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The Pandemic Has Made It Painfully Clear: We Need Universal Child Care in New York


atentative contract btw

Child care is a key focus (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


It’s 2:30 a.m. and I’m staring at our couch. It’s looking shabbier each day, especially since our one-year-old, Teddy, has taken to holding onto it with sticky hands. There’s a pile of tattered business cards on the floor – a little distraction for Teddy that usually buys me five minutes to answer emails. The dining table is still covered in scrambled eggs from Teddy’s dinner. My husband is hunched over responding to emails that needed answers hours ago. 

He’s tired. I’m tired. We’ll both be up for another hour catching up on work. 

Any parent with young children knows why: we don’t have childcare. Since the pandemic, consistent, affordable child care has gone the way of regular meals, date nights, and respectable bedtimes. And as Mayor de Blasio and the New York City Department of Education continue to give unclear, last-minute instructions about the status of schools and resources for those who need child care are slim, we’re just one of the countless families struggling in an unsustainable situation. 

Like so many others, at the start of the pandemic we hunkered down and prepared for what we thought would be one or two months of intense family time in our one-bedroom apartment. Two months came and went. My husband received a pay cut, and with no end to the covid crisis in sight, we said goodbye to our day-care in Harlem because we simply couldn’t afford it. After exhausting our options — nannies, family friends, a college student looking for extra money — our hearts leapt when a center a few blocks away called about a last-minute dropout. The catch? My son could now have steady, reliable child care for $33,000 per year. That’s low for neighborhoods like mine, where child care can often cost $30,000 to $50,000 a year, but it’s an unobtainable luxury for the majority of New York City families, including my own.

New York City’s haphazard approach to reopening schools and poor communication with parents has made it nearly impossible to keep up. Giving parents less than 24 hours to scramble and prepare for school closures is just unacceptable. For parents like me, the only thing we can really count on is that there won’t be enough affordable, quality child care. As we stare down at the precipice of another wave that will once again close our schools and financially strain our small businesses, moms are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. Families are suffering, and the road to recovery seems too long and too costly for many to survive. 

Prior to the pandemic, child-care centers and family day-care providers only served 22% of children under two in the city. Child-care centers alone only had capacity for 6% of children under two, and experts estimate that by the end of the pandemic, 4.5 million child-care slots could be permanently lost nationwide

Thus far, the city’s attempts to offer lifelines have been far too few to make an impact. The Learning Bridges program, created to provide child care during remote learning, only has 60 seats in my district, and nothing for children under the age of five. There are no 3-K seats in my district. 

And as others have pointed out, the absence of real child care solutions will ultimately hurt moms the most, resulting in the departure of millions of women from the workforce completely. Prior to the pandemic, women had constituted over half of the workforce for the first time since the Great Recession. Now, we are at historic lows, and reports estimate that it will take years to recover. 

In New York City, with an unemployment rate of nearly 16%, compared to 8.4% nationwide, we are in an economic crisis that is threatening the city’s very future. Economists have noted that one major factor has been the loss industries like hotel and food services, administrative roles, and retail. These are also the same industries that are more likely to employ women, and especially women of color. 

The answer is clear: there is no economic recovery without women, and we cannot fully employ women without child care.

We need universal child care in New York City. For something this essential, we can surely figure out design and implementation.

Most proposals for a universal child-care model endorse a sliding-scale approach to overall cost, with a percentage cap of how much a family could ultimately have to pay for child care. With this model, families would never have to be in the position of paying more for child care than they do in rent. Other proposals include increasing wages for child-care workers and creating opportunities to expand existing child-care centers. This is critical to ensure that we offer quality care to all families. In addition to increasing the range, affordability, and quality of child care options, we should also be making it easier for families to identify additional resources they are eligible for, including programs for expectant families like lactation services, family planning, and wellness, as well as opportunities for families with school-age children like after-school activities, summer programming, health clinics, and youth employment programs. 

Ultimately, this comes down to how our city is going to take care of our families. We need to invest in workers and make it possible for them to actually work. We need to elect mothers of young children and parents who know firsthand the struggles of New York City families. Why do we only have one mother with school-age children in the City Council? Why has our government not identified a child care solution nine months into this pandemic? Why are we forcing families to choose between taking care of their babies and earning an income? 

It’s 3:30 a.m. I look at my husband and I realize how lucky we are compared to so many others who are struggling. I know we’re going to get through this, but it’s not enough. We need more. Parents need more. Our future depends on it.

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Tricia Shimamura is a candidate for City Council in Manhattan’s District 5. On Twitter @Tricia4NYC.

