Statement of Muzzy Rosenblatt, Executive Director, BRC, April 25, 2012 to the NYC Planning Commission, Manhattan, regarding NYU Core and NYU 2031: NYU in NYC Good afternoon. My name is Muzzy Rosenblatt. I’m the Executive Director of the Bowery Residents’ Committee, more familiarly known as BRC. I speak in support of NYU and their 2031 plan. It is a plan filled with opportunity for our city. Let me tell you why. BRC serves individuals seeking to overcome the challenges of addiction, illness, poverty, homelessness and despair. We successfully serve thousands each year throughout the City. NYU is an important, valued and thoughtful partner in our work, and our success. NYU graduate students contribute thousands of hours to BRC each year in formal professional internships in the fields of social work, nursing, medicine, and public administration. NYU students, faculty and staff contribute additional hours to BRC as volunteers in our shelters, housing and treatment programs. NYU faculty and students collaborate with BRC staff and clients on research efforts to help advance our work, the field, and improve public policy here in their own backyard. NYU jobs get filled by capable BRC clients eager to get back on their feet and get off of welfare. And NYU helps break down socio-economic stigmas and barriers, building their facilities next door to ours, thus walking the walk of social integration. None of these achievements happen by coincidence. They happen because NYU is a caring, committed and good neighbor. They happen because NYU seeks out its neighbors, and doesn’t hide from them. They happen because NYU communicates, and listens. NYU is good for New York. And NYU’s growth is good for New York. Not-for-profits couldn't do what we do – and New York City wouldn't be the great and thriving city that it is – without NYU. They provide us with the talented and trained workforce that makes our success possible. And we are the real- life learning environment upon which these students depend. From the schools of medicine and nursing, social work and education, to music and art, public health and public administration, the relationship is not a coincidence; it is interdependent. For our City and its economy to continue to grow, the relationship must continue to thrive. For too long, our City’s growth has been significantly focused on the financial services sector. NYU’s growth will help ensure NYC grows without having all our eggs in one basket, and will create the kind of jobs that can lift New Yorkers out of poverty and homelessness. BRC, and the people we serve, depend upon NYU’s continued success, and we are confident that as NYU grows, they will remain the good neighbor they have been. Thank you.