Daily News Summary
Did Cuomo's Controversial Policy On Nursing Homes Lead To More COVID Deaths?
New York City needs a similar agency created that works on recruiting the best and brightest to immigrate to New York to start their own businesses. Because of the prevalence of working from home and new technologies like Zoom, New York is now competing with places like Nashville, Miami and Austin to attract recent college graduates looking to embark on their careers. If we want the next Mark Zuckerberg to move here, we can help lure the tech entrepreneurs of the next generation through smart tax breaks and inexpensive incubation work space.
Or how about those life sciences or pharmaceutical companies that want to pre-emptively tackle the next big pandemic or climate change crisis? Come to New York – we can convert lots of excess commercial space into laboratories or science centers for the top researchers in the country.
Have you always wanted to own your own restaurant or neighborhood retail shop? Come to New York and we will take the lemons of our current restaurant and retail crisis and help you turn it into a tasty new lemonade. The city could negotiate a deal in which commercial landlords with empty storefronts grant three months of free rent to allow aspiring small business owners to pursue their dreams.
2. Convert many B & C grade commercial office buildings into live-work spaces. The recovery from 9/11 has other lessons for New York today. When the Financial District was on the outs as an office hub and residents were reluctant to live near the site of the terrorist attack, the city created an incentive program to lure new residents. It leaned into the trend towards turning office buildings into apartment buildings. Now, the Financial District boasts three times as many residents as it did before 9/11.
Although it's been a business failure, the founders of WeWork were right that this generation of office workers want their workplaces to be dynamic and fun. Gone are the days of dreary offices with rows of drab, cookie-cutter cubicles. Now that working from home has become normal, it's time that we figured out how to mix work and living into a hybrid structure. Mixed-use office and residential buildings will solve a few crises at once: it'll save hundreds of thousands of square feet of unwanted commercial space while it also creates desperately needed affordable housing.
The city needs creative zoning changes and tax breaks for landlords who create affordable housing out of unused office space. For those Millennials who want to work near their office and cut their carbon footprint, while saving valuable commuting time, this innovation will be a blessing.
3. Create a free job retraining program that will allow those who lost their work in the COVID-19 economy to find work in the new economy.
It's widely known that New York's roads, bridges and city streets are overdue for repairs and reimagining. But infrastructure rebuilding is so much more: retrofitting our commercial buildings for mixed-use residential/work spaces; overhauling roofs and exteriors of buildings throughout the state to make them more energy efficient; doubling down on wind and other renewable energy sites around New York; hardening our economy, subways and ports against natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy or potential tornadoes or earthquakes.
Infrastructure rebuilding also means overhauling and modernizing the way our city and state government deliver services. The failures of state websites in coordinating vaccine distribution and the abysmal remote learning experience of public school students of all grades are just the most recent glaring examples of the ways the government is stuck with antiquated infrastructure.
We need to modernize our connectivity to all citizens through universal access to broadband and we need to reimagine how citizens can interface more effectively with all the services the government should offer. This will create more jobs, more productivity, more taxes and a healthier economy.
5. Impose taxes on the super-rich and monetize city assets to pay for it. The above programs need to be funded. Whether it's a wealth tax, a stock transfer tax, a pied-a-terre tax, or some combination of taxes like those, taking a small share of the portfolios of the wealthy global elite who call New York home, at least part of the year, would help tamp down New York's extravagant housing costs and build a more broadly shared prosperity. The city should also hire a chief revenue officer to create alternative funding streams, such as selling naming rights to public parks and city-owned hospitals and healthcare clinics.
We are closer to the end of the pandemic and economic crisis than we are to its inception. Rather than getting bogged down in recriminations over who messed up or what went wrong, we need to shift our focus to solutions for the future. The window for meaningful reform is not wide open so it's time to get to work now.
Our city, our children, our future depends on creative solutions to the "creative destruction" that has brought our city to its knees the past year. It's time to get up, dust ourselves off and sprint towards a better New York of the future.
Gothamist
Feb. 18, 2021
Governor Andrew Cuomo's office is facing a political firestorm after admitting that the full toll of COVID-19 fatalities among New York's nursing home residents was kept secret for nearly a year. Though Cuomo now concedes his delay in releasing the data created "a void" within which speculation thrived and families suffered, it's still unclear if his requirement that nursing homes accept recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals directly worsened outcomes inside the facilities.
Public health experts say that's because the Cuomo administration still hasn't been fully transparent about the sequence of events that transpired within nursing homes. With the currently available data, they say it's impossible to definitively determine the aftereffects of a controversial March 25 executive order that required nursing homes to admit COVID-19-positive patients leaving hospitals. The Associated Press reported last week that more than 9,000 recovering COVID-19 patients were transferred under this policy—40% more than what was previously released by officials.
"There's very mixed evidence on the impact of patient transfers," said Priya Chidambaram, a senior policy analyst at Kaiser Family Foundation, who looked at a New York State Health Department report on the issue as well as studies of hospital transfers to nursing homes in Maryland and Michigan. Because New York didn't report the number of COVID-19 cases per facility during the early days of the pandemic, it's unknown if outbreaks at the homes grew in size following patient transfers.
"That's still something we haven't been able to answer," she said.
As COVID-19 spread inside nursing homes last spring, pre-existing issues with staffing levels and infection control compounded the devastation. Attorney General Letitia James reported last month that a lack of protective gear and testing worsened the virus's spread. At the same time, families were often kept in the dark about what was going on inside these care facilities.
Stephen Hanse, the President of the New York State Health Facilities Association, a trade group representing nursing home operators across the state, said nursing homes were "by and large left to their own devices" while the state was prioritizing resources to hospitals.
Until late January, New York was the only state in the country not publicly counting the deaths of nursing home residents in hospitals among their tallies for long-term care facilities, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation that looked at nursing home data from the whole country. Those deaths were added to the state's overall death toll, but weren't originally tied to nursing home outbreaks. As of February 15th, the state reports more than 15,000 deaths in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and adult care centers since the start of the pandemic, including 5,744 deaths that occurred at hospitals.
In September, the Empire Center For Public Policy sued the Governor for the nursing home data, which he finally released last week after a court order. Bill Hammond, an Empire Center senior fellow for health policy, said the death toll is only a fragment of what experts and the public need for a full accounting of what went wrong last spring.
"The FOIL results were a step in the right direction but a pretty small step actually," Hammond said. "To the extent that we have to have a big fight to get very basic data about one aspect of this. It's really discouraging."
Hammond repeated an earlier call for an independent commission to investigate what happened in order to prepare for future outbreaks, comparing the situation to what occurs after a plane crash.
"It shouldn't be about the Governor. It should be about the plane crash,' Hammond said. "The point of the investigation shouldn't necessarily be about pinning the blame. It should be about understanding what went wrong… There may have been some pilot error, but there probably were a lot of other issues, too."
Hammond cited long-standing conditions in nursing homes that likely worsened outcomes once the pandemic hit, such as understaffing.
New York State officials have repeatedly pointed to statistics that the state ranks 34th out of 50 states for nursing home deaths as a percentage of total fatalities statewide, a point that Governor Cuomo reiterated on Monday. But Chidambaram from the Kaiser Family Foundation explained that this claim is a bit of a red herring. New York was hit so much harder during the start of the pandemic that its total death toll is much higher than most states, so this nursing home percentage would naturally seem lower.
"There was such a high number of deaths outside of nursing homes," she said. "It's very difficult to compare what happened state to state."
New York officials are still not volunteering the volume of COVID-19 infections in nursing homes and only report COVID-19 deaths. This policy makes it difficult for families to find information about recent outbreaks at nursing homes. The state does send tallies of outbreaks in nursing homes to the federal government, which compiles a nationwide database.
Despite mounting criticism from both parties and a renewed push to revoke Cuomo's expanded emergency powers, the Governor hasn't wavered in his defense of how his office oversaw nursing homes during the pandemic. On Wednesday, he said he would welcome legislative hearings over his actions, even as a fiery dispute with an Assemblymember spilled into public view.
"Oversight is fine," Cuomo said.
Cuomo policy may have led to over 1,000 nursing home deaths, watchdog says
Feb. 18, 2021
Governor Andrew Cuomo's office is facing a political firestorm after admitting that the full toll of COVID-19 fatalities among New York's nursing home residents was kept secret for nearly a year. Though Cuomo now concedes his delay in releasing the data created "a void" within which speculation thrived and families suffered, it's still unclear if his requirement that nursing homes accept recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals directly worsened outcomes inside the facilities.
Public health experts say that's because the Cuomo administration still hasn't been fully transparent about the sequence of events that transpired within nursing homes. With the currently available data, they say it's impossible to definitively determine the aftereffects of a controversial March 25 executive order that required nursing homes to admit COVID-19-positive patients leaving hospitals. The Associated Press reported last week that more than 9,000 recovering COVID-19 patients were transferred under this policy—40% more than what was previously released by officials.
"There's very mixed evidence on the impact of patient transfers," said Priya Chidambaram, a senior policy analyst at Kaiser Family Foundation, who looked at a New York State Health Department report on the issue as well as studies of hospital transfers to nursing homes in Maryland and Michigan. Because New York didn't report the number of COVID-19 cases per facility during the early days of the pandemic, it's unknown if outbreaks at the homes grew in size following patient transfers.
"That's still something we haven't been able to answer," she said.
As COVID-19 spread inside nursing homes last spring, pre-existing issues with staffing levels and infection control compounded the devastation. Attorney General Letitia James reported last month that a lack of protective gear and testing worsened the virus's spread. At the same time, families were often kept in the dark about what was going on inside these care facilities.
Stephen Hanse, the President of the New York State Health Facilities Association, a trade group representing nursing home operators across the state, said nursing homes were "by and large left to their own devices" while the state was prioritizing resources to hospitals.
Until late January, New York was the only state in the country not publicly counting the deaths of nursing home residents in hospitals among their tallies for long-term care facilities, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation that looked at nursing home data from the whole country. Those deaths were added to the state's overall death toll, but weren't originally tied to nursing home outbreaks. As of February 15th, the state reports more than 15,000 deaths in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and adult care centers since the start of the pandemic, including 5,744 deaths that occurred at hospitals.
In September, the Empire Center For Public Policy sued the Governor for the nursing home data, which he finally released last week after a court order. Bill Hammond, an Empire Center senior fellow for health policy, said the death toll is only a fragment of what experts and the public need for a full accounting of what went wrong last spring.