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Ending Hunger by Supporting Food Pantries and Making Sure They Aren’t the Only Option


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Free food offerings (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


Even before the COVID-19 crisis, far too many of our neighbors didn’t know where their next meal would come from. Today, the number of food-insecure New Yorkers stands at a staggering 1.6 million people. In the Bronx, 24% of residents—including children, seniors, and working families—are impacted. While it is crucial to continue supporting the civic sector, which includes community-based organizations, faith partners, and food pantries, we must also ensure that these essential partners are not the first and only line of defense against hunger.

To make it easier for New Yorkers, especially seniors, to follow the public health guidance of remaining at home and maintaining social distance, the City established a suite of programs to address the food access challenges presented by the pandemic. GetFoodNYC’s Emergency Home Food Delivery program has delivered more than 65 million meals to date, and Grab & Go operations at Department of Education sites have distributed a similar number, no questions asked, through community hub sites as well as to families whose children are enrolled in blended and remote learning.

Tens of millions of dollars in City funds have been distributed directly to food pantries to ensure that resources get to the people and places where they are most needed. And now, pantries are receiving fresh produce, including produce grown in the region, to support the health of New Yorkers, as well as the livelihoods of our regional farm economy. The City has distributed over 2.2 million pounds of produce to pantries so far, with more on the way.

Even with these supplemental efforts, food pantries - essential to the communities they serve - have been stretched to the max. Some have even had to close their doors as a result of their dependence on the older adult volunteers who have traditionally contributed to their operation. At the same time, many more have expanded their efforts to feed the staggering lines that form in the early hours of the days, and the two of us joined one such operation last week to distribute Thanksgiving meals at the Bronx’s Mitchel Houses. 

Despite these incredible efforts, though, the network of pantries across the city was simply not built to handle a crisis of this scale. In order to provide solutions for the growing numbers of food insecure New Yorkers, one thing is clear: we’ve got to go beyond pantries.

According to a recent report by Columbia University, only one in four people who face food hardships actually turn to pantries. Who are these food insecure New Yorkers? Look around: school children, college students, working adults and families, seniors living on a fixed income. The face of hunger in the City of New York is diverse. If we are to truly address food insecurity in this city, we need to make it easier for people to get food where they are: in their local bodegas or grocery stores or on their way to work, and prepared food as well as groceries.

For the last four years, the City has fought hard to protect our safety net of Federal Food Assistance Programs, the legal designation for pantries at the federal level, from being systematically eroded by the Trump Administration. Now, we must work to reverse the damage that has been done by changes like the Public Charge Rule, which would deny green cards to immigrants who use SNAP or other public benefits, and go even further to make food assistance accessible to anyone in need.

The SNAP program – formerly known as Food Stamps – brings revenues of over $2 billion to New York City, yet only three retailers are authorized to accept online payments (two of which are the corporate behemoths Amazon and Walmart). This city is made up of tens of thousands of small food businesses and independent retailers. We must empower them to accept online SNAP now, which would offer more options to New Yorkers and new revenue opportunities for small or struggling businesses. SNAP benefits overall must be increased. More health insurers need to incentivize and subsidize the cost of healthy foods.

More than anything, we need solutions that don’t just address the need for a meal tonight. We need to fix the system that makes food insecurity possible in the first place and this starts with paying people living wages, destigmatizing food assistance, and providing more options. Our pantries are doing incredible work, and charitable food is an important short-term fix, but it is problematic to rely on charities alone, particularly when government can, and must, do so much more to address this issue. 

*** 
Kate MacKenzie is the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy and Ruben Diaz, Jr. is the Bronx Borough President. On Twitter @nycfood & @rubediazjr.

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Light the Way to Diwali in New York City


diwali op ed

2019 Diwali at Gracie Mansion; Ramdat Singh's sign: “Add Diwali to the School calendar NOW!!!”


Each year, thousands of Indo-Caribbean and South Asian immigrant families celebrate Diwali in New York City. Also known as Deepavali, or the Festival of Lights, Diwali is an ancient holiday celebrated by multiple faiths, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists, dating back more than 2,500 years. Through migration, immigrants have abundantly permeated this spiritual triumph of “good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance” in the United States.

However, in New York City, students, teachers, and administrators within the Department of Education are often forced to choose between their faith on one hand and their education and jobs on the other to observe Diwali at home with their family. This is because the mayor and Department of Education have refused to make Diwali a school holiday.

