Gotham Gazette

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Opinion

For Our Next Bronx Borough President, Leadership for the Entire Borough


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Elvin Garcia, Vanessa Gibson, Nilka Martell (photo: Gibson campaign)


The 2021 election cycle will elect a new mayor, a new City Council, a new Bronx Borough President, and more. This new decade represents a new era on the other side of a pandemic that has forced us to reflect on the kind of future we all deserve. Going back to normal is not viable, neither is politics as usual.

As Puerto Ricans and Dominicans of The Bronx, from the community and government perspective, respectively, we are proud to support Vanessa Gibson for Bronx Borough President. She is a proven and passionate leader with a record of accomplishment and accountability – who if elected, would become the first woman and first African-American Bronx Borough President.

Over previous decades The Bronx produced Jewish, Italian, Irish, and, more recently, Latino Borough Presidents. The impact and history of Latino leadership in The Bronx will continue to expand and inform the next generation of Latino elected office-holders. We are proud to continue the Bronx legacy of Black and Latino unity as we come together for the good of the entire borough.

Vanessa Gibson has an impressive list of Latino support across the Bronx and the city, including Rep. Ritchie Torres, former Rep. Jose E. Serrano, State Senator Jose M. Serrano, Assemblymember Karines Reyes, and City Council Members Oswald Feliz, Diana Ayala, and Carlina Rivera.

Vanessa has over a decade of experience delivering for all the people of The Bronx; she’s a proven leader on education, affordable housing, public safety, and quality of life. We have worked with Vanessa, across government and community organizing efforts, and have seen first-hand her ability to deliver results, leaving no one behind. Most notably, Vanessa has worked to provide historic protections for tenants facing eviction by co-sponsoring the first-in-the-nation Right to Counsel law, which provides free legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction in Housing Court.

We support Vanessa because her commitment to community investment at the grassroots level is unmatched. Vanessa allocated over $60 million in new parks and additional park renovations, meeting the needs of unserved communities in the borough. She is also the co-chair of the Women’s Caucus of the City Council, where she has fought for women’s rights and the expansion of opportunities for women-run businesses. At the grassroots, Vanessa has been instrumental in providing funding and resources to Bronx residents who steward and program local parks for the benefit of the entire borough. And during the height of the pandemic, we saw first-hand Vanessa Gibson step up and partner with us during our borough’s greatest need to address food assistance.

In this consequential election year for our borough, with multiple candidates to choose from with a new ranked-choice voting system, we encourage our neighbors to rank Vanessa Gibson as your first choice for Bronx Borough President. And if you have already made up your mind otherwise, we strongly urge you to consider Vanessa as your second choice. Time and again, Vanessa has put the people of The Bronx first, so let’s return the favor and make sure she can keep delivering for all of us.

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Nilka Martell is a lifelong Bronx resident, non-profit executive, and an environmental advocate for over 10 years. Elvin García is a lifelong Bronx resident, was a 2017 Democratic candidate for City Council in District 18, and was Bronx Borough Director at the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit. On Twitter @nilkamartell & @ElvinGarciaNYC.

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They Provide Essential City Services. They Deserve More


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Providing city services (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


As COVID-19 swept across our city, nonprofit human services workers were a beacon of hope, providing a safe haven for New Yorkers from all walks of life. While others were told to stay home, these workers--who are predominantly women and people of color--were deemed essential and showed up in public-facing roles to help carry New Yorkers through an unprecedented crisis. They provided assistance to those who found themselves newly in need of access to food, shelter, and other supportive services. They put their health and that of their families at risk by prioritizing the wellbeing of our communities.

Their reward for these selfless personal sacrifices? The city froze their wages in the middle of the pandemic.

The human services workforce has been toiling under city-contracted poverty wages since long before the devastating effects of COVID-19. These organizations deliver services through government contracts that are drastically underfunded, which results in alarmingly low wages. The average annual income for human services workers in New York City is only $32,700. This makes the human services sector the second-lowest paid sector of all industries in the city, only after the restaurant industry. Despite being highly educated, over 60% of human services workers in our city qualify for public assistance. That means they’re often forced to rely on the same services they provide to others.

It’s not just an issue of decency for the workers themselves. Low pay makes it difficult for nonprofits to attract talented workers and results in frequent turnover, which ultimately hurts the quality of services available to those in need. Given the makeup of the workforce and the communities they serve, this is a key issue of racial equity.

In acknowledgement of these issues, the city provided these workers with a three-year cost of living adjustment in the 2018 budget. But when that expired last summer, the COLA was not renewed—leaving wages for essential workers on the frontlines of COVID-19 stagnant. We recognize that last year’s budget was strained and forced tough decisions related to many sectors, but budgets are a statement of our city’s values. What does it say to our constituents when jobs that police and incarcerate our communities’ residents make over twice as much as those that support our constituents with social services?  

The federal stimulus money available this year is an opportunity to transform this system and ensure we are fully valuing the labor of women and people of color who support our communities. It is long past time for New York City to appropriately invest in essential human service workers, whom we all rely so heavily on by finally paying them fair wages under city contracts.

