The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded The City College of New York’s J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures, at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, a $355,550 grant for a project titled, “The Equitable Development Index.” EDI aims to create a data-driven, decision-support tool to strengthen transparency, equity, and shared governance in New York City’s housing and land-use review process.
Shawn Rickenbacker, director of the J. Max Bond Center and associate professor, is the principal investigator of the project. Alden Copley, senior researcher at the J. Max Bond Center, and Lizzie MacWillie, assistant director of the J. Max Bond Center, are both co-PIs.
"Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, we are putting to use the untapped potential of existing citywide real estate development data and offering new civic infrastructure to help solve New York City’s housing and equity challenges,” said Rickenbacker. “By providing diverse stakeholders with a transparent, data-driven tool, we are demonstrating that urban crises have achievable solutions through common knowledge and interest. This initiative elevates the value of civic participation, transforming urban growth into a shared achievement. We invite those interested in the future of urban innovation to join our effort."
The EDI leverages unique user real estate development priorities coupled with advanced AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to transform over a decade of fragmented public data into a powerful, data-driven, decision-support tool focused on more equitable development outcomes for New York City’s future.
The principal source of this fragmented data is Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), which are required for new developments seeking land use and zoning exceptions. These contain vital data on housing, density, and economic impact. However, their sheer density and technical scope have historically rendered them inaccessible to decision-makers throughout the development review and approval process. By synthesizing the data in these EIS documents, incorporating community data and comparing it to user-generated priority profiles, the EDI will provide community boards, city agencies, citizens and elected officials with rankings which reflect their own concerns about development for proposed land use and zoning exceptions.
This shift democratizes urban data and planning by reducing the accessibility gap, increasing procedural efficiency of a complex and costly process, while reestablishing negotiations between decision-makers and developers from anecdotal debate to verified data-driven discourse. Stakeholders will be able to evaluate project trade-offs between affordability, community investment, displacement risk, and public benefit, ensuring that NYC’s growth is as equitable as it is innovative.
“As New York looks to remove obstacles to building more affordable housing, a public-facing, data-driven tool like EDI is primed to have significant impact,” said Joshua M. Greenberg, program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “At the same time, the Bond Center’s community-centered approach also aligns with the Sloan Foundation’s history of supporting efforts to democratize data access to inform local decision-making.”
For more information, contact Shawn Rickenbacker at srickenbacker@ccny.cuny.edu .
About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a not-for-profit, mission-driven grantmaking institution dedicated to improving the welfare of all through the advancement of scientific knowledge. Established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of the General Motors Corporation, the Foundation makes grants in four broad areas: direct support of research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics; initiatives to increase access and opportunity in graduate science education; projects to develop or leverage technology to empower research; and efforts to enhance and deepen public engagement with science and scientists. sloan.org | @SloanFoundation
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 2.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.7 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers, and society. At City College, more than 16,500 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity, and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together,” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College's mission. By May 2026, more than $500 million had been raised. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.