Bill de Blasio and Immigrant Political and Civic Engagement

Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign has struck a positive note with political progressives and immigrant New Yorkers. In a city divided by growing economic and social inequalities, the metaphor of a tale of two cities brings to the fore a sense of change and the hope of fresh possibilities. Simply put, for our newest New Yorkers, de Blasio’s political agenda highlights the promise of a socially inclusive and economically just city. Yet, a certain question looms large: How might the incoming de Blasio administration ensure that promises made are promises kept?

The promise of a just city is a political project. In the final analysis, the possibility of change is framed and limited by the distribution of economic and political power. In light of entrenched power, a successful transition requires progressive political engagement and concerted grassroots mobilization. Meaningful systemic change, in short, requires the establishment of a muscular post electoral governing coalition that could serve as a counter lever to the political and institutional arrangements that favors a privileged minority of affluent New Yorkers. The idea of a just city, in effect, is a call for an inclusive vision where the benefits of development are shared by all New Yorkers.

In a scenario of inclusion, a robust governing coalition could stand on the shoulders of New York’s politically disenfranchised immigrant majorities. At the neighborhood level this would require an expansive form of participatory democracy and civic engagement, as well as a meaningful form of administrative and political decentralization.

Local engagement would transform community residents and small-scale entrepreneurs into committed stakeholders with a voice in the decision-making processes that impact their everyday lives and their neighborhoods. Neighborhood-based engagement would also bring government closer to the people; strengthen local communities; and fast-track immigrant incorporation.

If all politics are local, then expansive political and civic participation is the mother’s milk of democracy and sustainable development. In this sense, immigrant incorporation would move beyond abstract generalities. Incorporation and engagement, in this scenario, would revolve around a coalition of immigrant political and civic actors, working with local and city-wide progressives in support of a just city.

Points of political collaboration include the possibility of organizing around such progressive public policies as: immigrant entrepreneurship; green development; fiscal, budgetary and tax reform; public education reform; retention and generation of light manufacturing; jobs that provide a livable wage; affordable housing; and neighborhood stabilization programs that reign in mega construction projects, gentrification and residential and commercial displacement.

Political mobilization, in support of these big ticket reform items, will not be easy. Clearly, a reform-based governing coalition requires strategic thinking and a pragmatic sense of what is politically possible.

In my next column, I’ll discuss two innovative political projects: 1) Intro 410 – legislation currently before New York City Council that would grant non-citizen residents with the vote in New York municipal elections; and 2) New York City Participatory Budgeting – an experimental project that expands budgetary decisions-making at the district council level. These novel projects are designed with the intent of expanding electoral participation and civic engagement. Clearly, these innovative policy outcomes are in keeping with an expansive governing coalition and the notion of a just city.

Arturo Ignacio Sánchez, Ph.D. is chairperson of the Newest New Yorkers Committee of Community Board 3, Queens. He has taught contemporary immigration, entrepreneurship, and urban planning at Barnard College, City University of New York, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Pratt Institute.