Capalino + Company - Government & Community Relations Advocates

Cityscape

Services

Community Relations

Capalino+Company helps its clients understand and build strong working relationships with local communities. Our services in this sector include:

Proposed change in any of New York City’s fifty-nine community districts introduces neighborhoods to the expectation of uncertain consequences; this uncertainty often stimulates legitimate opposition to project proposals. Concerned citizens and community activists, well versed in using the complexities of New York City’s land use and environmental review procedures to oppose initiatives, are quick to perceive projects as disruptive, often because they have very limited information. Consequently, many worthwhile projects are compromised or defeated and their potential benefits are lost to both the sponsor and the neighborhoods themselves.

Through an extensive network of personal relationships with community leaders across the City, we craft community consultation strategies to manage both the expectations of project sponsors and communities. The goal is to facilitate a better mutual understanding of each project’s benefits and of the concerns and anxieties of the neighborhood residents. Our change management strategies focus on reducing uncertainty for our clients through the use of five customized tools:

  • Community Dynamics Profile: Confidential, customized analysis of the land use politics of a community with special attention to the views and personalities of community opinion leaders; sources of opposition and support; neighborhood agendas and paths to achieving consensus.
  • Targeted Communications Blueprint: A multi-media program to convey essential information to local political leaders, community opinion leaders, and neighborhood residents, and to counter-act misinformation.
  • Support Mobilization Plan: A roadmap to arm opinion leaders with the facts needed to be effective project advocates and a timetable to maximize the impact of their advocacy on the decision.
  • Impact Monitoring Bulletin: An early warning system of continuing surveillance of community concerns and about project impacts and consequences to help maintain harmony and avoid conflicts.
  • Post Approval/Pre-completion Community Liaison Program: An ongoing problem solving dialogue with the local community board that anticipates problematic project impacts on neighborhoods and strives to maintain harmonious project sponsor-community relations.

Specific services we provide in this practice area include:

BID/LDC RelationsThe City, through the Department of Small Business Services, oversees dozens of Business Improvement Districts (BID) and Local Development Corporations (LDC) throughout the City. BIDs, which are funded through the issuance of a small fee on every business in the district, provide a variety of services to clean-up and promote the local business area. For example, the Times Square Alliance is responsible for the New Years’ Eve ball drop celebration which is done, in part, to promote the businesses in the Times Square area. LDCs are quasi-governmental agencies responsible for implementing economic development and infrastructure investments in a specific area.

Capalino+Company works closely with its Clients to identify how the BID and LDCs throughout the City can assist in the Client’s operations to improve their business. In addition, Capalino+Company has experience in working with neighborhood businesses to lobby for the launch of a BID and managing the various approvals by the Mayor’s Office, the New York City Council and local community.

Community Board AdvisoryNew York City communities are represented by 59 Community Boards. Each Community Board consists of approximately 40-50 members appointed by the local New York City Councilmember and the respective Borough President and are responsible for advising government on numerous budgetary, land use and other issues facing their neighborhoods.

Harmonious relationships with the local Community Board are vital in ensuring the success of business efforts impacting the community. Capalino+Company works closely with its Clients to ensure that Community Boards are aware of projects in the neighborhood and are provided with the information necessary to make an appropriate advisory decision to government.

Conflict MediationFor many reasons, communities and businesses can have disagreements on how a business should operate within the community.

Capalino+Company specializes in acting as a mediator between the local community and its Client to ensure that both parties truly understand each other’s concerns and creates a forum to properly address these concerns and develop a stronger working relationship.

Labor RelationsUnions throughout the City of New York play a valuable role in job creation and employee protection. Millions of New Yorkers are members of Unions.

Capalino+Company provides a package of services to Unions to represent them before the New York State and City governments for legislative and administration services. We have resolved a variety of problems for our Union clients to help them raise awareness of their members’ issues and the value they provide to the City of New York. This includes lobbying on their behalf for legislative changes and advising Clients on government and community relations to assist in collective bargaining.

Capalino+Company also advises its business Clients on maintaining harmonious relationships with its workforce and the numerous Unions impacting its business.

Liquor LicensesIn order to serve liquor in the City of New York, a business, such as a restaurant or a nightclub, must obtain a liquor license from the New York State Liquor Authority. The New York State Liquor Authority relies heavily on input provided by the local New York City Community Boards.

Capalino+Company is an expert in understanding the needs of the numerous neighborhoods throughout the City and advise its Clients on how to properly address these concerns in order to maximize the likelihood of approval for the Client’s liquor license application. We have successfully implemented memorandums of understandings with the local community to address community concerns such as noise abatement, traffic impact and local hiring all with the goal of creating a symbiotic relationships between the Client’s establishment and the surrounding neighborhood.

Sidewalk Café LicensesSidewalks in the City of New York are also property of the City of New York. In order to operate a sidewalk café in the City of New York, the applicant must secure permission from the New York City Departments of City Planning, Transportation and Department of Consumer Affairs and, ultimately, the New York City Council. In addition, the applicant must secure an advisory opinion from the local Community Board.

Capalino+Company has a successful track record in working with its Client’s architects and the multitude of agencies that review the sidewalk café application to help secure approval.