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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. As we continue with our one-week-later post-election special, listeners, do you recognize these words? "We the people of New York City declare that our city is a multiracial democracy and that our diversity is our strength. We honor and respect the cultures, languages, and histories of all who call and have called this land home, and we celebrate their revolutionary imagination, courage, and resiliency." Did you recognize those words or you have seen them at least once before if you voted in New York City's election? After last week's election, that will now be the opening of the city charters' new preamble because you voted it in.

In the wake of 2020's Black Lives Matter protests sparked of course by the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black Americans. Then-Mayor de Blasio created New York City's Racial Justice Commission, the first of its kind in the United States. Last week, the voters of New York City passed all three of the ballot measures put forth by the Racial Justice Commission, they passed with like 70% to 80% each.

Their proposals consisted of number one, adding that preamble that asserts values of justice and equity as well as to correct injustices from the past to the city charter. Number two, the creation of a racial equity office, plan, and commission. Finally, the creation of that true cost of living measurement that we mentioned in the last segment that more accurately we hope will assess the costs of essentials like food, housing, and transportation in New York City.

With us now to discuss what's next after success at the ballot box for these things, is Jennifer Jones Austin, the CEO and Executive Director of FPWA, one of New York's leading anti-poverty policy and advocacy organizations. She's also the chair of the New York City Racial Justice Commission that put forth these proposals. Ms. Austin, welcome back to WNYC. Thank you so much for joining us.

Ms. Austin: Always good to be with you. Thank you so much for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Can we start with number three because we were talking about the cost of living in New York in the last segment, the creation of a true cost of living measurement? What does that have to do with the Racial Justice Commission?

Ms. Austin: I was listening into your conversation with our elected leader, Jessica Ramos, and I'm so excited about what she's doing in New York City in New York State. It's critically important that we essentially ensure that people are paid fair and livable wages that actually help them not just to survive, but to thrive. What we appreciate is that so much of wage setting, as well as supports for housing, childcare, transportation, these supports, and wages are based on an outdated federal poverty measure.

A measure that says that if you live anywhere in America, and your family of four, two adults, two children, you need only make one more dollar than $27,750, to not be considered poor. If you're a family of three, one adult and two children, if you're making more as the adult in that household, more than $22,000, just that dollar over, then technically you're not poor.

When you have such a measure, that measure again helps to set wages and helps to set income supports, like childcare, housing supports in a city like New York, where we know that to actually make ends meet, a mother in the Bronx with two young children needs at least $80,000. We know that we have to measure what it truly costs to live here, so that we can begin to better inform wage setting and income support. I'm excited that there's an effort at the state legislature to begin to look at wage setting and raising the minimum wage and then indexing it, but you need something like a true cost of living measure to know whether or not even $21 is going to cut it. $21 when annualized, maybe we're talking about a little more than $40,000.

In a city where one adult with two young children in the most affordable section, the Bronx, needs $80,000 plus, that still doesn't cut it. Now, I'm not saying that wages have to be raised to actually meet that, but we need to know the true cost of living so that if we're talking about wages, and critical income supports like childcare, we know what the gaps are.

Brian Lehrer: How will it happen? Who will do what in city government now that this ballot measure has passed?

Ms. Austin: There are measures around the country that had been used before. One such measure that we've applied here in New York City is the self-sufficiency standard, which has been established with the work of the Women's Center, United Way of New York City, as well as FPWA, looking at what's happening around the state with respect to the true cost of living. There's the self-sufficiency standard, there are other measures that have been employed.

What they do is they look at, what it costs to live when you don't consider public resources to make ends meet. It looks at housing, childcare, child independent expenses, food, transportation, health care, clothing. What you do is, you look at what those averages are, and then you come up with a meaningful measurement. You looked at all kinds of data, but you look specifically at what that looks like in New York City.

The city of New York will have to begin measuring this and reporting it out beginning in 2024. What we're appreciating is that there's already key sets of data that have been identified that can help us do this. It's going to be the city of New York's responsibility, but again, there are tools that they can employ, that have already been in place to help us do this. You asked when we began, why does this have a race component to it or racial inequity component to it? It is because we know that Black and brown persons and particularly Black and brown women, experience wage inequity.

Black women are paid 64 cents on the dollar on average, to what a white man earns. Brown, women of Hispanic origin, 56 cents on the dollar. When they are the primary breadwinners in their households, we know what that looks like, how that plays out. It's why we have so many more children of color living in poverty as compared to white children. When we know that we have wage and occupation segregation, we know that if we don't measure the true cost of living, that contributes to woeful instructional economic deprivation.

Brian Lehrer: Once we have these numbers starting in 2024, will any benefits be linked to them? I talked in the previous segment about how Social Security has a cost of living increase that's pegged to the national inflation rate, is there going to be something like that at the city level each year based on these numbers?

Ms. Austin: The proposal itself does not create an automatic change. The city of New York will still be able to use the federal poverty measure, look at their supplemental poverty measures. It doesn't create a private right of action, but what it does is provide critical data, research-based data, and information to inform what we should be doing around income supports, what we should be doing around wages.

