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A Safer City to Rebuild New York and Bring Us Together


Mayor Adams & an NYPD officer (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


Those who live, work, and visit New York City deserve to feel safe, whether walking to the store, visiting a park, or taking the subway. For those who commute to work in the city, like many union construction workers, they deserve to feel safe and know they will go home to their families at night. Unfortunately, right now in New York City, crime is rising, and violence is permeating our normal way of life. It feels like every day, headlines are filled with stories highlighting preventable and tragic loss of life. In fact, the NYPD recently reported that crime in New York City spiked 38.5% in January of this year compared to January 2021, with 9,566 reported ‘major crimes’ in the first month of 2022.

This problem is not unique to New York, it is happening nationwide, and the trend remains troubling.

Unfortunately, the uptick in crime recently hit close to home. A young and talented union carpenter was killed just at the end of January while on his way home from the store. He was only 25 years old and had his entire future in front of him. His father, who is also a union carpenter, mourns his only son. I speak for the entire District Council of Carpenters when I say our thoughts and prayers are with his family. Any loss of life is heartbreaking, but it is truly devastating to see one of our own union brothers have his young life cut short.

As union carpenters, we work both on and off the job to keep our members safe, which is why we advocate for protections and safety measures for hardworking New Yorkers every day. Now, it is time to come together as a city and make a change before we lose more precious lives. New Yorkers have never shied away from a challenge. We have lived through tremendously challenging times -- 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and more. The recent increase in crime is no different. We refuse to let our way of life and pursuit of happiness be derailed by those whose intentions are to tear communities apart, rather than build them up.

It is time that we support and invest in common-sense programs that will make the city safer. When the NYC Carpenters Union endorsed Eric Adams to run New York City, not only did we understand we were endorsing a pro-labor mayor, but also, we knew he would work tirelessly to keep us safe. We are proud to support Mayor Adams’ efforts to ensure public safety as a top priority.

In the union, we offer our members access to treatment for mental health issues, so we speak from a place of knowledge when we say that as a city, we need renewed investments in mental health treatment and care. Likewise, we require our members to participate in trainings and certifications to maintain safety standards, so we feel strongly that there should be investment in education, community building, and enforcement.

The bottom line – we must construct a safer city and create a stronger economy for all New Yorkers.

We have endured a long couple of years of COVID-19 pain and restrictions that have upended our lives. Now, spring is around the corner, and people are ready to re-enter society in a new way, but only if we feel safe to do so. More people are returning to work in the city and construction is resuming, but a lot more people who live in the city and beyond want to return to spend money shopping, seeing Broadway shows, visiting loved ones, going out to dinner, and taking advantage of all the city has to offer. These activities are the lifeblood of our city and its people.

The NYC Carpenters Union built this city over the last 100 years, and alongside New Yorkers, we have weathered a lot of ups and downs. We believe that to properly revitalize our economy, there must be safety measures in place, so that people feel safe doing everything from using mass transportation and to simply walking around their own neighborhoods.

Facing this problem head-on and forging long-lasting solutions will not be easy, but with new leadership at the helm, we could turn over a new leaf and build a safer city for everyone. Let’s work together to invest in our neighborhoods and communities, create connections, and build each other up. That’s the union carpenters’ way, but most importantly, that’s the New York way.

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Joseph Geiger is Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the New York City & Vicinity District Council of Carpenters. On Twitter
@CarpentersNYC.

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Shifting Power to the Community: A Hopeful Experiment in Brownsville, Brooklyn


DA Gonzalez & others in Brooklyn (photo: Brooklyn DA's office)


What does a safe community look like? We know the answer, because such communities exist, usually in well-resourced, predominantly white neighborhoods where people have the resources to meet their basic needs—including healthy food, shelter, transportation, clean and inviting public spaces, childcare, education, and health care. A safe community is also a place where people know and trust their neighbors, take care of each other, hold each other accountable, and resolve conflicts peacefully when they arise.

Because safety is rooted in community wellness and community relationships, the work of building long-term safety can only be done effectively by the community, in the community. And that requires investment. Law enforcement, other government agencies, and outside civic institutions should play a supporting role by shifting their power and resources to community members to build the future they want.

Transferring power from law enforcement to community members is necessary because arrests and prosecutions alone do not create lasting public safety. Temporarily incarcerating someone who causes harm only prevents further harm while they are incarcerated (at great cost to them, their family, and the community). Even putting someone through a court-mandated program outside of jail often has little long-term impact on public safety if the program has no organic connection to the person’s life after the mandated period ends. While well-intended, such programs all too easily become exercises in checking boxes and jumping through hoops just to get out from under the court’s thumb rather than opportunities for real transformation.

Enduring public safety is achieved by integrating people into a stabilizing and supportive social network in their own community. It requires empowering grassroots organizations with the resources and autonomy they need to meet struggling people where they are and build trust without the threat of state force looming in the background. And it requires repairing the harm that has been inflicted on poor and working-class communities of color by generations of systemic racism and economic exploitation. Government must direct public resources into communities where poverty, trauma, and despair are fueling violence and empower community members to decide how public resources can best be used to enhance community wellness.

We have long known that good schools, family-supporting jobs, dignified housing, care for those who are mentally or physically ill, and neighbors who look out for and are accountable to each other are key ingredients for public safety. Resolving conflict by calling police and endangering a community member’s liberty, or even their life, should be a last resort. And yet the pervasive and coercive presence of law enforcement has been normalized in poor and working-class communities of color to a degree that would never be accepted in wealthy, predominantly white communities. The movement for Black lives opened up a serious conversation about shifting public resources away from the law enforcement responses that we know are harmful to investments in the basic civic goods and strong community connections that we know can produce lasting safety. Now we need to follow through.

As the Brooklyn District Attorney and as a long-time community leader in Brownsville, Brooklyn, we have come together to transform public safety in one community by shifting power. On one side of this transformation, the DA’s Office is giving up power over a significant number of misdemeanor cases—something prosecutors are normally loath to do—by diverting those cases to community-based organizations and declining to prosecute the individuals involved. On the other side, Brownsville Think Tank Matters (or BTTM, where Cyrus Smith serves Chief Operating Officer) and other community-based organizations are taking up the power and responsibility to redress harm and keep the community safe.