There are approximately 330,000 South Asians living in New York City, representing 4% of the city's population. In The Newest New Yorkers (2013 edition) from the city Department of Planning, it states that “three of the top 10 countries from which foreign-born New Yorkers trace their birth recognize Diwali as a national holiday: Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and India,” said Richard David.

Among the ongoing and colliding struggles of the Black Lives Matter movement and faith communities for equitable recognition through protest and resistance in the most culturally diverse city, this also directly impacts low-income and working-class documented and undocumented immigrant families, people in interfaith relationships, multi-racial families, and the diverse composition of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Diwali is celebrated around the world, and its observance remains alive in spite of colonization, indentureship, and immigration. Surviving decades of displacement, class struggles, ancestral traumas, and harm, the Indian diaspora have used their bodies, voices, music, and other interdisciplinary mediums to preserve religious traditions and culture, including Diwali.

For Hindus, Diwali is the biggest holiday on the calendar; think of it as the “Christmas for Hindus.” While it holds different meanings depending on the region of the Indian Subcontinent, Diwali, a lunar holiday, is celebrated in the United States every year around the end of October or the beginning of November. Many Hindus recognize Diwali as a day celebrating the return of Lord Ram of Ayodhya, his wife Sita, and his brother Lakshman after 14 years of exile. Ram is viewed as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the protector of the universe. Sita is considered to be an incarnation of Lakshmi, the goddess of light and prosperity. For Hindus of Western and Southern India and the diaspora, Diwali symbolizes Lord Krishna’s defeat of the demon Narakasura, freeing 16,000 imprisoned girls.

According to Sikh history, Bandi Chhor Divas commemorates Guru Hargobind’s release from prison by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and his return to Amritstar. Identical to Diwali, the Bandi Chhor Divas observance includes the lighting of homes and Gurdwaras, gift exchange, sweets, and family time. “In Jainism, Diwali commemorates the anniversary of Lord Mahavir‘s attainment of moksha, or freedom from the cycle of reincarnation, in 527 B.C.E. Lord Mahavir was the 24th and last Thirtankar of Jainism and revitalized the religion as it is today,” said Nikhil Bumb.

For some Buddhists, Diwali, also known as Ashok VijayaDashami, honors Emperor Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism. From fighting for social justice and gender equity to ending trafficking, incarceration, and bigotry, Diwali represents the fight against oppression we’ve experienced in 2020 and the victory of light over darkness, coincidentally an ode to the healing our country and city desperately needs right now.

Since the early 2000s, advocates, faith leaders, and community organizers throughout New York City have navigated the complex political landscape to demand Diwali be adopted to the Department of Education’s school calendar. Another year and another Diwali celebration has just passed. Still, advocates are mobilizing and renewing the call for the New York City Council to affirm its support for a Diwali school holiday by passing a resolution and the mayor to declare Diwali a public school holiday in the city.

This year, Diwali was on November 14, and the de Blasio administration was silent on this issue. Amidst the global COVD-19 pandemic and the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on Black and brown immigrants, New York City has proven to be a sanctuary city for all. Throughout the city, Diwali celebrations went virtual to keep marginalized communities safe and to stop the spread of the coronavirus. However, these celebrations have also mirrored the disappointment knowing elected officials have refused to acknowledge this 20-year call to action, an act which in of itself can be deemed discriminatory and anti-immigrant. 

In 2018, Resolution 0146 was introduced to the New York City Council by Council Member Daniel Dromm to “call upon the New York City Department of Education to establish Diwali as an official holiday for NYC public school students.” On February 26, 2020, the City Council’s Education Committee adopted the Resolution, but it remains stalled for passage by the entire Council. The Resolution has a supermajority co-sponsorship with 37 members of the 51-seat chamber. Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Members Ydanis Rodriguez, Bill Perkins, Mark Gjonaj, Vanessa Gibson, Mathieu Eugene, Farrah Louis, Alan Maisel, Chaim Deutsh, Steven Matteo, and Joseph Borrelli have not signaled support for the Resolution. However, Public Advocate Jumanne Williams, a former Council member, is a proud co-sponsor for the Resolution and has always been an advocate for inclusivity in New York City. 

Speaker Johnson, as an openly-gay, HIV-positive person, has built a political career based on equality and respect. This is why we are calling on him to reaffirm those values by bringing Resolution 146 to a vote before the end of the year.