We are calling for the city to restore this sector’s COLA in the fiscal year 2022 budget, due by July 1 of this year, at a rate of at least 3%—an investment of $48 million. That is the bare minimum that we can provide for the chronically overworked and underpaid human services workforce. If we trust nonprofit workers to deliver vital services on the government’s behalf then we must respect them enough to pay them a living wage.

Nonprofit human services organizations will continue to be essential for New York’s  post-pandemic recovery. City Hall talks about an equitable path forward. That will require the support of nonprofit workers providing job training, tutoring for kids left behind by remote schooling, sheltering those who will be at risk of homelessness during the looming eviction crisis and more. These workers continued to serve our city through the darkest days of the pandemic; now it’s our turn to show up for them. We let them down last year, but this is our chance to reset.

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by the members of the New York City Council's Progressive Caucus and Women's Caucus. On Twitter @NYCProgressives & @WomensCaucusNYC.

Progressive Caucus
Ben Kallos (Co-Chair), Diana Ayala (Co-Chair), Keith Powers (Vice Co-Chair), Carlos Menchaca (Vice Co-Chair), Margaret S. Chin, Carlina Rivera, Corey Johnson, Helen Rosenthal, Mark Levine, Bill Perkins, Ydanis Rodriguez, Jimmy Van Bramer, I. Daneek Miller, Adrienne E. Adams, Stephen T. Levin, Antonio Reynoso, Brad Lander, Alicka Ampry-Samuel, Justin Brannan, Deborah Rose.

Women’s Caucus
Vanessa L. Gibson (Co-Chair), Farah N. Louis (Co-Chair), Margaret S. Chin, Carlina Rivera, Helen Rosenthal, Diana Ayala, Adrienne E. Adams, Karen Koslowitz, Laurie A. Cumbo, Darma V. Diaz, Alicka Ampry-Samuel, Inez Barron, Deborah Rose.

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Increasing Women’s Civic Engagement in New York City


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Elected officials and advocates (photo: Alycia Kravitz)


Even before the pandemic, we knew that women—especially women of color, immigrant, transgender, and incarcerated women, as well as gender non-conforming and non-binary individuals—experienced high levels of political exclusion alongside poverty, discrimination, and violence. 

Now, we are at a pivotal moment in our country’s history, as we emerge from a devastating pandemic and still bear witness to the consequences of systemic racism and social injustice. 

Across the country, more women may be running for office than ever before—but more women are not getting elected. In New York City, women hold only 14 of the 51 seats in the New York City Council, and 12 are women of color. Due to term limits for 31 seats, that already low level of representation could be reduced even further once the ballots are counted from this month’s primary elections.

While voting is not the only form of civic engagement, it is an important way for women to participate and advocate for themselves and their communities. In New York City, where we have three women candidates in the top tier of the mayoral primary and hundreds of women running for City Council and other elected offices, we are either on the cusp of significant change or about to repeat a pattern of unequal representation. 

And while our organization, Women Creating Change, as a nonprofit, is not advocating for any specific candidates, we are encouraging women to flex their civic engagement muscles and show up at the polls and have their voices heard.

Our new report—A Blueprint for Women’s Civic Engagement in New York City —illustrates that even with a record number of women seeking elected office, women are underrepresented at every level of government and confront harmful gender stereotypes and other barriers to participation on a daily basis.

Nearly all organizations we surveyed for the report (92%) believe that more significant investment in women’s civic engagement in New York City is needed, particularly for women of color, immigrant women, and working-class women. We learned that women continue to encounter barriers to full participation, such as the burden of work and care, gendered and cultural stereotypes surrounding civic engagement, political exclusion, and voter suppression. These barriers persist in a context shaped by systemic racism, sexism, and classism.

There is a path forward, where all sectors can collaborate to dismantle those barriers and improve the ability of women to engage more actively, not only in voting but in all areas of civic life.  Nonprofits and community-based organizations should continue to expand civic education and engagement programs. Government should expand voting access and rights; improve the city’s election infrastructure and voter data analysis; ensure a fair and accurate U.S. Census and redistricting process; increase funding for, and coordination of, civic learning opportunities for families and adults; and give community boards a greater voice in our city’s future.

Foundations and the private sector also should direct more resources to organizations implementing inclusive civic engagement programming, those that conduct work through an intersectional lens, organizations of color, multi-year initiatives, and community-based organizations focused on movement-building.

The recommendations are only a starting point to improve civic processes and begin remedying systemic injustices. Everyone should have the knowledge, resources, and connections to advocate for themselves, their families, and their community—and do so by community organizing, volunteering, serving on boards, demonstrating, and participating in community meetings, among other ways to engage. This will lead to stronger communities, an improved quality of life, and a better democracy where every voice is heard—especially those who have been historically excluded from civic life.

Civic engagement is fundamental to the underpinnings of our democracy, and supports jobs, community health, and equity. With the citywide municipal elections, it is more important than ever for all New Yorkers to have the opportunity to shape the future of our city so that we can serve as a national model for inclusive civic education and engagement.

Possibilities for women in this country abound. Yet the promise of the possible requires all of us to invest in the futures of women who seek to run for office, become civically engaged, or to yield changes in their communities and in society at large.

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Carole J. Wacey is the President and CEO of Women Creating Change. On Twitter @WCChange.

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