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Opinion

How the Next City Council Can Prepare Communities for the Next Pandemic


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Emergency department (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office )


As New York finally begins to lift health restrictions related to the novel coronavirus, the next generation of leaders need to take the necessary steps to ensure that when, not if, another pandemic comes to our communities we are better prepared. Unfortunately, this time around too many communities of color, like in Southeast Queens, lacked the necessary resources and infrastructure to effectively handle this crisis; we cannot let that happen again.

Fortunately there are already several policies within the city’s toolbox that would not only put the right resources where they are needed, but also make sure communities have a say in how residents are able to access the health care they need. With a new class of City Council members coming into office next year, there will be an opportunity to put forth new ideas, with new energy, to address the city’s health needs.

Southeast Queens, where I have lived for over 20 years, was one of the hardest hit communities by COVID-19. In March of 2020, when the first wave of the virus hit, our communities quickly had some of the largest percentages of people who were testing positive, and both Jamaica Hospital Center and Queens Hospital Center were overwhelmed with patients diagnosed with the coronavirus, and death rates surpassed the awful citywide average.  

This was a disaster that was years in the making. Between 2008 and 2012 four hospitals in Queens closed: Mary Immaculate in Jamaica, Parkway in Forest Hills, St. John’s in Elmhurst, and Peninsula Parkway in Far Rockaway. It was also incredible to hear about cuts proposed by the state this year, during the middle of the pandemic, to Elmhurst Hospital and St. John’s Episcopal Hospital. 

The closures and funding cuts were put forth as necessary cost-saving initiatives; but clearly communities lose when health care facilities close. Anyone who lives in Southeast Queens knows the lack of community-based general medical practitioners that residents can access for their everyday health needs, and elected officials need to take the lead in fixing this problem. 

To alleviate some of the financial burdens our city’s public Health + Hospitals system currently endures, the City Council can shift back Emergency Medical Services (EMS) revenue from the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) to New York City Health + Hospitals. In 1996 then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani signed Local Law 20 merging EMS into FDNY, which moved the funds out of the hospital system. In Fiscal Year 2021 EMS revenue was a little over $339 million. Think about where the ambulances are going: not back to the fire houses, but the hospitals where the people they are trying to save need to be.

It does not make fiscal or practical sense for EMS to be funded through FDNY, and this is money that can be better served by the hospitals that the ambulance workers already coordinate with most. This new revenue into the system would allow more flexibility within it, helping to prevent any other hospitals from being closed in the future. 

In order to ensure the community has a voice in any new health policies that are enacted, the new class of City Council members should convene task forces in their offices that bring together everyone in health care — labor leaders, community boards, health care professionals, elected officials, and community advocates — to specifically identify and address districts needs. Having an organized front will help ensure there is one voice coming out of each community so decision-makers in Albany, City Hall, and the relevant agencies know where they stand and the policies they want to see implemented.

Also, each community board can be allocated funds to develop its own health-care plan through the 197-A process, where city agencies would be mandated to implement the recommendations through their regulatory processes. This approach guarantees the policies we request will come to fruition so residents in the district can receive the medical care they deserve.

The next city government needs to take on health care directly and assertively. We’ve seen why. If we come together, we can improve health-care access for those living here today and for the future residents of New York.

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Al-Hassan Kanu is a candidate for Council District 27 which includes the communities of Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, Queens Village, and Springfield Gardens in Queens. On Twitter @kanuforcouncil.

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If All Politics Is Local — How Do We Get People to Vote Local?


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Student voter registration (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office))


As New York City heads into the final stretch of the 2021 local primary elections, candidates will be working overtime for votes. If history serves as a guide, turnout will be low. While so much effort goes into registering people to vote and getting them to the polls, we should focus more on indirect measures that can have larger impacts. This includes shifting the local election cycle timing and teaching about civic engagement in our public schools. 

Only about 15% of eligible voters in New York City turn out to elect local leaders. For special elections, it is generally much lower. In the two elections held in The Bronx this year, it was around 4% in City Council District (CD) 15 and 10% in CD 11. In comparison, the turnout for registered voters in New York City was 55% in the 2020 presidential election.

