New Yang City: Andrew’s Blueprint for a New York to Love

Andrew Yang is a progressive reformer committed to fighting for each and every New Yorker from Day 1. City Hall needs to work for everyday people and ensure basic services and life-changing programs are finally enacted. Andrew’s vision as New York City’s next mayor is to create tangible benefits for every resident, and to champion New York’s recovery as the most vibrant, diverse, and exciting city in the world.

The Fight For All New Yorkers

Creating opportunities for work, fighting income inequality and ending cycles of poverty will be the cornerstone of Andrew’s plan for New York’s recovery and a brighter, more equitable future.

✔ Cash Relief for 500,000 New Yorkers

Andrew Yang has been a pioneer in the fight for a universal basic income. He has created a movement to bring attention to the ongoing devastation of poverty on individuals and communities often ignored by politicians and existing social policies. The federal government’s COVID-19 stimulus checks have shown the benefits of putting cash in the hands of everyday citizens. Andrew’s cash relief plan is built on the belief that monthly cash infusions to residents in greatest need will offer a long overdue step in lifting the worst mental and physical strains of cycles of poverty, while reducing crime, homelessness and other social ills.

✔ Creating a People’s Bank of New York City

The rates of unbanked and underbanked individuals in New York City far outpace the national average. Unbanked families spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars for check cashing and other basic financial services. We can do better. The People’s Bank will support community financial institutions to provide affordable banking services to individuals overlooked by mainstream financial institutions, including undocumented immigrants. The People’s Bank will also accelerate small business lending and provide microloans to small businesses, especially to entrepreneurs of color. These basic services will provide immediate benefits for thousands of New Yorkers.

Support for Job Creation and Small Businesses

Andrew is committed to bringing back the 600,000+ jobs lost during the pandemic, with a focus on creating more employment opportunities in hardest hit communities. Andrew’s program puts local businesses first, and bolsters new and diverse employers, entrepreneurs, and workers throughout the city.

✔ Support Small Businesses

Small businesses animate New York City’s neighborhoods, reflecting the diversity of culture that makes New York unique. But the City’s small businesses have been devastated by COVID. Over 40% of small businesses remain closed, and New York City small business revenue is still down by more than 50% as compared to last March. City regulations make running a small business even harder, with a maze of different regulations, raids on small businesses and fines for minor infractions. Supporting small businesses means getting City Hall out of the way. Andrew will automatically renew all small business licenses for a year while he overhauls the permitting process to reduce paperwork, ends the practice of raids, and reduces fees and fines. New York City should be a place that encourages entrepreneurship instead of penalizing it.

✔ Embrace Diversity and Entrepreneurship as Core Strengths

Andrew will think outside the box to encourage the most promising new businesses to set up shop in New York and to foster a diverse generation of home-grown entrepreneurs. That might mean short-term leases for pop-up businesses in vacant storefronts, new incubation hubs in underserved areas of the city, or loans and grants for women, people of color, and immigrant-owned businesses. Andrew will also reposition New York City as a global technology hub by encouraging technology companies to locate here and investing in STEM education to ensure the City has the most diverse tech talent pipeline in the world.

✔ Fight for a Clean Energy Future & Green Jobs

New York City is already grappling with the impacts of a changing climate. Each year, 130 New Yorkers die because of heat exposure, mostly in vulnerable communities lacking air conditioning and the city is already grappling with regular storm flooding and sea level rise. As Mayor, Yang will create tens of thousands of green jobs, position New York City as a global hub for the green economy, and mobilize public and private investment to reduce the City’s greenhouse gas emissions and make it more resilient to a changing climate.

Reopening a Stronger New York City

New York City needs to get back on its feet—and its recovery shouldn’t just aim for a return to the status quo ante. Andrew’s plans call for the full time return to stronger schools, renewed tourism and more efficient NYC’s transit system, to reintroduce a cleaner, safer, and more technologically savvy city to the world.

✔ Vaccinations for All

The first step in reopening New York City is assuring the health and safety of all of its residents. This means access to vaccination sites, a streamlined and easy-to-navigate appointment system on and offline, and a proactive public education program in multiple languages on how to access vaccines and to address questions on vaccination safety.

✔ Fixing a Broken Transit System

We need a clean and efficient transit system to get New Yorkers back to work and visitors back into the city. The transit system was faltering long before the pandemic’s onset. The time has come for efficient decision-making on systemic upgrades and fixes, without bureaucratic blockades and political in-fighting. Each borough needs bus rapid transit with more reliable routes and service, and more dedicated bike lanes and routes. Andrew’s plans for congestion pricing and resident-only parking will limit gridlock and pollution, while funding transit improvements.

✔ Welcoming the World Back to New York City

Broadway shows, museums, dining, nightlife, and mom-and-pop shops are central to the city’s identity and a source of joy for residents and visitors alike. Andrew Yang wants to be the champion-in-chief to these vital industries, through the pandemic recovery and beyond. Tourism brings in 300,000 jobs to the City. Andrew’s plan for bringing tourists back with support for the theatre industry exemplifies a fresh approach with proposals like private-public partnerships for ticket purchases and exploring new revenue sources with streaming services.

