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Youth are New York City’s Best Economic Resource, Let's Invest in Their Career Success


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NYC Youth (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


As New York City emerges from the pandemic and prepares for a new Mayor and City Council, elected officials must pursue policies that will make our city more equitable and prosperous. This is the moment to collectively invest in the talent and professional skills of New York City’s home-grown, diverse, and dynamic young people and to shift how we think about the relationship between schooling and workforce development.

Let’s cultivate our best resources -- New York City youth -- to compete in today’s jobs marketplace and expand our city’s competitive advantage in job talent by devoting attention to those who have been historically left behind.

COVID-19 unmasked pre-existing disparities in New York, where our bustling economy disproportionately benefited the highest earners. A deeper trend is that individuals born and schooled in New York, particularly people of color, have not been able to compete for the best jobs in the city against U.S.-born workers from out of state. 

New York is missing out by not having a strategy to develop the talent of these young people and to create pathways to meaningful careers for the 1.6 million students who attend New York City Department of Education schools and the City University of New York, CUNY. At the same time, employers, including those in high-paying industries like tech and finance, report struggling to find entry-level candidates with the relevant and “soft” skills today’s workplaces require.

As a Bronx business owner and recent graduate of New York City public schools, respectively, we see the exposure of these deep inequities and the skills gap as both a challenge and an opportunity. New York businesses want to hire more diverse local talent and students want better pathways to successful careers. We must first move away from our outdated, binary way of thinking about school and work, and discard conventional notions about technical/vocational education. Both educators and employers, together, need to support students to prepare for the workforce and access pathways to pursue their career goals.  

There is a growing movement in New York City—supported by employers, schools, nonprofits, researchers, students, and parents—who understand that the typically envisioned linear system of “high school, then college, then a good career” is not a given in today’s economy and doesn’t work for many students. That’s why New York’s leading companies are beginning to work with the DOE and CUNY to design rigorous, college accredited, paid internships and apprenticeships that equip high school and community college students with real-world professional skills needed to land in-demand, well-paying 21st-century jobs. 

For me, Jessica, as a local employer leading a company based in the Bronx for 60 years, investing time and resources into young people is a way to have a tremendous impact on the future workforce. My grandparents founded the company and my grandmother, a public school guidance counselor, was a believer in pairing work with education. I aim to continue that tradition by bringing in young people as paid interns while they are still in school and introducing them to the skills necessary to succeed in business.

New York City businesses, like mine, can join the movement and build a system of work-based learning that includes co-op and internship opportunities for academic credit and for pay. It’s a win-win strategy that enables students to earn and learn, while developing social capital that leads to gainful employment as they embark on adulthood. 

While higher income families rely on their networks and connections, many Black and Latino students often miss out on the high-quality internships, apprenticeships, and mentoring that lead to career success. These experiences are vital. New York City public school students like me, Naseem, need work opportunities that connect back to the classroom.

For me, it only took one internship with Madison Square Garden during high school to change my life. From there I took advantage of every opportunity to explore different career paths so that when I arrived at college I knew what I wanted to major in. I graduated this spring from George Washington University and am headed to law school, and having internships helped give me direction and mentors that I needed. All students should have access to these opportunities, not only a select few.

New York City has long attracted talent from across the world. However, by failing to nurture the potential in the young people who are born and schooled here, our city is wasting a tremendous opportunity.

We need our next Mayor and City Council to champion work-based learning models that braid learning from work into traditional academic pathways by providing employers and educators with incentives to participate and invest in collaboration. By transforming our local talent development system and linking relevant skills to education, we can launch our young people into promising careers, ensure our employers have a diverse talent pipeline to draw from, and power a thriving, inclusive economy.

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Jessica Johnson is CEO & President of Johnson Security Bureau. Naseem Haamid is a recent graduate of George Washington University, a Community Organizer at Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, and a graduate of Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School who will be starting law school at the University of the District of Columbia. On Twitter @msbigjess & @NaseemHaamid.

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The Major Problems with New York City’s School Reopening Plan


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Mayor de Blasio and school kids (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


Despite New York City Department of Education officials’ claims during this past week’s City Council hearing that the city’s school reopening plan for this fall represents “the gold standard,” the reality is that the plan is riddled with profound flaws.

First, and perhaps most egregiously, the DOE refused to dedicate a single penny of the additional $8 billion in federal and state education funds to lower class sizes, despite the City Council advocating for $250 million to be spent for that purpose, and despite DOE’s own surveys showing that smaller classes are the top priority of K-12 parents. 

Lowering class sizes would ensure a safer and more productive learning environment for students. This is particularly critical now, given the need for social distancing and stronger academic support due to the disruption of the learning environment caused by the pandemic.

In place of the $250 million the Council proposed for this purpose, the DOE allocated only $18 million for a small program targeting 72 elementary schools, while encouraging principals to use the funds for push-in teachers rather than actually forming new classes to lower class sizes. This could lead to more overcrowding and an even less safe classroom environment and would not have the same positive impact on learning.

The DOE’s refusal to specifically allocate any of the additional $530 million in state Foundation Aid funds for smaller classes is especially flagrant because these funds resulted from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision. In this case, New York’s highest court concluded excessive class sizes denied New York City students their right to the sound, basic education guaranteed under the state’s constitution, yet class sizes have risen since then. Further, if principals choose to use Contracts for Excellence (C4E) funds for this purpose, they will actually be forced to spend 40% extra to cover teachers’ pension and benefits, which DOE usually pays for centrally.

The second major flaw in the DOE’s plan is that unlike most other districts, the DOE has refused to offer a remote learning option to New York City students, unless they fall into one of a limited number of vulnerable health categories. This is despite the advocacy of many parents, elected officials, and organizations who have been clamoring for a remote option.  

This is particularly troubling because the DOE’s planned safety precautions are simply insufficient.  While universal masking will be required and all school staff will (eventually) be vaccinated, the three feet of social distancing that the DOE has said would be provided at most schools will be impossible to implement at most schools, unless many students do not attend classes in person.

Originally, the DOE claimed only about 76 schools would not be able to achieve three feet of social distancing in the coming school year, though Mark Cannizzaro, president of the principals and administrators union, publicly disputed this and said the majority of  New York City’s roughly 1,700 public schools would not be able to achieve social distancing given crowding.  

