A Visit to Hart Island and Musings on How NYC is Shaped by its City Agencies
On a glorious fall day in November, our team was invited to a private tour of Hart Island with other urban planners and economic development colleagues. Hart Island, best known as NYC’s potters field, has a history and uses so intriguing, making it much more than the common knowledge of its most well known use of a public burial ground. Its first public use in the mid-1800’s was as a training ground for the United States Colored Troops, essentially segregated training of Negroes during wartime, and later it housed a POW camp during the Civil War. Interestingly, all of the Confederate Army Soldiers Captured and retained on Hart Island that died there are buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery, all the way in Brooklyn. Over the years, Hart Island has continued to change in its use, function, and oversight - from penitentiary, to psychiatric asylum, workhouses, and failed plans for a Negro only Coney Island-like amusement area - until 2019, when it began its transfer from the Department of Corrections to NYC Parks Department. This transfer of management, coupled with the work of the Hart Island project continues to evolve and change access to the island. While the Parks Department states it never intends for the island to be a full fledged public park, it continues to reenvision its use of the island, both for family members of the 1 million buried there, but for all visitors wishing to understand its deep history and connection to NYC.
This led me to thinking about agency transfers of responsibilities and imagine how public projects, implementation of programs, or physical spaces would be imagined and implemented under agencies different from the ones they are now. In reading about Hart Island, and the agency transfer of the island, Department of Corrections was noted in a NY Times article in January 2016 as saying “as long as D.O.C. runs the facility, we are going to run it with the D.O.C. mentality”. Agency mentality, culture if you will, has predominance over how agency business is handled.
New York City is home to a myriad of city agencies and each agency plays a distinct role in making sure the city's operations run smoothly, but the cultural characteristics of these each significantly impact their operations. While all part of the larger NYC governmental machine, each agency is tasked with such different goals that their internal cultures reflect their unique missions. New York’s diversity is both its strength and its challenge. City agencies are shaped by the vast array of cultures, languages, and perspectives that New Yorkers bring to the table. This cultural richness creates an environment of complexity, but it also shapes the way these agencies approach problem-solving. The sheer size and scale of the city means that agencies must consider multiple factors when making decisions, from political dynamics to social issues.
In agencies like the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the culture reflects the city’s ongoing struggle with affordable housing. The agency's role requires a balanced approach to development, ensuring that new projects meet the needs of a growing population while preventing displacement. Its culture is influenced by constant advocacy for affordable housing and the challenge of managing limited resources while addressing a growing housing crisis. Think about all the agencies, their priorities, mission statements, and weave that together to identify how distinct agency cultures are formed. Then think about key city programs or spaces, that perhaps fall in the middle of two or more agencies could be administered under one agency or another. Under the Bloomberg Administration, the Department of Employment merged under the Department of Business Services, creating the Department of Small Business Services. This move created a culture toward business focused support, not just for business technical assistance, but in the name of business responsive employment services. A culture that focused on the fact that small businesses are the greatest job creators in this city, and a responsive and innovative business focused culture, melded these services in line with one another.
But - NYC’s government is inherently bureaucratic. Given the city’s size, regulations, and diverse needs, agencies operate with multiple layers of approval, checks, and balances. The culture within these organizations often emphasizes procedure, due diligence, and accountability to avoid the risk of oversight. In practice, this can sometimes lead to slower decision-making processes, but it is a necessary component of a system that must ensure fairness and transparency across a city that represents such a broad spectrum of interests.
In a city as complex as New York, collaboration between agencies is essential. Agencies must share information, resources, and insights to tackle large-scale problems. The cultural attitudes toward collaboration vary, depending on the agency’s mandate. Some departments, like the Fire Department (FDNY), have a deeply ingrained culture of teamwork and mutual support — traits that are essential for the high-risk, high-reward environment of firefighting. In other departments, such as Community Affairs or Public Advocate’s Office, collaboration is key to ensuring that the voices of the community are heard in city governance.
The collective strength of these agencies, along with their individual cultural priorities, plays a significant role in shaping New York City’s response to challenges. Whether it’s the mayor’s office coordinating with health agencies during a pandemic or DOT and the Parks Department working together to design pedestrian-friendly streets, the cultural attitudes toward teamwork and inter-agency cooperation allow for more holistic solutions to emerge.
The culture of the transferring agency often impacts how responsibilities are handed off. In 2019, NYC's homelessness services were restructured as part of a broader effort to streamline the delivery of social services. Homeless Services previously operated under the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), but it was merged into the Department of Social Services (DSS), a broader agency that oversees various social welfare programs, including public assistance and food programs. This transfer was part of a reorganization designed to create a more unified approach to social services in the city. The move was aimed at consolidating services to better serve the city's homeless population, but it wasn't without its challenges. The cultural shift between DHS and DSS was significant. DHS had a very specific focus on homelessness, with a culture centered around managing shelter systems, outreach to homeless individuals, and providing direct services. Staff members at DHS were accustomed to working in crisis-mode, responding to immediate needs like emergency shelter placements and rapid rehousing programs.
In contrast, DSS had a broader mandate that extended beyond homelessness, encompassing a range of social services, including welfare and disability services. The agency’s culture was more focused on long-term solutions, case management, and integration into broader social support systems. The cultural difference between these two entities created a need for reorientation to ensure that homelessness remained a top priority within the broader DSS framework.The transition was not without its difficulties. DHS had developed a specialized focus on homelessness over the years, and some advocates and service providers worried that the shift to DSS might dilute the focus on the specific needs of homeless populations. There were concerns about bureaucratic inefficiencies and the challenge of maintaining the same level of focus and responsiveness to homelessness while integrating it into a much larger department.
To mitigate these challenges, the city emphasized communication and strategic planning during the transition. The creation of dedicated units within DSS to handle homelessness services helped maintain specialized focus, while the integration of social services allowed for more comprehensive, long-term strategies to reduce homelessness. Employees who were previously working in a homelessness-focused agency had to adapt to the culture of DSS, which required a broader, more integrated approach to social welfare. There was also a shift in the skill sets and knowledge required, as staff were now expected to work within a larger ecosystem of social services, providing a more holistic approach to clients’ needs. The restructuring ultimately aimed at improving the city's response to homelessness, especially in terms of providing longer-term solutions. It emphasized the need for a more coordinated, streamlined system where services such as housing, health care, and public assistance could be more effectively integrated.
Just like business culture, agency culture shapes the way services are delivered here in New York City. On the Hart Island tour, the culture of Parks Department in creating access and truly examining public space use was evident. In other words, when in plain view, Hart Island, not on the basis of uses of its past, but its present and future, was crystal clear, just like the day we visited.
