Rendering of proposed Link5G
The digital divide has been one of the many disparities laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic. Countless New Yorkers have been forced to work and learn remotely, yet shifting to online platforms is very challenging for the 1.5 million New Yorkers — mainly low-income people of color — who lack access to both broadband and cellular internet.
This is our digital equity emergency, and the Urban League is very focused on bringing attention to this critical issue. In March, the National Urban League released the Lewis Latimer Plan for Digital Equity and Inclusion, which highlighted the growing costs of digital exclusion.
The plan focused on four key goals, including the expanded deployment of networks everywhere and using those networks to improve how we deliver essential services. New York City has been working on innovative policy programs to increase network deployments, including through the Internet Master Plan, which will hopefully lead to increased broadband access. Another key piece to the digital equity puzzle is the LinkNYC program.
You may know the Link kiosks for their free high speed Wi-Fi, interactive tablets, charging ports, and advertising. However, not enough of these kiosks have been deployed to the communities that need them most, as Links today are concentrated mostly in Manhattan. We now have an opportunity to fix that by extending and improving on this great service through Link5G.
Think of students like those at the Careers in Sports High School in the Bronx that we serve with important programming. Throughout the pandemic, they were forced into remote learning. While New York City schools provided tablets, students often didn’t have the benefit of home broadband service and connections through the devices can be choppy. Attending classes and doing homework should not be filled with digital hurdles and disruptions.
LinkNYC’s free Wi-Fi was one lifeline in neighborhoods fortunate enough to have one. The deployment of new and improved Link5G structures will begin in neighborhoods left behind from the original LinkNYC deployment, ensuring their access to 5G mobile broadband in addition to the benefit of free Wi-Fi. It will also bring new fiber-optic cable into those communities which can be used to provide home and small businesses with connectivity. These structures aren’t a luxury in our communities — they are a necessity.
5G is the next generation mobile network technology that will provide much faster speeds to mobile devices. Experts say 5G will revolutionize mobile networks and can even be used to provide broadband to the home. That is, of course, if you can find a reliable signal in your neighborhood. Thanks to contract requirements put in place by our city government, the new Link5G program will prioritize the equitable deployment of networks in the communities that need them the most.
The new Link5G design is currently being considered by the city’s Public Design Commission. I urge the PDC to approve the design of this critical technology infrastructure that our communities need immediately. Our students, our small businesses, and our most vulnerable residents simply cannot survive and thrive in an increasingly digital world without them. This is a unique opportunity to begin addressing our city’s digital equity emergency.
The Public Design Commission’s mission is to advocate for innovative, sustainable, and equitable design of public spaces, with a goal of improving the public realm and therefore related services for all New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs. Providing an opportunity for 5G in the neighborhoods most impacted by lack of access over time may prove to be the most equitable design of all.
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Arva Rice is the President and CEO of the New York Urban League. On Twitter @arvarice.
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Council Member Helen Rosenthal, the author (photo: John McCarten/City Council)
A few years ago, a staff member in my office who owed over $40,000 in student loans came to the realization that she might qualify for eventual loan forgiveness because she worked in local government. Neither her employer, the City Council, or her lender had informed her that working in public service made her eligible for debt relief.
My staff person is just one of the estimated 1 million New Yorkers who owe student loans. Student loan debt in the United States has reached surreal levels. Borrowers across the country now collectively owe an estimated $1.57 trillion, and this debt is a key reason why so many Americans cannot achieve financial stability.
To add insult to injury, millions of American workers are actually eligible for student debt relief but have not received it. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, up to a quarter of the U.S. workforce is in public service (employed by the government or a non-profit organization) and may be eligible for existing student loan debt forgiveness programs.
There are a number of reasons why Americans working in public service are not able to successfully obtain student loan forgiveness. Much of it has to do with how the forgiveness programs are structured. But another central reason is lack of awareness. This can and must be addressed immediately.
This week the New York City Council is voting on my legislation that will ensure that all city government employees are automatically informed they may be eligible for public service loan forgiveness -- under either a federal or state program.
My legislation also requires the city’s Office of Labor Policy & Standards (OLPS) to conduct an outreach and education campaign about student loan forgiveness within New York City’s massive non-profit sector. Non-profit employers will be strongly encouraged to share this information with the more than 600,000 workers who are an essential part of our social safety net.
My bill is a simple step forward to close an information gap, but the impact could be quite far-reaching. The legislation will help to ensure that every one of the city government’s 330,000 employees (along with over half-a-million non-profit employees) knows they may be able to eventually cancel their student debt. That awareness will encourage more of them to pursue this option and not delay action.