"The FOIL results were a step in the right direction but a pretty small step actually," Hammond said. "To the extent that we have to have a big fight to get very basic data about one aspect of this. It's really discouraging."
Hammond repeated an earlier call for an independent commission to investigate what happened in order to prepare for future outbreaks, comparing the situation to what occurs after a plane crash.
"It shouldn't be about the Governor. It should be about the plane crash,' Hammond said. "The point of the investigation shouldn't necessarily be about pinning the blame. It should be about understanding what went wrong… There may have been some pilot error, but there probably were a lot of other issues, too."
Hammond cited long-standing conditions in nursing homes that likely worsened outcomes once the pandemic hit, such as understaffing.
New York State officials have repeatedly pointed to statistics that the state ranks 34th out of 50 states for nursing home deaths as a percentage of total fatalities statewide, a point that Governor Cuomo reiterated on Monday. But Chidambaram from the Kaiser Family Foundation explained that this claim is a bit of a red herring. New York was hit so much harder during the start of the pandemic that its total death toll is much higher than most states, so this nursing home percentage would naturally seem lower.
"There was such a high number of deaths outside of nursing homes," she said. "It's very difficult to compare what happened state to state."
New York officials are still not volunteering the volume of COVID-19 infections in nursing homes and only report COVID-19 deaths. This policy makes it difficult for families to find information about recent outbreaks at nursing homes. The state does send tallies of outbreaks in nursing homes to the federal government, which compiles a nationwide database.
Despite mounting criticism from both parties and a renewed push to revoke Cuomo's expanded emergency powers, the Governor hasn't wavered in his defense of how his office oversaw nursing homes during the pandemic. On Wednesday, he said he would welcome legislative hearings over his actions, even as a fiery dispute with an Assemblymember spilled into public view.
"Oversight is fine," Cuomo said.
Cuomo policy may have led to over 1,000 nursing home deaths, watchdog says
NY Post
Feb. 18, 2021
The Cuomo administration's controversial directive for nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients amid the pandemic likely did lead to a spike in resident deaths, an analysis of its own data revealed Thursday.
The study by the nonprofit Empire Center for Public Policy tied "several hundred and possibly more than 1,000" fatalities to the since-rescinded March 25, 2020, order that critics have blamed for spreading the coronavirus among vulnerable seniors.
The analysis also suggests the controversial mandate is "associated with" more than one in six of 5,780 nursing deaths statewide between late March and early May.
"The findings contradict a central conclusion of the state Department of Health's July 6 report on coronavirus in nursing homes, which said, among other things: 'Admission policies were not a significant factor in nursing home fatalities,' and 'the data do not show a consistent relationship between admissions and increased mortality,' " according to a draft report prepared by the Empire Center.
The DOH report primarily blamed the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes on infected but asymptomatic staffers and visitors, and has repeatedly been cited by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to deny any responsibility — even though he himself had warned on March 29, "Coronavirus in a nursing home is like fire in dry grass."
The Empire Center's report is based on data that the DOH released to the watchdog group and The Post in response to requests under the state Freedom of Information Law.
The Albany-based think tank said it arrived at its conclusions by comparing the death rates at facilities that admitted COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals to the rates at others that didn't, then crunching the numbers to "a statistical confidence level of 99 percent."
The study found that nursing homes outside New York City and its suburbs bore brunt of the order, with each one that accepted COVID-19 patients averaging 9.3 more deaths than those that didn't.
But in and around the city, the difference wasn't statistically significant, most likely because the coronavirus was so widespread there during the early days of the pandemic.
The report concludes that the March 25 directive "was not the sole or primary cause of the heavy death toll in nursing homes."
But Bill Hammond, the center's senior fellow for health policy and author of the report, said the policy — which Cuomo reversed on May 10 — "clearly did make some difference and it made a bad situation worse."
Hammond also said the data he reviewed "raises more questions about the credibility of the Health Department's analysis" in its July report.
"Their methodology was questionable — we know they used partial data for crucial variables, deaths and admissions," he said.
"It's not clear that they looked for, let alone reported, the kind of statistical correlation that we found."
In a prepared statement, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the Empire Center's report was "consistent with the Department of Health's analysis that found the March 25 guidance was not a driver of COVID infections and fatalities and COVID was introduced to nursing homes primarily through staff and visitors."
Zucker specifically cited a notation in the Empire Center report about how COVID-19 "'wreaked havoc in nursing homes across the country and around the world, including in jurisdictions that did not adopt policies similar to the March 25 guidance memo."
The Empire Center's analysis follows a damning report last month by Attorney General Letitia James, who said the March 25 directive "may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities."
James' report also estimated that the official DOH tally of resident fatalities — which at the time only included those who actually died in nursing homes — would be more than 50 percent higher if it included deaths in hospitals.
That assertion prompted Zucker to finally release figures that pushed the death toll from less than 9,000 to nearly 13,000 statewide.
On Thursday, the official count was 13,473 as of a day earlier.
Cuomo's handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes has also sparked renewed outrage since The Post last week revealed that top aide Melissa DeRosa privately admitted that his administration hid the total number of nursing home deaths from lawmakers and the public amid a Department of Justice probe.
The FBI and the Brooklyn US Attorney's Office launched a new probe of Cuomo's coronavirus task force and its handling of the virus in nursing homes in response to The Post's report, the New York Law Journal reported Thursday.
De Blasio Says Cuomo Bullying "Is Nothing New" Following Ron Kim Call
Feb. 18, 2021
The Cuomo administration's controversial directive for nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients amid the pandemic likely did lead to a spike in resident deaths, an analysis of its own data revealed Thursday.
The study by the nonprofit Empire Center for Public Policy tied "several hundred and possibly more than 1,000" fatalities to the since-rescinded March 25, 2020, order that critics have blamed for spreading the coronavirus among vulnerable seniors.
The analysis also suggests the controversial mandate is "associated with" more than one in six of 5,780 nursing deaths statewide between late March and early May.
"The findings contradict a central conclusion of the state Department of Health's July 6 report on coronavirus in nursing homes, which said, among other things: 'Admission policies were not a significant factor in nursing home fatalities,' and 'the data do not show a consistent relationship between admissions and increased mortality,' " according to a draft report prepared by the Empire Center.
The DOH report primarily blamed the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes on infected but asymptomatic staffers and visitors, and has repeatedly been cited by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to deny any responsibility — even though he himself had warned on March 29, "Coronavirus in a nursing home is like fire in dry grass."
The Empire Center's report is based on data that the DOH released to the watchdog group and The Post in response to requests under the state Freedom of Information Law.
The Albany-based think tank said it arrived at its conclusions by comparing the death rates at facilities that admitted COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals to the rates at others that didn't, then crunching the numbers to "a statistical confidence level of 99 percent."
The study found that nursing homes outside New York City and its suburbs bore brunt of the order, with each one that accepted COVID-19 patients averaging 9.3 more deaths than those that didn't.
But in and around the city, the difference wasn't statistically significant, most likely because the coronavirus was so widespread there during the early days of the pandemic.
The report concludes that the March 25 directive "was not the sole or primary cause of the heavy death toll in nursing homes."
But Bill Hammond, the center's senior fellow for health policy and author of the report, said the policy — which Cuomo reversed on May 10 — "clearly did make some difference and it made a bad situation worse."
Hammond also said the data he reviewed "raises more questions about the credibility of the Health Department's analysis" in its July report.
"Their methodology was questionable — we know they used partial data for crucial variables, deaths and admissions," he said.
"It's not clear that they looked for, let alone reported, the kind of statistical correlation that we found."
In a prepared statement, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the Empire Center's report was "consistent with the Department of Health's analysis that found the March 25 guidance was not a driver of COVID infections and fatalities and COVID was introduced to nursing homes primarily through staff and visitors."
Zucker specifically cited a notation in the Empire Center report about how COVID-19 "'wreaked havoc in nursing homes across the country and around the world, including in jurisdictions that did not adopt policies similar to the March 25 guidance memo."
The Empire Center's analysis follows a damning report last month by Attorney General Letitia James, who said the March 25 directive "may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities."
James' report also estimated that the official DOH tally of resident fatalities — which at the time only included those who actually died in nursing homes — would be more than 50 percent higher if it included deaths in hospitals.
That assertion prompted Zucker to finally release figures that pushed the death toll from less than 9,000 to nearly 13,000 statewide.
On Thursday, the official count was 13,473 as of a day earlier.
Cuomo's handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes has also sparked renewed outrage since The Post last week revealed that top aide Melissa DeRosa privately admitted that his administration hid the total number of nursing home deaths from lawmakers and the public amid a Department of Justice probe.
The FBI and the Brooklyn US Attorney's Office launched a new probe of Cuomo's coronavirus task force and its handling of the virus in nursing homes in response to The Post's report, the New York Law Journal reported Thursday.
De Blasio Says Cuomo Bullying "Is Nothing New" Following Ron Kim Call
NY1
Feb. 18, 2021
Mayor Bill de Blasio is siding with Queens state Assemblyman Ron Kim against Governor Andrew Cuomo, who Kim says threatened him for his criticism of the administration's handling of nursing home COVID-19 deaths.
"A lot of people in New York State have received those phone calls. The bullying is nothing new," de Blasio told MSNBC on Thursday.
The mayor added of the apparent pattern of behavior: "That's classic Andrew Cuomo."
Kim, a Democrat, has been recounting what he described was Cuomo's wrath last week in a phone call.
"It was a political threat that left a shocking moment for my wife, my family," he told NY1's "Inside City Hall" on Thursday evening. "It was just yelling at me. I think we could have gotten past it, but it was the yelling plus the request to lie about what I heard."
Cuomo's anger at Kim spilled into public Wednesday when the governor spent part of his press briefing alleging Kim acted unethically and possibly illegally in a years-old unrelated matter.
The acrimony is borne from Cuomo's initial under-representation of nursing home deaths due to COVID.
It was enflamed by Kim's introduction of legislation to revoke the governor's emergency powers and a letter charging "criminal use of power" by Cuomo.
Senior Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi issued a statement late Wednesday that he referred NY1 to again.
"Mr. Kim is lying about his conversation with Governor Cuomo Thursday night," Azzopardi said. "I know because I was one of three other people in the room when the phone call occurred. At no time did anyone threaten to 'destroy' anyone with their 'wrath' nor engage in a 'coverup.'"
But many in the intra-party spat are in Kim's corner.
"I believe Ron Kim," de Blasio said.
"I stand with Assemblymember Ron Kim," state Senator Alessandra Biaggi said, calling him "a north star in the fight for transparency and justice for those lost to COVID-19 in nursing homes."
