Dear friends,
This week, Mayor Adams gave himself a B+ for his first year on the job. Mr. Get-Stuff-Done is following one of the lesser grading traditions — no standards, just vibes.
I’m not going to offer a thorough-going analysis here. In short, there is massive room for improvement.
The city’s grossly understaffed Human Resources Administration (HRA) is failing to process more than half of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit applications it receives in a timely fashion. Processing of SNAP applications is considered timely when it is completed within 30 days, with benefits delivered electronically.
This unconscionable failure has resulted in people going hungry and making crap ‘choices’:
parents having to pawn jewelry, take out loans or incur mounting credit card debt to feed their children.
The city has sought a temporary waiver from the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) so that recertification requirements can be suspended to relieve the backlog, but the state has declined.
OTDA would risk penalties and a loss of federal funding if applications were improperly processed and thus has refused to step in until HRA fills the thousands of staff vacancies.
Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are going to go without adequate food unless we act.
Contact the Governor and let her know that OTDA must grant a temporary waiver. Then, give Mayor Adams some necessary feedback.
I know lots of you are engaged in mutual aid work to make sure that folks have enough to eat. The government also has a critical role; SNAP benefits are 100% federally funded. Please share this post in your networks.
As a child Peltier, who was born into a large family of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa, was forced to attend an Indian Boarding School. He became a champion of the rights of nature and Indigenous human rights.
Milan, September 2022. Photograph by Stanley Greenberg
Peltier’s case and cause is better known outside the US than within it. Human rights leaders from around the world — including Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama —have called for his release from prison. In addition to the fact that Leonard Peltier is in his late 70s and unwell, there is considerable evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and false witness statements.
Call on President Biden to release Leonard Peltier and to use his clemency power boldly and generously.
For a one-click action, sign this petition from the ACLU:
Tell the President to use his clemency power to bring 25,000 people home from federal prison who could safely be released immediately!
Governor Hochul signed a pile of legislation yesterday (more on that soon) in her own end-of-year cram session. Since she seems inclined to get stuff done this week, please write to her about using her clemency power.
Call on Governor Hochul to be the first to use industrial-strength clemency power.
I am also fond of welcoming legislators to the new session with a pile of email, to direct the first-day-of-school energy. Fill some inboxes.
Ahead of the new legislative session, let your NYS legislators know that you support greater parole eligibility for older people in prison.
And finally, as you make your personal action plan, here’s something to consider:
At 4:20 today, the first licensed, recreational marijuana dispensary will open on Broadway and East 8th Street in Manhattan. The Housing Works operation will be competing against the illegal dispensaries that have popped up all over the city.
Show the first legal weed dispensary some love as it competes against the gray market.
with love,
L