Dear friends,
The US provides so much military aid to Israel that it doesn’t vet the IDF, as US law requires. The purpose of the vetting process is to ensure that the US is not supporting foreign militaries that are violating the Geneva Conventions.
The Biden Administration has published the US arms transfer policy, which prohibits sending weapons if the assessment is that serious breaches are likely. The policy
specifically mentions “attacks intentionally directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such; or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.”
In addition, the US Foreign Assistance Act makes it illegal to provide weapons to a nation that “prohibits or restricts the transport or delivery of humanitarian aid.”
On top of this, the US’s lone veto of the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire was a travesty.
Tell the President that US aid to Israel is unlawful. Communicate your feelings about a ceasefire.
Speed limits on local roads are often higher in the US, laws and cultural prohibitions against dangerous driving can be weaker, and American infrastructure in many ways has been designed to enable speeding cars. . . .
Smartphones — and the way they can distract both drivers and pedestrians — aren’t uniquely American. But there is one thing that is still distinctly so: the pervasiveness in the US of automatic transmissions, which help free up a driver’s hand for other uses.
The analysis highlights that most of the increased fatalities occur in the dark, which is why speeding and the absence of sidewalks are significant. Since only 1 percent of all new passenger vehicles in the US have manual transmissions, as compared with more than 70 percent of the cars on the road in Europe, the “multitasking” drivers are a major danger to those of us on foot.
Citing a 40% increase in traffic violence in Western Queens, council member Tiffany Cabán has expressed concern that the Adams Administration’s budget cuts to the Department of Transportation will slow down street safety projects.
DOT will install additional safety upgrades — such as raised crosswalks, extended sidewalks, and leading traffic signals for pedestrians — at 1,000 more intersections next year, according to City Hall.
There are, however, about 47,000 intersections in the city. Eliminating parking at corners is an enforcement issue, first and foremost. And the NYPD is famously uninterested in traffic and parking enforcement.
State law already bars parking within 20 feet of crosswalks, but the city has long exempted itself from that provision to provide more space for the storage of privately owned vehicles. The city's own stats show that intersections account for 55 percent of pedestrian traffic deaths and 79 percent of injuries.
A number of Community Boards have passed resolutions calling for the city to adhere to state daylighting requirements.
Tell the Mayor that we need daylighting on street corners and routine enforcement of parking violations within 20 feet of crosswalks.
Since these two institutions are among New York City’s top 10 largest private property owners, the current arrangement functions as welfare for the very rich. The proposed changes
would require the private universities to start paying their full annual property taxes and for that money to be redistributed to the City University of New York, the largest urban public university system in the country.
CUNY’s annual budget of $4.3 billion is mostly state funds, but the mayor’s proposed cut of 3 percent of its contribution to CUNY’s budget will once again starve the nation's largest urban public university of needed funds.
There are challenges to ending the tax exemptions to Columbia and NYU. It requires a change to the state constitution, which is a lengthy process. The proposed change would focus only on these two universities; Cornell and other universities would be exempt because their tax breaks are far lower.
Another approach is to call on Columbia and NYU to make voluntary payments into a fund for CUNY. Because investing in CUNY promotes economic equity and social mobility, it would burnish the reputations of Columbia and NYU to do so.
Contact your state legislators to insist that Columbia and NYU forego huge tax breaks in order to fund CUNY.
The work we do in our communities is integrally connected to the work we do on ourselves. I read a persuasive piece that advises us to stop looking at our phones. The author conducts her own experiment after reading about a study which found that
using your phone to avoid stranger awkwardness makes you feel “worse than if you didn’t.”
This is not why I use my phone. Nonetheless, in a week of distancing from my partner as he recovers from Covid, I have spent entirely too much time with my phone and it is not helping my mood at all.
Luckily, I don’t drive, so the harm I’ve caused is limited to me and the people who are enduring my crankiness. And frankly, that’s more than enough damage.
Put down your phone and look up. At night, put down your phone and rest. And please, please, put your phone down when you drive.
On Friday afternoon, the city sent notifications of high wind and flood warnings in effect from Sunday afternoon until this morning. These warnings will become more and more common, because we are living through a climate crisis.
Although we were spared severe flooding and damage this time, the news from Tennessee is a reminder that climate disasters are now so routine that they don’t always make headlines even when they displace thousands of people.
The city recently posted on social media a link to its Disaster Loan Assistance Update for the storm that struck on Friday, 9/29. If your home or business was damaged, you can apply for a loan to cover physical damage until February 2, 2024; the deadline for economic injury is September 4, 2024.
For more information about the Disaster Loan Assistance terms and the application form, go to September 29 Flash Flood Event.
The draft agreement from COP28 calls for reductions of fossil fuel production and consumption by 2050 “in line with scientific advice,” without directly calling for a phase out of fossil fuel projects. This seems dangerously and predictably wishy-washy.
A few months ago, I wrote about a cool article on permanently organized communities. The big idea is that we make ourselves ready to take on the worst manifestations of a crisis by engaging in local action and organization that stresses “mutuality and care.”
Some of this looks like changing consumption habits — driving and flying less often, repairing and repurposing existing items, and sharing scarce goods instead of hoarding.
All of it requires communication and interaction with the people in our midst. When we start to do that, we create the possibility for our communities to respond effectively when things are really bad.
The resource below includes a number of things you can do; some are totally individual and a few them overlap with Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan’s idea for permanently organized communities.
Lots of folks resist joining groups. I encourage you to join others, even if you are continuing to forego in-person action to work from home for justice.
Check out Jess Craven’s to-do list for people who want to take more climate action. Start small and commit to one thing.
with love,
L