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Hispanic Federation Releases 'Blueprint' for Next City Government to Improve Latino Representation, Communities


hispanic fed america

Mayor de Blasio at a Hispanic Federation event (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


With a new mayor and other city leaders set to take office January 1, the Hispanic Federation has released a “blueprint” for improving how local government serves New York City’s 2.3 million Latino residents.

A nonprofit with 70 member organizations from all five boroughs, the Hispanic Federation issued its recommendations at a virtual press conference on Tuesday, hours before the final debate of this year’s mayoral election, between Democratic nominee Eric Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, which it was co-sponsoring.

The 71-page “La Gran Manzana: The Road Ahead For New York City’s Latino Community” offers more than 550 specific recommendations for how city government should address social disparities that disproportionately affect the city’s broad and diverse Latino community. They are broken down into ten policy areas including increasing Latino appointments in city government, bolstering Latino nonprofits, investing in education for Latino students, supporting immigrants, environmental justice, and more.

Specific recommendations of the blueprint include items like ensuring that the next New York City Council Speaker is Latino and increasing New York City’s Nonprofit Stabilization Fund to $50 million over a five-year period to support people of Latino-led nonprofit organizations.

“[COVID-19] has attacked our friends, caused families to mourn the loss of loved ones, skyrocketed economic instability to levels not seen in generations, closed businesses, and left a learning gap among our children,” said Frankie Miranda, President and CEO of the Hispanic Federation and host of the event, at the Zoom press conference. “La Gran Manzana clearly outlines how our government can take bold action to meaningfully empower Latinos and support a comprehensive, fair and equitable recovery from the pandemic across the socio-economic spectrum.”

He was among a number of Latino organization leaders, also including Maria Lizardo of the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, Marco Carrión of El Puente, and Arnaldo López of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, and others, who contributed to the report and discussed it at the release.

“We're really at an inflection point of what good governance can look like in this vibrant city and this is our opportunity, and our responsibility even, to create the peace in our families and in our communities that we deserve,” said Margarita Guzman, executive director of Violence Intervention Program, a member organization of the federation and one of the press conference panelists.

The disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on New York’s Latino community, exacerbated by and exacerbating existing inequalities, is an overarching theme in the Gran Manzana (Big Apple) blueprint and throughout the press conference.

Several keys to reducing those inequalities that are included in the report are increased protections for immigrant workers, expanding loans for small businesses hurt by the  pandemic, and pushing for affordable housing and eviction protections.

A key recommendation in the blueprint is the call to increase New York City’s Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund to $50 million over a five-year period and fix issues with the administration of the fund, which provides grants to Black, Latino, and Asian-led nonprofit organizations throughout New York City that are currently serving communities where 51% are people of color and have a budget between $150,00 and $2 million. Organizers believe additional investments in such groups will galvanize more community action and build bottom-up change positively impacting Latino communities.

“New York City is long past the time when it must understand that the nonprofit sector is not only a key instrument of social change and stability, but also an economic force and multiplier in Latino communities,” the blueprint says. “The next Mayor and City Council must significantly reform the current system of contracting so that organizations do not flounder.”

At the press conference, organizers also spoke about the need to address public health issues impacting New York’s Latino community. With historical health disparities and the highest uninsured rates of any racial or ethnic group in the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic further exposed glaring healthcare challenges for Latinos in New York City, as well as other conditions like poverty and overcrowded housing that made low-income Latinos more susceptible to the highly-transmissible virus.

“We hope that the incoming administration will also embrace a commitment to erase health disparities in our city, to be an example about rebuilding a new city healthier, and also putting the wellness of our communities — not only Hispanic or Latinx, all New Yorkers — as an example to follow,” said Guillermo Chacón, Founder of the Hispanic Health Network and President of the Latino Commission on AIDS, who was one of the press conference panelists.

Participants and the report also stress the need to invest in education for Latino children in New York City and reduce school dropout rates to help more Latinx students attend colleges and universities. The Gran Manzana blueprint recommends new city officials prioritize making free full-day pre-kindergarten available to all three- and four-year-olds in New York City (an effort that is well underway), reducing class sizes, creating more after-school programs in Latino communities, and increasing the number of adult literacy and English language support programs available. It also recommends replacing New York City’s gifted and talented education program as well as the current admissions process for the city’s eight specialized high schools, lending the Hispanic Federation’s voice to an important and fraught education debate happening right now in the city.

“It is important that the city remedy the discriminatory practices in the Department of Education’s gifted and talented program and in its specialized high schools, and lay out a clear and accountable plan to dramatically and immediately improve the recruitment, admission, and retention of Latino students who are woefully underrepresented in New York’s most prestigious secondary schools,” said Soledad Hiciano, Executive Director of the Community Association of Progressive Dominicans, at the virtual press conference.