The difference in voter turnout for a federal/state level election year versus a local only-level election year is not unique to New York City. Nationwide, pairing higher-profile elections with less-followed local races amplifies down-ballot voting by at least a factor or two. Notably, when Baltimore shifted its local and presidential elections to coincide in 2016, local voter turnout increased from 13% to 60%. New local ranked-choice voting (RCV) in New York City for primaries and special elections isn’t expected to significantly impact these outcomes on its own.

Low voter turnout has many negative consequences. One is basic math – the fewer people that vote in an election, the less likely it is that those elected will reflect the interests of the average constituent. To put this in perspective for New York City, many City Council races are decided by a differential of approximately 1,000 votes. This translates to around 1% of a district’s population determining the council member. For Mayor de Blasio, the turnout was higher, but still low – with about 1 out of every 7 registered voters in New York City voting for him for a second term.

Under these low voter turnout circumstances, another particular issue is that high-net worth individuals can amplify their influence on the local electoral process. This reduces the impact of the small-dollar public matching funds program, developed precisely to limit that kind of outcome. 

With several special elections, larger primary candidate fields (thanks to the public matching system and perhaps also due to RCV), and expanded early voting, substantially more taxpayer money will be spent this year than usual. If voter turnout remains generally low this year, another adverse outcome is that this extra spending will not achieve the goal of incorporating the voices of more New Yorkers in the electoral process.

Combining elections at different levels of government in a single year and on the same election dates would not only substantially improve local civic engagement, but also offer cost savings. For a reference point, estimates predict reductions of $2.3 million every two years for holding a joint federal and state level primary in New York City. 

While changing New York City election timing to even years to coincide with federal and state-level positions would be a huge step in the right direction, it is not the only missing piece of the voter turnout equation. Most voters lack a fundamental understanding of their local government, including how it operates, who is running it and running to serve in it, and how its actions affect their lives. RCV amplifies these education-related needs, so that voters study all of their primary and special election choices to be able to rank up to five candidates per race. At the same time, RCV is also expected to help encourage more candidate outreach to a wider swath of voters.

Though harder to quantify than other voter turnout efforts, the lack of basic civic education has real-world significance. In a December 2020 poll of Democratic Party voters in New York City, all of the issues they prioritized locally, to some degree, are impacted by New York City’s elected officials. Other metrics also help tell the story – as the city government’s 59 elected officials make choices that affect its 8.4 million residents, including about 325,000 city government employees, while overseeing a budget of more than $90 billion.   

A classic example of local government confusion is the age-old question ‘Who runs the subways?’ Pre-pandemic, over 6 million people daily used the subways, with several million more on the buses. However, in a 2016 poll, 47% of respondents believed that the mayor was responsible for the transit system. Hint: That’s not correct. 

The City has attempted to address education gaps in its public schools by introducing the Civics for All curriculum in 2018, which includes civic engagement-related material covering federal, state and local government. These materials allow educators to expand upon narrow, almost exclusively federally-focused civic education requirements in public schools. 

On the downside, Civics for All is rather limited – with no requirements that schools institute the program. Funding to widely implement the program is also lacking. Mandating these civic education classes, with the accompanying financial support to do so effectively, would be a meaningful change in New York City. 

New York City should also look toward prioritizing and expanding its participatory budgeting efforts, which allow youth ages 14+ to participate. This offers a real-world opportunity to create equity and civic engagement both pre-voting age and beyond the standard local election cycle. An analysis showed that when a New York City Council District adopted participatory budgeting, it spent more on schools, public housing, and streetscape improvements than it would have done otherwise.  

When all the votes have been counted and the large sums of money have been spent on the 2021 New York City elections, we are likely to be left with the same persistently low voter turnout problems. We need to seriously address civic education and the timing of our elections if we’re going to notably change these outcomes. We know the way -- we just need to demand that elected officials have the will.  

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Nancy Holt, PhD leads Science for New York (Sci4NY), an effort that aims to bring local scientists and decision-makers together through project-based interaction. On Twitter @Sci4NY.

