Dear friends,
Some days, the sense of crisis is pretty tangible and exhausting. I promise to end the week with some good news, too.
Thousands of new arrivals from Venezuela are now being housed in hotels and the Mayor has indicated that every community should expect to see new folks in the neighborhood, because we’re all in this together. He has called on state and federal governments for assistance.
Congresswoman AOC is working with City Hall on applying for grants through the Office of Housing and Urban Development. I don’t see how money will solve the housing crisis in the short term. Nonetheless, I am glad AOC is reminding folks that the people arriving are not the problem. Housing is the problem.
Call on NYS legislative leadership to pass the Housing Access Voucher Program and pass Good Cause eviction. This quick action is from the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance.
Corrections commissioner Louis Molina has asked the Board of Corrections to consider a variance that would allow the George R. Vierno Center (GRVC) on Rikers to confine some people to their cells for 17 hours a day rather than the legal limit of 10 hours. This punitive segregation is intended as a response to a spike in violence at the facility this weekend.
The increasingly desperate conditions on Rikers Island call for a different approach rather than more of the same.
Hernandez D. Stroud, writing for the Brennan Center, described receivership as
a tourniquet for flagrant constitutional abuse when all other solutions have fallen short. And when receiverships stop institutional bleeding, it’s ultimately up to us, the people — working through our political representatives — to never again permit unabated cruelty to carry the day in our names.
Contact the head of the Board of Corrections to urge her to seek federal receivership for the facilities at Rikers rather than increasing the hours of confinement.
Time for some good news:
On Wednesday, the New York City council passed a package of child care legislation that creates a task force to study and develop recommendations on how to support working parents and caregivers and creates a second task force to examine how to make child care more sustainable and accessible.
Additional bills require the city to produce a directory of child care programs, establish a Child Care Advisory Board, and create an online portal that provides information on child care subsidies. There will also be a pilot program of child care grants for families in need of assistance.
This is the first time that the city council is dominated by women; not only are women in the majority, but the council speaker, Adrienne Adams, is the first mother and grandmother to serve in the role.
Julie Menin, who sponsored a number of the bills in the package, remarked:
“Today is a historic moment where we are passing the Universal Childcare Act which will make New York City the first city in the country to implement universal child care.”
Menin noted that hundreds of thousands of people are out of the workforce because of the childcare shortage. The city council has taken some important steps to address this.
I wanted to include this pair of pictures the other day, but I was experiencing technical difficulties. My theme was good work. All three of the people pictured are doing good work — John’s photographic projects call attention to places and people needing our care and attention; Lorraine is a leader in her community on the Upper East Side, and Stacey cares for Lorraine five days and nights a week.
Lorraine said she wanted to run some errands and Stacey replied, “Let’s rock and roll.”
Above, John Trotter, photographed by me.
Below, Lorraine Johnson and Stacey Thomas, photographed by John.
And finally, I want to celebrate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has hit the ground running. KBJ is doing good work, along with her sisters in the minority.
If you haven’t followed accounts of KBJ’s energetic questioning and her good-natured history lessons, check out the podcast Strict Scrutiny.
We worked hard this week. Let’s take the next two days off!
with love,
L