Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program – Meeting 10

On Tuesday, May 7, 2024, the NSF Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) held its tenth Community Partners in Residence (CPR) Program workshop. The session was moderated by Barbara Askins and would include presentations from James Gunn, Technical Project Manager of NYC Office of Public Safety, and Seth Contreras, Policy Advisor for Innovation of NYC Department of Transportation. The workshop would again include input from CPRs – Maxine Gillies, Lead Career Coach at STRIVE and Cicely Harris, Chair of Community Board 10 would highlight their community work.  

After opening remarks by Barbara Askins, James Gunn began the workshop with an introduction of the mission of NYC Office of Public Safety (OPS), emphasizing the statement that “public safety is a prerequisite to our prosperity.” OPS is led by Phil Banks, and its staff serve as strategic advisors to the police department. The office also supports various agencies, such as the FDNY, Office of Criminal Justice to proactively address the safety concerns as is illustrated in the three pilot projects he would go on to highlight. FUSUS facilitates small businesses and retail outlets to voluntarily opt in to share their security camera video feeds with the NYPD, giving local precincts real-time access as another layer of crime prevention and safety in stores. ONCAM provides video management software offering 360-degree viewing for investigations at a cheaper price. Additionally, NYC BE SAFE aims to alter the current negative public perception on safety despite the decreasing trends in crime by introducing innovative approaches and resources in public safety.

The second government agency presentation was delivered by Seth Contreras, providing an overview of the  responsibility of NYC Department of Transportation, which includes managing streets, sidewalks, bridges, bike routes, and more, with its $1 billion budget and $20 billion capital program. He highlighted initiatives aimed at improving pedestrian safety and connectivity, such as median and curb extensions, and transit signal priority at intersections for bus drivers, which lengthens the green light and shortens the red, resulting in improved route speeds and safety throughout NYC’s 2 thousand intersections. The department is also piloting innovative programs like Smart Curbs involving various technologies to manage freight access, parking, and micro hubs. Additionally, the department is planning e-bike battery charging pilots to offer outdoor battery charging technology for delivery workers and ebike users since the city had previously banned e-bikes, which resulted in an influx of underground sales of poorly made and dangerous products.

Following the series of presentations by the city government, CPR, Maxine Gillies presented on the work STRIVE does to build professional skills and empower individuals for career success since its founding in 1984 in East Harlem. Offering comprehensive job readiness training including its digital skills, coaching, and placement services primarily within the construction and healthcare sectors, STRIVE caters to diverse populations including recent immigrants, returning citizens and homeless individuals, as well as youth. In fact, Maxine was introduced to STRIVE as a recent immigrant and after going through their program, was later recruited as an employee.  With 14 sites across various locations, She concluded her presentation by mentioning that CS3 could help STRIVE to reimagine its service delivery by integrating more technology into its educational programs, and offering new tech internship and industry partnership opportunities for STRIVE to offer its clients. 

The final presentation was made by CPR Cicely Harris, Chair of Community Board 10.  Cicely introduced highlights of its central Harlem neighborhood including the 125th Street BID, Apollo Theater, and two historic districts with demographics of a fairly high educational attainment but also a higher unemployment rate compared to Manhattan and the rest of NYC. The main concerns of this community as noted in their annual District Needs Assessment included housing, crime & public safety, and health and human services. She concluded her presentation with suggestions about how CS3 could help these issues, including technology that promotes safety and security but also identity protection, and providing the community’s youth population with paid tech internships and inclusion in these types of roundtable discussions. 

After the presentations, the session moved to the break-out groups discussion. CPRs shared their learnings, which included a similarity of concerns represented in community district needs across all the community boards, a discussion on the impact and risk of technology to quality of life, and the potential of some of the city government pilot programs presented – ie, pedestrian safety, sanitation, flooding issues, and trash monitoring. They also suggested that city agencies collaborate more when it comes to using/sharing technology, installing e-bike chargers at gas stations, and reassessing the viability of bike paths. 

CPR workshops are invite-only. If you are interested in attending a workshop or learning more about CS3’s community engagement process, please contact our team at streetscapes@columbia.edu.