Another focus area highlighted at the event releasing the blueprint is the Federation’s call to create new support systems for immigrants in New York City. This, the document says, includes stopping wage theft from undocumented workers, assuring immigrants that the city will not cooperate with federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and supporting integration services.

“Without these increased protections and the proper support, that flame that our communities emit to light up the city and continue to make it the capital of the world is going to flicker,” said Alba Villa, Executive Director of the Coalition for Immigrant Freedom, at the press conference.

With the recommendations unveiled, Miranda turned his attention to the work he says the city’s Latino community must do through Election Day, November 2.

“From our end, we will make sure that our community gets out to vote,” Miranda said, “and that we are going to make sure that the next mayor understands that they can no longer ignore the needs of our community and we will also work with the new class of City Council members and existing Council members.”

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by Lachlan Hyatt, Gotham Gazette

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Max Politics Podcast: Eric Ulrich on His City Council Tenure, the Future of New York City and Its Republican Party


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City Council Member Eric Ulrich (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


October 26, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: Eric Ulrich on His City Council Tenure, the Future of New York City and Its Republican Party

City Council Member Eric Ulrich, a Queens Republican term-limited out of office at the end of this year, joined the show to discuss his tenure, the competitive race to replace him, his support for Democrat Eric Adams in the mayoral race, his own future, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Read more: Max Politics Podcast: Eric Ulrich on His City Council Tenure, the Future of New York City and Its...

Adams Doesn't Engage as Sliwa Repeatedly Attacks in Second and Final Mayoral Debate


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Eric Adams, left, and Curtis Sliwa, at a mayoral debate


Candidates Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa confronted each other on Tuesday at the second and final debate of the general election for New York City mayor.

The debate was co-hosted by the Campaign Finance Board, WABC-TV, The League of Women Voters of NYC, Univision 41 Nueva York, Hispanic Federation, and NAACP NYS Conference. Early voting is ongoing through October 31 and Election Day is November 2. There are about a half-dozen other candidates on the mayoral ballot as well as races for all other city government offices.

On Tuesday night, the two major party nominees for mayor largely trod the same ground as the first debate one week ago, clashing on issues that included vaccine mandates, homelessness, policing, congestion pricing, outdoor dining, taxi medallions, and more, with scattered moments of agreement between the two.

[READ: Major Differences Apparent as Adams and Sliwa Spar in First General Election Mayoral Debate]

Sliwa, a radio host and founder of the Guardian Angels, aggressively attacked Adams, the Brooklyn Borough President, on a range of issues. He attempted to tie Adams to incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democrat whose popularity has waned over his two terms in office. Sliwa, a Republican, repeatedly blamed de Blasio for the problems plaguing the city and extended that to Adams, calling him the mayor’s “partner” and “teammate” at several moments during the debate.

Adams, however, refused to take the bait on a wide variety of topics and attacks, and calmly remained focused on the camera throughout Sliwa’s broadsides while repeatedly touting specific items from his campaign agenda.

Adams and Sliwa do share some areas of consensus when it comes to certain issues around policing and education. The two candidates have both run campaigns centered on public safety and crime and, for example, they support increased use of stop-and-frisk policing if it is employed in a constitutional manner. The controversial policing tactic was heavily utilized by the NYPD under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and widely criticized for unconstitutionally targeting mainly Black and Latino young men.

Asked about an example of a proper use of stop-and-frisk, Adams, a former NYPD captain, defended the practice just after recounting how its use had traumatized his own son. If a New Yorker calls police with a reasonable suspicion – say a man with a gun in his waistband outside their house – Adams said the officer “has an obligation to stop this person, question this person, and if it escalates to another level, then he can frisk this person.”

He contrasted it with how it was used under Bloomberg, alleging the NYPD used quotas in Black and Latino communities. “That is an abuse of a tool,” he said. “A tool that's abused is no longer a tool, it's a weapon.”

Sliwa attempted to undercut Adams’ claim to be the “law and order” candidate, pointing to an interview that Adams gave on 105.1 FM’s the Breakfast Club on Tuesday morning. In the interview, Adams said he would “collaborate” with gang members to curb violent crime in the city. At the debate, Adams explained the statement as part of his “intervention and prevention” approach to crime, insisting that he wants to extricate people from gangs and rehabilitate them. Sliwa said those gang members should instead be stopped and frisked by police, “because they're the ones in retaliatory shootings and drive-bys that are causing people to have to live in solitary confinement in their neighborhoods.”

