A collaborative inquiry into the future of development
A Minifesto
version 1.0
Who built the seven gates of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed.
Who built the city up each time?
– Questions from a Worker who Reads (original), Bertolt Brecht
It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made
But the union makes us strong
– Solidarity Forever, labor anthem
Workers built this city. But in a city of rising rents and rising tides, working people increasingly can’t afford to live here. What forces forged this paradox, and what is to be done?
We are a coalition of workers, architects, educators, labor organizers, scholars, activists, development professionals, and students committed to an inquiry into the forces shaping the built environment in New York City today. Our hypothesis is that the fundamental cause of the array of problems we confront is this: development in our city centers the needs of capital rather than the needs of workers, residents, our communities, and the planet.
We have come together to test this hypothesis, and to develop a new paradigm for development in New York City as we rebuild from the still-unfolding political, economic, social, and environmental disasters of not only the past year, but the past half-century.
Our methods include:
Co-research to discover and historicize the development process in New York City and understand at a granular level how historical choices have constructed the norms and systems we take for granted in shaping our built environment.
Co-construction of designs for housing through a new, multi-stakeholder process that rebalances the priorities of capital and labor to achieve outcomes that value workers at all steps in the design and construction process, current and future residents and neighbors, and the earth.
We welcome engagement in this process by all those who are prepared to think critically about human agency in shaping our world today.