Then the DOE altered its calculations by allotting less space per student in its formula, while also assuming principals’ offices and other administrative spaces could be used as classrooms. Frankly, this is highly unrealistic. The DOE now claims only about 50 of the most overcrowded schools will not be able to achieve social distancing, but they have refused to release this list of schools or say what these schools will do to avoid unsafe overcrowding. 

Rather than finding additional space by leasing closed parochial school buildings or moving more pre-K classes into community-based centers, the DOE has continued along its customary track for the last year and a half, pretending the need for social distancing does not exist.

Since March 2020, the city has co-located 26 additional schools in existing buildings, and tried to close an entire elementary school in the Bronx that was able to achieve social distancing, unlike overcrowded schools nearby, with plans to leave the building empty – until community and parent protest stopped it.  

Throughout the pandemic, the Department of Education has also continued to expand the number of pre-K and 3-K students in elementary school buildings. According to our analysis, about 230 elementary schools with pre-K and/or 3-K programs were already at or over 100% capacity. This fall, the DOE is adding 26 more 3-K programs to already overcrowded schools – despite the fact that this space could have been used to provide a safer environment for the rest of the student population.

In its new health and safety protocols, the DOE claims, “every classroom across New York City has been provided with two HEPA purifiers,” though many dispute this statement’s accuracy. While the CDC and most independent experts recommend air cleaners that use HEPA filters, the Intellipure model that DOE purchased for $43 million lacks these filters. Indeed, independent experts rank the model among the most expensive and least efficient on the market. 

But the biggest disappointment is the laxity of the DOE’s covid testing plan: only 10% of unvaccinated students whose parents have submitted consent forms will be tested – and then, only once every two weeks. This represents a sharp decrease in covid testing compared to last year, when 20% of all students were tested weekly. The loosening of the covid testing protocol in schools is indefensible, given that the Delta variant is far more transmissible and there will be far more overcrowding in classrooms, lunchrooms, and other spaces as fewer than 40% students attended school in-person last year. In addition, school-age children currently have the highest covid positivity rate in the city

The DOE’s new protocol also does not require quarantining or testing of vaccinated students or staff. Yet with Delta, breakthrough infections are on the rise. During the first week of August, here in New York City alone, there were nearly 3,000 reported breakthrough infections,. Many times that number were likely asymptomatic and able to transmit the virus. Given these facts, excluding vaccinated teachers and students from random testing seems extremely unwise.

The DOE’s extremely limited testing regimen is also not aligned with the CDC recommendations, which advise weekly testing for students in moderate to high transmission zones. 

Source: CDC

According to the CDC tracker, every New York City borough is currently a high transmission zone, ranging from 2.7% positivity rate in Manhattan to 4.8% in the Bronx.

In contrast, Los Angeles schools, the second largest in the nation after New York’s, are mandating weekly testing for all students and staff, vaccinated or not, as are some other California school districts. According to Education Week, “public health experts said the frequency and scale of LAUSD’s weekly testing is appropriate given the threat of the Delta variant.” Chicago public schools are offering weekly testing to all students and staff.

As reported in the Washington Post, a new study projects that testing half of all elementary school students every week would substantially reduce schools’ expected covid infection rate after three months from 49% to 22%. One can assume the rate would fall even lower if all students were tested weekly instead.

The Medical Advisory Group (MAG) of Newton public schools in Massachusetts is headed by Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. This group also recommends weekly testing for all students and staff, and points out that if all asymptomatic students who are in close contact with infected individuals are given rapid tests, they might not have to be quarantined, which would be very helpful for preventing further disruptions to their education. They also recommend that all eligible students be mandated to receive vaccinations, as at least one California school district is doing.

The inadequate testing protocol that New York City has adopted is even more disappointing considering that the federal government has promised to cover the full cost of staffing and covid testing for any school district that requests it: “FEMA will fund 100% of COVID-19 testing costs and will not require non-federal matching funds through December 31, 2021.” Accordingly, Los Angeles expects FEMA to pay for most of the expense of its ambitious testing program. 

While the New York City DOE’s Covid testing regime is inexplicably weak, the city is mandating more standardized testing to be given at every school across the city, at a cost of $36 million – twice the amount it is spending to hire push-in teachers or lower class sizes. According to a DOE instructional manual sent to principals, these formative assessments will be required to be administered to all students three times a year, including Acadience in grades K-2, and either MAP or iReady online exams in the other grades. If schools want to use different exams, they must be approved by the DOE central office first. 

Yet there is little or no research showing these standardized tests will help students learn or support their recovery. Few if any independent peer-reviewed evaluations have offered evidence for their validity or demonstrated that their use has any positive impact on student learning. One of the few randomized studies showed that administering the MAP exams had “no significant effect” on achievement. Many teachers have critiqued iReady exams, and many students despise them. 

The DOE’s insistence that schools require every student to take these exams at least three times a year also belies the claim in their instructional manual that they will be focusing on “creating and sustaining school cultures where students, staff and families can experience joy and thrive” this year, by creating a “welcoming and affirming school environment.” 

If the DOE really wants to ensure a more successful and safer school year, rather than require more ineffective and stressful standardized testing, the city should provide smaller classes and employ more rigorous health and safety protections, including weekly covid testing for all students and staff.

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Leonie Haimson is the Executive Director of Class Size Matters. On Twitter @leoniehaimson.

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It's Time to End Substandard Working Conditions in Home Care


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Taking care of people at their homes (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


The rapidly aging population in the United States, combined with the global pandemic, has brought the issue of home care to national headlines. As evidenced by President Biden’s proposal of a standalone $1.8 trillion bill dedicated to caregiving, it’s clear the government is looking to address challenges in long-term care, especially as the sector faces one of its most urgent labor shortages ever. Against the backdrop of Labor Day – a time to celebrate workers and recognize the importance of unions in fighting for better working conditions – there is no better time to reform our home care system for workers and, ultimately, patients. 

