Fall 2010 Community Development Project
Law Student Internship Positions

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Change Starts with Us

Throughout 2009, Mothers on the Move (MOM), a member-led social justice organization, conducted a three-part visioning process with the support of CDP. The highlight of the process was an all day community visioning event where South Bronx residents were encouraged to dream big about future development. The extensive visioning process involved MOM members, community members, elected officials and other stakeholders, and culminated in the release of Change Starts with Us: A Grassroots Vision for the Development of the South Bronx. The document summarizes MOM’s vision for future development in five areas- Housing, Environmental Justice, Education, Jobs, and Public Space, offering not only long-term development goals, but also short term solutions.

• "Change Starts with Us: A Grassroots Vision for the Development of the South Bronx," Mothers on the Move and CDP, March, 2010

Stuck in the System

In partnership with Voices of Community Advocates and Leaders (VOCAL) and the New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), the Urban Justice Center's Community Development Project released this report documenting the experiences of participants in syringe access programs who have experienced police harassment and arrests for lawful syringe possession. Although the New York Public Health Law authorizes syringe access programs, the New York State Penal Code was never updated to reflect changes to the Public Health law regarding syringe possession or residue. The inconsistency in state law has created mass confusion among law enforcement, leading to harassment, arrests and even jail time for drug users who lawfully possess syringes. This, in turn, reduces participation of active users in syringe access programs, and discourages safer injection and disposal practices. With research support from the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project, VOCAL conducted over 75 surveys, 10 in-depth interviews and additional literature reviews. The results from these surveys and interviews will hopefully act as an outcry to reconcile the contradictions between the Penal Code and Public Health law, leading to more humane practices that will benefit all of New York State.

• "Stuck in the System," January 29, 2010

• "Stuck in the System: Executive Summary," January 29, 2010

Food Fight: Expanding Access to Affordable and Healthy Food

Food Fight: Expanding Access to Affordable and Healthy Food in Downtown Brooklyn is a new report by the Urban Justice Center's Community Development Project, in partnership with Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE). The report, released on December 12, 2009, focuses on the limited access to affordable and healthy food in Downtown Brooklyn. In the summer of 2009, FUREE members surveyed over 150 Fort Greene/Downtown Brooklyn residents to learn how limited access to food impacts the community, particularly the low-income residents of the nearby Ingersoll and Whitman public housing developments. This report, Food Fight, outlines the major findings of the survey and includes several policy recommendations to improve access to healthy, affordable food in Downtown Brooklyn and across the city.

• "Food Fight: Expanding Access to Affordable and Healthy Food," December 12, 2009

• Food Fight: Executive summary

• "Grocery grumbles in Downtown Brooklyn," New York Post, December 16, 2009

• "Grocery Options Not Meeting needs in Downtown Brooklyn, Survey Says; Rally Planned," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 2009

• "Activists Rally Againist 'Food Desert' in Downtown Brooklyn," The Indypendent, December 23, 2009

• "Brooklyn's Food Desert," Greenpoint Star, December 21, 2009

A People's Plan for the East River Waterfront

This report, "A People’s Plan for the East River Waterfront" lays out the results of a comprehensive community visioning process and highlights the differences between the community’s vision for the development of the waterfront and the plans of the NYC Economic Development Corporation. The People's Plan contains architectural renderings of the community's vision as well as a financial analysis, including operating and capital budgets, that offer a blueprint for turning the community's visioning into a reality. The People's Plan also includes various policy recommendations for the NYC EDC, the Mayor and the City Council to ensure that the new East River Waterfront remains a resource for the surrounding community.

• "A People's Plan for the East River Waterfront," October 2009 A report by the O.U.R. Waterfront Coalition

• Executive summary

Right to the City Policy Platform 2009

The Right to the City–New York City policy platform is a result of an in-depth, collaborative, and participatory process. The alliance created this document to articulate the principles and document the policy concerns most important to low-income communities of color. This platform will be shared with elected officials as the 2009 citywide elections approach, to ensure that the needs of low-income people in New York City will be met. This platform has six sections, including:

• Federal Stimulus Funds
• Community Decision-Making Power
• Low-Income Housing
• Environmental Justice & Public Health
• Jobs & Workforce Development
• Public Space

Right to the City emerged in 2007 to halt the displacement of low-income people, LGBTQ, and youth of color from the neighborhoods they have been living in for years. We are a national alliance of racial, economic and environmental justice organizations. RTTC-NYC is a local chapter, made up of 16 grassroots organizations as well as policy groups, academics and other allied individuals. Urban Justice Center's Community Development Project sits on RTTC-NYC coordinating committee and serves as a coordinator for the local alliance.

Executive Summary
Full Platform

Converting Chinatown: A Snapshot of a Neighborhood becoming unaffordable and unliveable

A report by CAAAV's Chinatown Justice Project and UJC offers a snapshot of Chinatown and highlights trends that are continuing to this day – City-facilitated development and land-use policies that are driving luxury development into the neighborhood; landlord harassment, tenant evictions, and rising rents that are displacing long-time residents. Concurrently a rise in small business rents and a diminishing customer base continue to fuel small business displacement. To prevent the further "conversion" of Chinatown into simply an extension of SoHo and the Lower East Side, CAAAV and UJC have developed several recommendations for New York City policy makers.

Consumer Debt Legal Clinic

The Community Development Project and attorneys from the law firm, Linklaters LLP provide free legal advice at our monthly Consumer Debt Legal Clinic. The clinics are free and open to the public. Sessions are 20-30 minutes long. Attorneys are available to help New York consumers who are having problems with creditors, such as being harassed by debt collectors, sued in New York City Civil Court, or experiencing the hardship of a frozen bank account or garnished wages as a result of consumer debt judgments.

For more details, see our Community Resources page.

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