NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that the health system and its hospital sites have earned the distinction of “most socially responsible” by the Lown Institute. A nonpartisan health care think tank. The 2023-24 Lown Index for Social Responsibility looks at more than 3,600 hospitals in the U.S, and it uses 53 metrics across equity, value, and…
Imagine walking through an ancient forest, a place where time seems to stand still. You’re surrounded by towering trees, the air filled with the scent of damp earth, leaves, and…mushrooms. Now, you might think of mushrooms as nothing more than a tasty addition to your pizza, but let’s step back for a moment and consider…
When wanderlust strikes and vacation season is in full swing, the last thing you want is to be held back by passport processing times. Fortunately, you can take steps to expedite the process and obtain your U.S. passport faster. In this article, we’ll explore two key aspects: what applicants can personally do to speed up…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, and the Mayor’s Office of Nonprofits today announced a new reform. The new reform is for discretionary contracts that will eliminate red tape and make it easier for nonprofits that contract with the city to get paid…
Are you looking for a way to spruce up your bedroom space and add flair to your sleeping quarters? Look no further than the newest bed-back designs that take the interior design world by storm! From sleek minimalism to bold patterns and textures, these innovative bedding options will have you dreaming in style every night.…
In the realm of travel, flexibility has become a highly sought-after attribute. The ability to fly on your own terms, free from the constraints of rigid schedules and limited destinations, is a game-changer. This is where private jet services shine, offering an unparalleled level of flexibility that opens up a world of possibilities for discerning…
Hydroponics, the science of soil-less gardening, is not a novel concept, but it is certainly gaining momentum in the 21st-century agricultural landscape. As we move into a future marked by rapid urbanization, dwindling arable land, water scarcity, and rising demand for fresh produce, hydroponics presents itself as an environmentally-friendly solution that ensures food security. This…
Both President Joe Biden and former President Trump are flawed, according to Dr. Cornel West. In a move to distance himself further from the other presidential candidates, West is running on the Green Party and/or the People’s Party ticket. In his denouncements, he cited Biden’s past “connections” to segregationists, and Trump’s views on racial matters.
During an appearance on Fox News Hannity on Monday, West stated that his bid for the Oval Office was as “serious as a heart attack.”
To clarify his charge of Biden’s connection to segregationists, West cited that in 2008, Biden reportedly called the former Mississippi Sen. John Stennis, “a hell of a guy.”
West is also accusing Biden of “crimes against humanity,” against African Americans, confirming a report that appeared in the New York Post.When Hannity noted that minority voters were mainly tied to the Democratic Party, West said it was as broken as the GOP, both he charged in the pocket of “big money” and corruption.
Whether the Green Party or the People’s Party, West’s bid is getting the attention of Democrats, many of whom are recalling 2016 and the third-party campaign. “This is not the time in order to experiment. This is not the time to play around on the margins,” warned DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, a close Biden confidant, over the weekend.
Harrison is perhaps referencing Hillary Clinton’s race against Trump when considerable votes went to Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. Such a spoiler was also noted by David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s chief strategist. “Now, with Cornel West as their [Green Party] likely nominee, they could easily do it again. Risky business.”
“What we see is a lot of folks who want to be relevant and try to be relevant in these elections and not looking at the big picture,” Harrison said.“We got to reelect Joe Biden.”
There are marked differences between Clinton’s run seven years ago and West’s current bid, mostly between the candidates themselves. West may be popular on the left and in academic circles, he in no way brings the same kind of political background Clinton possessed. Even so, there is a large swath of Democrats concerned about Biden’s age and his policies.
Teamsters Local 237 union president Gregory Floyd stood by and expanded on recent public comments he made about safety concerns presented by the city’s migrant shelters, including claims that gang members were among those staying in such facilities.
The union’s representation of 24,000 local government agency employees includes unarmed peace officers such as school safety agents. Some members are security staff at city homeless shelters where asylum seekers are placed, but there are none at the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers (HERRCs) that are directly designated to house the city’s incoming migrants.
“I’m not going to have a discussion with the city about a better arrangement. It’s not my place to have a discussion with the city,” said Floyd to the Amsterdam News. “I made my opinion known and the city has opened up shelters outside of where our members work, and our members are not employed there, so we’re fine with the current arrangement.”
Such an arrangement includes Health + Hospitals (H+H) opening up bids for security staffing at the HERRCs by private, non-union vendors earlier this month. The contract is expected to start in October.
According to Floyd, his anxieties about gang members at such facilities stem from a single altercation between a Teamster security guard and a migrant, who other shelter residents later warned was an MS-13 gang member before coming to the United States. But Floyd argues that his comments aren’t intended to demonize or generalize migrants.
Floyd added that union members are not trained to work in migrant shelters, nor “do they speak the same language[s] as the migrants.” There’s a specific emphasis in the city’s request for proposals on seeking staff who speak Spanish, Wolof, French, and Creole, along with Russian, Turkish, and Georgian.
Last year, southern border states began busing significant migrant populations to New York City, leading to the creation of multiple HERRCs, including the now-defunct “tent city” on Randall’s Island. The arrivals grew in number due to the end of Title 42—a Trump-era policy preventing the legal right to asylum under the pretense of COVID-19 spread—earlier this summer.
Anthony Gentile, associate director of the John Jay College Center for Private Security and Safety, said Floyd’s comments bely a potential for underlying concerns over unarmed guards thrust into an unfamiliar environment, along with the hefty, around-the-clock duties required to oversee a migrant shelter. He pointed to a blend of school safety agents and NYPD officers at New York City schools as a potential short-term model for migrant shelters, although he acknowledged the current police staffing issues.
“The [school resource officers] are being supported by the public safety officer in a school environment, and I believe that would be the most effective and best way forward for the shelters, at least initially,” said Gentile.
The Request for Proposals details security duties at HERRCs as 24/7 coverage without gaps “even in the event of call outs, holidays, extreme weather scenarios, or other possible disruptions.” An exact number of staff was not divulged. Instead, manpower (and womanpower) requirements for security teams will be determined after vendors tour the shelters with H + H personnel. Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visitinghttps://bit.ly/amnews1.
“Easy as riding a bike” means different things to different New Yorkers, depending on their skin color and ZIP code. The nonprofit Transportation Alternatives (TransAlt) recently determined that New Yorkers of color are overwhelmingly ticketed for bicycle-related offenses. Em Friedenberg, the organization’s senior research coordinator, funneled NYPD numbers from last year into a spatial data map that pointed to significant disparities in cyclist enforcement.
“We analyzed every bicycling on sidewalk citation from 2022 and the results were appalling, yet unsurprising,” said Friedenberg. “More than 90% of these tickets were given to New Yorkers of color and 90% were issued on streets without a separated or protected bike lane. When the city builds safe places to bike, biking on the sidewalk drops dramatically.”
Friedenberg noted that a two-way protected bike lane on Prospect Park West reduced sidewalk riding by 97% and said by designing streets that give options for all road users, traffic fatalities go down. She believes that the mayor must invest in self-enforcing streets and protected bike lanes.
“Instead of ticketing people just for getting around, the city should build essential, lifesaving infrastructure,” she said.
Last year, 47.5% of people issued a “bicycling on the sidewalk” ticket by the NYPD were Black and 8.3% were white, per TransAlt. The biking law states that New York City cyclists must remain on the streets at all times, with the exception of youngsters age 12 and under with 26-inch diameter wheels or smaller.
Of the NYPD’s 722 total bicycle-related tickets, 102 were issued by Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct, which covers Midwood, Fiske Terrace, Ditmas Park, and Prospect Park South, where 61% of residents are nonwhite. Of those, 60 were for bicycling on the sidewalk—with 40 issued to Black cyclists. That’s a significant departure from second-most, Harlem’s 28th Precinct, with 42 tickets issued, and only one for bicycling on the sidewalk.
Most tickets issued by 70th are clustered just outside Prospect Park, where there are safe places to bike. When cyclists spill out onto the nearby streets, there’s little dedicated infrastructure to keep them safe and off the sidewalks, said a TransAlt spokesperson.
The NYPD responded to the disparities arguing that the department “does not engage in racially based enforcement,” adding that body-worn cameras capture police interactions and are reviewed by supervisors.
“There has been an increase of enforcement of bicycle-related summons year-to-date in the confines of the 70 Precinct due to both community complaints involving bicycles being ridden on sidewalks in a reckless manner and the use of bicycles in violent crimes by suspects,” said the department spokesperson.
Community Board 14, which largely overlaps on the map with the 70th Precinct, ranks 43rd out of 59 in protected bike lanes.
But in Greenpoint, 37% of residents bike at least once a month, according to the Health Department, although the study did not indicate whether hipster unicycles were included.
That is more than double the citywide average, according to TransAlt, yet not a single ticket was issued in the Brooklyn neighborhood last year. Greenpoint is majority white and only 3.8% of residents were Black in 2017–2021 when counted with Williamsburg’s population, according to American Community Survey data examined by the NYU Furman Center.
Despite the disparities in ticketing for “bicycling on sidewalk” offenses, there was just one more crash between bicycles and pedestrians in the 70th Precinct last year than in the 94th, where Greenpoint is located, according to the DOT. The 78th—which contains the actual Prospect Park—and 84th were the only two Brooklyn precincts with double-digit crashes between bicycles and pedestrians, easily ranking first in incidents borough-wide. Between the two, 17 bicycling on the sidewalk tickets were issued. Both are majority white neighborhoods.
Of tickets for bicycling on sidewalk, 13.5% were also issued within 50 feet of NYCHA developments, which only cover roughly 1% of city land, and 95% of those ticketed were nonwhite.
And the absence of bike lanes can be deadly: The New York City Department of Transportation found in 2017 that nine out of 10 citywide cyclist fatalities occur where there’s no dedicated space for bicycles, and 15 of the 18 New York City bicyclists killed last year were involved in a crash involving a motor vehicle, according to the NYPD.
“All New Yorkers deserve access to bike infrastructure, and DOT is on target to install a record number of bike lanes and protected bike lane miles this year,” said DOT spokesperson Monica Bruno. “Under the Adams administration, equity is a key factor in how we locate new bike lanes, with a new formula for determining project locations that considers community demographics and whether neighborhoods have been historically underserved.”
The half-century-old TransAlt is a long-time proponent of bike lanes and critic of “car-centric” infrastructure. Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visitinghttps://bit.ly/amnews1.