Today, more than 800,000 individuals remain on the Medicaid waiting list for home care, a number that is only expected to increase in the future. Just consider seven out of 10 of us will need long-term care at some point in our lives. Yet, despite these increases, home care wages have steadily decreased over the last decade. In 2006, home care workers earned approximately 150% of the state minimum wage on average. Today, the same caregivers receive the minimum wage or slightly above. More than one in seven low-wage workers in New York City is a home care worker. One in four workers live below the federal poverty line, and more than half rely on some form of public assistance to make ends meet. These low wages have led to chronic staffing shortages in the industry (17% of home care positions were left unfilled between 2018-2019) and a projected overall workforce shortage crisis of 83,000 workers by 2025. 

At the root of this is a systemic devaluation of care work. Traditionally, this labor is undertaken by women, particularly women of color, and government Medicaid reimbursement rates have historically devalued these workers. Home care work is in fact highly skilled work and, as we have seen during this pandemic, often dangerous and heroic. By treating it that way and changing the system accordingly, we can make care work dignified, address the workforce shortage, create a thriving care economy and better serve patients.

In New York State specifically, the two most critical issues in the home care sector are chronic low wages and 24-hour live-in cases, where home care workers stay in patient homes for 24 hours. During this time, workers care for the patient for 13 hours, with the other 11 hours left unpaid for sleep and meals. With approximately 11,000 24-hour cases in New York alone, staffed by 33,000 home care workers, this is an issue that impacts far too many. However, for many in the home care sector, this disparity doesn’t come as a surprise, as nonprofits have historically faced inadequate state compensation, unfunded mandates, and longstanding labor negotiations. In short, state law ties non-profit home care agencies to low Medicaid reimbursement rates and antiquated rules that harm both patients and workers. 

The state has continually chosen to ration care rather than allocating the required $1 billion in Medicaid to provide better wages to workers with 24-hour shifts and higher quality care for patients. As CEO of nonprofit organizations that care for 3,000 home care patients and have a 56-year legacy of providing educational, social, and community services for Asian American and immigrant New Yorkers, I understand the impact these outdated policies have on workers, patients, and families alike.

I’m often left wondering: Why did lawmakers create a system that restricts equal pay for equal work? Labor Day is meant to commemorate the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of this country – and yet, many of those who care for others are not being cared for by our government. 

With the Biden Administration’s long-term vision for home care reform already paving the way for new bills on this issue, we as a community must seize this momentum and end 24-hour shifts. To do so, the New York state government must first create a system by which home care workers receive full compensation for every hour at a patient’s home on call for needed assistance, which starts by transitioning away from 24-hour shifts in favor of two 12-hour split shifts. However, no single entity can make this change alone.

Together, we can put enough pressure on officials in Albany to pass one bill -- A3145, sponsored by Assemblymember Harvey Epstein -- that would end 24-hour shifts in favor of two 12-hour split shifts, as well as another, Fair Pay for Home Care -- S5374/A6329, sponsored by Senator Rachel May and Assemblymember Dick Gottfried -- to raise home care worker pay to 150% of the highest area minimum wage across the state. Both pieces of legislation would allow for long-term investments in home care workers, so they can provide the best care possible for patients, such as new training structures, restructured certification, mentor programs, and more. 

If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us anything, it’s the critical role healthcare professionals provide during times of significant need. For many years, these essential skilled workers have devoted their time and energy to supporting an increasingly aging population. This Labor Day, it’s time for us all to support them and advocate for meaningful, systemic change to build a more just and caring economy.

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Wayne Ho is President & Chief Executive Officer of the Chinese-American Planning Council, Inc. On Twitter @cpc_nyc.

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This Labor Day, Celebrate Workers By Ensuring Their Safety


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Workers (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


For the past 18 months, essential workers have heroically worked in hospitals, driven buses and subways, and kept grocery stores stocked as the deadly pandemic ebbed and flowed.

It is not an overstatement to say that our city and state could not have functioned without these heroes. The toll on these men and women and their families was devastating, with thousands of frontline workers dying from COVID-19 or losing their jobs while many others were able to stay home and work safely.

Unsurprisingly, Black, Latino, and immigrant workers were hit the hardest, once again revealing long-standing inequalities in our society.

While the city rightfully lauded essential workers as heroes, with nightly applause and a parade, words don’t save lives or jobs. As we reflect on Labor Day this year, we must remember that it takes real action on both the federal and state level to prevent significant, deadly disparities between workers.

The pandemic highlighted the importance of strong federal worker safety rules -- and what can go wrong when the government falls down on the job. All across the country there were cases of big corporations putting their employees in incredibly dangerous situations that led to unnecessary deaths, such as at meatpacking plants, where work often continued even on the deadliest days.

These are the exact types of issues that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created to address, but during the Trump years it was gutted and underfunded, with record low levels of inspectors. The agency also failed to issue any robust guidelines to protect workers during the pandemic.

But even with an expanded OSHA under the Biden administration, we cannot rely solely on the federal government to step in and protect New Yorkers. We must have strong state laws backed by an open and accessible civil justice system.

The New York HERO Act, which was signed into law but is still awaiting full implementation, mandates safety protocols in workplaces in response to the pandemic, including PPE and social distancing measures. These types of rules set a clear standard that other states, and the federal government, can follow.

Beyond pandemic protections, New York’s scaffold safety law is another example of how New York supports workers. This law makes those who control a construction site liable for fall-related injuries that occur when they fail to provide the proper safety equipment. This ensures that men and women who work in construction can hold their employers accountable if they fail to maintain a safe worksite.

The civil justice system offers a powerful way to hold negligent actors accountable. The threat of financial and legal penalties often forces change when employers refuse to do the right thing.

The Legislature has passed other important laws that strengthen the civil justice system, such as a bill that would make it easier to bring cases against companies that harm New Yorkers, even if the wrongdoing happens outside the state. That bill will be sent to the Governor at some point later this year to be signed into law. 

These laws are essential to providing a civil justice system that is open and accessible – no matter your age, income, or background. We must continue to examine similar legislation that closes the loopholes that prevent New Yorkers from having their day in court.

In the wake of the pandemic’s destruction, we need to make sure we are passing laws that protect working men and women as well as the civil justice system that allows them to hold powerful employers accountable.

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Halina Radchenko is president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. Charlene Obernauer is executive director of New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.

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Why You Should Support Your Local Nonprofits and Help Them Fight for More on International Day of Charity


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Nonprofit New York at work (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


In an effort to increase and enhance social responsibility worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly marked September 5 as the International Day of Charity. This day serves to encourage community members everywhere to show support for charitable causes including the efforts of local nonprofit organizations.

