The city finally released its legally-mandated racial equity plan on Sept. 1, which will directly shape how the preliminary and executive budgets invest in Black New Yorkers to eliminate disparities and wealth gaps historically created by systemic racism. This follows a court ruling last week against the city over violating the charter by delaying the inaugural report, which advocates expected a year-and-a-half ago.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani successfully promised a preliminary plan within his first 100 days, delivering in the 11th hour this past April. To oversee the report, he enlisted former Urban Justice Center organizer Afua Atta-Mensah to serve as the city’s chief equity officer and commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice (MOEJ).
But the court ruling found Mamdani broke the law despite making good on his word — the preliminary plan was mandated by Jan. 16 so it could dictate this year’s budget. To be clear, the report specifically exists as a direct blueprint for how the city disburses money across agencies to address racial disparities.
While the executive budget passed nearly four months ago, the racial equity plan will play a major role in dictating the often overlooked “November Plan,” which occurs in the middle of each fiscal year.
A plan for Black New Yorkers
Better outcomes for Black New Yorkers were featured prominently in the 400-plus page final plan, addressing issues like healthcare, education and social services. It also acknowledged racism in the city’s history, particularly with Wall Street’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. The first-of-its-kind report examined 45 agencies in total.
“These commitments are specific, measurable, and public, and New Yorkers should hold us accountable for delivering on them,” said Mamdani in a statement. “Whether it means narrowing disparities in unemployment, reducing Black maternal mortality or making sure every child has access to a great public education, this is what it looks like to govern with equity in mind.”
In a press call shortly before the plan’s public release, Atta-Mensah and deputy mayor Julie Su broke down the city’s eight broad racial equity goals ranging from health and transportation to education and justice system contact. They mentioned specifics like preventing Black pregnancy-related deaths and increasing internet access, as well as improving workforce development and reducing disparities in housing.
The city officials were particularly intentional about calling it a “plan” rather than a report. This is because of well-documented racial disparities — today, the net worth of the median household of white New Yorkers is $276,900 a year, while the median net worth of a Black household is just $18,870.
“These citywide goals give us a common destination, but getting there requires changes in how government works every day,” said Atta-Mensah. “From emergency management and procurement to health and service delivery, and this is what equity in action looks like. Racial equity is not a separate program or a separate system within city government.
“It’s about improving the way existing government systems work, and we’re seeing that in different parts of city government, [like] with Emergency Management building a racially-conscious emergency planning framework that agencies can use.”
Beyond the eight citywide goals, the plan also earmarked agency-level objectives like “advancing pay equity” and “addressing historical harms and advancing equity.” For example, the Administration for Children’s Services was tasked with addressing the overrepresentation of Black and Brown youth in foster care while the fire department will analyze response times based on neighborhood demographics.
Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander was a key advocate for publishing the plan while serving as NYC Comptroller and pointed to how the findings covered housing as a racial equity issue. Specifically, he mentioned how the plan addressed spurring affordable housing development through recent City Charter amendments for Black and Brown New Yorkers looking to stay in their neighborhoods.
Lander, who long maintained that Black homeownership was key to cutting the racial wealth gap, also commended how the racial equity plan went beyond the rental stock. The city’s upcoming “Our Home” affordable housing program will help convert rental buildings into resident-run co-ops while the Mamdani administration expands existing initiatives to provide further downpayment and mortgage payment assistance.
“We need to build more housing, especially affordable, but [also] at every level so there’s not such an imbalance of supply and demand,” said Lander. “But racial equity has a history here. It’s a segregated city. It has a long history of discrimination and exclusion…we have some traditions in New York City of helping working class families become homeowners through limited equity cooperatives like Amalgamated Housing or Co-op City, but we’ve largely stopped using that approach right now.”
The final plan also outlined priorities for the Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention not found in the preliminary plan. Initial exclusions of any mention of the new office established by the Mamdani administration in response to protect Black homeowners led to suspicions that the preliminary plan was largely passed down from the previous Adams administration.
‘Racial equity is law’
Former Mayor Eric Adams promised the final publication by early 2025 after already falling behind on staffing the New York City Commission on Racial Equity (CORE), an independent commission tasked with oversight of the report. Persistent delays continued even when CORE was adequately staffed. By last July, the plan was indefinitely postponed. So the commission sued the city in hopes of forcing publication through the courts.
Last summer, advocates and electeds took to City Hall to announce the lawsuit. Several had particularly harsh words for Adams given his milestone as the city’s second-ever Black mayor. “You got a historic mandate from the ancestors by invoking them to get there,” said CORE commissioner Rev. Kirsten John Foy during the Aug. 2025 rally. “And now, brother, you have a mandate to step before the people and tell the truth about your record.”
At the time, the advocates — which included CORE commissioners — said they were told the 45 agencies already submitted their completed plans. Questions also surrounded why Adams took so long with his appointments, particularly given how quickly Lander appointed his city comptroller pick, Sadye Campoamor, in July 2023.
“I didn’t start until October 11, 2023, but my first charter mandate was due October 2, 2023,” said CORE executive director Linda Tigani. “The delay of starting CORE and several delays on the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice is why the work had begun to be delayed, and we agreed on a planning process that would have completed before the Trump administration was inaugurated. Once all the training for city agencies was done, the plan was complete.
“It was at the Law Department, that’s when the delays with the Law Department review continued extensively for months. Well after 2024 and early 2025, it was clear that they weren’t even putting in a tentative release date. It was [after] an indefinite hold with no path forward that we filed the lawsuit.”
Both CORE and the racial equity plan stem from a successful 2022 ballot measure voted on by New York City residents. As a result, the City Charter mandates a new final plan every two years, preceded by the preliminary plan and a community feedback period. The 15-person CORE would provide oversight, as well as input and public comment for the report.
Seven mayoral appointees and five city council appointees make up the commission. The city comptroller and public advocate also get a pick. And the executive director Tigani rounds out the commission.
On Aug. 25, a New York Supreme Court judge ruled that the city’s delays broke the law both under Adams and Mamdani. The courts also reaffirmed CORE’s ability to hire its own lawyers and to sue the city. Adams’ administration previously attempted to throw out the case by arguing against the city budget-funded commission’s legal ability to sue. Previously, the Independent Budget Commission was allowed to sue the Giuliani administration over charter violations.
Andrew Celli, a partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, represents CORE in the lawsuit and called last week’s ruling a “Declaration of Independence” for the commission. “It affirms the vital role of the Commission and gives real legal teeth to the work New Yorkers created it to do,” he added. “The court made clear that this work is not optional. It is required by law. The ruling ensures that the City must respect CORE’s role and follow the racial equity planning process enshrined in the City Charter.”
During the press call, Atta-Mensah looked forward to “getting back on schedule” with each step of the charter mandate now seemingly fulfilled. But a few key steps remain regarding the lawsuit, according to Tigani. The recent ruling established that the city would need to cover CORE’s legal costs.
Following Tuesday’s publication, CORE started reviewing the final plan on the night of publication and intends to respond in 21 calendar days. The cycle for the next report will start in October next year, with the second version starting when the third should have.
“It does not matter who is the mayor in New York City with respect to this work,” said Tigani. “Every single mayor, including Mayor Mamdani, will have to comply with the charter mandate indicating that racial equity is law. [But] we are absolutely excited that he is moving forward the racial equity planning process. We do have now both a preliminary plan that we are charter-mandated to review, evaluate, and publicly comment on, which we did, and we will be doing the same for the final plan as well.
“The planning process does not start or end with the mayoralty. The planning process starts with community — with our community equity priorities [through] CORE…now we have a mayoralty that has allowed the cycle to move forward because they are doing their part.”
The plan can be found here: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/equity/html/nyc-racial-equity-plan-2026/index.html
