New Yorkers with a lot to say (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)
Gotham Gazette publishes a wide range of guest op-ed columns by a diverse set of voices. Below are the 20 most-read op-eds published by Gotham Gazette in 2021. Please note that the opinions expressed in the guest columns are those of the authors alone and not of Gotham Gazette, any of its staff, affiliates, or partners. [Find the latest in the Opinion section here.]
1. Expanding State Extended Unemployment Benefits Could Protect 395,000 New Yorkers, But the Legislature Must Act Now - by Will Raderman
2. Community Health Groups Must Be Part of New York City’s COVID-19 Reckoning - by Miosotis Munoz
3. The Major Problems with New York City’s School Reopening Plan - by Leonie Haimson
4. Exercising Mental Fitness as We Move Forward with Our Covid Recovery - by Chirlane McCray
5. New York’s Congressional Redistricting Could Be Tipping Point in Midterm Battle for the House - by Jim Brennan
6. Ending New York’s Love Affair with Life Sentences - by Anthony Dixon
7. Unable to Move De Blasio, Carranza Leaves a Still Deeply Divided School System - by Gail Robinson
8. Covid Vaccination and the New York City Recovery - by Jim Brennan
9. Bill De Blasio Has Been A Good Mayor, Actually - by Joel Wertheimer
10. The Next Mayor Can End New York City’s Rat Problem; Here’s How - by Michael A. Lewis
11. Mayoral Candidates Flunk First Budget Test - by Carol Kellermann
12. Everything is Connected: New York City’s Climate Crisis Demands a New Way of Thinking - by Donovan Finn
13. The Truth About Neighborhood Rezonings, Housing, and Demographic Change - by Sandy Hornick
14. De Blasio Leaves Adams a City Budget Mess - by Joseph Borelli
15. When Jewish Votes Don’t Count - by Rabbi Yaacov Behrman
16. No Equity or Excellence as Mayor and DOE Chancellor Abandon Overcrowded Schools - by Arthur Goldstein
17. The Next Mayor Our City Needs - by Henry Garrido
18. 6 Years After DOE Yeshiva Complaint, City Yet to Take Action as Kids Suffer - by Yonah Kohn
19. Apocalypse Now: Can Eric Adams End the Helicopter Onslaught? - by Julia Vitullo-Martin
20. Don’t Let Kathryn Garcia Get Hillary’d - by Kaivan Shroff
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Celebrating LGBTQ-friendly senior housing (photo: SAGE)
Today, too many older New Yorkers remain invisible. Older people in New York City are often cast aside, despite their incredible civic, economic, and political contributions to our communities and the fact that the 60-and-over population is growing five times faster than the under-18 population.
This is especially true for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) elders, who make a strong presence in New York. Of the estimated 800,000 LGBTQ adults in the State, nearly one-third (28%) are over the age of 50.
Sadly, many are often disconnected to critical services, such as LGBTQ-affirming health services and affordable housing, to safely age in communities.
Fortunately, New York City is now experiencing a moment of political transformation. With the Mayor Eric Adams administration ready to take the helm, and a historically diverse City Council on deck, now is the opportunity to reimagine our city.
To start, the city will need to promote equity and dismantle discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other biases to create a New York where we can all thrive as we age.
It’s also time to address the growing disparities in health, economic security, caregiving, and social connections impacting all older adults, including the LGBTQ+ community, and implement policies, initiatives, and programs that protect and support New Yorkers of all ages.
But we must do more than the bare minimum to ensure older New Yorkers, especially LGBTQ+ elders, age successfully.
For decades, the city has fallen short of providing human service providers with the adequate funding to meet the growing demands for aging services and ensure all older people can continue to thrive in their communities. To truly support older New Yorkers, the city must finally fully fund services that address the root of disparities and social determinants of health impacting older adults, including the LGBTQ+ community. That’s what the #JustPay movement is seeking.
In addition, LGBTQ+ older people have thinner support networks, which is supported by AARP Foundation research that found half of LGBTQ adults aged 45 and older are lonely, and intersecting identities only exacerbate the prevalence of loneliness. This creates a growing demand for LGBTQ+ affirming community-based services and culturally-competent care in understanding the challenges of LGBTQ+ elders.
These services include LGBTQ-affirming housing developments, access to affordable healthcare services, programs that support individuals living with HIV/AIDS and other community-based services such as Older Adult Centers and Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities.
The incoming administration must also take steps to ensure all older people have access to safe, accessible housing.
With rising rent prices, over half of older New Yorkers are rent-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent. Today, nearly one-third of LGBTQ+ older people live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, compared to a quarter of non-LGBTQ+ people as shown in the recent SAGE and AARP New York report, “Disrupting Disparities: Solutions for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers Age 50+.”