The timing of this bill is critical. President Biden is taking steps now to make the federal public service loan forgiveness program much more accessible to Americans working in government or non-profits. The Biden Administration is simplifying the loan forgiveness process, and retroactively relaxing particular rules and requirements. For example, only certain types of student loans have previously qualified for eventual forgiveness. The federal Department of Education is expanding the types of loans that qualify -- and making that expansion retroactive.
The changes could assist roughly 550,000 borrowers, including my staff member. Over the course of several years she made thousands of dollars of payments on her student loans. Forgiveness is supposed to be achieved after 10 years of consistent payments. Because she did not understand which loans qualify for forgiveness, her years of past payment will not help her -- but now that may change. Public awareness about loan forgiveness has never been more important.
We all know that student loan debt is essentially crushing millions of Americans. The debt that so many Americans, New Yorkers included, are carrying prohibits them from building long-term careers in public service, because their salaries simply cannot sustain the loan payments. We need our best and brightest working in service of our city. In order to recruit and keep them, alerting them of available financial relief is the least we can do.
To be clear, I support the growing movement across our country to cancel a large portion of student loan debt entirely. My legislation is a step toward ensuring that all those who have devoted their lives to serving others can build a brighter financial future.
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City Council Member Helen Rosenthal represents parts of Manhattan. On Twitter @HelenRosenthal.
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Mayor-elect Eric Adams outside the 71st Precinct (photo: Erica Sherman/Brooklyn BP's Office)
The last time that New York City had a deputy mayor for public safety, New York City was in crisis. In 1990, murders topped out at over 2,200 – seven times the city’s low in 2018.
Mayor David Dinkins directed his new appointee, Judge Milton Mollen, to “confront the crime that degrades the life of our city” and address agency “finger-pointing.” Mollen brought deep experience in the law and government operations, having served as a judge and the chair of NYCHA, among other accomplishments.
All signs point to Mayor-elect Eric Adams selecting the first deputy mayor for public safety in a generation. This is a smart move.
Of course, a lot has changed since the 1990s: New York City has long been the safest large city in the nation and, in recent years, has continued to drive down crime while also reducing the number of people in jail. One of the central lessons we have learned is that, important as they are, police cannot create enduring safety by themselves. Among many examples from reliable research: a job can stop a bullet, with summer youth employment reducing both deaths and arrests; well-lit streets can reduce violent crime by a third; and supportive housing can interrupt the cycles of jail, shelter, and hospital that afflict many New Yorkers.
And, on the other side, misuse of force can erode trust, leading to fewer people coming forward as witnesses or convicting on the evidence. We learned this bitter lesson when police stops in the city reached almost 700,000 per year, aggravating cynicism, particularly in communities of color.
The past two pandemic years have further demonstrated the need for a deputy mayor who balances the role of civic services and force in producing safety. As civic connections withered, New York City, along with every big city in the nation, experienced the sharpest single year rise in homicides in its history. Cops withdrew from the streets and residents, whose cooperation rate had never cracked the 50% mark in the best years, also stepped back. By the end of 2020, only one in five shootings were being solved.
Finger-pointing by the mayor and the police commissioner aggravated the crisis as they sought culprits in bail reform, court delay, and jail releases, each of which were serially debunked. When anecdotes are treated as “data,” finding solutions is hard.
Adams has rightly pointed to prevention and intervention as critical to safety. Pressure testing every dollar – whether spent on patrol or summer jobs – to ensure New Yorkers are getting the most safety and fairness for their money is key.
What is needed to effectively navigate this complex role of deputy mayor for public safety?
In the first place, the new deputy mayor must be a person of unquestioned integrity. This is true of any person who will hold New Yorkers' trust. But it is particularly true in this moment when the legitimacy of law enforcement has taken some hard knocks.
The deputy mayor’s integrity and stature will also be essential to convene effectively the many players who comprise the justice “system,” most of whom – district attorneys, defenders, and courts – are independent of the city’s authority. A transparent and regular sharing of data will also go a long way to winning trust and finding solutions. And understanding all aspects of the justice system’s operations, not just the police, will be crucial to address the many crises from the management of the jails to the confounding continuation of case delays in the courts.
Finally, the new deputy mayor should be deeply rooted in the civic functions of government. For good reason, Americans have chosen a civilian form of government to be the keystone of democracy and determined that those who are armed must always be subordinate to civilian power. Force – which can be so toxic even if sometimes necessary – must be carefully cabined and managed. And because the wise deployment of civic services – from housing to jobs to parks and more – is so core to safety, the new deputy mayor will need to have the knowledge and skill to coordinate with his or her fellow deputy mayors in whose dockets other services fall.
A different world from 1990 but the same opportunity to make a safer and more vibrant city awaits.
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Elizabeth Glazer is the founder of Vital City. A former federal prosecutor, she served as the New York Governor’s Deputy Secretary for Public Safety and the New York City Mayor’s criminal justice advisor.
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