Commissioner Vij describes changed context and five action plan objectives

I also want to be frank about what we need.

to do better.

One inescapable fact is how much the world around us changed after the plan was released.

The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped our entire city and put stresses on our cultural community we could hardly imagine in 2017.

A new federal administration has weaponized some of the plan's foundations, radically shifting how we can approach diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Seismic changes like these require our approach and planning and policymaking to change too.

In testimony, I will talk through the five objectives outlined in the Create NYC Action Plan.

I want to examine what was accomplished under each objective, where we still need to focus, and what we're doing in the present day to achieve real meaningful change.

The 2019 Create NYC Action Plan was our effort to streamline the density and complexity of the original plan while still maintaining its core priorities.

I remember working with Derek Wang, my colleague next to me, and others, writing out hundreds of post-it notes and index cards to distill the original plan into something more manageable and effective.

Ultimately, we boiled the 2017 plans 180 pages into five broad objectives.

Objective one was increase equitable funding and support for culture, especially in historically underserved communities.

This objective gave the agency a mandate to look into our funding practices with a lens towards equity.

Since FY18, more than $21.7 million of CDF funding has been allocated to groups in underserved neighborhoods.

An admissions fee arrangement with the Met Museum announced in 2019.

19 provided an additional $2.8 million distributed to 175 groups across both the CDF and CIG.

The latter example shows how a broad mandate could give the agency room to respond to new opportunities, ones that couldn't be anticipated by the plan but could still be harnessed to achieve its objectives.