News from Pratt Center: June 2025
June 2025 Newsletter: Advancing Equity in Land Use, Transportation, and Climate Justice
Pratt Center’s June 2025 newsletter highlights recent progress across our core areas of work—from advancing racial equity in land use to expanding clean energy access for low- to moderate-income New Yorkers.
This edition includes:
- New research on how the City is implementing Local Law 78 and its racial equity tools, including the Equitable Development Data Explorer and Racial Equity Reports;
- Policy wins for bus riders on Flatbush Avenue;
- Updates on climate and housing advocacy at the State level;
- A preview of our upcoming exhibition on Pratt Center’s history.
Read the full newsletter here.
A note from our Senior Planner, Tara Duvivier:
When I first joined the Pratt Center in 2020, I started attending meetings with the Racial Impact Study Coalition. The dedication of these community leaders and community planning groups fighting for legislation was deeply inspiring. Their advocacy led to a landmark law that created powerful racial equity tools—and since then, the coalition has played a vital role in developing popular educational material and providing training whenever possible.Still, there’s more work to do.
Earlier this month, we released a new report analyzing the 64 Racial Equity Reports that have come out since the law first went into effect in 2021. We also spoke with community board members and elected officials. What we found were gaps in training, uneven implementation, and signs that the tools aren’t reaching those most impacted by land use decisions.
With this report—and the momentum built by decades of organizing behind us—we’re calling on the City to do more to ensure land use policy addresses the root causes of displacement and moves us toward a more just New York.
This work is all the more urgent at a time when the communities we stand with are under attack, and the foundations of democracy itself are at stake.
Read more from me:
– Our op-ed in City Limits on what's at stake
– Substack interview with Notes on diving into the report
Tara Duvivier
Senior Planner