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With the explosive good times in Harlem over Juneteenth weekend, it is no surprise that early voting for city council elections is off to a bit of a slow start this year. 

Early voting started on Sat, June 17 and runs through Sun, June 25. Find pollsites and hours at nycvotes.org.

As of this Tuesday, the Board of Elections (BOE) has completed four days of early voting. So far the unofficial and cumulative number of votes is up to 18,293 across four boroughs. Queens  (5,616) comes in with the highest number of voters, then Brooklyn (4,987) and Manhattan (4,558), and lastly, the Bronx (3,132).

Candidates in the city’s city council, District Attorney, and judgeship races were out beating the pavement and handing out their logos to encourage voters to show up at the polls this weekend. Some, like candidate for District 9 in Harlem Yusef Salaam, voted on the Junteenth holiday. 

“People are still getting used to early voting here in New York. We are doing our part to help educate residents on where to vote. We hope that this process will eventually turn into an increase in voter turnout,” said Assemblymember Inez Dickens, who is also running for city council District 9 in Harlem. “At the end of the day, it is important for Harlemites to exercise their right to choose the best candidate.”

The use of rank choice voting in this year’s 51 city council elections, 21 of which are competitive, makes for an interesting experience. Rank choice voting means that voters can choose up to five candidates for a race in order of preference.

CLICK HER TO FIND YOUR POLLING LOCATION

Dickens nailed an endorsement from long-time supporter Mayor Eric Adams while Salaam teamed up with fellow candidate Assemblymember Al Taylor to entice one another’s voters to rank them.

“I am pumped and energized! Everywhere I go, voters are coming up to us excited and determined to vote for Team Taylor,” said Taylor in a statement. “The people of Harlem are hungry for change – they want a champion who will fight for affordable homes, safe streets, and good schools. And that’s exactly what I intend to do for our community.”

The race has not been without the usual scandals. Both Dickens and Salaam have come under fire from the media about their education. 

Salaam, who does not have a doctorate but an honorary doctorate he received from Anointed by God Ministries Alliance & Seminary in 2014, has received some criticism for going by ‘Dr. Salaam’ at times. Dickens “studied real estate and land economics at New York University and later attended her studies at Howard University,” but didn’t graduate instead receiving certificates, she told to news outlets.

Election Day for the primary is on Tues, June 27. Polls are open 6am-9pm. The last day to request absentee ballots in-person is Mon, June 26. 

Absentee ballots have to be postmarked by June 27 to be valid.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

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With his son planning to plead guilty to federal tax crimes, an impending forced House vote to impeach him, his poll numbers plummeting, and now news that he’s called Chinese leader Xi Jinping a dictator—President Biden has more than a toxic mix of problems on his agenda.

Then again, Hunter Biden, his youngest son (Beau died in 2015) has cut a deal to avoid prison; the impeachment charge is practically dead on arrival in the House; and Biden’s poll numbers are—like most poll numbers—uncertain at this time. Of most immediate concern is his charge that Jinping is a dictator, particularly while Secretary of State Antony Blinden has made overtures to bring about calm between the two nations.

Biden asserted in remarks Tuesday evening in California, in connection with the supposed spy balloon that the U.S. shot down, “The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when [we] shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there. That was a great embarrassment for dictators—when they didn’t know what happened.”

The balloon was flying across the U.S. and was shot down off the coast of the Carolinas. “It was blown off course, up through Alaska and then down through the United States, and [Jinping] didn’t know about it,” Biden said.

The president’s comments, as expected, have ruffled the Chinese government and they responded quickly. Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, called the remarks “extremely absurd and irresponsible. They’re an open political provocation.” Moreover, she said, the balloon was unintended and caused by circumstances beyond China’s control.

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, had a stronger reaction. “Biden’s big mouth is a loose cannon,” he said. “Mutual trust is what China has been stressing, so Biden’s comments are very destructive and damaging.”

The comments also contradict Blinken’s recent mission. How they will add to the brewing tumult during the 2024 presidential elections is left for debate.

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* This article was originally published here

2023 was supposed to be the year of housing in New York State. While the Senate and Assembly leaders finally put together a last-minute housing deal before the end of the legislative session in June, it never even came up for a vote. Albany failed to deliver even the most basic protections for New Yorkers, with plenty of blame to go around.

One bill included in the failed housing package was the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP), which would have created a state version of the Section 8 voucher program. It would have generated about 20,000 new vouchers for housing-insecure New Yorkers. By providing immediate relief to people who are homeless or facing eviction, HAVP could have been a  crucial tool for housing the city’s nearly 70,000 homeless people. 

Unfortunately, for the fourth year in a row, the state government has abdicated responsibility for addressing New York’s spiraling homelessness and housing crises. With no hope left for support from Washington, D.C., city leaders are left in an unenviable position: having to deal with all the complexities and externalities of a failing housing system with limited jurisdictional authority to fix it.

One powerful tool the city has in its toolbox is CityFHEPS, New York City’s own voucher program. It is a crucial lifeline for many New Yorkers, putting them on a path to safe and stable housing. About 4,000 households were able leave the shelter system with CityFHEPS vouchers in 2021. 

