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CBA should mean "CITY Benefit Agreement"CBA should mean "city benefit agreement," not "community benefit agreement." Promises of jobs on large projects should be city-wide, not community-wide. Mayor Bloomberg should issue a policy pronouncement on this right now. For example: a water park will be built on Randall's Island. Who lives on Randall's Island? Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has reportedly received promises that at least 300 jobs will go to residents of East Harlem. But what about jobs for the South Bronx? What if there aren't 300 qualified people in East Harlem? What if someone from East Harlem gets the job and then moves--horrors!--to Inwood or Washington Heights? The Yankees have promised jobs to the South Bronx. But why just the South Bronx? Why not all of the Bronx? What about someone from East Harlem who wants to apply for a Yankees job? Do people realize that Yankee Stadium is just a short bridge walk or subway stop away from Manhattan? Queens politicians now want the Mets to promise jobs for that area of Queens. For whom, the auto mechanics in Willet's Point? Why not all of Queens? What about Mets fans who happen to live in Brooklyn or the Bronx or Manhattan or Staten Island? Employers should select from the quality talent pool that is the entire city of New York. People move around. Jobs should not be restricted to "community residents." What is a community resident, anyway? Someone who moved to the community a year ago, or last week? The important thing for politicians should be that the workers live in New York City and pay New York City income taxes. Employers should have the great talent pool that is New York City to select qualified workers. Everybody wins with CITY benefit agreements, not COMMUNITY benefit agreements. Can some newspaper somewhere (say, the Daily News, hint hint) look into the CBAs that have been signed? Who's promised jobs? What does Mayor Bloomberg think of this NYC idea? Can some reporter ask him? CBA should mean "CITY
then the pols and developers should QUIT QUIT QUIT selling
their projects as saviors to the LOCAL COMMUNITY's unemployment woes. reply | email this comment
I would also add that many of these projects' negative impacts are borne by the local COMMUNITY, not the CITY-traffic, pollution, loss of open space... CBAs when done right (e.g. negotiatied by the community, not by elected officials) are a way for local communities to ensure that the purported benefits that they're being promised are delivered, and that negative impacts are minimized, mitigated, offset...
This post is as stupid as if were coming from a Democrat. CBAs are simply ways to bypass the zoning laws, which are meant to regulate the use of land, bulk of buildings, light, air, etc. Zoning is not supposed to be who benefits the most. Most CBAs are dictated by politicians, not the community, i.e., Acorn in Brooklyn, Carrion in the Bronx and Quinn on the West Side. In all those cases, the community was left out and the politicians are claiming benefits which are essentially fake. But what the politicians did, was deprive the public of an opportunity to have zoning mean something. And when appropriate, scale back or mitigate projects. CBA's are not the same thing as negotation, when often time, what's on the table also involves scaling back. CBAs should be prohibited as an institution. The only people who benefit are the politicians, not the local community and certainly not the city.
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