors, protect our existing affordable and public housing, and identify new ways to make housing affordable for all New Yorkers at this critical moment in our city’s history,” the deputy mayor added.

As deputy mayor, Torres-Springer has overseen “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent: A Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery” and the city’s strong jobs recovery, efforts to support small businesses with the “Small Business Forward” executive order, commercial district recovery and the “New” New York panel’s “Making New York Work for Everyone” action plan, and transformational projects in Willets Point and on Governors Island.

She was previously vice president of U.S. programs at the Ford Foundation, where she oversaw the foundation’s domestic grantmaking and made historic investments in support of racial equity, workers’ rights, voting rights, and arts and culture across the country.

Proud Fil-Am

Torres-Springer was born and raised in California a year after her parents moved to the United States from the Philippines. Her father, Manuel, is from Pampanga, and her mother, Elsa, is from Batangas. She is the second of six siblings (she has four sisters and a brother).

“I belong to a very traditional and tightlyknit Filipino family,” shared Torres-Springer in an interview with the Asian Journal shortly after her appointment in 2014 as the head of the Department of Small Business Services. Reflecting on her cultural background, she mentioned that she retains some knowledge of Tagalog, but humorously added, “I believe my Kapampangan is even better.”

“I’m very proud of my ancestry and Filipino culture and my background. I’ve always hoped to take the values that I learned growing up and apply that to my work and I think more generally to ensure that people and businesses of diverse backgrounds have a fair shot in New York City. If I’m able to do that in this role given my background, that would bring a lot of motivation,” she added.

Torres-Springer spent some of her formative years in the Philippines. From age 9 to 13, she lived in Betis, Pampanga, her father’s hometown. She moved back to the States around high school and then she visited a couple of times as an adult.

“I miss the food, and how much family