But the program also has serious problems: it forces applicants to meet complex criteria that are punitive and often at odds with each other; it requires people to wait months before beginning their housing search; and, it excludes some people who need it most, including undocumented immigrants and homeless workers whose wages are considered “too high.” As a result, it can take a very long time for households to leave the shelter, with average stays spanning from 509 to 855 days.

In late May, the New York City Council took a bold step to improve this crucial program, by passing four bills that would move individuals and families out of the shelters quicker, while also helping many other families avoid entering the shelter system in the first place.  The bills:

• Ended the “90-day rule”, which forced people to go into the shelter system and stay there for three months before becoming eligible for rental assistance and being able to begin their search for permanent housing. 

• Revised the “utility allowance” rule, which reduced rental support for voucher holders whose landlords do not include utility costs in their rent.  

• Ended punitive work requirements and income-eligibility at 50 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), making the voucher available to a broader share of low-income New Yorkers in need of housing support.  

• Expanded CityFHEPS eligibility, making it accessible to a broader range of income-eligible households facing eviction. 

Bucking the trend of complete inaction on housing justice at all levels of government, the City Council took the kind of bold action that we need to finally confront homelessness the best way possible: by housing people. The Mayor has, thus far, supported one aspect of the City Council’s plan: ending the 90-day rule. 

But, he has pushed back on other aspects of the plan, claiming that the CityFHEPS expansion create more competition for current voucher holders seeking to exit shelter and would cost the city $17 billion over the next five years.

First, by preventing evictions, an expanded CityFHEPS program will reduce the number of households entering the shelter system long-term, creating less competition for those trying to use vouchers. And, the expanded CityFHEPS program makes many more homes available to voucher holders seeking to move out of shelter.

Second, while ongoing rental assistance undoubtedly costs money, our calculations show that the net cost of expanding CityFHEPS is $3 billion over five years. While this is a big price tag, we will be preventing almost 200,000 families from enduring the trauma of eviction and the instability of homelessness. 

The social costs of expanding access to vouchers, while momentous, are hard to quantify and are often obscured in budget negotiations focusing exclusively on immediate costs and benefits. Numerous studies show that people’s incomes increase when they access permanent housing, while their healthcare costs – including those covering emergency hospitalizations and mental health services – decrease. The prospects of their children’s educational and employment success rise and their long-term healthcare costs decline.

This is not time to be playing politics with the lives of the city’s most vulnerable New Yorkers. In the wake of state inaction on our failing housing system, the Council’s bills over the best hope of turning New York’s homeless crisis around. We urge the mayor to reconsider his veto threat, and work with the Council to put the city on a path toward housing for all. That should be a moral imperative.

David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer.  The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.

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* This article was originally published here

Michael Preston has been committed to service and support of the Harlem community throughout his professional life. He has served as a board member with Harlem Week for the better part of 30 years, going back to 1992, and is the co-founder of Harlem Rocket, a Black-owned high-speed boat tour of Harlem on the Hudson River that is set to launch this summer.

Preston is also vice president of customer experience & government affairs for Paradise Express, the parent company of Harlem Rocket. He has also been a customer service manager and theater manager with the Atlanta Civic Center. 

“There is something about being able to provide people with an experience, and that has resonated throughout my life,” Preston said about his professional career.

One of five children, Preston has many cherished memories of growing up in Harlem and becoming immersed in the culture. His father was in the military, so Preston was born in Sacramento, but he and his family moved back to Harlem, where they were originally from, when he was 3 years old.. He attended St. Thomas the Apostle and Powell Memorial High School. 

“Between 115th Street and 125th Street was our playground,” Preston said. 

His father held numerous jobs and was heavily involved in the arts as a jazz musician, photographer, sculptor, painter, jewelry-maker, and cartoonist, which inspired Preston’s passion for managing and producing shows. At a young age, he would work with his father as a poet, collecting tickets, or managing the lights. 

“My appreciation for the arts, culture, painting, music was something we experienced every day of our life,” Preston recalled.

In 1979, when Preston was 16, his father died from a heart attack. He attributed this tragedy to high blood pressure, which motivated his life decision to switch to a vegan diet. 

After graduating from high school, Preston was set to go to Penn State, but chose to attend HBCU Virginia State University thanks to being guided by his grandfather, who was an alum. While at Virginia State, he switched to vegetarianism, which he has followed to this day. He also eventually transferred and earned his bachelor’s degree from City College of New York in 2012. He holds both Virginia State and City College dear to him, since one is an HBCU and the other is in Harlem.

When Preston first came aboard Harlem Week, he had been managing a law firm in addition to working with Greyhound. Tony Rogers, former executive board member of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, asked him to help out government affairs, managing permits, etc., during what was a difficult period for Harlem Week in the early 1990s. 

He was asked to join the board, and has renewed every year since with the exception of 2003–2005, when he worked with the Atlanta Civic Center. 