"We stand in support of our colleague @rontkim. It is our job to represent our constituents and seek answers," tweeted State Assemblyman Harvey Epstein with a letter co-signed by 11 others.
De Blasio's response recalled years of conflict with his fellow Democrat, including this remark to NY1 in June 2015 about Cuomo: "What we've often seen is if someone disagrees with him openly, some kind of revenge or vendetta follows."
State officials reverse policy, giving NYC schools green light to mandate COVID testing for in-person learning
Feb. 18, 2021
Mayor Bill de Blasio is siding with Queens state Assemblyman Ron Kim against Governor Andrew Cuomo, who Kim says threatened him for his criticism of the administration's handling of nursing home COVID-19 deaths.
"A lot of people in New York State have received those phone calls. The bullying is nothing new," de Blasio told MSNBC on Thursday.
The mayor added of the apparent pattern of behavior: "That's classic Andrew Cuomo."
Kim, a Democrat, has been recounting what he described was Cuomo's wrath last week in a phone call.
"It was a political threat that left a shocking moment for my wife, my family," he told NY1's "Inside City Hall" on Thursday evening. "It was just yelling at me. I think we could have gotten past it, but it was the yelling plus the request to lie about what I heard."
Cuomo's anger at Kim spilled into public Wednesday when the governor spent part of his press briefing alleging Kim acted unethically and possibly illegally in a years-old unrelated matter.
The acrimony is borne from Cuomo's initial under-representation of nursing home deaths due to COVID.
It was enflamed by Kim's introduction of legislation to revoke the governor's emergency powers and a letter charging "criminal use of power" by Cuomo.
Senior Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi issued a statement late Wednesday that he referred NY1 to again.
"Mr. Kim is lying about his conversation with Governor Cuomo Thursday night," Azzopardi said. "I know because I was one of three other people in the room when the phone call occurred. At no time did anyone threaten to 'destroy' anyone with their 'wrath' nor engage in a 'coverup.'"
But many in the intra-party spat are in Kim's corner.
"I believe Ron Kim," de Blasio said.
"I stand with Assemblymember Ron Kim," state Senator Alessandra Biaggi said, calling him "a north star in the fight for transparency and justice for those lost to COVID-19 in nursing homes."
"We stand in support of our colleague @rontkim. It is our job to represent our constituents and seek answers," tweeted State Assemblyman Harvey Epstein with a letter co-signed by 11 others.
De Blasio's response recalled years of conflict with his fellow Democrat, including this remark to NY1 in June 2015 about Cuomo: "What we've often seen is if someone disagrees with him openly, some kind of revenge or vendetta follows."
State officials reverse policy, giving NYC schools green light to mandate COVID testing for in-person learning
NY Daily News
Feb. 18, 2021
New York City schools can once again require COVID-19 testing for in-person classes, after the state Education Department reversed a days-old, confusing policy that got pushback from city officials.
The state guidance, which originally barred school districts from requiring kids to submit to COVID tests to attend school in person, now says districts can require testing as long as they have the blessing of local health officials.
"School districts may not require parent/guardian consent for COVID-19 testing of students in order for the students to participate in in-person learning or other school activities, unless local health authorities direct schools otherwise," says the amended guidance, posted Wednesday night to the state Education Department website.
That puts New York City in the clear, where public health officials have signed off on requiring COVID tests.
In an email to principals Thursday afternoon, city Education Department officials said the revised state guidance "confirms that the DOE can continue the consent and testing protocol currently in place in schools."
The state's reversal comes after several days of back and forth between the city and state over the testing directive.
State officials released the original memo Tuesday. City officials said the blanket prohibition on mandated COVID testing came as a surprise, since the city Education Department has been enforcing a testing requirement for months.
City and union officials immediately pushed back on the state directive, and state Education Department officials agreed Wednesday morning to revise the guidance.
Critics of the city's COVID testing requirement are still pushing officials to accept tests conducted outside schools by pediatricians, in lieu of swabs taken in schools without parents present.
At a parent forum in December, Mayor de Blasio's chief health adviser Jay Varma said officials need to conduct tests in schools in order to ensure enough tests are conducted each week, the results come back quickly and methods are standardized.
In Reversal, De Blasio Pledges To Release Data On Vaccine Site Distribution
Feb. 18, 2021
New York City schools can once again require COVID-19 testing for in-person classes, after the state Education Department reversed a days-old, confusing policy that got pushback from city officials.
The state guidance, which originally barred school districts from requiring kids to submit to COVID tests to attend school in person, now says districts can require testing as long as they have the blessing of local health officials.
"School districts may not require parent/guardian consent for COVID-19 testing of students in order for the students to participate in in-person learning or other school activities, unless local health authorities direct schools otherwise," says the amended guidance, posted Wednesday night to the state Education Department website.
That puts New York City in the clear, where public health officials have signed off on requiring COVID tests.
In an email to principals Thursday afternoon, city Education Department officials said the revised state guidance "confirms that the DOE can continue the consent and testing protocol currently in place in schools."
The state's reversal comes after several days of back and forth between the city and state over the testing directive.
State officials released the original memo Tuesday. City officials said the blanket prohibition on mandated COVID testing came as a surprise, since the city Education Department has been enforcing a testing requirement for months.
City and union officials immediately pushed back on the state directive, and state Education Department officials agreed Wednesday morning to revise the guidance.
Critics of the city's COVID testing requirement are still pushing officials to accept tests conducted outside schools by pediatricians, in lieu of swabs taken in schools without parents present.
At a parent forum in December, Mayor de Blasio's chief health adviser Jay Varma said officials need to conduct tests in schools in order to ensure enough tests are conducted each week, the results come back quickly and methods are standardized.
In Reversal, De Blasio Pledges To Release Data On Vaccine Site Distribution
Gothamist
Feb. 18, 2021
In a reversal, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday the city would eventually release information about how many COVID-19 vaccine doses are sent to the hundreds of vaccination sites peppered around the city's neighborhoods. The information is crucial for gauging whether vaccine access is truly equitable.
Gothamist had asked City Hall and the city Health Department for information on how many doses had been administered and distributed to the city's sites, but was told the supply by the provider would not be released. On Wednesday, the mayor's office cited a state policy that prohibits hospitals and other points of distribution from sharing precise dose amounts due to security concerns. But this provision only applies to supplies on hand and not to doses that have already been used.
De Blasio has previously emphasized how vaccine hesitancy and mistrust in health care systems have played a role in the racial disparity, in addition to access challenges. But more information on where the doses are being distributed would help determine the reasons for the inequities, including whether they're due to the city's decision-making.
When asked again about the data during a press briefing on Thursday, de Blasio said city officials would release this information once it is compiled and vetted, though he didn't offer a timeline.
"I don't believe we should withhold it," de Blasio told reporters Thursday. "We have some information. We don't have perfect information. But I think it's right to go the next step and show what's happening site by site. I'd be happy to see us do that. But I think it's fair to say it takes time and we have to make sure it's accurate."
De Blasio emphasized the city's release of information last spring showing people in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color were worse off during the pandemic. The pattern was a nationwide problem.
"We always do take pains to ensure that it is accurate and valid and contextualized before we share anything publicly," NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi added.
In recent weeks, City Hall has released vaccination data by ZIP code and demographics showing more white New Yorkers in wealthier neighborhoods are getting vaccinated than others. The data is imperfect; it does not break down vaccination rates by those who are currently eligible and 40% of people did not provide or were not asked about their race or ethnicity. Racial inequities in vaccinations have been recorded across the state, particularly among Black New Yorkers.
Dose allocation and supply shortages have complicated the vaccine campaign. Thousands of appointments have had to be canceled across different sites in the city.
This week, the Mount Sinai hospital system had to cut thousands of first-dose appointments—many of which were made months in advance. Officials at the hospital network implied city and state sites are now being prioritized over hospital hubs. Governor Andrew Cuomo's office blamed the hospital system for making appointments before its regular allocation had been confirmed by health regulators. A spokesperson for the governor said Wednesday doses were being shifted to local health departments as more hospital workers from phase 1a— more than 75% statewide—have been inoculated. The state has also concluded vaccinations for nursing home residents and staff.
The Greater New York Hospital Association has said week-to-week notice and supply changes have made planning difficult. This has frustrated both city and state officials.
The mayor's office does not know the exact number of shots administered at every single site across the city. Even though the city gives doses to state-run sites like the Javits Center, and the Aqueduct, city officials are not informed as to how many are actually administered there every day, a spokesperson disclosed to Gothamist.
Report: Pandemic Rent Dip In NYC Hasn't Made Much Difference For Essential Workers
Feb. 18, 2021
In a reversal, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday the city would eventually release information about how many COVID-19 vaccine doses are sent to the hundreds of vaccination sites peppered around the city's neighborhoods. The information is crucial for gauging whether vaccine access is truly equitable.
Gothamist had asked City Hall and the city Health Department for information on how many doses had been administered and distributed to the city's sites, but was told the supply by the provider would not be released. On Wednesday, the mayor's office cited a state policy that prohibits hospitals and other points of distribution from sharing precise dose amounts due to security concerns. But this provision only applies to supplies on hand and not to doses that have already been used.
De Blasio has previously emphasized how vaccine hesitancy and mistrust in health care systems have played a role in the racial disparity, in addition to access challenges. But more information on where the doses are being distributed would help determine the reasons for the inequities, including whether they're due to the city's decision-making.
When asked again about the data during a press briefing on Thursday, de Blasio said city officials would release this information once it is compiled and vetted, though he didn't offer a timeline.
"I don't believe we should withhold it," de Blasio told reporters Thursday. "We have some information. We don't have perfect information. But I think it's right to go the next step and show what's happening site by site. I'd be happy to see us do that. But I think it's fair to say it takes time and we have to make sure it's accurate."
De Blasio emphasized the city's release of information last spring showing people in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color were worse off during the pandemic. The pattern was a nationwide problem.
"We always do take pains to ensure that it is accurate and valid and contextualized before we share anything publicly," NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi added.
In recent weeks, City Hall has released vaccination data by ZIP code and demographics showing more white New Yorkers in wealthier neighborhoods are getting vaccinated than others. The data is imperfect; it does not break down vaccination rates by those who are currently eligible and 40% of people did not provide or were not asked about their race or ethnicity. Racial inequities in vaccinations have been recorded across the state, particularly among Black New Yorkers.
Dose allocation and supply shortages have complicated the vaccine campaign. Thousands of appointments have had to be canceled across different sites in the city.
