Dear friends,
My first work from home email went out a year ago yesterday. It’s our anniversary!
If we’ve learned anything in our year of action, it’s that issues of racial justice, climate justice, health justice, educational justice (I could go on but I think you’ve got the idea) are deeply interconnected. We were spurred to action by the death of George Floyd and we have seen the intersectional ties between valuing Black lives and fighting for so many important changes.
Our first action today is for teachers. If you aren’t one, pass it on to someone you know who is a teacher. It’s the perfect thing to include in a little thank-you email to your child’s teacher.
June, especially this one, is a killer month for teachers. One teacher I know, who has been doing this work for twenty years, told me last week that this year felt six years long. One reason is that teachers are more engaged than ever in looking out for the health and well-being of their students.
Sign (or forward or both!) the teacher letter in support of the New York Health Act!
If you’re not a teacher, do this:
Tell Albany to Pass the NY Health Act. This is a ready-made action to your representatives and legislative leadership.
Okay. I can’t avoid it. We have to talk about the Democratic mayoral debate.
Here are some things that I appreciated:
There is fairly broad agreement that, as a city, we need to do better for people suffering from mental illness. Every candidate seemed interested in committing resources to do this.
Similarly, there was agreement that NYC must be a true sanctuary city and must do more to protect the rights of our neighbors who are undocumented.
We’re talking about childcare. It only took 16 months of people working from home while caring for their children to bring this issue to the fore.
When Yang and Adams were attacking one another, with Yang calling Adams corrupt and Adams calling Yang unqualified, Stringer interjected something along the lines of “You’re both right. Neither of you should be mayor.”
Here are some things that frustrated me about the debate:
With the advent of ranked choice voting, only two candidates willingly named the person they would rank #2. Shaun Donovan was the only progressive to do so — he named Wiley — and Andrew Yang named Garcia.
The moderators’ questions were heavily skewed to the topics of crime and public safety. They ignored public transit (except for subway safety) and spent too little time on education.
There was a startling dearth of charm. There was a lot of loud talking and interrupting, and it felt like they were yelling at us. This makes Yang look good.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been following the race closely, but I didn’t learn anything. I recognize that the majority of New Yorkers are still turning their attention to the race.
Given the opportunity to question one other candidate, it was striking to me that none of the candidates asked a question of Garcia, Morales, or Wiley. Perhaps if we ignore the women, they will go away?
A while back, I believe I described The City’s Meet Your Mayor interactive tool as a blunt instrument. They have built it out, and it includes questions about housing, policing, education, transit, taxes, and so on. It takes a while to answer them all and you can skip questions that are unlikely to influence your decision. Following the debate, I sat down with it again, hoping for some clarity.
Complete the Meet Your Mayor interactive tool and see how your responses align with the candidates’ policies.
I’m curious to hear about your findings and your current thinking about the race.
Have a great day!
with love,
L