Cases include criminal mischief, petit larceny, possession of stolen property, and misdemeanor assault. They hold people accountable and support them through a sustained process of changing their life circumstances so that they will not harm the community again in the future.

When the DA’s Office first approached BTTM about partnering, Cyrus was skeptical. Like many in his community, he’d had negative experiences with law enforcement, and he was dubious that a partnership with a law enforcement agency could be positive for his clients. It took months of negotiation and baby steps to build the trust we now have, but it has been more than worth it.

The key to the success of our diversion partnership is that the DA’s Office declines to prosecute early in the process, instead of holding the threat of prosecution over the person’s head. The office hands over power and responsibility to BTTM and pays BTTM to stay engaged with the person beyond the duration of the case, keeping them on a positive path. Without law enforcement coercion, BTTM has the credibility to establish trusting long-term relationships with people using resources that would otherwise go to prosecutions.

BTTM’s engagement starts with an accountability conversation about what the person could have done differently to avoid getting arrested, and how they can avoid police contact in the future. Then they focus on how BTTM can help the person reach their life goals. They talk about how they can work toward the person’s individual goals in ways that will also advance community goals.

Many people who get arrested for misdemeanors are unemployed or underemployed, so BTTM helps them develop a 5-to-7-year plan for obtaining a good-paying job. It’s a very different mindset than “what can we do to make sure this person doesn’t get arrested again in the next six months?” Obviously, we don’t want the person to harm someone or have further criminal justice contact, but preventing those outcomes is really a byproduct of helping them look at their life holistically, establishing goals, and opening doors of opportunity for them to achieve their goals. When people have goals, and the tools to achieve them, they have hope. Giving people hope is transformative.

This process isn’t a quick fix, but neither is jail. Most people come out of jail worse off than when they went in, and many cycle through the system dozens of times. If a BTTM client gets rearrested and goes to jail, that person and their family knows they will return to a supportive network that remains committed to their success. BTTM doesn’t give up on people, which encourages their clients not to give up on themselves.

The Brooklyn DA’s Office and BTTM are proud to be part of this transformation, but we are not alone. The 73rd Precinct of the NYPD, which covers Brownsville, is also giving up a degree of power to the community through an initiative called the Brownsville Safety Alliance. The Alliance is a coalition of community organizations that works to improve safety in specific neighborhood locations that have been plagued by crime while reducing contact between police and residents.

The Brownsville Safety Alliance relies on trusted community members to create safety without heavy-handed law enforcement. It identifies locations that have a lot of low-level criminal activity or a history of shootings. The police pull back from these locations for five days and community organizations take responsibility for the area. Violence interrupters (affiliated with the city’s Crisis Management System) maintain a presence to intervene and deescalate conflicts. Other community organizations provide referrals for social services and distribute free groceries.

The DA’s Office is present, but not to prosecute. Instead, the office provides information about re-entry services, victim services, and opportunities to seal convictions. Peer counselors, funded by the DA’s Office but employed by a community non-profit, distribute Narcan kits and train people on how to use them to reverse overdoses. The police are a few blocks away to respond if necessary.

So far, the areas that have been identified by the Brownsville Safety Alliance have experienced less criminal activity, and less contact between police and residents, than when police are on routine patrol.

During a recent Brownsville Safety Alliance week, a violence interrupter affiliated with Brownsville In, Violence Out saw someone pass a gun to someone else and noticed them eying a third individual. He approached the men with the gun and deescalated the situation. They had been selling drugs on that corner to support themselves and their families and were about to shoot someone else who had encroached on their turf. The violence interrupter peacefully secured the gun and promised the would-be shooter he would help him obtain food and counseling as well as training and certification for a better job than selling drugs. No one got shot and no one got sent to prison. Instead, a long-time community resident who has served time in prison for violence himself prevented others from going down that path.

Another initiative called NeighborhoodStat, launched in 2014 by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, empowers neighborhood residents to set local budgetary priorities and then hold city agencies accountable for delivering on those priorities. By bringing both government data and local knowledge to the table, NeighborhoodStat can direct resources from all relevant agencies to the areas of greatest need and serve as a vehicle for residents to hold agencies accountable, both for long-term investments and for routine constituent service matters.

The next step in Brownsville is to integrate all of the efforts we have described here into a Neighborhood Safety Hub to manage community-based diversion.

Police will be able to take people who would otherwise be arrested straight to the Hub for services, so those cases will never come to the DA’s Office. The Hub will also be a visible one-stop shop where community residents can seek services and opportunities. It will provide help to those who are high risk (because of involvement with guns and gangs), and those who are just one bad break away from being destabilized. The Hub will provide the organizations that make up the Brownsville Safety Alliance a permanent home, institutionalizing their role in keeping the community safe.

This is a whole-community approach. Often in government and the advocacy community, we talk about breaking down silos—between government agencies and between government and the community. The Neighborhood Safety Hub will do just that, shifting power to the community and coordinating public investments to create a safe and healthy neighborhood. If successful, we hope that in the days ahead Neighborhood Safety Hubs will be replicated across the city. 

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Eric Gonzalez is the Brooklyn District Attorney. Cyrus Smith is Program Advisor at Brownsville Think Tank Matters. On Twitter @BrooklynDA.

This column is part of a series published by Gotham Gazette and appearing in the inaugural issue of Vital City, a policy non-profit focused on developing practical and actionable solutions to public safety problems.

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A New Normal for Our City’s Essential Nonprofits?


Emergency food (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


In the beginning of the pandemic, we longed to return to normal. However, after months of lock down, a racial justice reckoning, and a growing realization that concerns about political incivility needed to be replaced with legitimate fears about the stability of our polarized democracy, we started to think about all the reasons that going back to normal was no longer a viable option. It has become abundantly clear that “normal” never worked for everyone, and that this is by design. Our society’s definition of normal was built on the fundamentally faulty ideas of white supremacy and individual meritocracy.