This week, the Mount Sinai hospital system had to cut thousands of first-dose appointments—many of which were made months in advance. Officials at the hospital network implied city and state sites are now being prioritized over hospital hubs. Governor Andrew Cuomo's office blamed the hospital system for making appointments before its regular allocation had been confirmed by health regulators. A spokesperson for the governor said Wednesday doses were being shifted to local health departments as more hospital workers from phase 1a— more than 75% statewide—have been inoculated. The state has also concluded vaccinations for nursing home residents and staff.
The Greater New York Hospital Association has said week-to-week notice and supply changes have made planning difficult. This has frustrated both city and state officials.
The mayor's office does not know the exact number of shots administered at every single site across the city. Even though the city gives doses to state-run sites like the Javits Center, and the Aqueduct, city officials are not informed as to how many are actually administered there every day, a spokesperson disclosed to Gothamist.
Report: Pandemic Rent Dip In NYC Hasn't Made Much Difference For Essential Workers
Gothamist
Feb. 18, 2021
While apartment rents have dropped in New York City since the pandemic began, essential workers haven't significantly benefited from them, according to a new report from the real estate website StreetEasy.
The biggest rent drops happened in areas where the majority of essential workers don't live but higher income earners do, such as Manhattan and waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. Though the study found that more apartments affordable to low-wage workers also became available, those listings still make up a tiny portion of available rentals on StreetEasy.
"That really highlights the tale-of-two-cities narrative, where we're seeing unequal rents falling across the city," Nancy Wu, an economist at StreetEasy, told Gothamist/WNYC. "There's been some help to rent affordability in terms of making more apartments available, but it's not nearly enough to offset the rent burden that many essential workers face."
StreetEasy based its definition of "essential workers" on a study by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who included nurses, grocery clerks, and public transit employees, among others. The majority are immigrants, people of color, and women, who predominantly reside in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. There are about a million of them in the city, earning an average of $55,973 a year—which, by federal guidelines, means they can afford an apartment with a monthly rent of $1,400, or 30% of their income.
Nevin Muni, 53, is one of many rent-burdened frontline workers. A stockroom associate at T.J. Maxx, Muni shares a one-bedroom apartment in Elmhurst with her disabled husband. They spend around 50% percent of their household income on rent, something that hasn't changed during the pandemic. She said they try to save as much as possible by not eating out, cutting their own hair and handwashing some of their clothing.
"We economize for everything to pay our rent," Muni said.
The number of homes listed on StreetEasy that are affordable to essential workers increased by 3,561, or 44%, between 2019 and 2020. Still, those apartments made up just 4.1% of the total listings on the website. Additionally, in some neighborhoods where essential workers live, such as Sheepshead Bay and Dyker Heights in Brooklyn, the number of affordable housing units actually decreased.
Barika Williams, executive director at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, said the report reflected "harsh truths" about different rental markets in the city amid the pandemic.
"We've got this luxury high cost rental market where one thing is happening and rents are dropping," she said. "And then we've got pretty much the rest of the city, where the bulk of our essential workers live, where rents haven't really dropped."
N.Y.C. Staves Off Cuts to Public Transit, Despite Dire Warnings
Feb. 18, 2021
While apartment rents have dropped in New York City since the pandemic began, essential workers haven't significantly benefited from them, according to a new report from the real estate website StreetEasy.
The biggest rent drops happened in areas where the majority of essential workers don't live but higher income earners do, such as Manhattan and waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. Though the study found that more apartments affordable to low-wage workers also became available, those listings still make up a tiny portion of available rentals on StreetEasy.
"That really highlights the tale-of-two-cities narrative, where we're seeing unequal rents falling across the city," Nancy Wu, an economist at StreetEasy, told Gothamist/WNYC. "There's been some help to rent affordability in terms of making more apartments available, but it's not nearly enough to offset the rent burden that many essential workers face."
StreetEasy based its definition of "essential workers" on a study by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who included nurses, grocery clerks, and public transit employees, among others. The majority are immigrants, people of color, and women, who predominantly reside in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. There are about a million of them in the city, earning an average of $55,973 a year—which, by federal guidelines, means they can afford an apartment with a monthly rent of $1,400, or 30% of their income.
Nevin Muni, 53, is one of many rent-burdened frontline workers. A stockroom associate at T.J. Maxx, Muni shares a one-bedroom apartment in Elmhurst with her disabled husband. They spend around 50% percent of their household income on rent, something that hasn't changed during the pandemic. She said they try to save as much as possible by not eating out, cutting their own hair and handwashing some of their clothing.
"We economize for everything to pay our rent," Muni said.
The number of homes listed on StreetEasy that are affordable to essential workers increased by 3,561, or 44%, between 2019 and 2020. Still, those apartments made up just 4.1% of the total listings on the website. Additionally, in some neighborhoods where essential workers live, such as Sheepshead Bay and Dyker Heights in Brooklyn, the number of affordable housing units actually decreased.
Barika Williams, executive director at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, said the report reflected "harsh truths" about different rental markets in the city amid the pandemic.
"We've got this luxury high cost rental market where one thing is happening and rents are dropping," she said. "And then we've got pretty much the rest of the city, where the bulk of our essential workers live, where rents haven't really dropped."
N.Y.C. Staves Off Cuts to Public Transit, Despite Dire Warnings
NY Times
Feb. 18, 2021
Transit officials announced on Thursday that they will not slash bus or subway service through 2022.
After warning that draconian cuts to public transit could be on the way, including a 40 percent decrease in subway service, New York transit officials on Thursday said they had avoided major reductions for the next two years after a new infusion of federal aid and better-than-expected tax revenue helped steady the system's finances.
The improved financial outlook was a major dose of good news for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York City's subway and buses and two commuter rail lines and has experienced a steep drop in fare after the pandemic emptied public transit of riders.
The authority had warned of drastic service cuts, not just to the subway but also to buses, in part to pressure Congress into providing more help. A $1.9 trillion stimulus package that President Biden is urging Congress to approve includes up to $30 billion for public transit.
Of that, the M.T.A. can expect to receive at least $6 billion, according to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who is now the Democratic majority leader and who played a critical role in securing financing for transit agencies during stimulus negotiations last year.
"It is great news that the $8 billion we were able to get for the M.T.A. was able to stave off cuts," Mr. Schumer said in an interview on Thursday, referring to the aid the authority got last year. "But there is more good news coming."
"The M.T.A. desperately needs this money and is vital to New York," he added.
The additional money will help the authority address an $8 billion deficit over the next four years. And while the financial infusion will allow the M.T.A. to avoid major service cuts this year and next, the agency's financial future remains uncertain given the looming questions about whether ridership will return entirely and about the prospects for more federal aid.
"In the short and midterm there is significant relief, but we still have a long-term structural, fiscal problem that we have not dealt with" said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group.
Also uncertain is the fate of the authority's sweeping $54 billion plan to modernize the system. The plan, which includes replacing antiquated signals that are a major cause of delays and disruptions, was suspended amid the pandemic, but transit officials have said they will revive parts of it this year.
Making the subway more reliable is crucial to luring riders back to the system as New York tries to recover from the financial crisis brought on by the outbreak.
"We must make these investments to ensure we don't let the system decline as it did after the financial crisis of 2008," Janno Lieber, who oversees construction and development for the M.T.A., said at the authority's monthly board meeting on Thursday.
The authority expects to commit at least $6.2 billion to improvements this year, a figure that could grow to around $10 billion depending on the size of the next round of federal aid, transit officials said. The money will be invested in maintenance, new signals and projects designed to improve accessibility at some major stations.
The authority also plans to buy 90 buses, including 45 electric models, and new trains for the commuter railroads, and to complete repairs to the tunnel that carries the F line under the East River and was damaged during Hurricane Sandy.
The M.T.A.'s finances have been buoyed by increased state and local subsidies and by tax revenue that helps support transit operations — including levies on payrolls and internet sales — that were better than officials expected last year.
In January, the state comptroller announced that New York's December tax receipts had come in $1.4 billion above projections, a trend noted at the end of last year across a number of states with progressive tax structures.
Federal officials also recently signaled that they would make it a priority to push forward New York's congestion-pricing plan, which would charge drivers a fee to enter Manhattan's central business districts and could generate $1 billion for the M.T.A. The plan, which requires federal input on its environmental review process, had stalled under the Trump administration.
On Thursday, the authority's board also approved a plan to raise tolls at the M.T.A.'s bridges and tunnels by around 7 percent and to use that money for public transit.
The increases will raise the one-way toll at major authority crossings to $6.55 from $6.12 for New York E-ZPass users and to $10.17 from $9.50 for drivers who do not have a New York E-ZPass. For Staten Island drivers, who benefit from both a resident discount and a rebate program, the toll to cross the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge will rise to $2.95 from $2.75.
The increases, which will take effect in April, are expected to generate around $62 million this year and $116 million in 2022.
In January, the authority postponed for several months plans to raise subway and bus fares 4 percent amid criticism from transit advocates, who said such a move would raise little revenue while posing a hardship for essential workers who rely on public transit.
Despite the short-term financial relief, transit officials and fiscal watchdogs warn that the full extent of the pandemic's impact on the M.T.A. remains unknown.
It is unclear when, or if, ridership — and fare revenue — will return to pre-pandemic levels, especially as some companies let employees work from home indefinitely. Before the outbreak, the subway handled about five million riders on weekdays. Now, only about 1.6 million riders are using the subway on the average weekday.
Ridership may only reach 80 to 92 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024, according to McKinsey & Company analysis commissioned by the authority. If ridership does not return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, the M.T.A. may cut subway and bus service to adjust to the reduced numbers, officials said on Thursday.
The authority has already scaled back commuter rail service after ridership on the lines plateaued in recent months at around 20 percent of normal levels.
The M.T.A. also borrowed nearly $3 billion last year through an emergency lending program provided by the Federal Reserve, adding to the authority's already substantial debt load.
With New York State facing its own financial crisis, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo unveiled a budget last month that included the possibility of shifting $138 million from the authority to the state's general fund absent a significant influx of new federal aid, state officials said.
"This is not our desire and we would like this reduction to go away," Robert Mujica, the state budget director, said in an interview last week. "That is why we're advocating so much for the federal funding."
The potential cut has drawn a sharp rebuke from watchdog groups, transit advocates and some lawmakers. They argue that diverting money from the M.T.A. could undercut the authority's own push for federal aid.