From climate change and systemic racism to poverty and homelessness, nonprofits are tasked with some of the most difficult and ingrained challenges of our time. Yet nonprofits in the human services sector are historically underfunded and undervalued. On this International Day of Charity, Westhab — the nonprofit I’m honored to lead as president and CEO — calls for a future where communities support and value nonprofits as an equitable partner to government and the business community. It is essential that organizations such as ours are shown the support that is commensurate with the critical impact we are making.

The devaluation of the nonprofit sector isn’t the work of any one unit of government or really a deliberate strategy at all. Westhab is fortunate to have strong partnerships with the County of Westchester, New York City, New York State, and many local governments and businesses that see great value in public-private partnerships to meet pressing needs. Unfortunately, in our society,  the nonprofit sector is not valued in line with its importance.

Charitable giving provides an opportunity for society to alleviate the pain and suffering of humanitarian crises such as homelessness. Through charitable giving, nonprofits across the country can work towards making a difference in marginalized and underprivileged communities every day. If people take today to recognize the difference even one small action can make, and how that action can be compounded by others, we can make a real difference in creating a more inclusive, resilient, and healthy society.

Intertwined in the nonprofit sector’s history of being undervalued are issues of race and gender equity. The nonprofit sector is dominated by women and people of color, because much of the work we tackle came out of settlement houses, orphanages, and other charitable work—admirable things for women to do, often as volunteers, at a time when men were the sole breadwinners. Women are the backbone of the social work profession, often women of color who themselves have faced economic exclusion and systemic obstacles to success. By undervaluing the importance of the nonprofit human services sector, we also do a disservice to the essential contributions of historically marginalized groups.

Westhab’s staff on the front lines, such as our security professionals and our janitorial staff, form the essential team that admirably staffed homeless shelters and supportive housing residences in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even so, they are often ascribed the label of “unskilled” and valued as such. However, I see the work that these people do every day. It takes incredible skill, in addition to fortitude and passion, to deliver on Westhab’s promise.

The systemic austerity of the sector has been recently dubbed the “nonprofit starvation cycle.” Public and private funders of nonprofits provide insufficient administrative support to operate organizations. Nonprofits often undercut each other with lowball budgets to win the precious few grants and contracts that are available. Our sector has often taken great pride in “doing more with less.” However, this is not the way forward. We are at a place where we need more.

The results of the starvation cycle include overtasked employees, lower wages, and high employee turnover, none of which exemplify the values of our sector or help organizations (or governments) achieve their mission. It is also incredibly inefficient, and we spend far too much time scrambling to fill gaps when we should be building systems and infrastructure. It is past time to create a new and more equitable sector.

Fortunately, there is reason for hope. Westhab is a member of the Human Services Council, which has fought admirably and successfully for New York City to increase indirect cost rates to nonprofits to account for the true cost of operations. Westhab is also a member of Nonprofit Westchester, which is working on the same path and building great momentum around nonprofit employee wages. Overall, our government partners and private funders have been supportive and understand the need for change.

I am extremely proud of Westhab, which has grown and evolved in recent years to meet the community’s urgent needs and widen the pathway from homelessness to permanent housing. However, I long for the day when every member of our team is paid a living wage and is valued at the true level of their contributions to our community. I know this is possible. Our sector does incredible things with less. Imagine what we could do with more.

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Richard Nightingale is President and CEO of Westhab, Inc. On Twitter @RichWesthab.

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New York’s 2020 Census Victory - How It Happened & What’s Next


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NYC Census efforts (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


Despite concerns that the 2020 Census count in New York City would reflect a major minority undercount and leave out people who left because of the pandemic, we came out on top.

The results of the Census were outstanding for the region. After decades of alleged Census undercounts, the New York City saw its population grow by 7.7% since 2010.

And it’s even more remarkable given unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic and the Trump administration. Census counting was delayed by several months. Then-President Donald Trump also tried numerous times to subvert the Census count by trying to add a citizenship question, later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court after the administration failed to follow standard government procedures, though concerns over such a question led many immigrants to shun the Census over fear of arrest or deportation. Trump also cut short the Census counting period by several weeks and attempted to adjust the final state population counts for partisan purposes.

How did New York City do it? By coming together to get out the count.

Mayor de Blasio and the City Council committed $40 million to Census outreach efforts. Groups including the Association for a Better New York and the New York Counts 2020 coalition invested time and energy to grassroots outreach. 

Also critical to the city’s Census “success” was the ability of the New York City Department of City Planning to add 265,000 housing units missing from the Census Bureau’s address lists so that every household would receive a Census form in the mail. This effort alone may have resulted in counting half a million city residents who might otherwise have been missed.

Every single one of these New Yorkers mattered. We cannot forget that the state lost two or three districts after each of the last three censuses, with one district lost this time because we came up short 89 people in the state population totals.

There are critical lessons that we must learn from how New York City was able to beat the odds and deliver a strong Census count, thanks to the heroics of grassroots organizers and city leadership.

The Census has now been politicized like never before, with the Trump administration openly attempting to sabotage the count. New York must keep the infrastructure we have developed in place for the next time, and add to it, especially at the state level.

Early planning and investment is critical, and we cannot wait until the year before the 2030 Census to get ready. Our governor, mayors, legislators, and other elected officials must invest in ongoing demographic studies to gauge population shifts. State and local complete count committees need to be organized several years in advance and must receive adequate funding.

It’s mind-boggling to think of how much better a Census count New York might have had if well-funded efforts ramped up much earlier. California invested over $90 million for Census efforts and helped stave off the loss of several congressional districts. Minnesota’s well-organized private-sector efforts helped prevent the loss of one congressional district by 26 people.

For the next Census, New York should be able to keep all of its congressional seats.

Right now, New Yorkers should turn their attention to the state’s new Independent Redistricting Commission, a body created by a 2014 state constitutional amendment that took the initial district line-drawing responsibility from the Legislature to make the process more transparent and participatory.