“Normal” did not work for nonprofit organizations and their workers, predominantly women of color, who provide essential human services.

Just as the pandemic exposed inequities across our society, it highlighted major longstanding problems in the nonprofit sector. At the peak of the pandemic, nonprofit human services workers -- rightly deemed “essential workers” -- were sent out with inadequate supplies and asked to meet soaring demand with fewer resources.

Nonprofit organizations in New York deliver services to communities on behalf of the city and state through government contracts. Unfortunately, those contracts are underfunded, failing to cover the full cost of providing services. This fact harms nonprofit workers who receive low wages and communities who receive less robust services.

Nonprofits and their workers are essential to New York’s pandemic recovery. We’re joining forces to uplift and strengthen our sector so we can support all communities on this journey, and it is time for our city and state government partners to step up for the good of all.

The Nonprofits Make New York campaign is highlighting the vital role nonprofits play in every New York City neighborhood, and the Just Pay campaign is working towards fair compensation for our city’s hard-working human services employees.

Nonprofits have been disrespected because of who we serve and who we employ – our workforce is predominantly women (66%) and people of color (68%). Nonprofits are too often considered “less than” by our for-profit partners, those who equate a lack of resources with a lack of innovation, capacity, or know-how. We have been taken advantage of by public partners who consistently underestimated (or ignored) our economic contributions, and used our desperation to keep services and programs in place as an excuse to offer contracts with unfair, insufficient terms.

We are ultimately caught in a no-win cycle, in which our work is undercompensated by the market because we are motivated primarily by mission and often at the whim of governments, but then our expertise and abilities are undervalued in large part due to having lower salaries than our for-profit counterparts and the types of services we provide, often helping the New Yorkers who are most in need of support.

Nonprofits need to change. We need to demand that our public partners and private funders provide the respect and support warranted by the multi-faceted work we do and reject the scarcity mindset that justifies and requires us to do more with less.

Nonprofits cannot critique the old normal in the passive voice. We cannot gloss over the inherent contradictions of fighting poverty while paying poverty wages. If we do, we continue to perpetuate the cycle we have vowed to break. While the government is often the primary driver of salaries, we must insist that our ability to provide high-quality services depends on our ability to offer equitable, livable wages to the people who make these programs possible.

Currently, human service workers with a high school education and higher, core human services workers, generally make about $20,000-a-year less than a public sector worker with a comparable education, and 15% of nonprofit human services workers qualified for food stamps in the 2016-2018 period.

We all must move beyond the rhetoric of returning to normal and start accepting that things really truly will not and should not be the same as they were. Leaving normal behind means throwing out the rule book and building something new.

Mayor Eric Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander* took a major step by convening a task force with key stakeholders and recently releasing a series of important recommendations for addressing contract procurement issues in the sector. That's the kind of partnership we need and we look forward to seeing the recommendations like establishing time-frames for contract registration and maintaining the Indirect Cost Rate Initiative through to completion. The government must also pledge to end poverty wages for human services workers starting this budget season with key investments like a cost-of-living adjustment to match the State’s investment

Those who dedicate their lives to making New York a better place to live should not have to starve in order to do so. We can, should, and must pay our nonprofit employees a just and fair wage for all of the hard work they do.

The Human Services Council and Nonprofit New York are working together to make these ideas the new nonprofit reality. Nonprofits Make New York. Every day. In every neighborhood. For every New Yorker. It’s about time we compensate the people who make that happen.

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Michelle Jackson is the Executive Director of the Human Services Council of New York. Meg Barnette is the President & CEO of Nonprofit New York (*and Meg is married to Comptroller Lander). On Twitter:
@mpjackson of @HSC_NY and @nonprofitnyPREZ of @NonprofitNY.

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Stemming Violence by Investing in Civic Goods


Summer Youth Employment Program rally (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


The criminal justice system is not the only entity that contributes to public safety. There is evidence from across the United States on “civic goods” — interventions, unrelated to the criminal justice system, that have been shown to have meaningful effects on violent crime in the short- to medium-term. 

Interventions for Children and Teens
Many kids don’t feel safe going to school each day due to violent crime. As argued by Jane Jacobs, simply having more eyes on the street can deter crime and make streets safer. Chicago's “Safe Passage” program built on this insight by placing civilian guards along pedestrian routes traveled by students to and from schools. Safe Passage not only reduced student absenteeism (which could have beneficial public safety effects in the longer-term), but it also reduced violent crime by up to 20% while the program was underway.

Supplementing school with targeted programs in social skill development can also reduce crime. In Chicago, researchers conducted two large-scale, randomized controlled trials to measure the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy for high-risk teens. The specific focus was the Becoming a Man (BAM) program, developed by the nonprofit Youth Guidance.

The two studies found that BAM reduced violent-crime arrests during the year of program participation by 45–50%. BAM appears to work by helping teens slow down and reflect on whether their automatic thoughts and behaviors are well-suited to the situation they are in, or whether the situation could be construed differently.

Providing summer jobs to teens reduces violent youth crime not only during the period of employment, but also afterwards. There is now strong evidence from three major cities that summer jobs are an effective intervention.

Random assignment of youth applicants to a summer jobs program in Chicago led to 33-42% reductions in violent-crime arrests in the year after program participation. In Boston, a similar study found that a summer job offer reduced the number of violent-crime arrests by 35% during the 17 months after program participation. And a New York City study found that a summer job offer reduced the likelihood of a future arrest or incarceration during the four years after program participation. It also reduced the likelihood of dying during those years by 18%; this effect was due to a reduction in deaths by external causes (such as violent crime).

We could also do more to help families create a safe living environment for their children. For example, when children test positive for high lead exposure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends they receive a bundle of services, including help with lead remediation and nutritional counseling, to reduce future lead exposure and to mitigate the effects of previous exposure. Using data from Charlotte, North Carolina, researchers found that children who received the CDC-recommended intervention had fewer subsequent arrests for violent crime, as well as other delinquent behavior, when compared to similar children whose blood-lead-levels were just under the threshold and so did not qualify for services. 