New York City is home to both the largest South Asian and Indo-Caribbean (Guyanese, Trinidadian, Jamaican, Surinamese, etc.) diasporic populations, a contributor to the city’s economy, and language and cultural diversity, and a growing political power machine as seen with the recent elections of Zohran Mamdani and Jenifer Rajkumar to the State Assembly. In New York City, Diwali celebrations have emerged for decades throughout the five boroughs. In the Bronx, the Vishnu Mandir, which was established in 1996, creates spaces for Hindu devotees in the Bronx to take refuge in spiritual consciousness and participate in Diwali celebrations. Since 2013, the South Asian community has organized the annual “Diwali in Times Square” to convene the South Asian Hindu city diaspora. In Richmond Hill, Queens, the holiday season is kicked off with the Diwali Motorcade - a tradition that began in Guyana, migrated to New York City by Indo-Caribbeans, and sustained by the Divya Jyoti Association.

The New York City Council typically hosts an annual Diwali event, with cultural performances and proclamations, in the Council Chambers at City Hall. Respectively, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens Borough Presidents host their observance, with prayers, diya lighting, music, and dance. Stepping up to affirm inclusivity in the Bronx, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. issued a proclamation on November 14, designating “Diwali Week in the Bronx.”

Since Bill de Blasio became Mayor, he has hosted an annual Diwali event at Gracie mansion. At the 2019 Diwali event at Gracie Mansion, the Mayor proclaimed that “this is about respect for one of the great faiths of this Earth.” The program included live entertainment, an opening prayer by an Indo-Caribbean Hindu Priest, and honoring the accomplishments of 30 Rock actor Malik Pancholy.

While the Mayor delivered his remarks, he did not expect to be greeted by Ramdat Singh, an educator and Hindu Bronx resident, who proudly held a sign silently, protesting the mayor’s inaction on Diwali as a school holiday. Security quickly aborted Singh’s civil disobedience and they escorted him out of Gracie Mansion. The queer political organizer and public school teacher regularly chooses between practicing his religion and ensuring his students get a quality education. To be transparent, Singh faithfully takes a religious observance day, but this means his students lose a day of instruction. 

The mayor and City Council members avidly reaffirm to New Yorkers that the city’s legislative priorities are rooted in equity for all. Yet, only certain major religions get a school holiday for their main cultural festivals. Currently, the school calendar includes observance for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Christmas, Easter, Eid al Adha, Eid al Fitr, and the Lunar New Year. Students and teachers of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism faiths should not have to choose between practicing their religion and getting an education. 

Since the formation of the Caribbean Equality Project (CEP) in 2015, the immigrant rights Caribbean LGBTQ organization has relentlessly advocated for inclusive and affirming religious spaces in New York City. From breaking barriers at the historic 2015 Diwali Motorcade and becoming the first Caribbean-oriented LGBTQ organization to wave the rainbow flag at the 2016 28th Annual Phagwah Parade in Queens to co-hosting the annual Brooklyn Diwali celebration at Brooklyn Borough Hall, CEP’s transnational culture-shifting activism is building on the legacy of grassroots organizations leading collective liberation movements in New York City. Joining a growing coalition of community organizers, faith-based institutions, and community-based organizations, CEP’s mobilization around the Diwali City Council Resolution 146 adds a queer lens to intersectional demand for the Council and mayor to end its cycle of performativity and tokenization of Diwali for political gain.

In New York City, queer and trans people of various nationalities, ethnicities, and faiths celebrate Diwali, a neglected nuance within LGBTQ and immigrant rights movements, especially as racial injustice and police brutality were amplified amid the pandemic. As thousands of homes lit up to celebrate Diwali, this spiritual significance of “victory of light over darkness” is symbolized by the transition of our new President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Devi Harris, a daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. In many ways, the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist communities are asking the elected officials in New York City for one simple thing: to spend Diwali at home in prayer and celebration with their family.

If you agree with us that Diwali should become a school holiday in New York City and our communities receive the recognition they deserve, please contact the City Council speaker and the mayor. Diwali represents liberation, and together, we can liberate those who celebrate this special holiday for so many New Yorkers. Together, we can light the way to a Diwali holiday in New York City.

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Mohamed Q. Amin is a queer Indo-Caribbean and Muslim immigrant and LGBTQ rights activist in New York City, and the Founder and Executive Director of the Caribbean Equality Project. @MohamedQAmin @CaribEquality

Ramdat Singh is a queer, Hindu, Guyanese, public school teacher living in the Bronx, a UFT member, and Director of Civic Engagement for the Caribbean Equality Project and a citywide Political Organizer. @RamdatSinghNYC

Pratima Doobay is a queer, Guyanese, Hindu Pandita living in Brooklyn, and facilitates faith-based discussions and mediations through Shridevi Arts. @KuShriDoobs

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