Renew mayoral control of city’s public schools
TALKING POINTS BY COREY JOHNSON
I
t’s another legislative session in Albany, and once again State Senate Republicans are holding a key New York City issue hostage in order to extract concessions: mayoral control of New York City’s schools. Let’s put aside the obvious question of why legislators who represent districts hundreds of miles away from here have the authority to determine how New York City runs its schools. We must then ask whether or not mayoral control has been a success. The answer is yes, and it’s outrageous that it’s being held up for political horse-trading. Before mayoral control, New York City schools were run by a myriad of school boards and a seven-member Board of Education, appointed by six different entities. This labyrinth resulted in no accountability, no direct lines of authority and no centralized decision-making. It was unclear who was responsible for the failing education system. Therefore, no one was responsible. Mayoral control allows for a singular vision for our school system with stabil-
PHOTO BY JULIEANNE PREVETE / ORANGE BLOSSOM PHOTOGRAPHY
Councilmember Johnson speaks with a student at a Par ticipator y Budgeting Expo earlier this year at P.S. 340.
ity, efficiency and clear accountability. The buck stops with the mayor. Fifteen years into mayoral control, it is abundantly clear that it has paid dividends. During Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s term, the city’s graduation rate increased from 50.8 percent to 66 percent. Mayor Bill de Blasio has further built on that progress. New York City’s four-year graduation rate hit 72.6 percent last school year, the highest rate in city history and a 2-point increase over
the year before. Before mayoral control, 22 percent of kids dropped out of high school. Last year, New York City’s dropout rate hit an all-time low: 8.5 percent. Academic performance continues to improve under mayoral control. Last year, there was an 8 percent increase over the year before in students taking and passing at least one Advanced Placement exam. Participation in the A.P. exam among black students increased by more than 14 percent, and it rose 10 percent
for Hispanic students. In 2016, the share of the city’s students who passed the state English exam jumped by nearly 8 points to 38 percent, matching the state average for the first time. While test scores are by no means the best measure to evaluate our schools, the positive trend they reflect can’t be ignored. Mayoral control fosters innovation. In 2014, the mayor’s Pre-K for All program increased access to early-childhood education to nearly 70,000 children. This year, the mayor announced he will now build on that work by setting on a path to offer a free, full-day, high-quality education for every 3-year-old. Clearly, this should be a no-brainer. But, true to form, the Republicans are not motivated by the merits. They are holding mayoral control hostage in exchange for giveaways to charter schools and tax credits for private and parochial schools. Luckily, we have outstanding Democrats representing us in Albany, including Senators Brad Hoylman, Liz Krueger and Daniel Squadron and Assemblymembers Richard Gottfried, Deborah Glick and Linda Rosenthal. It is our job to support them and to send a strong message to the Senate Republicans: Stop playing politics with our children’s futures. Johnson is councilmember, Third District (Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen)
Why it doesn’t have to be bleaker on Bleecker BY BR AD HOYLMAN
T
he market has no morals. A better example of this maxim could not be found than on our local avenues and side streets, where independent businesses are falling like dominos, forced out because of rising rents. Once they’re gone, these spaces might be filled by a national chain — maybe a bank or a drugstore — but often they remain vacant, sometimes for years. I continually hear concerns about this phenomenon — known as “high-rent blight” — from neighbors concerned about availability of local goods and services, empty storefronts’ negative impacts on neighborhoods, and the loss of treasured bookstores and restaurants. My new report, “Bleaker on Bleecker: A Snapshot of High-Rent Blight in Greenwich Village and Chelsea,” examines this vexing problem. Using data collected through surveys across major commercial hubs, the report found alarming storefront vacancy rates in our area — specifically, as high as 18.4 percent on Bleecker St. The alarming vacancy rate of nearly one-fifth of storefronts on Bleecker St. is apparent to anybody who has walked down the street in recent months. “For Rent” signs hang in windows all along the street. In fact, since Bleecker St.’s luxury retail boom began in 2001, an astonishing 44 small businesses have vanished and been replaced with upscale chains. In turn, many of those are now gone, too, leaving empty storefronts. Landlords don’t renew the lease of longtime businesses. They then keep the space vacant, holding out for the payout of a long-term lease from luxury retail or TheVillager.com
corporate chain, which can take months, or even years. The result is a glut of empty storefronts or chain stores and high-end national retailers. In The Villager this past February, Michele Herman, in a talking point, “Taking stock of the state of Village’s stores,” reported extensively on the slew of empty storefronts on both Christopher and Bleecker Sts. “I reasoned that randy Christopher St. might be a special case,” Herman wrote, “but empty storefronts on a major fashionista destination like Bleecker surely point to something way out of whack with the economy.” Four months later, The New York Times followed up with a report on the latest turn for Bleecker St.: the vanishing of high-end retail. Six Marc Jacobs stores, Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers Black Fleece, Lulu Guinness and numerous other luxe shops have shuttered. Some real estate analysts insist higher rents are the natural outgrowth of a strong retail market or that the spate of closings along Bleecker and elsewhere is due to new pressures from Amazon and online retailers. Both could be true. That doesn’t mean a community shouldn’t try to do something to save the “mom and pops.” Selfconcern should be a motivating factor. Studies show chain stores are far less likely than their local counterparts to keep profits in the community. One study found that only about 13.6 percent of revenue from national chains is reinvested back into the local economy, compared to 47.7 percent from locally owned businesses. I’ve suggested a number of strategies to address highrent blight and preserve our independent businesses: • Creating a Legacy Business Registry that would track
and maintain a list of small businesses that have been in operation for at least 30 years. This would enable the state to recognize important businesses and possibly provide them and their landlords with historic preservation tax credits and other incentives. • Passing legislation that would allow the city to implement formula retail zoning restrictions. Under such a plan, local communities would get a say on the number of formula retail stores (chain stores, big drug stores, banks, etc.) opening in their neighborhood. • Phasing out deductions for depreciation of property and operating expenses for building owners who leave retail spaces vacant for more than a year. • Eliminating the Commercial Rent Tax for small businesses. This is an onerous, outdated burden on commercial tenants below 96th St. The City Council is set to reduce this tax. The state should act, as well. • Requiring the city to collect and publish data on commercial vacancy rates. Currently, this information is not available to the public. Commercial rent control faces steep hurdles in both Albany and the city. But we can take steps to rein in the rapacious market forces to protect small businesses and defend our neighborhoods’ character. I’ll soon introduce legislation based on the ideas in this report. Meanwhile, I want to hear your views on this important issue at hoylman@nysenate.gov. Hoylman is state senator, 27th District (Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Stuyvesant Town, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Upper West Side)
June 15, 2017
13