"It's a bad precedent to set," said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative research group. "Over time, if the M.T.A. has to go back again to ask for more federal money, lawmakers may think that any aid is really just going to the New York state budget."
The state has made similar moves after the financial meltdown in 2008 and other earlier fiscal crises, which critics say helped contribute to a deterioration in service.
"The intent of the legislature in passing those dedicated tax revenues was to give the M.T.A. stable revenue in good times and bad," said Rachael Fauss, a senior research analyst at Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group. "This is exactly when the M.T.A. needs that money the most."
The Outlook for Public Transit in N.Y.C.
Feb. 18, 2021
Transit officials announced on Thursday that they will not slash bus or subway service through 2022.
After warning that draconian cuts to public transit could be on the way, including a 40 percent decrease in subway service, New York transit officials on Thursday said they had avoided major reductions for the next two years after a new infusion of federal aid and better-than-expected tax revenue helped steady the system's finances.
The improved financial outlook was a major dose of good news for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York City's subway and buses and two commuter rail lines and has experienced a steep drop in fare after the pandemic emptied public transit of riders.
The authority had warned of drastic service cuts, not just to the subway but also to buses, in part to pressure Congress into providing more help. A $1.9 trillion stimulus package that President Biden is urging Congress to approve includes up to $30 billion for public transit.
Of that, the M.T.A. can expect to receive at least $6 billion, according to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who is now the Democratic majority leader and who played a critical role in securing financing for transit agencies during stimulus negotiations last year.
"It is great news that the $8 billion we were able to get for the M.T.A. was able to stave off cuts," Mr. Schumer said in an interview on Thursday, referring to the aid the authority got last year. "But there is more good news coming."
"The M.T.A. desperately needs this money and is vital to New York," he added.
The additional money will help the authority address an $8 billion deficit over the next four years. And while the financial infusion will allow the M.T.A. to avoid major service cuts this year and next, the agency's financial future remains uncertain given the looming questions about whether ridership will return entirely and about the prospects for more federal aid.
"In the short and midterm there is significant relief, but we still have a long-term structural, fiscal problem that we have not dealt with" said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group.
Also uncertain is the fate of the authority's sweeping $54 billion plan to modernize the system. The plan, which includes replacing antiquated signals that are a major cause of delays and disruptions, was suspended amid the pandemic, but transit officials have said they will revive parts of it this year.
Making the subway more reliable is crucial to luring riders back to the system as New York tries to recover from the financial crisis brought on by the outbreak.
"We must make these investments to ensure we don't let the system decline as it did after the financial crisis of 2008," Janno Lieber, who oversees construction and development for the M.T.A., said at the authority's monthly board meeting on Thursday.
The authority expects to commit at least $6.2 billion to improvements this year, a figure that could grow to around $10 billion depending on the size of the next round of federal aid, transit officials said. The money will be invested in maintenance, new signals and projects designed to improve accessibility at some major stations.
The authority also plans to buy 90 buses, including 45 electric models, and new trains for the commuter railroads, and to complete repairs to the tunnel that carries the F line under the East River and was damaged during Hurricane Sandy.
The M.T.A.'s finances have been buoyed by increased state and local subsidies and by tax revenue that helps support transit operations — including levies on payrolls and internet sales — that were better than officials expected last year.
In January, the state comptroller announced that New York's December tax receipts had come in $1.4 billion above projections, a trend noted at the end of last year across a number of states with progressive tax structures.
Federal officials also recently signaled that they would make it a priority to push forward New York's congestion-pricing plan, which would charge drivers a fee to enter Manhattan's central business districts and could generate $1 billion for the M.T.A. The plan, which requires federal input on its environmental review process, had stalled under the Trump administration.
On Thursday, the authority's board also approved a plan to raise tolls at the M.T.A.'s bridges and tunnels by around 7 percent and to use that money for public transit.
The increases will raise the one-way toll at major authority crossings to $6.55 from $6.12 for New York E-ZPass users and to $10.17 from $9.50 for drivers who do not have a New York E-ZPass. For Staten Island drivers, who benefit from both a resident discount and a rebate program, the toll to cross the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge will rise to $2.95 from $2.75.
The increases, which will take effect in April, are expected to generate around $62 million this year and $116 million in 2022.
In January, the authority postponed for several months plans to raise subway and bus fares 4 percent amid criticism from transit advocates, who said such a move would raise little revenue while posing a hardship for essential workers who rely on public transit.
Despite the short-term financial relief, transit officials and fiscal watchdogs warn that the full extent of the pandemic's impact on the M.T.A. remains unknown.
It is unclear when, or if, ridership — and fare revenue — will return to pre-pandemic levels, especially as some companies let employees work from home indefinitely. Before the outbreak, the subway handled about five million riders on weekdays. Now, only about 1.6 million riders are using the subway on the average weekday.
Ridership may only reach 80 to 92 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024, according to McKinsey & Company analysis commissioned by the authority. If ridership does not return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, the M.T.A. may cut subway and bus service to adjust to the reduced numbers, officials said on Thursday.
The authority has already scaled back commuter rail service after ridership on the lines plateaued in recent months at around 20 percent of normal levels.
The M.T.A. also borrowed nearly $3 billion last year through an emergency lending program provided by the Federal Reserve, adding to the authority's already substantial debt load.
With New York State facing its own financial crisis, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo unveiled a budget last month that included the possibility of shifting $138 million from the authority to the state's general fund absent a significant influx of new federal aid, state officials said.
"This is not our desire and we would like this reduction to go away," Robert Mujica, the state budget director, said in an interview last week. "That is why we're advocating so much for the federal funding."
The potential cut has drawn a sharp rebuke from watchdog groups, transit advocates and some lawmakers. They argue that diverting money from the M.T.A. could undercut the authority's own push for federal aid.
"It's a bad precedent to set," said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative research group. "Over time, if the M.T.A. has to go back again to ask for more federal money, lawmakers may think that any aid is really just going to the New York state budget."
The state has made similar moves after the financial meltdown in 2008 and other earlier fiscal crises, which critics say helped contribute to a deterioration in service.
"The intent of the legislature in passing those dedicated tax revenues was to give the M.T.A. stable revenue in good times and bad," said Rachael Fauss, a senior research analyst at Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group. "This is exactly when the M.T.A. needs that money the most."
The Outlook for Public Transit in N.Y.C.
NY Times
Feb. 19, 2021
New York City's transit system has avoided "doomsday" — for now.
For months, bus and subway services faced the prospect of draconian cuts as the pandemic plunged the system into a financial crisis. But on Thursday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced a bit of good news: Major reductions would be avoided through 2022.
Still, without more federal aid the agency faces an $8 billion deficit over the next four years and the possibility of future cuts in service.
"The bottom line is we are not out of the woods," said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a financial watchdog. "But we can see the light through the trees."
[Read more about the outlook for public transit services.]
Here are three things you need to know:
Officials had warned of drastic reductions for months.
Subway service slashed by 40 percent. Commuter rail service cut in half. The potential for as many as 450,000 jobs in the region to be wiped away.
Those losses, among others, had seemed imminent. But an infusion of federal aid and better-than-expected tax revenues have helped steady the system's finances and provided more money for day-to-day operations — meaning those reductions can be avoided for the next two years. (A potential 4 percent fare hike had already been postponed.)
The M.T.A. board approved a plan on Thursday to raise tolls at agency-controlled bridges and tunnels and use those funds for public transit.
In all, the agency expects to commit at least $6.2 billion to improvements this year, according to my colleague Christina Goldbaum. Those improvements include maintenance, new signals and accessibility projects.
Aspects of a sweeping $54 billion plan to modernize the system that was suspended when the pandemic hit will also be revived this year, officials told Ms. Goldbaum.
The pandemic may still have other effects.
Despite the short-term relief, officials and watchdogs warn that the full extent of the pandemic's impact on the agency remains uncertain. Before the outbreak, about five million riders used the subway on weekdays. Now, that figure has fallen to about 1.6 million — and it is unclear when or if ridership and fare revenues will return to pre-pandemic levels.
And if they do not bounce back by 2024 the agency may cut subway and bus service to adjust to the new normal, officials said Thursday.
Interactive: How 7 Mayoral Hopefuls Plan to Fix the Subway
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/18/nyregion/mayor-nyc-subway.html
Fares for MTA subways, buses and rail hold, but bridge and tunnel tolls rise
Feb. 19, 2021
New York City's transit system has avoided "doomsday" — for now.
For months, bus and subway services faced the prospect of draconian cuts as the pandemic plunged the system into a financial crisis. But on Thursday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced a bit of good news: Major reductions would be avoided through 2022.
Still, without more federal aid the agency faces an $8 billion deficit over the next four years and the possibility of future cuts in service.
"The bottom line is we are not out of the woods," said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a financial watchdog. "But we can see the light through the trees."
[Read more about the outlook for public transit services.]
Here are three things you need to know:
Officials had warned of drastic reductions for months.
Subway service slashed by 40 percent. Commuter rail service cut in half. The potential for as many as 450,000 jobs in the region to be wiped away.
Those losses, among others, had seemed imminent. But an infusion of federal aid and better-than-expected tax revenues have helped steady the system's finances and provided more money for day-to-day operations — meaning those reductions can be avoided for the next two years. (A potential 4 percent fare hike had already been postponed.)
The M.T.A. board approved a plan on Thursday to raise tolls at agency-controlled bridges and tunnels and use those funds for public transit.
In all, the agency expects to commit at least $6.2 billion to improvements this year, according to my colleague Christina Goldbaum. Those improvements include maintenance, new signals and accessibility projects.
Aspects of a sweeping $54 billion plan to modernize the system that was suspended when the pandemic hit will also be revived this year, officials told Ms. Goldbaum.
The pandemic may still have other effects.
Despite the short-term relief, officials and watchdogs warn that the full extent of the pandemic's impact on the agency remains uncertain. Before the outbreak, about five million riders used the subway on weekdays. Now, that figure has fallen to about 1.6 million — and it is unclear when or if ridership and fare revenues will return to pre-pandemic levels.
And if they do not bounce back by 2024 the agency may cut subway and bus service to adjust to the new normal, officials said Thursday.
Interactive: How 7 Mayoral Hopefuls Plan to Fix the Subway
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/18/nyregion/mayor-nyc-subway.html
Fares for MTA subways, buses and rail hold, but bridge and tunnel tolls rise
NY Daily News
Feb. 18, 2021
There's good news and bad news. First the good; the MTA has tabled fare hikes on subways, buses and rail. The bad news: the MTA Board just voted to hike bridge and tunnel tolls by 7%. Now, I agree we need the money.
I also agree with holding off on subway fare hikes for now, since the 30% of passengers that remain on the subways are overwhelmingly essential workers and lower-income people with no car or work-from-home options.
But this is an opportunity for the MTA to break with a cockamamie tradition that everyone should pay the same fare whether they are taking the Queens-Midtown Tunnel — with many transit alternatives — or the Throgs Neck Bridge, where transit is nearly non-existent. I say, if you need the money, hike the Manhattan crossings more and the bridges between other boroughs less.
MTA slow to install cameras in NYC subway amid crime spike
Feb. 18, 2021
There's good news and bad news. First the good; the MTA has tabled fare hikes on subways, buses and rail. The bad news: the MTA Board just voted to hike bridge and tunnel tolls by 7%. Now, I agree we need the money.
I also agree with holding off on subway fare hikes for now, since the 30% of passengers that remain on the subways are overwhelmingly essential workers and lower-income people with no car or work-from-home options.
But this is an opportunity for the MTA to break with a cockamamie tradition that everyone should pay the same fare whether they are taking the Queens-Midtown Tunnel — with many transit alternatives — or the Throgs Neck Bridge, where transit is nearly non-existent. I say, if you need the money, hike the Manhattan crossings more and the bridges between other boroughs less.
MTA slow to install cameras in NYC subway amid crime spike
NY Daily News
Feb. 18, 2021
The MTA is behind on a project to cover the city's subway stations with surveillance cameras — a detail that's emerged even as transit honchos call for increased security and 1,000 extra NYPD cops to safeguard straphangers.
Roughly 60% of New York City's 472 subway stations are equipped with closed circuit television cameras, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Thursday. That means at least 188 stations are without.
MTA officials were scheduled to put cameras in every subway station through the agency's 2020-2024 capital plan — but the initiative has been put on hold amid a budget crunch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When the capital program was frozen we at Transit were already working on our own camera projects," said interim NYC Transit president Sarah Feinberg. "We've been installing a large number of cameras, particularly on platforms."
MTA officials refused to release a list of stations where cameras are in place, citing security concerns. There are currently no security cameras in place on subway trains.
Security cameras help the NYPD investigate major crimes in the subway, such as last week's stabbing spree on the A line by a mentally-ill man that left two people dead and wounded two others. Police used security footage from subway stations and privately-owned businesses to track down the killer.
But the lack of cameras on subway trains hindered cops' investigation of the killer's 14-hour rampage. NYPD Transit chief Kathleen O'Reilly said Tuesday that police were not sure exactly when one of the victims was stabbed.
The victim was surrounded by a pool of his own blood when he was found dead on a train at the A line's terminal station in Far Rockaway, Queens — and a lack of video footage has prevented cops from determining where and when the stabbing took place.
Surveillance footage from subway stations with cameras is transmitted live to dozens of employees at the subway's rail control center in Midtown.
Even when cameras are in place, cops must request footage from the MTA, a time-consuming process that requires extra work from transit employees.
The MTA has in the past temporarily installed video cameras on subway trains — but without the public's notice.
Subway crews in August installed hidden cameras on some train cars that run on the No. 7 line in an effort to catch a serial vandal who officials believe smashed hundreds of train windows over the summer, sources said.
The effort to install more security cameras in the subway ramped up in the aftermath of 9/11 as New York's transit system was considered a potential terrorist target.
But nearly 20 years after the attacks, barely half of the city's subway stations are covered. In some stations that already have video surveillance, cameras are only in place near turnstiles and some platform areas, leaving plenty of blind spots.
NYC Education Dept. officials, City Council members rip plan to hire nearly 500 new school safety agents
Feb. 18, 2021
The MTA is behind on a project to cover the city's subway stations with surveillance cameras — a detail that's emerged even as transit honchos call for increased security and 1,000 extra NYPD cops to safeguard straphangers.
Roughly 60% of New York City's 472 subway stations are equipped with closed circuit television cameras, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Thursday. That means at least 188 stations are without.
MTA officials were scheduled to put cameras in every subway station through the agency's 2020-2024 capital plan — but the initiative has been put on hold amid a budget crunch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When the capital program was frozen we at Transit were already working on our own camera projects," said interim NYC Transit president Sarah Feinberg. "We've been installing a large number of cameras, particularly on platforms."
MTA officials refused to release a list of stations where cameras are in place, citing security concerns. There are currently no security cameras in place on subway trains.
Security cameras help the NYPD investigate major crimes in the subway, such as last week's stabbing spree on the A line by a mentally-ill man that left two people dead and wounded two others. Police used security footage from subway stations and privately-owned businesses to track down the killer.
But the lack of cameras on subway trains hindered cops' investigation of the killer's 14-hour rampage. NYPD Transit chief Kathleen O'Reilly said Tuesday that police were not sure exactly when one of the victims was stabbed.
The victim was surrounded by a pool of his own blood when he was found dead on a train at the A line's terminal station in Far Rockaway, Queens — and a lack of video footage has prevented cops from determining where and when the stabbing took place.
Surveillance footage from subway stations with cameras is transmitted live to dozens of employees at the subway's rail control center in Midtown.
Even when cameras are in place, cops must request footage from the MTA, a time-consuming process that requires extra work from transit employees.
The MTA has in the past temporarily installed video cameras on subway trains — but without the public's notice.
Subway crews in August installed hidden cameras on some train cars that run on the No. 7 line in an effort to catch a serial vandal who officials believe smashed hundreds of train windows over the summer, sources said.
The effort to install more security cameras in the subway ramped up in the aftermath of 9/11 as New York's transit system was considered a potential terrorist target.
But nearly 20 years after the attacks, barely half of the city's subway stations are covered. In some stations that already have video surveillance, cameras are only in place near turnstiles and some platform areas, leaving plenty of blind spots.
NYC Education Dept. officials, City Council members rip plan to hire nearly 500 new school safety agents
NY Daily News
Feb. 18, 2021
Education Department officials and New York City lawmakers sounded off Thursday on news the city is considering hiring 475 new school safety agents for $20 million, even while the department remains on a hiring freeze for positions including social workers and guidance counselors.
"It has been brought to our attention recently that NYPD is bringing in two new classes of school safety agents, and those two new classes account for almost 475 new agents," said Kenyatte Reid, the director of the Education Department's Office of Safety and Youth Development, at Thursday's City Council hearing. "Four hundred seventy-five new agents account for almost $20 million," he added.
School safety agents are hired and trained by the NYPD.
"Imagine if we used that [money] for restorative justice coordinators … for social workers, for guidance counselors," Reid said.
The news came as a shock to City Council members, who say they agreed with administration officials during last year's contentious budget negotiations that the city would not hire any new school safety agents this year.
"This is the first I am hearing about 475 new school safety agents," said City Council Education Committee Chairman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn).
"It is outrageous they [Mayor de Blasio's administration] first of all lied … and quite frankly did not invest the resources where our kids need them the most," he continued.
NYPD Legislative Affairs official Michael Clarke said he's "not sure the final signoff has happened" on hiring the new agents and "conversations are continuing."
That didn't satisfy furious city lawmakers, who say even considering adding new agents is a violation of the agreement from last year's budget.
"It was decided at budget adoption that there's a freeze on these positions," Treyger. "So as far as I'm concerned, that was the agreement … this is unacceptable."
Education Department Deputy Chancellor LaShawn Robinson reiterated later in the hearing that "there haven't been any decisions made" about hiring the new agents and "my team members are talking about the possibilities."
The back-and-forth came during a hearing over the future of the school safety force, which officials pledged last year to switch from NYPD to Education Department supervision, but some advocates and students have called to disband altogether.
City Council debates giving NYC DOE control over school safety
Feb. 18, 2021
Education Department officials and New York City lawmakers sounded off Thursday on news the city is considering hiring 475 new school safety agents for $20 million, even while the department remains on a hiring freeze for positions including social workers and guidance counselors.
"It has been brought to our attention recently that NYPD is bringing in two new classes of school safety agents, and those two new classes account for almost 475 new agents," said Kenyatte Reid, the director of the Education Department's Office of Safety and Youth Development, at Thursday's City Council hearing. "Four hundred seventy-five new agents account for almost $20 million," he added.
School safety agents are hired and trained by the NYPD.
"Imagine if we used that [money] for restorative justice coordinators … for social workers, for guidance counselors," Reid said.
The news came as a shock to City Council members, who say they agreed with administration officials during last year's contentious budget negotiations that the city would not hire any new school safety agents this year.
"This is the first I am hearing about 475 new school safety agents," said City Council Education Committee Chairman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn).
"It is outrageous they [Mayor de Blasio's administration] first of all lied … and quite frankly did not invest the resources where our kids need them the most," he continued.
NYPD Legislative Affairs official Michael Clarke said he's "not sure the final signoff has happened" on hiring the new agents and "conversations are continuing."
That didn't satisfy furious city lawmakers, who say even considering adding new agents is a violation of the agreement from last year's budget.
"It was decided at budget adoption that there's a freeze on these positions," Treyger. "So as far as I'm concerned, that was the agreement … this is unacceptable."
Education Department Deputy Chancellor LaShawn Robinson reiterated later in the hearing that "there haven't been any decisions made" about hiring the new agents and "my team members are talking about the possibilities."
The back-and-forth came during a hearing over the future of the school safety force, which officials pledged last year to switch from NYPD to Education Department supervision, but some advocates and students have called to disband altogether.
City Council debates giving NYC DOE control over school safety
NY Post
Feb. 18, 2021
The City Council held a heated hearing Thursday over the future of school safety agents — with one councilman calling the proposed removal of NYPD safety agents "absurd."
Council member Daneek Miller — a father of five city public school graduates who represents southeast Queens — defended their role Thursday.
"To think that we're going to remove these folks from the building is just absurd," he said. "Whatever sense of safety and security these young folks have often comes by virtue of these women from their community."
The unarmed agents are 90 percent black and Hispanic, 70 percent female and mostly native New Yorkers.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said last June that budgetary control over school security would shift from the NYPD to the Department of Education by next year.
Miller said that his own children and members of his district do not view the current agents as hostile figures.
"When you talk to the children in my district, in my household, and in the community, and you talk about school safety agents, at the mention of that, there is a glow," he said.
While the agents operate under the auspices of the NYPD, Miller said that association often dissolves in the minds of city students.
"When we walk into a building, we don't necessarily see that blue uniform, an extension of the police department, but see an extension of our community," he said. "And oftentimes, the only extension of that community that you're going to see."
