New York City’s Largest Borough-Specific Planning Effort
Our city is special for many reasons – most of them good. But there is a major way in which our city gets it wrong: planning. Plain and simple, in New York City, we do not plan for things as simple as making sure every neighborhood has adequate parks, schools, and affordable housing. The city has no 10- or 20-year vision to guide our growth, investments, or how resources are directed.
Nearly every other major city in the world has this – they’re called “comprehensive plans.” London has “The London Plan.” Delhi has “The Development Authority Master Plan.” Mexico City has “The General Development Plan.” New York City? New York City has nothing at all – because here, in the greatest city in the world, we do not plan, we only zone. And as a result, inequities run deep.
In 2023, Borough President Reynoso took matters into his own hands and released his very own Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn – the largest borough-specific planning effort ever done in our history.
The guiding document illustrates a new planning paradigm applied to Brooklyn, asking “what does it look like to plan for the public good?” “What does it look like to return to the heart of why we plan? To provide our residents with everything they need to be healthy, housed, and supported?”
The Plan balances communities’ needs for health care, housing, transit, jobs, and more. It clarifies local as well as citywide needs, and it sets expectations so that we can all play a role in meeting the needs of the borough and this city.
It’s a proposal for a different way to manage the city, a model for planning citywide, and a chance for New Yorkers to see the planning that’s possible, that we deserve, and that we should fight for citywide.
Check it out for yourself: