Six New Yorkers who will make the city a better, cooler and fairer place in 2023

Year-end lists are completely subjective, often maddening and often inexplicable. So let’s explain the logic behind this: It’s meant to spotlight New Yorkers who, while you probably didn’t know them, have taken on some of the city’s biggest challenges from unexpected angles. You probably have your own ideas, and I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

The rabbi of the rabbis

The war in Gaza has divided New York City’s Jewish community in an almost unprecedented manner, in some cases severing friendships that have lasted decades. When rabbis find they need guidance in dealing with tensions within their congregations, they turn to Jill Jacobs to turn down the volume. Rabbi Jacobs flees T’ruahan organization aimed at promoting human rights in this country, in Israel and in the occupied territories.

“People are shouting slogans at each other,” she said. Her job, as she sees it, “is to keep the human story top of mind,” to connect rabbis to share their wisdom and advise them. Rachel Timonersenior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, Rabbi Jacobs said, “gave us language and clarity when we really needed it.”

“The moral truth that Jewish tradition calls us to – it will say it regardless of popularity,” Rabbi Timoner added. “Her courage ensures that a large number of people can rely on her voice. And she is fearless.”

The anti-gentrifier

Debra Ack came into contact with activism later in life, as a 62-year-old former administrative assistant who became involved with the newly formed East New York Community Land Trust. Three years later, as a special projects coordinator, she has been instrumental in drawing political attention to a long-neglected neighborhood spread across Brooklyn and Queens that is prone to flooding, mold infestations, overflowing septic systems and illegal waste dumping.

Equally important is her work educating her neighbors in East New York about community land trusts, which are relatively new to the city but have a long history in California. They battle rising home prices and keep real estate out of the hands of predatory developers. These trusts purchase land and then typically issue 99-year leases to homeowners who agree to sell the homes or buildings on the land back to the trust at a limited price to ensure long-term affordability.

“We want people to know how they can bring ownership back to their community,” Ms. Ack said. The East New York Community Land Trust is expected to close its first property in January: a 21-unit apartment complex that has fallen into disrepair. With the help of money raised through donations and low-interest loans, Ms. Ack said, the trust will purchase both the land and the building and then turn the building over to the tenants living there, who will ultimately own their units as co-owners. owners will own. ops.

In the late 1990s, Rob Buchanan, a former Princeton rower, had an inspiring encounter with a man named Mike Davis, who built replicas of the boat that George Washington used to drive troops out of Brooklyn during the Battle of Long Island. Mr. Davis, who died in 2008, had been on a mission to open the city’s waterways to recreational use. Mr. Buchanan immediately felt a calling.

“This idea of ​​the port as a public space really appealed to me,” he said.

Over the years, he has focused on making access to the city’s shoreline more equitable, an ambition that has grown as luxury development has made access to the waterfront more elusive. He has helped establish three community boathouses (one in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn), where volunteers provide free rowing and kayaking sessions. He is also coordinator of the steering group NYC Water Trail Associationwhich advocates for clean water and safe boating and helped establish the Citizens Water Quality Testing Program to monitor pollution levels in the harbor.

This year, he began lobbying the city to build an education center on the waterfront in Sunset Park that would include workforce training for maritime companies. He has joined Rocking the boata nonprofit based in the South Bronx, where he directs programming and teaches boat building to neighborhood high school students so they can, as he put it, feel that “this is our harbor and our estuary,” and that she is in a city that belongs to everyone.

Covid has cast a particularly long shadow on teens, both in terms of academic outcomes and social-emotional development. Ricci Yuhico, who is in charge Teen Center at the newly renovated Stavros Niarchos Foundation branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue in Midtown, was there to help. The center essentially functions as a full-service joy machine, where kids can connect while studying, produce a movie or song in the recording studio and media lab, get help with college essays, dance and do crafts.

Students come from all over the city, Ms. Yuhico said, some from nearby homeless shelters. Others might use the center as a stop to do homework if, for example, they attend a charter school in Manhattan but live in the far reaches of Queens. There is a strong group of teenage volunteers from which real friendships have emerged, Ms. Yuhico said. She and her team see as many as 100 students a day, and one of their biggest successes this year was a building-wide Halloween party.

“The day after, one of our regular guests came in and I asked him what the best part of the party was,” Ms. Yuhico recalls. “He said, ‘Just having fun with people I didn’t know.’”

The unofficial czar of the migrant crisis

It would be difficult to find one person who has done more to meet the immediate needs of migrants Ruth Messingerthe former Manhattan borough president and 1997 mayoral candidate, who is now 83. Her involvement took place early on, when she greeted the first wave of migrants arriving on buses from Texas to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in the summer of 2022.

“It was easy for me to do,” she said.

From there, she leveraged her many connections to mobilize a network of dedicated volunteers, faith leaders, nonprofits, institutions and private philanthropists to feed, clothe and shelter the migrants. She continually urges the mayor, state and federal governments to do more to address the enormous challenges posed by the influx.

And she is no less agile as a fixer on the ground. When a school in Harlem offered to stock clothes for the many immigrants who needed them, they quickly realized they needed more racks. Mrs. Messinger quickly found the money to pay for it.

“She is the superhero who guides, connects and inspires us,” said Judy Bass, co-chair of the Synagogue coalition against the refugee and immigration crisis.

The job creator

Melinda Mack died of brain cancer in November, leaving behind three young children and a celebrated legacy in the field of workforce development. It’s a vague term, but Ms. Mack’s approach has focused on connecting people to jobs, training people for the emerging needs of modern businesses across the state, and lobbying for public money and policy to achieve these goals . For the past eleven years, until her death, she was executive director of the somewhat dry-sounding New York Association of Training and Employment Professionalswhere she helped secure more than $500 million in workforce development initiatives.

Because of her advocacy, the state Legislature last year included something called “income forbearance” in one of its budget bills, which allows people on government assistance to still receive that assistance for a limited time while they pursue job training and other opportunities . Before undergoing surgery in February, she asked her co-workers and friends not for “food or gifts” but to “be the voice of the system when I can’t” and urged lawmakers to appreciate the value of ignoring revenue recognition.

“Melinda meant so much to so many people,” said Therese Daly, interim director of the association. “She learned about the employment sector by knocking on doors. She was constantly cold calling and applying for grants. She really hunted. We hope to continue her hopes and dreams every day.”