“We give away more than 110,000 in scholarships, grants, and awards to nonprofits and students going and returning to college,” Preston said of his work with Harlem Week. “I love the concept of us supporting our own—but it is also about us bringing the art, the culture, and the experience to first, the residents of Harlem and New York, and then, the visitors from throughout nationally and internationally,“ Preston said. 

While at City College, Preston connected with his current business partner, Garry Johnson. They created Paradise Express in 2012 and more recently established Harlem Rocket, which is expected to launch at the end of July.

The boat tour will take passengers on a tour of Harlem on the Hudson River, going north from 125th Street to the northern top of Manhattan at Spuyten Duyvil Creek and then coming down as a thrill ride. Tour elements include history lessons about Harlem sites and Black people in the maritime industry, such as Crispus Attucks and Matthew Henson. 

Harlem Rocket is partnering with sponsors such as the electronics company Ray Marine and Universoul Circus. 

More information can be found at the website Harlem Rocket.com, where tickets will become available, and on Instagram @HarlemRocket. 

The Harlem Rocket is part of the larger Harlem Waterfront Initiative, which aims to spur economic development in Harlem. Other elements of the initiative will be a ferris wheel called the Harlem Wheel and the Harlem Maritime Museum. 

Preston cherishes his family, including five adult children—four daughters and one son—and four grandchildren. 

“I’m proud to be of Harlem—living in Harlem; my children born and raised in Harlem; and connected to institutions like the Apollo, the Studio Museum, the Schomburg,” Preston said. “Being a part of Harlem Week is all-encompassing.”

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The creators of the New York City-based financial technology platform MoCaFi (https://mocafi.com/) joined with representatives of the Bank of New York Mellon to ring the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) closing bell on June 9.

Ringing the NYSE bell on the trading floor heralded MoCaFi’s new call for people of color looking to get their finances in order. 

Wole Coaxum, founder of MoCaFi, told the Amsterdam News in an exclusive interview that his company’s goal is to help broaden access to the financial services industry for the underbanked, and to create better, more attentive banking services for those who feel underappreciated by the financial service companies they currently bank with.

Coaxum created MoCaFi in 2016 after spending more than 20 years in the financial services industry. He had worked with Citigroup, Willis Financial, and JPMorgan Chase, but after the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, Coaxum said he had a rethink about the direction his working life was taking.

“The financial services industry is a terrific industry to create change and economic prosperity for people, but it’s not doing it for all communities,” Coaxum said, declaring that he has real concerns about how economic and social justice issues are being handled by most financial institutions. “I wanted to use my time and my talents to create an economic justice agenda that can help the Black community move forward and address issues such as wealth inequality…I wanted to create a business that’s a sustainable business model for closing the wealth gap.”

In 2016, Coaxum created MoCaFi—Mobility Capital Finance, Inc.—as a digital banking

platform. There are no brick-and-mortar branches for the bank. Customers can open a MoCaFi Mobility Bank Account and obtain a MoCaFi Mobility Debit Mastercard via the company website or by downloading the MoCaFi app on their smartphones.

No credit score or Social Security Number is required to open an account. Accounts are available  for undocumented people and even for people who have to use a foreign passport or ID.

MoCaFi’s central goal is to offer access to banking services to people of color, many of whom are unbanked or underbanked. The market research company Statista found that 13.8 percent of Black households were unbanked in 2019, and a 2021 survey by the FDIC found that people without bank accounts either “Don’t have enough money to meet minimum balance requirements” or simply “Don’t trust banks” to protect their privacy.

Not having access to a bank account puts people at a disadvantage. During events like the recent COVID-19 pandemic, when the government was trying to help stabilize communities, those unable to access funds were in desperate straits.

“In Los Angeles, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti in the summer 2020 said, ‘I want to create contactless government. I want a way for residents to have single sign-ons for city services. I want a way for the residents of Los Angeles to receive money from city government and I want a way for people to pay for city services all electronically,’” Coaxum recalled.

“If you want to create a mechanism to pay people electronically and they don’t have bank accounts, how are you going to be able to do that? MoCaFi has created a solution called the Angeleno Connect Account. And now Los Angeles has the plumbing in place to be able to fulfill that vision that Mayor Garcetti had.”

As part of its latest efforts, MoCaFi will play a part in the NYC Civic Engagement Commission’s payout of $1 million in planning grants to groups that took part in the city’s Participatory Budgeting program. The company is also set to launch a new program called On Our Block that will bring banking services, financial programming, and resources to local communities of color. 

“We see great opportunity in terms of finding ways of bringing people into the financial mainstream by working with partners like the Bank of New York Valley,” Coaxum said. “That’s why ringing the bell and the New York Stock Exchange for us is so impactful—because we want to re-imagine how you can engage people into the financial mainstream to create wealth. If the Black community, for example, was as fully banked as their white counterparts, that would create trillions of dollars of GDP in this country.

“There’s $5 billion just in New York City alone that’s been allocated to residents to help them move forward—but that’s not getting to the people because you don’t have the infrastructure to address that. At MoCaFi, we’re trying to address that problem.”

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* This article was originally published here