It was one of Sliwa’s many direct criticisms against Adams. Sliwa also pressed him on questions around his residency, his repeated amendment of his tax returns, his hobnobbing with wealthier New Yorkers while running to be the city’s “first blue-collar mayor,” his friendly associations with the real estate industry, and more. Adams almost exclusively looked into the camera and smiled, and repeatedly declined to respond, even when offered the chance by the moderators.

It was the second straight debate where Adams declined to shed more specific light on how often he sleeps at the Brooklyn apartment he says is his residency versus the New Jersey apartment he co-owns with his longtime partner. Nor did Adams address whether he is taking steps to deal with city inspectors who've sought to look at his garden-level dwelling.

Adams did break his focus a few times: telling Sliwa to be more "disciplined" when he was going over his allotted time and smiling when, in a round of questioning where the candidates were asked to say something nice about the other, he looked at Sliwa and smiled after Sliwa had credited Adams for promoting healthfulness. Adams had praised Sliwa for his focus on animal welfare.

There were few other similarities between the two. Both candidates want to reinstate a version of a plainclothes police unit that was disbanded by NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea last year because of a history of misconduct and abuse of power. And the two candidates also oppose the phasing out of the Gifted and Talented program at city schools, which Mayor de Blasio announced earlier this month in favor a of a universal acceleratd learning plan. Both candidates have said they would retain and expand the program.

Throughout the hour-long debate, the candidates reiterated the positions they took at the first debate. Adams supports vaccine mandates for municipal employees, congestion pricing, outdoor dining, and expanding bike lanes, while Sliwa opposes all of those.

Asked to grade Mayor de Blasio’s two terms in office and his biggest successes and failures, Sliwa offered a scathing critique, though he did praise the mayor’s successful universal prekindergarten program. “Is there a grade below D-minus? F,” Sliwa said. “The guy has been a miserable failure. He has single-handedly taken a Miley Cyrus wrecking ball to the city that we love.”

Adams gave the outgoing mayor -- a longtime ally who is said to have quietly helped Adams in the primary and publicly endorsed him in the general -- a much more favorable rating. Adams praised UPK and the IDNYC municipal identification program but said the mayor could have done better on homelessness and finding efficiencies in city agencies. “Cities are based on the success of agencies. We’re too siloed, we're hemorrhaging too much money and I want to turn that around now,” he said. “I would give him a B-plus as a grade.”

Even as the city continues to bounce back from the recession caused by the pandemic, the municipal budget reached a peak of nearly $99 billion this year thanks to a massive infusion of federal funding. In the three fiscal years ahead, budget deficits are projected to reach nearly $5 billion. At the debate, Adams did not pledge that he would not seek tax increases but did offer solutions to cut spending. He said he would institute a program to eliminate the gap (PEG) requiring between 3-5% cuts at city agencies without making any layoffs. “We’re too bureaucratic, too expensive and too difficult to do business in,” he said. “We can turn around this economy by number one, looking after the families, getting them employed. And number two, have a more efficient government.”

Sliwa said he would immediately find more funds by cutting ThriveNYC, the signature mental health initiative led by First Lady Chirlane McCray, which has shown limited results while spending upwards of $225 million per year and has been rebranded in recent months after multiple shake-ups over the years. Sliwa said he would cut down the bureaucracy at the Department of Education and redistribute funds from central office to schools. And he said he would cut taxes by opposing congestion pricing and getting rid of speed cameras. “That’s a hidden tax,” he said.

An issue that has slowly gained momentum in recent years and was raised repeatedly throughout this year’s mayoral race is the question of allowing noncitizens with work authorization and permanent residency to vote in municipal elections. City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, a prominent Adams ally, introduced the “Our City, Our Vote” bill before the Council to achieve that goal. Mayor de Blasio said in September that he has “mixed feelings” about the proposal and that his Law Department determined that it would need approval from the state Legislature.

At Tuesday’s debate, Adams reiterated his support for the proposal but in a shift parroted de Blasio’s line on state approval. “Hopefully, the state lawmakers will look at that and make a determination of what's the best thing for the city,” he said, citing the Law Department’s analysis.

Sliwa opposed the idea and bizarrely segued to falsely say Council Member Rodriguez has been living in the United States as a permanent resident on a green card. “You have to ask yourself, why after all this time would Ydanis Rodriguez not want to be a citizen of the United States?” Sliwa wondered.

Rodriguez, who is originally from the Dominican Republic and became a citizen in 2000, quickly responded to the attack on Twitter. “This was completely offensive to all immigrant New Yorkers who live in NYC but were born and raised in another country,” he wrote.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Ben Max contributed to this story.



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