Economic Stabilization
Economic insecurity can increase crime. When individuals don’t have a safe place to live, it is more difficult to maintain employment, and the likelihood of violent altercations in shelters or on the street increases.

In Los Angeles County, single adults experiencing homelessness are randomly assigned to caseworkers. An evaluation documented that providing housing assistance substantially reduced the number of jail bookings and criminal charges over the following 18 months. These beneficial effects are driven primarily by permanent housing programs. It appears that 80% of program costs are recouped by direct savings to various public agencies (including the criminal justice system) within the first 18 months of housing provision.

Providing short-term financial assistance is also helpful. For example, Chicago's Homelessness Prevention Call Center connects families and individuals who have experienced a negative economic shock with immediate, one-time financial assistance, but the availability of funding varies unpredictably. A study found that when funds were available, callers were 51% less likely to be arrested for a violent crime, relative to similar callers who received no funds. The decline in crime appears to be related, in part, to greater housing stability.

The timing and mode of distribution of short-term financial assistance can matter. For example, providing social benefits electronically rather than via cash may reduce violent crime. And staggering the payment schedule for social benefits over the course of a month also helps reduce crime.

Health Care
Increasing access to health care has important violence-reduction benefits. For example, researchers have found that expanding access to substance-abuse treatment facilities can reduce violent crimes, particularly homicides.

Another study documented that expanding Medicaid eligibility to include more low-income adults led to sizable reductions in rates of robbery and aggravated assault. A similar impact was seen when Medicaid expanded after the Affordable Care Act: states that expanded Medicaid saw annual violent crime rates fall by 5.3% relative to non-expansion states.

When low-income young men in South Carolina lost access to Medicaid at age 19, their likelihood of incarceration in the subsequent two years increased by 15%. This increase spanned multiple categories of criminal behavior, including violent crime. The social cost of this additional crime exceeded the costs savings from reduced Medicaid eligibility. The effects of Medicaid access were primarily driven by men who relied on Medicaid for access to mental health medications.

Neighborhood Improvements
Reducing neighborhood foreclosures and vacancies can reduce violent crime. A study of New York City found that additional foreclosures led to additional violent crimes nearby. A similar project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania found that violent crime rates increased by roughly 19% when foreclosed homes become vacant, an effect that increased with length of vacancy.

There is growing evidence that “greening” vacant lots and installing better lighting have important crime-reducing effects. One experiment found that shifting daylight from the morning to the evening via Daylight Saving Time led to a 7% decrease in robberies. A randomized controlled trial that placed temporary street lighting in New York City housing developments found that improved lighting substantially reduced street crimes.

A growing body of evidence shows that pollution increases violent crime. For instance, moderate- to high-levels of lead exposure for kids increases violent and delinquent behavior later, presumably by affecting brain development. In addition, day-to-day variation in exposure to pollution – such as air pollution from factories or cars – increases local violent crime on the days of exposure. Reducing exposure to such pollutants can thus have immediate violence-reduction benefits.

Traditional law enforcement tools such as police and incarceration continue to play an important role in fighting crime. But as we consider what to do about rising violent crime rates in cities across the United States, the evidence suggests that investing in civic goods such as education, health care, and neighborhood improvement can reduce violent crime in the short- to medium-term.

Of course, the crime-reduction benefits are often only a fraction of the overall benefits of the interventions studied; these efforts can also improve educational outcomes, employment, and health as well. But even if we only focus on the crime-reduction effects, it is clear that we are dramatically underinvesting in such programs. New York City and other places would be smart to change this.

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Anna Harvey researches criminal justice and judicial decision-making and is the President and CEO of the Social Science Research Council. Jennifer Doleac studies crime and racial discrimination as a Professor at Texas A&M University and is the host of the Probable Causation podcast. On Twitter @annalilharvey & @jenniferdoleac.

This column is part of a series published by Gotham Gazette and appearing in the inaugural issue of Vital City, a policy non-profit focused on developing practical and actionable solutions to public safety problems.

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Redistricting and Latinos in New York


Rep. Nydia Velázquez (photo: Ian Douglass/Waterfronts)


The New York State Legislature has passed, and Governor Hochul has signed, new district maps for the House of Representatives, the State Assembly, and the State Senate. What do these new lines mean for Latino representation?

While space limitations prohibit me from providing an exhaustive analysis, several new district lines are worth noting. Let us begin with Congress.

Of all New York City’s four congressional districts represented by Latinos, Congressional Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s district has undergone the most deviation from its previous contours. Rep. Velázquez was the first Puerto Rican Latina to be elected to Congress. It appears that her district—New York’s 7th Congressional District, covering parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, and with a Latino plurality—has borne the brunt of congressional district changes in the city, a result of deliberate maneuvering in order to make the 11th Congressional District more suitable for a Democratic retaking.

The 11th is currently represented by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican and half-Cuban Congress member. NY-11 is the only congressional district in New York City currently represented by a Republican.

Several neighborhoods in NY-7, including Sunset Park and Red Hook, with their sizable Latino presences, have been drawn out of Velázquez’s district and into Malliotakis’. Rep. Velázquez has represented Sunset Park since her election to Congress in 1992 and the neighborhood was included in that district at a time when an additional Latino-majority district was sought. Current opponents of the dismantling of parts of Velázquez’s district point to the potential of voting dilution, since Latinos in Sunset Park and other neighborhoods will now become part of a non-Latino majority district.

Despite all the changes, particularly the possibility of voting dilution, the Latino presence in the new Velázquez district among the voting population has not shifted much, increasing by 4,000 Latino voters from the current lines. The increase is a result of the new 7th district taking in other parts of Queens that Velázquez had not previously represented, namely portions of Ozone Park.