The commission, appointed largely by the state’s legislative leaders, recently completed a “listening tour” round of public hearings via the Internet to hear from New Yorkers on the kind of districts they want to see in place for the 2022 elections and through the 2031 elections. The commission asked for New Yorkers’ ideas on how to draw districts using “communities of interest,” basing districts on shared economic, social, religious, social, and other neighborhood factors. Other factors that must be considered include population equality and fairness to minority voters, compactness, contiguity, and partisan fairness. The criteria also suggest consideration of the cores of current districts.

The commission is targeting mid-September to release its draft congressional and state legislative maps. Another series of statewide public hearings will follow in October. New Yorkers should let the commission know what they think of the draft maps at those hearings before final maps are sent to the Legislature for approval or modification at the end of the year.

While we won’t know how the final lines will be drawn, for the first time in a long time, we know that the state’s population is more diverse and still growing at a time when it is most needed.

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Jeffrey M. Wice is an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School and Senior Fellow at the school's Census and Redistricting Institute. On Twitter @JeffWice.

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The Next New York City Administration Must Prioritize Youth Voices


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Engaged youth, New York City (photo: Paige Polk/Mayoral Photography Office)


As CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City (BBBS of NYC), the nation’s first youth mentoring organization, I hear from young people nearly every day. I’m consistently impressed by their thoughtfulness, bravery and solutions-driven creativity. Each of our Littles has a unique perspective, but I’ve heard one consistent gripe over this last year: They want us to listen to them!

It’s remarkably disheartening to continuously see the city’s leaders not heed the voices of our youth. But, there is an important opportunity for change.

We need the next New York City government administration, due to take office in January, to prioritize the ideas of New York’s youth, and implementing a city-wide youth council is a wise place to begin.

Rather than the multiple Youth Leadership Councils currently in operation, this single body could be endorsed and sponsored by the next mayor and give the youth of our city a chance to meaningfully influence policy ideas.

Nearly 1 million New Yorkers voted in this year’s primaries, the highest participation in a local election since 2013. This came after New York City officials sought to double the turnout of registered voters aged 18 to 29. It’s clear more New York City youth want to vote and have their say in government. It’s less clear that New York City politicians and public officials are listening to them.

Resources to public schools ranks among the biggest issues for young New York City voters, yet mayoral candidates Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa -- the Democratic and Republican nominees, respectively -- have talked more about across the board budget cuts. The next mayor of New York City needs to go the extra mile and create a platform for youth to ensure their voices are heard and their suggestions are heeded.

BBBS of NYC has its own youth council to function in a similar fashion. In fact, it was created at the suggestion of the youth themselves. They’ve pushed our organization to make impactful changes, including advancing LGBTQ inclusion throughout the organization. I envision a citywide youth council operating in a similar fashion. 

If we are serious about getting youth more engaged, we would be foolish not to listen to them. By incorporating youth voices alongside our city’s leaders, we fill an important gap in our policymaking process.

All levels of city government and planning too often take young people’s voices for granted. I’m both a parent and a youth mentoring executive who is still dumbfounded that youth were excluded in planning the 2022-2021 school year. Why wouldn’t we consider the voices of the people most impacted by these decisions? Let’s make certain that the 2021-2022 school year is shaped differently through the viewpoints and informed experiences  of its students. A city-wide youth council representative of the extraordinary diversity of New York City gives an important yet long ignored constituency a voice and seat at the table.

This isn’t just my idea. Youth across New York have made it known they want to have a say in the city’s future. A recent survey from Citizens’ Committee for Children found that 40% of respondents ages 14 to  24 believe they have a say in how our government runs. These are youth who want and believe they have the power to influence change. I’ve seen this same passion and optimism from the participants in BBBS of NYC’s youth council.

Consider Jena, a young Korean woman on our youth council. Over the last year she has struggled to adapt to remote learning, frustrated over being tested on lessons she felt she was never taught. At the same time, she dealt with the anxiety associated with being an Asian woman amid increasing xenophobia and violence. A city-wide youth council offers Jena a chance to speak directly to the next administration about what concrete steps are needed to protect the Asian American Pacific Islander community. With youth unemployment hovering around 12%, higher than the overall rate, it also gives Jena and her peers a chance to advocate for opportunities beyond programs like the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).

Mayor de Blasio has said young New Yorkers are poised to play a “pivotal role” in the city’s recovery from the pandemic. I couldn’t agree more. I challenge the new administration to do more to fulfill that promise and finally give New York City’s youth the chance to have a real say in their future.

***
Alicia Guevara is the Chief Executive Officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City. On Twitter @BBBSNYC.

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Downstate Population Gains Mean State Legislature Power Shift No Matter Who Draws New District Lines


senate limited numbers

New York State Senate (photo: NY Senate Media Services)


The United States Census released the nation’s population data by congressional and state legislative district on August 12, setting underway the re-districting of legislative seats, controlled by each individual state. The process will now unfold in New York and around the nation, with control of the House of Representatives and state legislatures on the line.

Having served in the New York State Legislature for 32 years, I went through three redistrictings, in 1992, 2002, and 2012.

Major internal population shifts within New York State have profound implications for redistricting. New York gained about 823,000 people, an increase of 4.25%, between 2010 and 2020. All of the growth was downstate, as discussed in an outstanding summary of New York’s changes by John Bacheller, and shown in brief here:

jb table desc1a

This significant population increase downstate compared to Upstate likely means a decline in the power of the Republican Party in New York. Its power base has been Upstate, and,until recently, Long Island, and this redistricting cycle marks the end of GOP control of the lines of State Senate districts, which it held through most of the twentieth century, and for 2002 and 2012.

Additionally, since 2012, the year new district lines were put in place in New York based on the 2010 U.S. Census, New York’s redistricting structure has changed. A 2014 Constitutional Amendment created an Independent Districting Commission. New York is now one of 13 states across the nation that have such a commission. It will have the initial authority to draw the district lines for New York’s House seats and the seats in the Assembly and Senate.

The commission has already held public hearings and, in fact, commission staff confirmed to me that the first preliminary maps from the new body will be made public on September 15, 2021. The commission, whose members consist of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, along with several members jointly selected, is designed to draw fair districts and avoid partisan gerrymandering. It must produce maps no later than January 15, 2022.

If the commission fails to produce maps, or if two-thirds of both houses of the State Legislature reject the commission’s maps pursuant to a schedule over this coming winter, the Legislature has the power to draw new lines that must be signed by the Governor.