But others on the council tried to paint a darker portrait of the agents and their role.
Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side, asserted that the agents are by definition extensions of the NYPD, a body she called a "paramilitary" organization.
While she praised individual agents, Rosenthal reasoned that they didn't belong in schools in their current form.
"Why would we want anyone who is part of a paramilitary organization to be in our schools?" she said.
Others contended that the agents create a hostile and criminalized atmosphere in city schools that are 70 percent African American and Hispanic.
Several students testified Thursday that the agents — along with metal detectors — set a negative tone for city kids.
City Council education committee chairman Mark Treyger backs the transfer of school security to the DOE and said that more resources should be dedicated to social workers and guidance counselors.
"A 7-year-old having a bad day should not be an NYPD issue," he said in making his point.
Treyger said that principals should have more authority over school operations and that excising the NYPD would help them do so.
But a representative from the principals' union criticized the council for failing to engage them while devising their vision.
Council of School Supervisors and Administrators Associate First Vice President Rosemarie Sinclair said Thursday that responsibility for school security was handed to the NYPD decades ago due to unsafe classroom conditions.
"What gives us any reason to believe the DOE is any better positioned to take this responsibility on today?" she asked.
Sinclair said that her members have been given no information about the City Council's plans for school safety in the nine months since Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the shift in authority to the DOE.
Safety agent union boss Greg Floyd echoed that complaint Thursday and had several heated exchanges with both Treyger and Rosenthal.
Floyd stressed that safety concerns in city schools are real — and that the proposed minimization of his members will exacerbate them.
"Why do some people think the solution lies in knee-jerk, politically correct reactions that ultimately harm the very population they want to protect?" Floyd said.
Opinion: It's Time for a Really Robust Ranked-Choice Voting Education Effort
Feb. 18, 2021
The City Council held a heated hearing Thursday over the future of school safety agents — with one councilman calling the proposed removal of NYPD safety agents "absurd."
Council member Daneek Miller — a father of five city public school graduates who represents southeast Queens — defended their role Thursday.
"To think that we're going to remove these folks from the building is just absurd," he said. "Whatever sense of safety and security these young folks have often comes by virtue of these women from their community."
The unarmed agents are 90 percent black and Hispanic, 70 percent female and mostly native New Yorkers.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said last June that budgetary control over school security would shift from the NYPD to the Department of Education by next year.
Miller said that his own children and members of his district do not view the current agents as hostile figures.
"When you talk to the children in my district, in my household, and in the community, and you talk about school safety agents, at the mention of that, there is a glow," he said.
While the agents operate under the auspices of the NYPD, Miller said that association often dissolves in the minds of city students.
"When we walk into a building, we don't necessarily see that blue uniform, an extension of the police department, but see an extension of our community," he said. "And oftentimes, the only extension of that community that you're going to see."
But others on the council tried to paint a darker portrait of the agents and their role.
Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side, asserted that the agents are by definition extensions of the NYPD, a body she called a "paramilitary" organization.
While she praised individual agents, Rosenthal reasoned that they didn't belong in schools in their current form.
"Why would we want anyone who is part of a paramilitary organization to be in our schools?" she said.
Others contended that the agents create a hostile and criminalized atmosphere in city schools that are 70 percent African American and Hispanic.
Several students testified Thursday that the agents — along with metal detectors — set a negative tone for city kids.
City Council education committee chairman Mark Treyger backs the transfer of school security to the DOE and said that more resources should be dedicated to social workers and guidance counselors.
"A 7-year-old having a bad day should not be an NYPD issue," he said in making his point.
Treyger said that principals should have more authority over school operations and that excising the NYPD would help them do so.
But a representative from the principals' union criticized the council for failing to engage them while devising their vision.
Council of School Supervisors and Administrators Associate First Vice President Rosemarie Sinclair said Thursday that responsibility for school security was handed to the NYPD decades ago due to unsafe classroom conditions.
"What gives us any reason to believe the DOE is any better positioned to take this responsibility on today?" she asked.
Sinclair said that her members have been given no information about the City Council's plans for school safety in the nine months since Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the shift in authority to the DOE.
Safety agent union boss Greg Floyd echoed that complaint Thursday and had several heated exchanges with both Treyger and Rosenthal.
Floyd stressed that safety concerns in city schools are real — and that the proposed minimization of his members will exacerbate them.
"Why do some people think the solution lies in knee-jerk, politically correct reactions that ultimately harm the very population they want to protect?" Floyd said.
Opinion: It's Time for a Really Robust Ranked-Choice Voting Education Effort
Gotham Gazette
Feb. 19, 2021
Voting is the backbone of our democracy, and should reflect the will of the people. That is the idea behind New York City's 2019 vote, in which 73% of voters supported a ballot question changing our electoral process from a single choice plurality voting to a new system, known as ranked-choice voting (RCV). Following the lead of cities like Minneapolis and San Francisco, voters decided it was time to change the way we select the leaders in our local government.
In party primary and special elections for city government positions, RCV allows voters to rank up to five candidates by order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-place votes, the candidate in last place is eliminated and that candidate's votes are redistributed based on those voters' second choices. The process continues until a candidate receives an outright majority.
According to proponents of the new system, there are many benefits, including ensuring that winners have broader support, discouraging negative campaigning, and avoiding costly run-off elections. But in addition to reflecting the will of the people, it must also be easy and accessible, and there are strong concerns about the timing of implementation and the ability of our New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) to properly inform voters of this new change to how they will be electing their representatives.
In the first special election this year, in Queens' City Council District 24, a candidate received a majority of first-place votes, negating the opportunity to see ranked-choice voting in action. When I speak to voters about the upcoming City Council special election here in the Northwest Bronx, in which I am running, it is clear that many do not know about the shift to ranked-choice voting, and even those who vote in every election are unfamiliar with the concept. This is deeply concerning, as the democratic promise of RCV relies on an informed and educated electorate.
But due to a lack of outreach and education on the part of the CFB, which is tasked with those responsibilities by the RCV law, it is likely that voters may end up selecting their top choice while leaving other choices blank, which could effectively disenfranchise those voters and leave them without the voice they were promised when these reforms were made. This is not the intention of these reforms, and if we want to fully embrace the new system, widespread education must be implemented by the CFB. Even worse, voters may end up invalidating their ballots due to errors. I was very troubled to learn that while there are opportunities for those voting in person to fix ballot errors, there is no ballot curing process for voters who vote by mail and vote for more than one candidate in the same ranking, or "over-vote" — a mistake that we can predict and address if we take action now.
As New Yorkers, we like to think that our city government reflects our progressive values. However, the most vulnerable residents in our city have always been left behind, and we often fail to get resources to those who need it the most. We saw this happen in last year's elections, where problems with absentee ballots disproportionately negatively impacted seniors and people with disabilities, and in the middle of a pandemic forced voters to choose between their health and casting their vote. Without proper education, the new ranked-choice voting system has the potential to disenfranchise voters who are historically overlooked, including immigrants, people of color, and older adults.
The CFB's actions to reach voters are insufficient. It is currently hosting RCV education webinars, but they are not widely publicized or advertised to the general public. To try to supplement these, the CFB has also enlisted community groups to conduct RCV workshops for voters. This means that a voter's opportunity to learn about the new system can depend on the enterprise of their local community organizations, and whether or not residents are plugged in to those organizations. We are already seeing more of these workshops taking place in white, affluent parts of our city, often for younger or more technologically-adept individuals. The pandemic has shone a light on the digital divide that affects our communities with inadequate access to the internet, which is crucial to attending these trainings amid a pandemic. Furthermore, there appears to be little effort to target non-English speakers, making language access yet another barrier for RCV education.
I am dismayed by the thought of voters being confused while they fill out their ballots. The CFB must increase its efforts to run a robust public education campaign immediately. Our city must immediately expand community outreach, and provide education on TV, digital platforms, and radio. RCV information should already be posted on the almost 2,000 LinkNYC kiosks across the city. We should also advertise on our subways platforms and bus stops. We should incorporate RCV education into social services, such as meal delivery to seniors. This education campaign must extend to every neighborhood in our city, with dedicated resources for inclusive language access.
I have fought to expand access to early voting and mail-in balloting, and to make the process of voting easier and accessible for all New Yorkers, including non-English speakers and people with disabilities. The rollout of RCV still leaves many questions unanswered, which threatens to disenfranchise wide groups of voters. Our seniors, who have been voting the same way their entire lives, now must contend with this new system without sufficient education. It is not beyond the capability of the CFB to do this right. If we don't get serious about ranked-choice voting education for our city's voters, the very communities that need the most support during this pandemic will once again be voiceless.
***
Eric Dinowitz is a candidate for City Council in the District 11 special election taking place on March 23 in the Bronx. On Twitter @EricDinowitz.
Opinion: A 5-point plan to create New York City's new economy
Feb. 19, 2021
Voting is the backbone of our democracy, and should reflect the will of the people. That is the idea behind New York City's 2019 vote, in which 73% of voters supported a ballot question changing our electoral process from a single choice plurality voting to a new system, known as ranked-choice voting (RCV). Following the lead of cities like Minneapolis and San Francisco, voters decided it was time to change the way we select the leaders in our local government.
In party primary and special elections for city government positions, RCV allows voters to rank up to five candidates by order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-place votes, the candidate in last place is eliminated and that candidate's votes are redistributed based on those voters' second choices. The process continues until a candidate receives an outright majority.
According to proponents of the new system, there are many benefits, including ensuring that winners have broader support, discouraging negative campaigning, and avoiding costly run-off elections. But in addition to reflecting the will of the people, it must also be easy and accessible, and there are strong concerns about the timing of implementation and the ability of our New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) to properly inform voters of this new change to how they will be electing their representatives.
In the first special election this year, in Queens' City Council District 24, a candidate received a majority of first-place votes, negating the opportunity to see ranked-choice voting in action. When I speak to voters about the upcoming City Council special election here in the Northwest Bronx, in which I am running, it is clear that many do not know about the shift to ranked-choice voting, and even those who vote in every election are unfamiliar with the concept. This is deeply concerning, as the democratic promise of RCV relies on an informed and educated electorate.
But due to a lack of outreach and education on the part of the CFB, which is tasked with those responsibilities by the RCV law, it is likely that voters may end up selecting their top choice while leaving other choices blank, which could effectively disenfranchise those voters and leave them without the voice they were promised when these reforms were made. This is not the intention of these reforms, and if we want to fully embrace the new system, widespread education must be implemented by the CFB. Even worse, voters may end up invalidating their ballots due to errors. I was very troubled to learn that while there are opportunities for those voting in person to fix ballot errors, there is no ballot curing process for voters who vote by mail and vote for more than one candidate in the same ranking, or "over-vote" — a mistake that we can predict and address if we take action now.
As New Yorkers, we like to think that our city government reflects our progressive values. However, the most vulnerable residents in our city have always been left behind, and we often fail to get resources to those who need it the most. We saw this happen in last year's elections, where problems with absentee ballots disproportionately negatively impacted seniors and people with disabilities, and in the middle of a pandemic forced voters to choose between their health and casting their vote. Without proper education, the new ranked-choice voting system has the potential to disenfranchise voters who are historically overlooked, including immigrants, people of color, and older adults.
The CFB's actions to reach voters are insufficient. It is currently hosting RCV education webinars, but they are not widely publicized or advertised to the general public. To try to supplement these, the CFB has also enlisted community groups to conduct RCV workshops for voters. This means that a voter's opportunity to learn about the new system can depend on the enterprise of their local community organizations, and whether or not residents are plugged in to those organizations. We are already seeing more of these workshops taking place in white, affluent parts of our city, often for younger or more technologically-adept individuals. The pandemic has shone a light on the digital divide that affects our communities with inadequate access to the internet, which is crucial to attending these trainings amid a pandemic. Furthermore, there appears to be little effort to target non-English speakers, making language access yet another barrier for RCV education.
I am dismayed by the thought of voters being confused while they fill out their ballots. The CFB must increase its efforts to run a robust public education campaign immediately. Our city must immediately expand community outreach, and provide education on TV, digital platforms, and radio. RCV information should already be posted on the almost 2,000 LinkNYC kiosks across the city. We should also advertise on our subways platforms and bus stops. We should incorporate RCV education into social services, such as meal delivery to seniors. This education campaign must extend to every neighborhood in our city, with dedicated resources for inclusive language access.
I have fought to expand access to early voting and mail-in balloting, and to make the process of voting easier and accessible for all New Yorkers, including non-English speakers and people with disabilities. The rollout of RCV still leaves many questions unanswered, which threatens to disenfranchise wide groups of voters. Our seniors, who have been voting the same way their entire lives, now must contend with this new system without sufficient education. It is not beyond the capability of the CFB to do this right. If we don't get serious about ranked-choice voting education for our city's voters, the very communities that need the most support during this pandemic will once again be voiceless.
***
Eric Dinowitz is a candidate for City Council in the District 11 special election taking place on March 23 in the Bronx. On Twitter @EricDinowitz.
Opinion: A 5-point plan to create New York City's new economy
City & State
Feb. 17, 2021
Countless stories in recent months, including from the Cassandras at the New York Post this weekend, lament the exodus of wealthy New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic to places like the Hamptons and Palm Beach. One doomsday columnist in the Post fretted that 270 people are fleeing the metropolitan area daily, up from about 100 two years ago.
I'm in the camp of the anti-Chicken Littles, who don't see the sky falling. Talk to people weathering the dull winter in the Hamptons, and you get the sense that many will return to New York City once the pandemic subsides and New York's cultural attractions are back to full capacity. When restaurants and theaters and the Metropolitan Opera reopen, these fair weather New Yorkers will return in droves. Florida has always been an escape hatch for upper-class New Yorkers seeking to up their vitamin D diet in the winter months. We'll see how many of them want to live there during the sweltering summer months.
But New York cannot be complacent that after the pandemic ends all economic activity will immediately return to normal. If the city and state government don't adapt to the changes that COVID-19 has wrought, then New York City will continue to decline indefinitely and we will see more and more comparisons to the crises of the 1970s that left New York in tatters for almost two decades.
Here are some new policies and smart pivots that will hasten the city's comeback.
1. Focus on attracting ambitious people to New York from throughout the country and the rest of the world. New York aggressively recruited companies, residents and tourists in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Thanks in part to the work of agencies like NYC & Company, the quasi-governmental organization that markets the five boroughs' attractions, the city was visited by 66.6 million tourists in 2019, nearly twice as many visitors as it received 20 years earlier.
Feb. 17, 2021
Countless stories in recent months, including from the Cassandras at the New York Post this weekend, lament the exodus of wealthy New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic to places like the Hamptons and Palm Beach. One doomsday columnist in the Post fretted that 270 people are fleeing the metropolitan area daily, up from about 100 two years ago.
I'm in the camp of the anti-Chicken Littles, who don't see the sky falling. Talk to people weathering the dull winter in the Hamptons, and you get the sense that many will return to New York City once the pandemic subsides and New York's cultural attractions are back to full capacity. When restaurants and theaters and the Metropolitan Opera reopen, these fair weather New Yorkers will return in droves. Florida has always been an escape hatch for upper-class New Yorkers seeking to up their vitamin D diet in the winter months. We'll see how many of them want to live there during the sweltering summer months.
But New York cannot be complacent that after the pandemic ends all economic activity will immediately return to normal. If the city and state government don't adapt to the changes that COVID-19 has wrought, then New York City will continue to decline indefinitely and we will see more and more comparisons to the crises of the 1970s that left New York in tatters for almost two decades.
Here are some new policies and smart pivots that will hasten the city's comeback.
1. Focus on attracting ambitious people to New York from throughout the country and the rest of the world. New York aggressively recruited companies, residents and tourists in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Thanks in part to the work of agencies like NYC & Company, the quasi-governmental organization that markets the five boroughs' attractions, the city was visited by 66.6 million tourists in 2019, nearly twice as many visitors as it received 20 years earlier.
New York City needs a similar agency created that works on recruiting the best and brightest to immigrate to New York to start their own businesses. Because of the prevalence of working from home and new technologies like Zoom, New York is now competing with places like Nashville, Miami and Austin to attract recent college graduates looking to embark on their careers. If we want the next Mark Zuckerberg to move here, we can help lure the tech entrepreneurs of the next generation through smart tax breaks and inexpensive incubation work space.
Or how about those life sciences or pharmaceutical companies that want to pre-emptively tackle the next big pandemic or climate change crisis? Come to New York – we can convert lots of excess commercial space into laboratories or science centers for the top researchers in the country.
Have you always wanted to own your own restaurant or neighborhood retail shop? Come to New York and we will take the lemons of our current restaurant and retail crisis and help you turn it into a tasty new lemonade. The city could negotiate a deal in which commercial landlords with empty storefronts grant three months of free rent to allow aspiring small business owners to pursue their dreams.
2. Convert many B & C grade commercial office buildings into live-work spaces. The recovery from 9/11 has other lessons for New York today. When the Financial District was on the outs as an office hub and residents were reluctant to live near the site of the terrorist attack, the city created an incentive program to lure new residents. It leaned into the trend towards turning office buildings into apartment buildings. Now, the Financial District boasts three times as many residents as it did before 9/11.
Although it's been a business failure, the founders of WeWork were right that this generation of office workers want their workplaces to be dynamic and fun. Gone are the days of dreary offices with rows of drab, cookie-cutter cubicles. Now that working from home has become normal, it's time that we figured out how to mix work and living into a hybrid structure. Mixed-use office and residential buildings will solve a few crises at once: it'll save hundreds of thousands of square feet of unwanted commercial space while it also creates desperately needed affordable housing.
The city needs creative zoning changes and tax breaks for landlords who create affordable housing out of unused office space. For those Millennials who want to work near their office and cut their carbon footprint, while saving valuable commuting time, this innovation will be a blessing.
3. Create a free job retraining program that will allow those who lost their work in the COVID-19 economy to find work in the new economy.
Certain industries, including business travel, commercial real estate and small retail will probably be permanently downsized in the wake of the pandemic, as more white-collar workers work from home, more meetings with out-of-town clients happen over Zoom and more families do their shopping online. Some workers, many in low-wage job categories, will need to gain new skills and be aided by government-funded job placement programs.
This "labor reallocation" needs to be centrally planned and well-executed so that we don't create a permanent underclass of unemployed or underemployed workers.
City and state government also has to focus on career training for the jobs being created in the new economy as part of our education system from high school through college. More skills-based high schools (formerly known as vocational schools), free community college training programs for those mid-career and CUNY and SUNY close coordination with the private sector will be crucial steps in making this work.
4. Create a New Deal-style infrastructure and energy reform program throughout New York state.
This "labor reallocation" needs to be centrally planned and well-executed so that we don't create a permanent underclass of unemployed or underemployed workers.
City and state government also has to focus on career training for the jobs being created in the new economy as part of our education system from high school through college. More skills-based high schools (formerly known as vocational schools), free community college training programs for those mid-career and CUNY and SUNY close coordination with the private sector will be crucial steps in making this work.
4. Create a New Deal-style infrastructure and energy reform program throughout New York state.
It's widely known that New York's roads, bridges and city streets are overdue for repairs and reimagining. But infrastructure rebuilding is so much more: retrofitting our commercial buildings for mixed-use residential/work spaces; overhauling roofs and exteriors of buildings throughout the state to make them more energy efficient; doubling down on wind and other renewable energy sites around New York; hardening our economy, subways and ports against natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy or potential tornadoes or earthquakes.
Infrastructure rebuilding also means overhauling and modernizing the way our city and state government deliver services. The failures of state websites in coordinating vaccine distribution and the abysmal remote learning experience of public school students of all grades are just the most recent glaring examples of the ways the government is stuck with antiquated infrastructure.
We need to modernize our connectivity to all citizens through universal access to broadband and we need to reimagine how citizens can interface more effectively with all the services the government should offer. This will create more jobs, more productivity, more taxes and a healthier economy.
5. Impose taxes on the super-rich and monetize city assets to pay for it. The above programs need to be funded. Whether it's a wealth tax, a stock transfer tax, a pied-a-terre tax, or some combination of taxes like those, taking a small share of the portfolios of the wealthy global elite who call New York home, at least part of the year, would help tamp down New York's extravagant housing costs and build a more broadly shared prosperity. The city should also hire a chief revenue officer to create alternative funding streams, such as selling naming rights to public parks and city-owned hospitals and healthcare clinics.
We are closer to the end of the pandemic and economic crisis than we are to its inception. Rather than getting bogged down in recriminations over who messed up or what went wrong, we need to shift our focus to solutions for the future. The window for meaningful reform is not wide open so it's time to get to work now.
Our city, our children, our future depends on creative solutions to the "creative destruction" that has brought our city to its knees the past year. It's time to get up, dust ourselves off and sprint towards a better New York of the future.
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