The Latino voting population in the new NY-13, represented by Rep. Adriano Espaillat, has not shifted much, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Latino constituency in her district, NY-14, remains largely unchanged. Interestingly enough, Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents a Latino-majority district whose Latino representation goes back to Herman Badillo, has lost 11,000 Latino voters (mostly in University Heights), while gaining an additional 18,000 white voters, largely a result of the district’s move north to include Riverdale.

In relation to Latino politics and representation, perhaps the more drastic changes to district lines can be found in the Senate and Assembly districts. Of New York City’s 95 state legislative districts, there are currently five Latinos in the 63-seat State Senate and 11 in the 150-seat Assembly.

Starting in Manhattan, we can begin our exploration of changes in the historic Latino neighborhood of East Harlem. If there ever were a prime example of how communities can be splintered electorally, East Harlem is the one. East Harlem, a geographically compact location that is majority-Latino with a sizable African-American population, will soon be represented by three state senators instead of the current two. Yes, three senators for one community.

Under the new lines, East Harlem will be represented in the State Senate by Senators Cordell Cleare, Michael Gianaris, and Jose Serrano, assuming they all win reelection this year. The East Harlem State Senate seat has had historic importance since Olga Mendez won the seat in 1978, becoming the first Puerto Rican Latina elected to a state legislature in the country.

In Queens, a new State Senate district has been created, what will be the 17th District, part of how the new maps reflect population shifts favoring New York City and a correction to previously gerrymandered districts to favor Republicans outside the city.

Observers note that the carving out of this seat is a result of the increase in the Latino population in Queens and that in essence this becomes a new “Latino seat.” However, the data discloses something entirely different. The Redistricting and You data, excellently compiled by Steven Romalewski at the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center, demonstrates that in overall population, Latinos make up 38% of the population in this new district, just a 6% increase from the current Senate lines. In voting age population, Latinos make up 36% of the population, also a 6% increase.

However, when one considers voter registration numbers, Latinos only outnumber the next highest ethnic group (non-Hispanic whites) by 894. When one takes voting participation into account, the numbers would indicate even more that this district is certainly not a “Latino seat,” at least not in the immediate future. Among Democratic voters, non-Hispanic whites in this new district outnumber Latinos by over 5,200 voters, a gap of utmost importance given how often elections in New York City are determined by the Democratic primary.

When it comes to Assembly districts, Queens may also take a hit when it comes to Latino representation. The Corona neighborhood, a mostly Latino community, will now be divided into three Assembly districts.

Most of Corona is currently represented in the Assembly by Catalina Cruz. Interestingly, Corona has produced the first Latino representatives in the borough: Hiram Monserrate (the first Latino elected in the borough) and Julissa Ferreras (the first Latina elected in Queens). Now Corona stands the chance of seeing these historic gains jeopardized, seemingly in order to protect some non-Latino incumbents in other neighborhoods.

The electoral splintering of Latino neighborhoods, in addition to the ongoing gentrification of many of these neighborhoods, does not bode well for Latino representation in the next decade. Is this a result of the lack of Latino representation at the higher levels of state government? It certainly seems that way.

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Eli Valentin is an adjunct lecturer at Union Theological Seminary. He writes regular columns for Gotham Gazette, largely focused on Latino politics in New York City, and is a frequent guest political analyst at Univision NY. On Twitter @EliValentinNY.

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Eli Valentin is a political analyst and author of the forthcoming book, Reinhold Niebuhr: A Political Life. On Twitter @EliValentinNY.

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History Demonstrates That Diversity Is the Future of Medicine


Health care workers on the front lines (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


As we celebrate Black History Month, I often reminisce on the saying, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." As a cardiologist, Vivien Thomas is one of the many African-American giants whose shoulders I’m privileged to stand on. To me, he is a pillar of cardiac surgery, a master anatomist, an exemplary scientist, and a selfless servant to others.

Mr. Thomas (please note the lack of title to his name, an issue I will touch upon below) was a laboratory supervisor who developed the first procedure in the 1940s to treat "blue baby syndrome," a heart condition that can cause the skin of babies to turn blue because of a lack of oxygen in their blood. Before his contribution, heart disease was a death sentence for those babies. Vivien Thomas holds a special place in my heart as an alumnus of my alma mater, John Hopkins University School of Medicine, where his portrait hangs today.

He served as an assistant surgeon, and what makes his story even more remarkable is that he accomplished this without a professional medical education. He was paid and classified as a janitor while helping develop this life-saving procedure. It wasn't until late in his career that the university awarded him the honorary title of Doctor.

Imagine if, for a moment, he had the formal training and resources to be a doctor, what the ramifications could have been not only for the field of medicine but his community. Studies have shown that diversity and representation in medicine matter immensely. Representation of doctors and nurses of color helps inspire the next generation of healthcare professionals. It also helps to rebuild trust between patients and their healthcare system and has been shown to improve clinical outcomes.

Even 80 years after Mr. (Dr.) Thomas' groundbreaking contributions to infant health and cardiology, serious racial discrepancies still exist in medicine. To date, African-Americans make up less than 3% of doctors in the U.S, and in my specialty of cardiology, less than 1%. This statistic should cause alarm for communities across the country, whether urban, suburban, or rural. We have a growing diverse population, and the doctors charged with tending to it may not understand cultural or racial nuisance or they might present subconscious or implicit bias when providing care.

Two studies from the New England Journal of Medicine show that African-American patients suffering from heart disease are less likely than white patients to receive invasive heart procedures such as cardiac catheterization, even when everything else between the groups is equal. Furthermore, the bias toward Black patients (whether explicit or implicit) persisted even when the treating physicians were Black.

"Factors associated with a difference in race between physicians and patients, such as cross-cultural miscommunication, 11,12 lack of rapport or trust, 13,14 and reduced willingness on the part of the patient to undergo an intervention, 15 may lead to the use of fewer medically-necessary procedures among Black patients," according to the study authors.

And a new study from researchers at the University of Chicago found that implicit bias in the medical field extends beyond the examination room and into the electronic health record (EHR). Black patients were 2.5 times more likely than white patients to have at least one negative term in their EHR.

Even knowing the numbers and understanding the effects, our nation's medical field has yet to properly address the needs at hand. Studies have shown that African-Americans are more likely to suffer from heart-related conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. To combat these negative health outcomes, we need more doctors who can relate to patients and give them health guidance and strategies to manage their unique journeys in a culturally appropriate manner.

As an ever-diversifying country, we need to develop an achievable and sustainable plan to better recruit and retain minority physicians in all specialties. New York City alone is -- to borrow from former Mayor David Dinkins -- "a gorgeous mosaic of race and religious faith, of national origin and sexual orientation." As of the last Census, minority groups make up over two-thirds of the city's population. Still, less than 3% of doctors nationwide are people of color, and less than 1% of cardiologists are African-American.

At AdvantageCare Physicians, where I practice, we pride ourselves on having diverse, culturally competent medical professionals who identify with or come from the communities where they provide care. Yet our field as a whole still has much more work to do in New York City and throughout the country.

The face of the nation is changing. Our national population grew by over 7% since 2010, according to results from the 2020 U.S. Census. These changes mean that our approach to every facet of life, including providing proper health care, needs to evolve. The next great minds to help address this challenge are out there. We need to find, nurture, and grow them to be ready to join us.

Over the last century, countless institutions throughout our country have contributed ground-breaking work in the fields of cardiology and medicine, including the life-saving surgeries for “blue babies” at Johns Hopkins. However, we mustn’t forget the example that this work was pioneered by an outsider with an untraditional background, who faced insurmountable odds to save lives. As we reflect on Black History and on Dr. Thomas’ accomplishments, we must also contemplate how to move further with his legacy. We can start by attracting other brilliant minds from our diverse communities to help move healthcare into the future.  

***
Dr. Haitham Ahmed, MD, is Chair of Cardiology at AdvantageCare Physicians, one of the largest primary and specialty care practices in the New York area.

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An ‘Opportunity’ for Bad Economic Policy


Workers on the job site (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


Recently, Patrick Purcell, Jr. of the New York State Laborers-Employers Cooperation & Education Trust and Assemblymember Karines Reyes authored an op-ed regarding the Roadway Excavation Quality Assurance Act (REQAA) and its potential to positively impact the environment, the economy, and the workforce. The piece -- “An Opportunity to Boost the Environment, Economy, and Workers” -- is concerning because the authors paint an inaccurate picture, hiding the hidden detail within the legislation, the use of Project Labor Agreements, that is at the center of what Mr. Purcell’s organization supports.

The full story paints a very different picture and will likely change the way readers feel about the REQAA. Mr. Purcell supports this policy and PLAs because they drive work to those he represents: a very small number of workers compared to the overall workforce in New York state.

He claims that the REQAA provides significant economic benefits and states that workers affected by this bill will “have the financial resources to patronize their hometown shops and restaurants.” This is where Mr. Purcell has left out important details.

The REQAA includes language within the bill that encourages the use of a Project Labor Agreement on these projects. A PLA is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement that requires the hiring of union workers. The issue here is not the employment of union workers, but the required use of them instead of opening the projects up to the entirety of New York state’s construction workforce.

More than 70% of the construction industry workforce in our state is not affiliated with a union. They work for open shop contractors, the majority being small businesses. The REQAA Mr. Purcell is so fond of, includes language that discriminates against the vast majority of the state’s construction labor pool by not allowing their employers to use them on projects under these provisions.

How can any policy that stomps on businesses and prevents the majority of a workforce from working be good for the state’s economy? The authors of the op-ed omitted some very important details in pushing this legislation.

And, if it is not bad enough that the REQAA will bury businesses even deeper, consider this: when the labor pool is limited to less than 30% of the available workforce, but more workers are needed, they’ll be brought in from out of state. That doesn’t help a single worker or family in New York.

Additionally, the REQAA will ultimately hurt New York ratepayers who are already feeling the burden of some of the highest utility costs in recent years. Consumers will pay even more for utilities because, as studies show, the prevailing wage increases the cost of construction by up to 25%. It’s time for honesty: this is the reality when we force utility companies to pay more, they pass the added cost on to the ratepayers.

Instead of focusing on harmful policies, New York government should be figuring out how to cut costs for ratepayers. That can be done by lowering taxes we all have to pay on natural gas, broadband, cell phone service, electricity, and more.

Our elected officials have a responsibility to protect New Yorkers from harmful legislation while improving their quality of life. The REQAA does the opposite. It discriminates against most contractors in the state, prevents hundreds of thousands of workers and their families from benefiting from construction jobs their tax dollars are paying for, and it increases the cost of living in New York state. Our elected leaders should run far and wide from the REQAA.

***
Brian Sampson is president of The Empire State Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, part of a national construction industry trade association established in 1950 and founded on the merit shop philosophy. On Twitter @abcempirestate.

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Construction Industry Report More Evidence Scaffold Law Has Nothing To Do with Safety


Scaffolding in action (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayoral Photography Office)


The tragic increase in the construction death rate reported by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) during the first year of the pandemic should concern all New Yorkers and inspire change in our worker safety laws. Unfortunately, one of the state’s most notorious laws does little to protect construction workers and instead lines the pockets of the state’s politically connected trial lawyers: the Scaffold Law.

Touted as a “safety law” by the plaintiffs bar and their allies, that distinction is dubious given the increase in fatalities NYCOSH notes. How an organization can claim that the only-in-New York Scaffold Law keeps workers safe while announcing an increase in construction injuries is beyond me. And it begs the question: does this unique liability law do anything to keep workers safe or does it simply enrich a politically connected special interest? For taxpayers and construction firms, it means infrastructure funding squandered on expensive lawsuits, project delays, and exorbitant liability insurance rates.

The Scaffold Law, a century-old statute, passed in an era when workers had little to no protection on job sites, holds property owners and contractors fully liable for gravity-related worksite injuries, even if the injured party is primarily at fault. Scaffold Law litigation is a main driver behind sky-high construction costs in New York, and causes delays and inflated price tags for important projects.