Since the 2014 constitutional amendment that was approved by voters and created the commission, Democrats gained a two-thirds majority in the State Senate, and kept the one they already had in the Assembly. Those majorities will await commission action, or inaction. Whatever changes they make to lines drawn by the commission are, of course, subject to court challenges.

Another constitutional amendment changing elements of the redistricting process is on the ballot in the November general election this year. It would speed up the timetable for approval and alter the threshold for the Legislature to reject the plans and draw its own lines, a change that is currently moot since in the intervening time the Democrats secured the double two-thirds majority.

During the 2012 redistricting, Republican and Democratic majorities controlled the redistricting process for the respective legislative houses where each held a majority of seats. The Democrats have controlled the New York State Assembly since they won the majority in 1974, and have had two-thirds majorities going back 30 years. The former Republican majority in the State Senate, however, had been under major threat for decades, and by the election of 2010 it held a razor-thin, 32-30 majority, to draw the 2012 district lines.

To preserve power, the 2011-12 Republican majority decided to create a 63rd State Senate district (an action permitted under the state constitution) in Upstate New York. The Senate Republicans’ goals necessitated putting smaller populations in the Upstate Senate districts than in the rest of the state. The drawing of state legislative districts is unlike congressional districts, for which nearly identical one-person one-vote populations per district are generally required. The rules for drawing of state legislative districts have allowed fairly wide population deviations from a strict one-person one-vote standard.

In New York in 2012, the one-person one-vote population norm for each of the 63 Senate districts would have been about 307,589 persons. To squeeze out the extra Upstate district, Republicans brought down the Upstate district populations as low as just under 292,000 (see table below). By contrast, they created New York City districts that reached as large as 330,000 persons. By stretching the population deviations as much as they could legally, they took away a Senate district in New York City to create the 63rd district Upstate.

The table below shows district populations in the New York State Senate in 2012 and in 2020. On the left are 24 districts in Upstate New York, starting with the 40th district, most of which is north of Westchester County, all the way to the 63rd district in Western New York.

In the middle are 26 New York City districts, including two in the Bronx that extend into Westchester County. On the right are the 9 Long Island districts, as well as several districts in Westchester, Rockland, and Orange Counties.

At the bottom of the columns are the population sums for the various areas of the state, as well as the population averages for the districts in the separated areas, for both 2012 and 2020.

It’s always important to keep in mind the one-person one-vote standard that would create districts with even population totals. For 2012 that would be 307,589 New Yorkers per Senate district, and the new 2020 standard is 320,655.

jb table desc1

Despite the effort of the Republican majority in 2012 to preserve power by dropping the Upstate district populations below the standard, the plan didn’t work. The Democrats won a 33-30 split. However, a faction of the Democratic majority, known as the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), then aligned with the Republicans and helped them preserve power all the way into 2018, when they finally realigned with the Democrats. Six of the 8 IDC members were defeated in Democratic primaries that same year, and another has since left the Legislature. After the general election in 2018, Democrats had won 41 of the 63 seats in the Senate, and via the 2020 elections, 43 of 63, reaching a two-thirds majority.

The new districting commission’s mandate is to produce fair districts, and having every district virtually identical in population, a pure one-person one-vote, is as fair as can be. Given 2020 Census numbers the new norm is now a little over 320,000 persons per district, up from over 307,000 based on the 2010 Census. The populations of the Upstate Senate districts now have an average of 295,500, about 25,000 persons below the one-person one-vote norm of 320,655, or a sum of 600,000 persons, nearly two Senate districts. New York City districts have a surplus above the 320,655 standard of about 538,000, about one and two-thirds Senate districts. The Metro suburbs have the remainder. Effectively Upstate New York must lose two Senate districts.

In the New York Metro area there are only five Senate districts still represented by Republicans, four on Long Island and one on Staten Island. The other 15 are among the 24 that lie mostly north of Westchester and Rockland Counties. As Bacheller pointed out, the population losses even within Upstate New York are concentrated in the rural areas; urban metro areas gained 1.2% in population, rural areas lost -3.6 % of their population. That is reflected in some of the Upstate Senate districts with losses; six districts are now below even 290,000 in population, some even below 280,000. Five of these six districts with the lowest populations are represented by Republicans.

Some analysts predict the equal representation of Republicans and Democrats on the districting commission will result in the failure of the commission to have a majority vote in favor of a districting plan, thus defaulting to the Legislature (which could reject even a plan that had been voted upon). I served with two of the Republicans on the commission, Charles Nesbitt, who had been the Assembly minority leader, and Willis Stephens, a lawyer from Dutchess County who is a sharp debater.

Nesbitt was, and I am sure still is, a decent and gracious man. But will he and Stephens vote to wipe out two of the last remaining 20 Republican Senate districts in the state, or vote for any plan likely to eliminate even one? I don’t know the answer to those questions but the Republicans have tougher choices ahead than the Democrats. Even if the districts were drawn neutrally and fairly, the Republicans are likely to be the inevitable losers. If the Legislature draws the lines, the Democrats in the Senate might be motivated to avenge many a redistricting wrong from decades past, or just address the population problems to shore up their Upstate incumbents while consolidating the Republicans into fewer rural districts.

The population shifts will also add at least one more Assembly district in New York City, whether the lines are drawn by the commission or the Legislature. In the suburbs the increasing presence of diverse populations could also strengthen Democrats. Most of what the Assembly Democrats have to worry about is where to put their surplus districts and members.

The result of redistricting internally in New York will be to consolidate urban and suburban power; House of Representatives seats for Congress are more likely to be the scene of bitter conflict over the future of the Democratic majority in the House in the national midterms in 2022.

***
Jim Brennan was a member of the New York State Assembly for 32 years, where he chaired four committees. On Twitter @JimBrennanNY.

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Back to School Can’t Mean Back to Hunger; Here’s the Food Security Plan New York City Must Implement for Its Students


hunger back food

Mayor de Blasio at a school food site (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


In just a few weeks, more than 1 million New York City kids will head back to their school buildings — most of them for the first time since March 2020.

But the imminent return to a new normal in the classroom shouldn’t mean a return to the status quo when it comes to one of the biggest challenges our young people continue to face: hunger.

