Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

coronavirus

coronavirus

  • State Budget Includes Extensive Cutbacks But We Don’t Know What They Are Yet

    gov cuomo enacted budget highlights

    Governor Cuomo gives a budget presentation (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    New York State and City are the gruesome public health epicenter of COVID-19, with horrific daily death tolls. The coronavirus is likely causing New York to also be the economic epicenter of the nation’s staggering job and economic loss, although those are statistics that will play catch up.

    New York State’s fiscal year is April 1 to the following March 31, so the Governor and the Legislature just adopted a new budget (slightly

    ...
  • 'No New Yorker Goes Hungry': De Blasio Announces Next Steps to Combat Food Emergency

    hunger food pantry

    De Blasio visits a food pantry in Brooklyn (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    As the coronavirus crisis was unfolding in New York City last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio named his sanitation commissioner, Kathryn Garcia, as the new “food czar” to lead the implementation of a massive effort to ensure New Yorkers don’t go hungry. With the city already home to over a million “food insecure” people, the scale of the need accelerated quickly as hundreds of thousands of New

    ...
  • Tapping Reserves for $4 Billion and Cutting Proposed Spending by $6 Billion, De Blasio Presents $89.3 Billion Executive Budget

    mayor budget fiscal

    Mayor de Blasio at a prior budget briefing (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


    With the sobering reality presented by the coronavirus pandemic that has shut down major sectors of New York City’s economy, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday released a significantly pared down $89.3 billion executive budget proposal for the 2021 fiscal year, a staggering $6 billion drop from his preliminary budget plan put forth in January. To do so, the mayor identified dozens of cuts and spending reassessments across city agencies, from modifying school programs to keeping the

    ...
  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Senator Michael Gianaris on 'Canceling Rent' & Other Responses to the Coronavirus Crisis

    1 senator gianaris wbai 600

    State Senator Michael Gianaris (photo: Senator Michael Gianaris/flickr)


    April 15, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Senator Michael Gianaris on 'Canceling Rent' & State Senate Priorities

    michael gian senate 150

    State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat who is the Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate, joined the show to discuss his push to

    ...
  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Dr. Mary Bassett on the Coronavirus Pandemic

    2 mayor bdb ferry harbor wbai600

    Dr. Mary Basset with Mayor de Blasio (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    April 15, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Dr. Mary Bassett on the Coronavirus Pandemic

    dr mary basset wbai 150Dr. Mary Bassett, formerly New York City health commissioner and now director of the The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, joined the

    ...
  • New Reports Paint Bleak Picture of New York City Economy, Budget

    bdb 200 citywide

    New York City economy is at a standstill (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    Economists and budget experts concede that they can make no concrete predictions about how long the economy will be in recession because of the novel coronavirus outbreak and the cumulative effects it will have on jobs and revenue. Nonetheless, the consequences that they have been able to forecast show that the city has a tough road ahead, experiencing a worse downturn than in the early 1970s as 1.2 million jobs have already been lost and, with extreme social distancing

    ...
  • Amid 'Really Tough Process' Adjusting to Coronavirus Recession, De Blasio Set to Release Executive Budget

    de Blasio city budget coronavirus executive

    Mayor de Blasio gives a budget presentation (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    For his first six years in office, Mayor Bill de Blasio enjoyed the fruits of a booming economy and massively increased the size and cost of city government. But this week, he will present his executive budget proposal for the 2021 fiscal year facing a possible $6 billion revenue shortfall, hundreds of millions in cuts and cost shifts from the state, and almost complete uncertainty about the future as the coronavirus outbreak continues with New York

    ...
  • Coronavirus Widens Digital Divide, But Creates Opportunity to Finally Bring All Into 21st Century

    mayricca

    Students and laptops, eyeing the digital divide (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Among the many lessons the coronavirus outbreak is teaching us about our society is that we are not prepared to live in the 21st century, particularly residents in low-income communities with little or no access to much-needed technology.

    This century is a time of continued uncertainty, in which established norms change overnight and disruptions are being regularly caused by natural and man-made disasters. Our largely interconnected globe means that the spread of information,

    ...
  • The Coronavirus Crisis Must Open Our Eyes to the Flaws of the New New York

    mbdb housing pres dev

    Mayor de Blasio at a supportive housing site (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayor's Office)


    As our great city faces its most challenging crisis in the past 100 years, it has revealed to all of us how the city has radically changed in the past few decades.