While NYCOSH and trial lawyer lobbyists claim the Scaffold Law enhances worker safety, research shows the opposite to be true. By examining more than 3,000 incidents, accross 42 states, over a ten year period, the authors of a study peer-reviewed by the Transportation Research Board at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that the Scaffold Law, which only exists in New York, correlates to an increase in both fatal and nonfatal construction accidents.

That’s good news for personal injury trial lawyers ­– the law’s failure to enhance worker safety boosts their business by increasing claims and settlements. And they know it; attorneys advertise aggressively near construction sites and in working class communities, enticing construction workers to sue their employers, while maximizing their 33% cut of any settlement or verdict. New York’s lawsuit lending industry also benefits from the Scaffold Law and legal loan sharks are well known to hover near worksites and hospitals, handing out t-shirts and business cards.

New York must take action to combat the alarming rates of worksite injuries and deaths. The ineffective and costly Scaffold Law must be replaced with clear, specific regulations designed for the 21st century. Doing so will reduce the costs and delays caused by excessive litigation while protecting our construction workers.

***
Tom Stebbins is executive director at the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.
On Twitter @LawsuitReformNY.

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The Climate Crisis Requires Bold Action: $15 Billion and Build Public Renewables Now


(photo: Philip Kamrass/ New York Power Authority)

Gov. Hochul at a solar farm event (photo: Philip Kamrass/New York Power Authority)


In 2019, I took a vote in Albany that I remain proud of to this day: after supporting the bill for many years, I voted to finally pass the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). I thought we were on track. The CLCPA made New York a true leader on climate, committing our state to a rapid decarbonization of our economy and ensuring that we invest in frontline communities most impacted by pollution and climate change.

The CLCPA includes aggressive benchmarks for getting off of fossil fuels: by 2030, 70% of our electricity must be from renewable sources, and by 2040 our state’s entire electric grid must be zero-emissions. These mandates line our state up with the emissions reduction timeline put forth by the Paris Agreement and make New York a climate leader — but only if we can meet them.

Three years later we have made pitiful progress in reducing our emissions, we’ve built almost no new solar or wind and actually burn more carbon today than in 2019. Just six percent of our electricity comes from wind and solar. For comparison, Texas, a state known for its conservative leadership and reliance on oil and gas, gets 17% of its electricity from wind alone, nearly three times as much as New York. We cannot in good faith claim climate leadership when our own energy profile lags behind so much of the country.

Earlier this month, I pressed leadership of NYSERDA -- the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority -- on New York’s renewable pathways, and they said we were on track, despite not even being halfway to our 2015 goals. This was shocking and disconcerting because if every renewable project in New York’s pipeline (of which only 4 of 63 have succeeded thus far) and the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) were fully operational, New York would still not meet the goals of having 70% of its energy come from renewable resources by 2030. It’s shameful, if this is what NYSERDA and Governor Hochul think is climate leadership.

That is why I sponsor the Build Public Renewables Act. The BPRA lifts the arbitrary generation cap on the New York Power Authority, the largest public power authority in the country, and enables it to own and build new renewable projects to ensure we meet the mandates of the CLCPA.

The Build Public Renewables Act would make the New York Power Authority accountable to everyday New Yorkers, and expand interconnection by removing uncertainty in the renewable buildout. We do not have time to waste, the recent spike in electric bills shows what happens when we are reliant on gas, we must build public renewables.

But renewables alone are not enough. It’s time to take a new tack, and put our money where our mouth is. That’s why I’m proud to stand with the NY Renews coalition and demand a $15 billion investment in climate, jobs, and justice for New York in this year’s state budget, due by April 1. This money will help us meet our climate goals, invest in frontline communities, and build a thriving, just economy for all. This $15 billion in concert with the Build Public Renewables Act would reestablish New York’s climate leadership. These two actions together would help us meet the ambitious and essential mandates of the CLCPA.

Ninety years ago, New York led on climate when Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New York Power Authority, which became the New Deal model. New York can become a climate leader again. But we won’t get there with the same tired talking points of the past three years. Inaction now is disaster later. Half measures now is no better. Now is not the time for rose-colored optimism. We need to be serious, bold, imaginative, and we need to act at the scale of the crisis.

This means dedicating the necessary funding in the state budget to reach our climate goals. It means passing bills like my Build Public Renewables Act and Pollution Justice Act, which will allow our state to rebuild our energy system and economy for a sustainable future and eliminate dirty peaker plants.

Investing $15 billion for climate, jobs, and justice in this year’s New York state budget will put us on track to be the climate leaders we need to be. I’m calling on my colleagues and the governor to meet the incredible need of the moment and include all of these in our budget this year to truly lead.

***
Robert Carroll is the prime sponsor of the Build Public Renewables Act and represents Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Ditmas Park and other neighborhoods in the State Assembly. On Twitter @Bobby4Brooklyn.

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New Yorkers Deserve a Breath of Fresh Air


Kids at rest (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


While New Yorkers have been battling the COVID-19 pandemic, another public health epidemic is on the horizon that similarly affects their capacity to breathe freely: asthma. In 2019, over 1.4 million New Yorkers were living with asthma, and this number has likely grown since then. Over 40% of Americans live in places with unhealthy air quality — and people of color are over three times more likely to be exposed to polluted air than their white counterparts. Even short-term exposure to air pollution is linked to asthma and other respiratory conditions.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children and a leading cause of school absenteeism. People suffering from asthma must reconcile its physical, financial, and emotional costs on a daily basis.

While New York has already taken action toward curbing asthma, including establishing stocking guidelines so asthma medications like albuterol can be accessed in public spaces and schools, these guidelines are not codified into law and are challenging to enforce. Other efforts that mandate guidelines to improve health metrics can often be counter-productive to their intended efforts, and set up under-resourced communities for failure in reducing asthma rates by basing metrics for success against communities’ capacities and access to resources.