Before the pandemic, one in five New York City children struggled with hunger, meaning their families lacked the resources to consistently provide enough food. During the pandemic, that figure soared to one in four.

With so many kids at risk, the return to classrooms is both a challenge and an opportunity to do better. We can’t forget: the whole reason we’re climbing this mountain to reopen schools is to get our kids back on track and to be the best they can be.

But no child can reach their full potential in school while they’re facing hunger.

Many students are already facing a steep learning loss due to their time out of the classroom. Black, Latino and low-income students saw the steepest learning loss of all. As kids head back to school, the availability of free, nutritious meals will be critical to closing that gap and making sure all kids are fueled for success this school year.

So how do we achieve that?

First, we have to hold on to what works.

No Kid Hungry has spent years fighting for more alternative models for school meals that feed more kids — and we can’t let go of those wins now. Universal free school breakfast and lunch, breakfast in the classroom and “breakfast after the bell” all helped overcome barriers like social stigma and arcane bus schedules. Expanded vegan, Halal, and Kosher offerings ensured our diverse student body always had something nutritious to eat.

Now isn’t the time to walk away from what works. Let’s keep all of these programs running at full strength and adapt them as needed for social distancing and other safety measures.

Second, we need to make permanent the new programs that helped kids through the pandemic. 

One of New York City’s biggest successes was the recognition that meals need to be readily available regardless of where kids are learning or where in the city a family lives. The hundreds of free meal hubs across the five boroughs where kids and families could pick up a meal at no cost all year-round were a game changer in the battle against hunger we’ve waged throughout this pandemic. 

Even though New York City public schools are expected to return to full in-person learning this year, many families will still face inevitable closures or periods of quarantine as kids face exposure to the virus—and feeding those kids when they’re sent home has to be a priority. Continuing a flexible meal program — widely promoted in schools and communities – will help ensure all kids get nutritious food through the ups and downs this school year promises. And this same approach should continue to be a model for future summer meal programs as well.

Finally, we have to use this moment to break out of old thinking, and find new ways to reach more kids in need — because the hunger crisis caused by the pandemic will be with us for a long time.

One of the bright spots over the past year has been all the support from government: increased SNAP benefits for groceries, a larger Child Tax Credit, and Pandemic EBT. But we have yet to see a big push in New York City to enroll New Yorkers in programs they might be newly eligible for or to let them know what’s coming. 

Here’s a simple solution — everyone who walks in the door of a public school, an ACS center, a homeless shelter, or any other office that provides social services should be automatically screened and enrolled in the most important food aid and child support programs. That will ensure every family has access to the hundreds—and in some cases thousands — of dollars now flowing through expanded federal aid that can help them put food on the table.

If we get this right, hundreds of thousands of kids across our city will have enough food both at school and at home, and we could see fewer kids facing hunger in our city than at any time on record. 

But if we get this wrong, we’ll be failing to equip our children with one of the very most basic school supplies: the food they need to learn and reach their full potential.

The pre-pandemic status quo won’t be good enough. Let’s go above and beyond to make this the least hungry — and most successful — year in the history of New York City public schools.

***
Rachel Sabella is Director of No Kid Hungry New York. On Twitter @RachelS23 & @nokidhungry.

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Celebrating the Growth and Impact of New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program


Gotham Gazette: Celebrating New York City's Summer Youth Employment Program

Mayor de Blasio makes an SYEP announcement (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


On August 21, the New York City Summer Youth Employment Program concluded its 59th year of operation after placing 74,884 New Yorkers into paid opportunities for six weeks. This was a record number of participants served (at a record 14,465 worksites), receiving life-changing paid career exploration and work experiences, with benefits extending well beyond the youth themselves. 

As part of New York City’s Recovery for All, SYEP this summer launched innovative and timely new components such as the CUNY Recovery Corps, which served more than 4,000 CUNY students supporting small businesses, nonprofits, and other groups involved with our comeback from covid. The Clean-up Corps, another new program model this year, focused on neighborhood beautification. In keeping with ongoing public health concerns, SYEP opportunities this summer were available in-person, fully remote, or a hybrid of the two.

These successes also put an exclamation mark on eight years of extraordinary growth and evolution for SYEP under the de Blasio administration. 

In 2013, the last year of the Bloomberg administration, SYEP served 35,997 participants. This was roughly in line with the average over the previous decade: the size of SYEP grew and shrank by the year under Mayor Bloomberg, subject to the outcome of his annual budget battles with City Council. Program services themselves were largely undifferentiated between different groups of youth: participants applied and were selected through a series of lotteries, and placed into jobs developed by neighborhood providers. 

All this changed under Mayor de Blasio, who steadily grew SYEP between 2014 and 2019 until it was more than twice the size of the last Bloomberg-era cohort. This growth was driven by New York City’s direct investment in the program, which skyrocketed from around $21 million in 2013 to $134 million six years later. The funding increase covered the expansion of the program, the boost to New York State’s minimum wage up to $15 per hour, and the development of new service options within SYEP. 

Crucially, city budgets invested in the system infrastructure necessary to operate a great summer jobs program. The mayor empowered and invested in the Department of Youth and Community Development, which administers SYEP. He also created the Center for Youth Employment, which works to support the full ecosystem of career readiness by aligning K-12 schooling, higher education, and youth workforce programs such as SYEP. 

Maybe most important, Mayor de Blasio and the City Council agreed to baseline SYEP into the annual budget in June of 2016, removing it as a political football and setting the stage for significant gains in program quality. 

These improvements to SYEP—making the program not just bigger, but tangibly better—are a proud legacy for this administration. They include:

-Greater targeting of high-need youth, by reallocating a number of slots from the lottery to defined eligibility programs such as Emerging Leaders (serving youth in the foster care, homelessness, and juvenile justice systems) and program options for NYCHA residents.

-Creation of CareerReady SYEP, a defined-eligibility school-based program option that links summer work experience to year-round learning for high schools serving student populations with significant economic need.

-More intentional sequencing of the program by implementing a project-based learning model for “Younger Youth” ages 14-15.

-Financial empowerment for young people resulting in more youth signing up for direct deposit (from 7% in 2014 to 59% in 2020).

-Significant growth in the number of private sector job placements over the course of this administration.

