This is an invitation from NYCommons to collaborate on workshops to help New Yorkers learn to protect and expand publicly owned and controlled land and buildings in our neighborhoods. NYCommons is a collaboration between Common Cause/NY, the Community Development Project (CDP) at the Urban Justice Center, and 596 Acres, Inc. The next phase of our work includes focusing on 2-3 neighborhoods to pilot workshops where we spotlight means to participate effectively in current land use processes, as well as challenges shared by many community groups working around local land use struggles.

Contact.

Prudence Katze, Common Cause, Inc., pkatze@commoncause.org, (212) 691-6421

Background. We have already spent a year conducting research through meetings with over 100 organizations and community activists across NYC. Through our initial phase of outreach and research, we identified five types of public assets that present important opportunities for public participation and community input in many communities:

1. Vacant public land and community gardens on land owned by City agencies and State Authorities;

2. Post offices;

3. Libraries;

4. New York City Housing Authority campuses and other property; and

5. Publicly-owned waterfront property.

We now invite collaborators from NYC neighborhoods to join us as co-hosts of workshops focused on helping to foster an understanding of what neighbors can do to ensure that public assets continue to be a resource for their communities. If you have some or all of these property types in your community, NYCommons would like to collaborate with you to help local residents learn how decisions about these properties are made and how residents can participate in the process.

Formal organizations and groups of individuals are invited to apply. We encourage you to partner with other organizers in your neighborhood as hosts of these workshops. Through our individual organizations and our collaborative work so far as NYCommons, we have developed a deep network of New Yorkers focusing their advocacy on public real estate assets, land use, housing rights, community participation, and neighborhood-based advocacy. You can see a list of them here; let us know if you would like to be connected to anyone listed as a potential co-collaborator.

LOGISTICS

Compensation. NYCommons will provide food and facilitation for workshops, as well as funding for workshop outreach. In addition, collaborators will receive a minimum unrestricted stipend of $500 (final amount dependent on number of collaborators per neighborhood), which can be used to compensate individual participants or to compensate an organization as a whole.

Timeline. Collaborators must commit to a planning meeting with the NYCommons team, to be held between April 1 and April 15, 2016, and to co-hosting two public workshops in June and July.

Collaborator Applications. We encourage collaborations between groups and individuals who are doing diverse work in the same area. Application questions are listed below, in Appendix A. Collaborator applications are due Friday, February 19, 2016 at 5:59pm [DEADLINE EXTENDED]. Please email your proposal to Prudence Katze at pkatze@commoncause.org. Selections will be made by March 5, 2016.

APPENDIX A.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

Main contact.

Name.
Organizational affiliation, if any.
Phone.
Email.
Website, if any.
Twitter, if any.
How did you find out about this collaboration opportunity?

Your team.

List the members of your team. Include organizations and individuals. For each, include:

Name.
Organizational affiliation, if any.
Phone.
Email.
Website, if any.
Twitter, if any.

Through our individual organizations and our collaborative work so far as NYCommons, we have developed a deep network of New Yorkers focusing their advocacy on public real estate assets, land use, housing rights, community participation, and neighborhood-based advocacy. You can see a list of them here; let us know if you would like to be connected to anyone listed as a potential co-collaborator.

Your neighborhood.

1. Draw or describe the boundaries of the neighborhood you work in. Your neighborhood can be as small as one block or as large as one borough, but keep in mind that we want to make sure that the team we assemble is well-positioned to reach deeply into the area of focus.  

2. Which of the following does your neighborhood have:

   1. Vacant public land

   2. Community gardens on land owned by City agencies and State Authorities

   3. Post offices that might close

   4. Libraries

   5. New York City Housing Authority campuses and other property

   6. Publicly-owned waterfront property

Your resources.

1. List spaces in your neighborhood that you can access for hosting a public workshop.

2. List public officials that your team has a relationship with, including NYC City Council Members and Community Boards. Describe the nature of the relationships and, if applicable, how you have worked on any land use challenges together.

Your reason.
In under 500 words (one page, single spaced), describe why you want to invite the NYCommons team to collaborate with you in a workshop series focused on how the community can impact the outcome and decisions around public assets in their neighborhood, and the development of training modules and materials to build local organizing around public asset disposition. How will this series contribute to your overall goals? What do you hope you and your team will learn? What do you hope you and your team will be able to teach?

APPENDIX B.

A collaboration between 596 Acres,  the Urban Justice Center and Common Cause New York, NYCommons seeks to provide local stakeholders with the tools they need to impact decisions around the future of their parks, libraries, community gardens, and other publicly held spaces. By creating accessible information about who controls these public assets, how decisions about these assets are made, and how members of the public can influence these choices, NYCommons will help communities raise their voices to ensure that local people will continue to enjoy the benefits of shared space for generations to come.

Why This Project?

Vibrant public spaces strengthen communities and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods. They provide opportunities for learning, health and recreation, as well as connecting with friends and neighbors.   But all too often, publicly owned spaces are sold or taken out of public control with very little meaningful public input. Publicly owned buildings and parking lots may also have unused air rights that create opportunities for development that people may not realize exist until it’s too late for the community to have a voice in how those development rights are used. Our project seeks to break this pattern and give local people a chance to have a say in the decisions that affect their communities. NYCommons will help reframe the public dialogue so the long term, inherent benefits of public spaces being maintained for the public interest are not overlooked in the decision-making process.

APPENDIX C.

NYC groups working on the commons (who might want to collaborate with you)

CITYWIDE

BRONX

BROOKLYN

MANHATTAN

QUEENS