1. LEAD WITH A PLAN THAT CENTERS FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES & NATURE 

The City should create resilient communities through a plan that tailors solutions to community needs and employs a holistic approach. There are numerous neighborhood plans available, and communities have a sense of what is needed, but the coordination and strategy needed to address the challenge at the scale and pace required is lacking. To be successful, leaders should create a comprehensive resilience plan that guides every land use decision to create safe and vibrant communities amid growing risks. Such a plan must: 

Foster interagency collaboration. 

• Start with the science, leveraging existing information from the NYC Panel on Climate Change and community-based plans, prioritizing actions that support environmental justice and lower-income communities.  

• Include a proactive citywide education campaign about the risks of, and solutions to, climate impacts, and developed in partnership with community leaders.

• Include quantifiable metrics that would be tracked and publicly reported over time.

• Prioritize nature-based solutions such as parks, streets, green infrastructure, and open spaces to absorb rainfall, reduce excessive urban heat, clean the air and improve health.

2. ESTABLISH A CLIMATE RESILIENT BUDGET 

Long term, reliable funding is necessary to effectively and equitably adapt to climate change. To date, we have relied on post-disaster federal funding for investing in climate resilience, but this “disaster - response - recovery” approach does not allow for holistic solutions. We need a local funding strategy that allows us to meet local needs. If we fund the solutions, we will save New Yorkers up to 13 times what we invest. This means we:

• Dedicate funding to critical climate resilience programs, including: 

• The Bureau of Coastal Resilience to plan, maintain and deploy flood defenses.

• Integrated climate planning (Climate Strong Communities, Urban Forest Plan) 

• NYC Emergency Management’s Strengthening Communities program 

• The New York City Panel on Climate Change.

• New York City Parks (at least 1% of the budget), for the City’s parks, trees, and open spaces, including maintenance staff and workforce development programs. 

• Secure a new revenue source for operations and maintenance of flood infrastructure, green infrastructure, and other resilience initiatives outside of the general obligation fund. 

• Eliminate the bogus $400M “rental payment” that was enacted in 2024 to require the Department of Environmental Protection to pay  the City to use its pipes. This money should stay within DEP to fix our water infrastructure, not plug holes in the City’s coffers.

3. BUILD CLIMATE-RESILIENT HOUSING

Soaring costs for rent amid a dwindling supply of affordable housing leaves too many New Yorkers struggling to call this city home. At the same time, communities face displacement and economic devastation due to climate risks, with much of our housing and infrastructure at risk of flooding and extreme heat. We need more housing, however putting thousands of new units in areas that we know will flood will exacerbate this problem. All new big developments at risk of flooding must additionally bring upgrades of vital infrastructure - such as keeping our streets dry so emergency vehicles can access - to both the new residents and the existing community. The recently issued Climate Resilience Design Guidelines provides a necessary framework for all work in the built environment to comprehensively account for future conditions in all stages of development. Applying that thinking to housing, we propose to:

• Pursue legislation to expand coverage of the Climate Resiliency Design Guidelines (as piloted through Local Law 41 of 2021) to private as well as public development.

• Adequately fund NYCHA and other public housing capital repairs so that they function efficiently and support resident needs year-round, especially in extreme conditions.

• Establish a comprehensive housing adaptation incentives and assistance program for low and moderate-income homeowners and renters by significantly expanding resources to existing programs (e.g., HomeFix) and supporting local high-priority needs such as Queens community’s extreme groundwater flooding (Intro 1067). 

• Support legislation that establishes maximum indoor air temperature (Intro 994-2024) to prevent extreme heat health impacts and mortality. 

• Strengthen zoning code so that we avoid putting more people at risk by minimizing density in the riskiest areas and maximizing affordable density in the lowest risk areas.