We must take action to combat this public health and environmental justice crisis and mitigate air pollution at the source. New polling from Data for Progress shows that U.S. voters agree — they are demanding that action be taken to combat air pollution. Among likely voters, almost all Democrats (86%), almost two-thirds of independents (65%), and nearly half of Republicans (43%) support stricter limits on air pollution. Black voters are particularly concerned about air pollution, with 85% of likely Black voters in favor of increasing environmental regulations to mitigate air pollution. That’s not to mention that by reducing air pollution – specifically particulate matter – and greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. could avoid 11,000 premature deaths and 1,600 asthma-related emergency room visits.

But New York can do much more to be a leader in mitigating asthma and air pollution, like expanding and electrifying public and private transit, through new biking infrastructure and expanding electric vehicle incentives. We can bolster asthma care for children by expanding our  asthma-medication stocking in schools and subsidizing asthma-related healthcare costs so that medical care is affordable. And state government can ensure the voices of impacted communities are heard by establishing an advisory body to increase minority representation in asthma-mitigation efforts and funding its recommended actions.

In New York City, Senator Myrie (a co-author of this piece) has proposed legislation to reduce household pollutants by limiting the use of bug bombs in multi-unit buildings. Bug bombs — proven ineffective in fighting pests — are a significant cause of indoor air pollution for New Yorkers and a threat to health and safety. Common sense legislation like this is a vital first step toward combating air pollution and making New York communities healthier and safer. Let’s urge our state legislators to pass this bill.

We must take action to combat this public health and environmental justice crisis and mitigate air pollution at the source. Reducing exposure to air pollutants, improving access to healthcare and asthma-safe conditions, and empowering children, parents, and educators with better asthma management techniques to mitigate asthma and other respiratory issues offer a long-overdue start. Comprehensive, targeted asthma reduction and mitigation policies can help improve public health, reduce climate change, and advance environmental justice.

In a country where your ZIP code can be more predictive of your health than your genetic code, it’s lawmakers’ duty to enact the policies that make clean air a right for all and not just a privilege for the few.  

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State Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie is a Democrat representing the 20th Senate District, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Park Slope and Sunset Park. Julia Jeanty is the Policy Manager at Data for Progress, where she oversees Data for Progress’s policy portfolio — developing original policy analysis and representing DFP’s work in policy working groups and beyond. On Twitter @SenatorMyrie & @Julia_Jeanty.

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The Mayor's Budget, Federal Funding Cliff, and Impact on Low-Income Communities of Color


Mayor Adams at a food pantry (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


New York City and local governments across the state are drifting toward a fiscal cliff, one that will affect everyone from Staten Island to Champlain. The unprecedented flow of federal funding that culminated in the March 2021 American Rescue Plan will run dry over the next few years. This jeopardizes our nascent recovery and will be most disastrous for communities that were already the most economically insecure. It doesn’t have to be this way.

To understand the risks that federal pullback poses to hard-hit communities, which are disproportionately those where incomes are lowest and people of color and immigrants live, one needs to look no further than the last recession. In February 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a broad stimulus package that provided relief to households, hard-hit sectors and communities, and local governments. While the law was effective in kickstarting recovery, it provided a short runway. Federal relief spending peaked in early 2010 and began a steady retreat by mid-2011. The ensuing recovery was halting and uneven.

Nationally, unemployment reached a peak of 10% in October 2009, then began a steady decline. While Manhattan mirrored this trajectory, the same was not true of the Bronx. The borough’s unemployment rate first peaked at 13.3% in December 2009. More than two years later, as the economic recovery was well underway in much of the country, the effects of the federal pullback reversed the Bronx’s recovery, along with communities across the country that had been economically insecure prior to the recession. After modest improvement, unemployment in the Bronx returned to 13.3% in February 2012. It didn’t fall below 10% until April 2014.

At the national level, the unemployment rate for Black workers followed the same path, remaining near all-time highs throughout 2011 even as unemployment for white workers was well on its way to recovery. These communities’ lost years of economic recovery did immense long-term damage, widening the racial wealth gap and crippling economic mobility.

Unlike the last recession, the federal response to COVID-19 provided emergency relief on an unprecedented scale. It averted a deeper, prolonged recession because basic human services expanded for those hit hardest by the pandemic.

Fiscal support for New York City spared it from having to make recession-exacerbating public sector layoffs as revenues contracted, while also supplementing essential human services programs. Federal funding for New York City’s human services programs rose 22.7% between fiscal years 2020 and 2021, reaching $5.3 billion, according to recent analysis conducted by FPWA using its proprietary Federal Funds Tracker tool. This analysis, however, gives cause for grave concern.

Taking a closer look, it becomes clear that without temporary emergency relief to just six programs that received the most federal aid, human services funding would have fallen by 5.7% last year. As federal relief funding begins to expire in the coming years, this declining baseline funding will place growing strain on the city’s human services. Fiscal pullback will come amid persistently high need for services because COVID-19’s toll on hardest-hit communities will extend for years to come.

Let’s take one of New York City’s largest human services programs as an example, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF funding, already on a downward trend prior to the pandemic, continued to lose federal financial support last year despite caseloads that remain 18.7% above pre-pandemic levels and with no apparent decline ahead.

And while Medicaid received emergency federal relief funding, a recent report from the New York State Comptroller highlights the likelihood that elevated post-pandemic caseloads will persist past the expiration of enhanced federal funding.

These services were critical to communities most affected by the pandemic and averted a deeper, more damaging recession.

It is a policy choice, not an inevitable outcome, that the hardest-hit communities suffer eroding human services funding and economic insecurity for years to come. Under-resourcing these communities, predominantly home to people of color and immigrants with low incomes, has been a persistent and deliberate policy choice at all levels of government for generations. It’s led to the status quo where New Yorkers with low incomes, especially people of color, are consigned to an economic underclass.

Officials at all levels of government must make sure that the city’s and state’s economic comeback is truly inclusive by fully funding vital human services in New York City and throughout New York State. It’s just, it’s overdue, and it’s essential if our city and state are to come back stronger.

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Andrew Perry is Senior Fiscal Policy Analyst at FPWA. On Twitter
@FPWA.

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