We know that here in New York State, just a few months ago, the governor raised eligibility for childcare to 300% of property, because she appreciated that the federal poverty measure is way too low. What we believe will begin to happen here is that with this critical data, it will inform significant may be reform, but at least it will begin to change the conversation about what is really needed here in New York City to live with dignity, what people need to actually get by, and it very well may inform eligibility determinations around income support, as well as around wages. I hope that it will.

Brian Lehrer: Let's move on to the other two ballot measures that you proposed. Your Commission proposed and put on the ballot, all three of which passed. I read at the beginning of the segment from the new preamble to the city charter. Do you want to characterize that preamble for everybody, and tell us what you hope it will accomplish?

Ms. Austin: Absolutely. Before I do that, can I just tell you? I am proud of New York. New York has taken a step forward that-- New York City-- that no other city in the nation has taken. New York has said by voting for all three of these proposals, that they believe that we should be a more just and equitable city and that they're willing to lean in and ensure that the work is done to make that happen. That is significant. That is bold. I really, really just wanted to congratulate New Yorkers who said yes, and step forward to make this happen.

The first proposal that passed, the preamble, the impetus for this, the genesis, the thinking behind this proposal was that when we looked at the charter, 11 commissioners when we looked at it, we realized, there was no statement to essentially cast a vision of what we should be. No aspirational vision for who we are as New Yorkers. We believe that when we look at how structural racism has been propped up in systems and structures, the city, the state, the nation over. Often it has been done because there has been no declaration about who we are, what we believe, what we aspire to be, what we hope to become as a people and as a society. The preamble was put in place to say, "Hey, we value that we are a diverse city, a diverse society here in New York City. Where we believe that everybody, regardless of their race, should have an opportunity to succeed. That everybody should have an opportunity to live in environments that are clean when it comes to pollutants. That we should live in a society where everybody has the resources or can avail themselves of the resources to thrive."

This preamble was based on hearing from thousands of people who came forward and spoke with us in public, who voiced their opinions and their experiences and papers put forth. Telling us that sometimes that they had been left out of government decision-making, representation in government decision-making. Very often they could not avail themselves of opportunities to work in city government. We saw reports that showed that, yes, still today, that there is discrimination in hiring in New York City government. That there's discrimination as a lawsuit just beared out when it comes to actually working for the city and having equal access to overtime support.

We needed something that would cast a vision so that the government could then lean into it and live up to it. I'm a child of the church. My father was a social justice leader and a faith leader. One of the things that I learned is that the Bible says in Proverbs, where there is no vision the people perish. New York City didn't have a vision for what it means to be a democracy where everybody can participate. That's why we thought it was important to have a preamble.

Brian Lehrer: It's a vision statement. We have it in the United States Constitution, listeners, you know this. We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, established justice, ensure domestic tranquility. It goes on from there. Now New York City has, we the people of New York City declare that our city is a multiracial democracy and that our diversity is our strength. I read that at the beginning of the segment, and it goes on from there.

A little more practically oriented, though it's still part of a vision statement. It says, "We endeavor to ensure that every person who resides in New York City has the opportunity to thrive with a safe, healthy, and sustainable living environment. A resilient neighborhood, vibrant and welcoming public spaces, resources necessary to prosper." It goes on from there. Those are just samples, folks from the preamble that you approved if you voted in New York City by a 70 to 30 majority on election day. That I guess, leads to the implementation aspect, the other ballot measure that was approved, the creation of a racial equity office plan and commission. What happens now?

Ms. Austin: Can I just tell you, this was the measure, if I'm being open with you, this is the measure that I wasn't sure if it would pass. This is all about accountability, holding ourselves accountable to a vision, a belief of something more than what currently is, an aspiration greater than well, of course, an aspiration. Something to lean into and to live into. This is all about holding ourselves accountable. New Yorkers voted here, just as you said, 70 to 30 to approve this measure. This measure would require the city of New York to establish in perpetuity an office of racial equity.

What I love about that is that it's not just for the time being. We have lived in this nation 400 plus years with structural racism embedded in our foundational laws. To think that we're just going to put together a few policies and programs that are going to redress this situation, and then we're good to go is full-hearted.

Brian Lehrer: We've got one minute left in the segment, but talk about how that'll happen because people will think, "Wait, we have to ultimately land on policies and programs. That's what actually affects things on the ground."

Ms. Austin: Yes, but there's policies and programs that are seated in a structural government office. An office of racial equity that requires the city of New York every two years to put forth a racial equity plan based on data indicators. That looks at communities that have long been marginalized, looks at what happens when we look at design, implementation, and impact of city regulations, city policies, and programs. Do they by design, implementation, or impact, put certain people at an advantage and others at a disadvantage? How are we going to control for that?

It sets up this office, and it requires every city agency to look at what they're doing and whether or not they're all advancing towards equity. If not, going city agency by agency, neighborhood by neighborhood, if they're not, how they're going to promote an advanced equity in all of government policy.

Brian Lehrer: Of course, we will follow the rollout of all of those things. We thank Jennifer Jones Austin, Chair of the New York City Racial Justice Commission, which proposed and successfully saw those three ballot measures. Thank you so much.

Ms. Austin: Thank you.

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