In response, New York City must double down on its efforts to expand the stock of affordable senior housing by funding and developing new affordable housing developments, including those with culturally-competent services and LGBT+ affirming housing.
Further, older people and LGBTQ+ New Yorkers in particular will remain invisible until New York City enhances its efforts to collect, analyze, and report LGBTQ+ and age-inclusive data. The lack of data puts policymakers in unknown territory as they craft policies that have the potential to significantly affect the lives and wellbeing of older and LGBTQ+ people.
The city must aggregate and report on what exists, then look to find ways to add data collection on the needs of LGBTQ+ and older New Yorkers into existing agency assessments citywide.
Older New Yorkers built our city. They are the trailblazers of the LGBTQ+ movement who stood at the Stonewall Inn and refused to be invisible.
It is past time for the city to stand with them.
As we look ahead to the incoming administration, SAGE and our partners at LiveOn NY are ready to work with the city to uplift these pioneers and create a better New York City for everyone — regardless of who they are or who they love.
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Lynn Faria is Executive Vice President at SAGE and Allison Nickerson is Executive Director at LiveOn NY. On Twitter @sageusa & @ANickerson25 of @liveonny.
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Helping children through a pandemic (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)
The Surgeon General’s rare public advisory made official what we as social workers have known for 22 months – that the pandemic has accelerated a mental health crisis for children. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) have also issued a bold declaration of a national emergency in children’s mental health.
Those of us who work with students in schools are now well into our second year on the frontlines, where the most vulnerable communities—already experiencing enormous challenges by 2020—disproportionately lost loved ones, income, and security.
Covid’s devastating threat to children’s long-term resilience and wellness is clear: more than 120,000 children under the age of 18 in the United States, 65% of them children of color, have lost a primary caregiver to COVID-19, according to the National Institutes of Health. We see this heartbreak on the ground, provoked and exacerbated by economic insecurity and systemic racism.
Securing our children’s future will take a long-term campaign on many fronts. I agree with the AAP, AACAP, and CHA that funding effective in-school mental health care is a key strategy.
It will also require that those social workers have critical insights into the stressors affecting everyone in the school ecosystem. Children are not alone in their pain. Teachers and academic staff have had their share of anxiety and loss throughout the pandemic, worsened by recent news of weapons and violence near schools. As we see widespread understaffing in schools, we need to acknowledge this stress amid the additional pressures of children returning to school full-time.
During last year’s on-and-off-again schedules, our team of social workers stayed close to the 30,000 students we serve in New York City schools in person or via tele-health. This helped us smooth their return to the classroom and cope with setbacks.
But a broader population of children did not have the benefit of preventive services to encourage emotional regulation and social-emotional skills development. So we are facing a herculean effort to ensure they adapt to the demands of in-person schooling.
A new McKinsey study shows that students in schools where 75% of children are Black or from financially-insecure families are falling further behind pre-pandemic math and reading than those in predominantly white and high-income schools. They are also almost twice as likely to be missing school days. The study points out how important it is for students to have caring adults in school to help them reconnect socially and focus on their academic goals.
Due to the pandemic, students in kindergarten-second grade had never experienced a full and typical school year; third-graders had not been in school since kindergarten. Many middle and high school students, now considered older children, never experienced healthy transitions from elementary and middle school where they would have learned conflict resolution and self-regulation. They are transitioning, often unsupported, from flexible online learning to standardized testing and strict deadlines.
Many children are struggling. This all places pressure on the adults in the room – teachers, principals, support staff, and social workers.
Our work is a progression towards a happier, more confident child. But given these pervasive needs, how do we structure a support system that is responsive to them and enables regular, predictable, and ongoing growth?
There are no easy solutions to create a healthy environment for everyone and build sustainable supports for children—but we do know that we need to step up to “help the helpers.” Some suggestions:
Provide supervision and training. The clinical supervisor is a critical frontline resource for a social worker and should not be stretched across too many sites. Our clinical supervisors observe day-to-day issues as a team member—not an outsider—and can make timely recommendations.
Conferences, workshops and trainings can revitalize skills and creativity – and should be promoted on an ongoing basis. Like regular meditation, their benefits are cumulative and powerful.
Broaden networks of peer support. Informal networks – among schools and nonprofits – can build community ties and offer collegial support. Providing a place to share vulnerability, they have a freeing effect on people who devote so much of their mental and emotional energy to others.
Make time for self-care. Social workers experience “vicarious trauma,” holding the stress of the children they serve and, often, as sounding boards for their colleagues. To provide a buffer, our organization prioritizes “self-care” paid time off.
As we mount one of the most important crusades of our lifetimes, let’s support the counselors whose expertise and advocacy will guide us.
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Angela Jefferson is Chief Program Officer, Partnership with Children. On Twitter @PWCNYC.
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