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Hindsight 2020: Why New York’s Trusted Community Groups Are So Important to the Census Count


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New Yorkers get counted (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


The national census headcount happens every 10 years and is the most democratic process we undertake, also making it the largest competition that states can participate in. The population estimates, which are derived from the count, are used to distribute the 435 seats in the House of Representatives amongst all 50 states. The data collected on who we are isn’t only used for apportionment, it’s the best data that federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and universities will have about who New Yorkers are—and affects all other data collected for the next 10 years. This count is vital to New York’s COVID- 19 recovery, decisions about where to build schools or expand businesses, and a wide range of other plans that we have for the future. 

The decennial count is always a heavy lift for the Census Bureau, states, and communities. This time around, there was a lot of reason to fear that New York would not have a fair chance of earning its equitable share of representation in the House of Representatives or the billions of dollars in federal aid that gets allocated based on census data. From the Trump administration’s attempts to require an intimidating question about citizenship, to suppression of the count by ending the door-knocking and response time early, to the global pandemic that severely delayed the start of the Census Bureau’s in-person follow-up, 2020 was by far the most controversial census count in memory. It is a victory that New York didn’t see a further drop in representation in Congress. 

Although New York was projected to lose up to two seats in the House of Representatives, we lost just one, and came incredibly close to not losing a single seat. We were only 89 people short of retaining our 27th seat in the House. The count shows that the total state population was 4.2% higher than in 2010—indicating that the state is growing—but other states have grown faster. When it comes to the census, everyone counts, and these results make it painfully clear. Advocates across the state worked tireless in the years leading up to the count to reinforce this message. 

Community-based groups always play an important role as trusted voices promoting full participation in the census, particularly in communities that may be hesitant about filling out government forms. In preparation for this work a broad coalition of groups came together under the banner of New York Counts 2020, led by the New York Immigration Coalition and with participation from a broad range of racial, ethnic, immigrant, LGBTQ+, religious, health, education, labor, housing, social services, civic, and business groups working in partnership with Complete Count Committees and state and local government officials.

In the runup to the 2020 census, the Fiscal Policy Institute joined the New York Counts 2020 coalition, calling on the governor and state legislature to support community-based organizations to help the state achieve an accurate count. FPI provided an analysis showing how much was needed: $40 million statewide, with a breakdown of what was needed in each county.

Even before the covid pandemic, we knew that this would be a much more difficult climate to get people to respond to the ten-question survey. The unforeseeable delays brought on by the pandemic made everything about the census more complicated. Community groups began education campaigns years in advance of the census to overcome these obstacles. The fact that 20.2 million New Yorkers were counted is a testament to the tireless work that unpaid volunteers and paid Census Bureau workers put in across the state. 

New York State could have been better prepared for the decennial count even before the lockdown orders that forced doorknockers and volunteers to stay home.

In the fiscal year 2021 (April 2020-March 2021) budget New York State invested $30 million to support all 62 counties, cities, and community-based organizations in their census outreach efforts. That’s less than the $40 million the Fiscal Policy Institute analysis suggested was needed, but, through significant investments from the New York City government and some investments in individual counties eventually put the total close to what FPI proposed. 

A big shortcoming was the time it took for the funding to get to the groups doing the work. There is often a long road between the time state funding decisions are made and the time the money gets disbursed, but the census outreach funding was far beyond the norm.

Governor Cuomo convened a Complete Count Commission that began its planning for the state’s census outreach in January 2019, the same month its final report was due. This delay impacted every subsequent stage of the state’s census outreach. Ultimately, some of the state funding for cities, counties, and community-based organizations was distributed in July 2020, four months after the start of the count, at the bitter end of the count when many groups were wrapping up their efforts. Because of the last-minute scramble many we know that not all of the funding that was allocated was actually spent. Imagine how many more people could have been counted if there was a timely investment in the organizations across the state who helped count New Yorkers.  

In the end, 89 people is so close that it’s impossible to say whether the state could have saved another House seat if, for example, community groups had been funded and supported earlier or more fully. We don’t want as many seats as we can get, but we do want our fair share. 

Still, losing only one seat is relatively good news, and a tribute to the tremendous work of community-based groups both before and after they were funded to do outreach. Most models predicted New York would lose two House seats. The final census outcome shows how important it is for states to invest in census outreach at the grassroots level, and that it needs to happen sooner rather than later.

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Shamier Settle is a policy analyst at the Fiscal Policy Institute. On Twitter @FiscalPolicy00.

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