Changing New York

On March 3rd The New York City Food Policy Center and The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute join forces to sponsor Transforming Food Policy: Can New York City Become a Model for Smart, Fair Municipal Food Policy for the Nation? At this session of the Changing New York series, four experts who are at the frontlines of changing food policy in New York will consider what we have learned from Bloomberg-era food policy initiatives, what are the likely food policy priorities of the current city government, and what New York can learn from other cities? Panelists: Dr. Thomas Farley, Former Commissioner of Health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Joan H. Tisch Distinguished Fellow in Public Health at Roosevelt House Institute for Public Policy at Hunter College Melony Samuels, Executive Director, Bed Stuy Campaign Against Hunger Caitlin Salemi, Coordinator, NYC Food Forum and Food Systems Network NYC Ben Kallos, New York City Council Member, District 5 Moderated by Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, CUNY School of Public Health and Hunter College, and Faculty Director, NYC Food Policy Center at Hunter College This event is co-sponsored by the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College and the NYC Food Policy Center at Hunter College.

The explosive growth of New York’s tech industry in the last decade has reshaped the city’s economy and its demographics — and has kept New York at the forefront in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Over the last decade, Bloomberg administration policies aimed to foster this growth in the tech and information sector. What new directions should the new de Blasio administration consider in order to ensure — and strengthen — New York’s role at the forefront of innovation? We were joined at Roosevelt House for the latest in our continuing series, “Changing New York,” as Manoush Zomorodi, host of WNYC’s “New Tech City,” led a distinguished panel of experts in a wide-ranging conversation exploring the new policies, priorities and strategies that the de Blasio administration ought to focus on in the years ahead. Each brings a business and personal perspective to the crucial questions of what the new digital New York might look like — and how the new administration can help make it possible. Speakers: Jessica Lawrence, Executive Director, NY Tech Meetup; Michael Mandel, Chief Economic Strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute and author of Building a Digital City: The Growth and Impact of New York City’s Tech/Information Sector; and Steve Schlafman, a principal at RRE Ventures, who also writes the blog “Schlaf Notes: The Chronicles of an Accidental VC,” about trends and his “adventures in startup land.” Introducing the panel was Stanley S. Litow, Vice President, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs of IBM, President of the IBM Foundation, and member of the Roosevelt House Advisory Board.

The “Changing New York” series, which explores the most pressing policy issues facing the new de Blasio administration continued at Roosevelt House. We kicked off the series in 2014 with a conversation on how to keep the city moving safely and efficiently — whether by bus, train, bicycle, on foot, or by car – and the policy debates most likely to shape the new mayor’s transportation agenda. Speakers: Jim O’Grady, transportation reporter of WNYC, hosted an evening featuring distinguished experts Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow of The Manhattan Institute; Owen Gutfreund, Hunter College associate professor of Urban Affairs and Planning; Paul Steely White, executive director, Transportation Alternatives; Jeff Zupan, senior fellow, Regional Planning Association. – all of whom are in the forefront of the search for an answer to one of the most basic and pressing questions of urban life: How do we get from here to there?