✔ Parks, Sidewalks, and City Streets

New Yorkers should have every opportunity to enjoy the city. Programs like expanded outdoor dining will become permanent fixtures in the city’s streets, and a symbol of the city’s resiliency during the pandemic. An expanded and permanent Open Streets program will allow safer pedestrian and bicycle access to enjoy retail shops, dining, and exercise. We need to invest in our network of city parks, which drive tourism and create a greener, more livable New York. Restored trash pick-up with targeted initiatives to eliminate chronic littering and contain sidewalk trash will assure cleaner, healthier streets.

✔ 21st Century New York

New York City should be a global technology hub with equitable access for all. All residents should have access to reliable, high-speed broadband. Lack of access to wifi and technology exacerbates learning, employment, and other inequalities. Expanding city initiatives with public-private partnerships for high-speed broadband, and access to computers and equipment for all students, can guarantee greater equity in tech access. City Hall must also modernize—with streamlined licensing processes, updated and digitized record-keeping, and data-driven solutions to policies and quality-of-life initiatives.

✔ Bringing Back Schools

Our priority for students, parents, and teachers is to bring back safer, stronger schools. Schools must be a safe and healthy haven, and we need to commit additional resources through school construction bonds for systemic safety upgrades. New York City schools need real support to enact best practices—from reducing classes sizes and adding teachings in classrooms that need it, to adding social workers and school counselors in schools with underserved and homeless populations.

A Housing Revolution

New York will never fully thrive if residents cannot afford rent or fulfill their dreams of home ownership in the city. Everyday New Yorkers have paid for decades of political infighting and inaction, and special interest groups setting the terms on housing. The math is simple: New York needs to build more affordable housing, and proposals so far have been too timid to deal with the scope of the problem. Andrew isn’t beholden to entrenched interests. His promise is only to enact big-picture reforms and seize an historic opportunity to build housing to benefit the city as a whole.

✔ Invest in Housing

Even before the pandemic, New Yorkers were leaving the city in droves. The pandemic only exposed the overcrowding fueling the COVID-19 death toll and a segregated city. Andrew’s proposed reforms and investments will create over 250,000 new units of housing during his tenure—more than any mayor since the Koch era. Together with federal stimulus funding, a total of $4 billion dollars a year will be invested a year in affordable housing. Major investments will be coupled with smart policies that fit current needs, like our plan to convert hotels to create up to 25,000 new housing units within four years.

✔ Reforming the System

Long-term solutions for the City have to start with changing an unworkable status quo. Andrew’s reforms will weaken the grip of entrenched interests on the city’s housing policies and development. Reforms like ending member deference will keep vetoes in the City Council – and the sway of connected interest groups — from torpedoing projects beneficial to the city as a whole. Andrew’s call to end parking minimums will de-incentivize car ownership in the city and facilitate new building opportunities.

Safer Neighborhoods & Ending the Rise in Crime

New Yorkers share a basic desire for safety in their home, streets, and schools. The rise in gun violence and hate crimes in the city needs to be tackled head-on, with reform-minded public safety measures. We need to listen to the communities hardest hit by rising crime, and direct resources demanded to ensure residents feel safe and supported by the city.

✔ Ending Gun Violence

Gun violence is a public health crisis and disproportionately impacts 9-14 precincts in the city. We need to eliminate guns on the streets. The support of the Gun Violence Suppression Division will target traffickers and sellers of firearms to dismantle the iron pipeline of guns flowing into the city.

✔ Reforming Public Safety

The tactics for promoting public safety cannot be worse than the problems they are meant to address. Reform must be top-down and bottom up. Police officers should be members of the community they police, and understand the needs and concerns of their neighborhoods. COs, sergeants and precinct-level officers must all be trained with a reform-minded approach to both non-violent and violent crimes, and there must be outside accountability for misconduct.

✔ A Holistic Approach

Taking on big picture social issues must be the new way forward in a humane and meaningful approach to crime. Turning to law enforcement to solve structural problems cannot be the solution. Andrew’s proposals for reducing extreme poverty, pathways to employment, increased affording housing, and social services, as well as a city-wide network of social workers, addiction specialists, homeless advocates, and other trained professionals must be the first line of defense in securing the city’s health and safety.

✔ Hate Crimes

Rising rates of hate crimes, especially among the AAPI community, is heartbreaking and frightening for many New Yorkers. We need to acknowledge the specific harms of hate-based crimes. We need long-term outreach to AAPI communities on reporting hate crimes, and available support and services, as well law enforcement training on addressing the specific safety concerns of targeted communities. Above all, we need to find unity in the face of hatred.

Fair and Equitable Tax Structure

The city’s tax structure is long overdue for reform. Despite years of unfulfilled promises, our proposed reforms will deliver needed revenue to the city with more equitable shares across the city.

✔ Property Tax Reform

An equitable property tax structure that makes sense will finally be enacted in the city. Those who can pay their fair share will be required to contribute accordingly, and more than homeowners with lower property values. Rates for rental buildings will be lowered and slightly higher for luxury apartments for a more equitable system. The pied-a-terre tax will turn to ultra luxury condos in the city and stop raising taxes on regular homebuyers via the mortgage recording tax.

✔ Wasted Land Assessment

The wasted land assessment will assure every square inch of commercial land will be put to use and generate revenue for the city. The Department of Finance has long under-assessed vacant land, which disincentivizes putting that land to use and shortchanges the city of tax revenue. A Yang administration will direct the city to reassess vacant commercial land at their proper values so that these properties are no longer a blight on our communities, but instead are put to use for community needs, such as affordable housing.