As with so much else in New York City, the administration’s support for SYEP was severely tested when COVID-19 struck in 2020. The public health crisis and ensuing recession rendered the traditional program model impossible to run. The Department of Youth and Community Development and Center for Youth Employment worked closely with the provider community and grassroots advocates to quickly develop a remote program. Thanks to their efforts, and with generous support from private funders and participating employers, SYEP Summer Bridge ultimately served more than 35,000 participants with career exploration and project-based learning.

Then, like so much else in New York City, SYEP bounced back this year, with nearly 75,000 participants.

SYEP shows the power of the public sector to improve people’s lives in both the immediate and long-term. The new administration set to take office on January 1 will inherit a precious asset in SYEP—one that we have made great efforts to grow and nourish. Supported well, it will offer a robust return on investment, not only in wages earned and taxes paid, but in an even more important measure: helping youth fulfill their highest aspirations. 

***
Bill Chong is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development. David Fischer is the Executive Director of the NYC Center for Youth Employment. On Twitter @NYCYouth & @cyenyc.

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How New York City Must Support Low-Wage Essential Workers as They Support Everyone Else


low ewf wage

(photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


Luz is a home care worker in New York City who routinely logged 24-hour shifts caring for patients in their homes during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Luz is a pseudonym to protect her privacy.)

As a frontline worker, she was especially susceptible to the virus, yet she was forced to purchase her own gloves, masks, and other PPE because her employer refused to provide them. Despite the grueling hours, unsafe working conditions, and persistent wage violations, Luz could not leave her job because her family depends on her steady paycheck. But through New York City’s Low-Wage Worker Initiative (LWWI), Luz and her colleagues bravely came forward to file a lawsuit in federal court against their employer, a home health agency, for unpaid wages. 

The lawsuit and other cases like it offer an opportunity for these essential workers to improve the jobs on which our city relies. They also require a substantial amount of attorney time and case management resources, as well as multi-year, sustainable, and reliable funding from the city for the LWWI to see it through. But right now, the program remains under-funded. New York City must adequately and reliably fund the LWWI expansion, by allocating $4 million in the current fiscal year (FY22) and ensuring multi-year funding moving forward.

For many low-wage workers like Luz and her colleagues, obtaining private counsel is prohibitively expensive. Often, the worker’s damages from a case are less than the actual cost for a private attorney to bring the case forward. Created in 2019, LWWI is the only dedicated city-funded program that provides free, individually-tailored, employment civil legal services and case management support to workers in New York City’s low-wage industries. These services enable workers to seek redress from wage theft, discrimination, harassment, unsafe working conditions, and other workplace violations. Each year, LWWI helps thousands of low-wage workers -- the overwhelming majority of whom are from Black, Latino, Asian, and immigrant communities -- access justice so they can enforce their legal rights. 

Despite LWWI’s proven track record of recouping millions of dollars annually in unpaid wages through judgements and settlements for essential workers, the program’s funding has not kept pace with demand for its services. New York City has chosen to fund the program on a year-by-year basis rather than providing multi-year funding. The resulting uncertainty makes it difficult for LWWI service providers -- community-based organizations, grassroots worker centers, and advocacy groups -- to know if they can continue serving clients like Luz when they do not know if LWWI funding will be renewed in the coming year. A lack of expanded and multi-year funding for LWWI hurts low-wage workers’ chances of achieving economic justice, and could significantly reduce or eliminate the resources we need to help them obtain assistance and enforce their rights.

To more effectively address this issue, the Citywide Immigrant Legal Empowerment Collaborative (CILEC), has been zealously advocating for LWWI funding to be expanded and reliably funded. Having exhausted all other options, CILEC is now calling upon New York City’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and City Hall to increase funding for LWWI to $4 million in Fiscal Year 2022 and re-assess multi-year funding for it moving forward. This is critical to keep pace with the demand for services, which has increased exponentially due to the COVID-19 workplace violations and health and safety concerns that essential low-wage and immigrant workers have been grappling with. 

Luz’s story is unfortunately representative of many essential workers struggling to survive this pandemic, while victimized by wage theft, discrimination, harassment, anti-union threats, safety violations, trafficking, and other forms of workplace mistreatment. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the exploitation and abuse that have always been pervasive in low-wage industries have continued.

Instead of “staying at home” or “sheltering in place,” essential low-wage and immigrant workers were forced to risk their lives for substandard pay and with inadequate safeguards, and to benefit those staying safe at home. They were delivering food from restaurants and grocery stores, tending to the sick and elderly as home-care attendants, providing childcare as domestic workers, cleaning homes and hospitals, working in laundromats, and packaging supplies in cramped warehouses. They are heroes of this pandemic, but have been faced with a cruel choice: survival depends on an ability to continue working, yet exposure to a deadly virus and exploitative working conditions pose grave risks. 

The situation is even worse for workers who lack immigration status. Their labor made it possible for others to stay home, but their employers continue to exploit them by skimping on wages and safety measures. A recent report from the Center for Migration Studies of New York highlights America’s reliance on immigrant workers during this crisis, finding that 74% of undocumented workers are employed in “essential” infrastructure industries. 

In the coming weeks and months, New York City workplaces will continue to reopen and will rely more than ever on essential workers to support the city’s economic recovery. While we cannot fully control the course of the pandemic, we can modify our systems, resources, and infrastructure now to better protect our essential workforce through employment-related civil legal services. This requires support from the city.

Now is the time when workers in New York City’s low-wage industries, like Luz and her colleagues, most need reliable “Know Your Rights” community trainings and information sessions about their workplace rights, and zealous legal representation and case management support when these rights are violated. 

City government should lead the way in ensuring an equitable and just economic recovery for New Yorkers, and demonstrate its support by adequately and reliably funding LWWI. Our city’s workers, and ability to weather new waves of infections, depend on it. 

***
Thomas Power is a Senior Staff Attorney at Catholic Migration Services. Sarah Leberstein is a Supervising Attorney at Make the Road NY. Katisha Andrew is the CILEC Coordinator at TakeRoot Justice. All three organizations are member organizations of the Citywide Immigrant Legal Empowerment Collaborative, a consortium of nonprofit legal services providers and community-based organizations. On Twitter @MaketheRoadNY, @CMSBQ & @TakerootNYC

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