    The virus has now put a spotlight on the critical shortage of hospital beds and medical equipment like ventilators. In fact New York City ICU bed capacity ranks in the bottom quarter nationally. If you have lived in the city for over 40 years, as I have, you likely recall how many hospitals have

    ...
  • Surveillance and The City: A New York Dictatorship?

    Cuomo coronavirus briefing power Albany

    Gov. Cuomo at one of his coronavirus briefings (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)


    The consequences of poor social distancing, inadequate supply chains, and nearly every other facet of our COVID-19 calamity are nothing short of life and death. But as New York endures a disaster unlike any in our lifetimes, as we see our morgues filled and our store shelves stripped bare, this teeming tidal wave of death might upend most fundamental assumptions about our way of life.

    We are about to face a deeply dangerous moment, not

    ...
  • Coronavirus Tests New York City Schools

    mabdb covid

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Mayor de Blasio faced a short-answer, timed test: whether and when to close New York City's public schools. It was not an easy question. But his delay in answering and failure to adequately prepare has been costly in lives and learning. We continue to pay the price.

    Even where the coronavirus outbreak was less severe and despite ambiguous advice from the CDC, district after district, state after state, had already decided to close their schools. But de Blasio hung on, ignoring dire warnings of community spread from his own

    ...
  • A 'Human Rights Tragedy' Unfolding - Part II: The ER was Their Only Source of Care Before the Pandemic Hit

    hospitals and emergency rooms in new york city

    Emergency rooms are overflowing amid the coronavirus outbreak (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    [This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one: A 'Human Rights Tragedy' Unfolding - Part I: Racial Bias and Life-Saving Care During the Coronavirus Pandemic]

    Dr. Yomaris Peña begins each day at 4:30 a.m. as a primary care provider in

    ...
  • Upstate Summer Camps for City Kids: Start Planning Now

    enrichment act

    Students enjoying enrichment activities at a Fresh Air Fund Camp (photo: Fresh Air Fund)


    The crisis in New York City apartments and neighborhoods grows by the day. Social distance saves lives, but the effects of long-term isolation on families and children will be felt for years unless creative action is taken now.

    New York State needs to plan and develop a system of large sleep-away summer camps upstate for city kids who are otherwise facing many months of life in overcrowded apartments. As the temperature rises, and school reopening is delayed, so will

    ...
  • Where Governor Cuomo is Turning a Blind Eye to Coronavirus Spread and Must Take Life-Saving Action Now

    Cuomo prisons coronavirus

    Gov. Cuomo tours a prison (photo: Governor's Office)


    At the time of this writing, more than 287 detainees in New York City jails and 441 Department of Correction staff members have tested positive for the new coronavirus, COVID-19. Each of these men and women have friends and family members who wake up every morning, desperately hoping not to receive that dreaded call they know is increasingly possible. And there are thousands more families with loved ones in state

    ...
  • Privilege Trumps Priority in Black and Brown Communities, Again

    Donovan Richards

    Council Member Donovan Richards, the author (photo: Jeff Reed/City Council)


    The lack of coronavirus testing sites in poor communities and particularly communities of color is costing black and brown New Yorkers their lives. There is no clearer example of institutional racism than the different infection and mortality rates during this crisis. It is a scar on our nation and our city. In areas of New York City that already experience the highest rates of asthma, diabetes, and other underlying conditions, this virus has already proven to be a death

    ...
  • Cuomo Announces Absentee Voting for All in June; What to Know

    Cuomo voting New York

    Gov. Cuomo votes, in person (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that he will use his executive authority to allow all New Yorkers to vote by absentee ballot for the June 23 elections, to prevent long lines at the polls that could put people at risk of being exposed to the coronavirus. Elections that day will include party primaries for many seats and special elections open to all voters within the relevant districts.

    “I've seen lines of people on television voting in other states.

    ...
  • Next Steps to Ensure Voter Access Amid Coronavirus

    mbdb flcm co

    Major questions about voting during coronavirus hang in the balance (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    As the American people hunker down under a patchwork of evolving emergency orders and health directives, our communities are grappling with extraordinary circumstances disrupting and reorienting our lives and the economy. To flatten the curve of community spread during the increasingly deadly COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Cuomo has placed New York on PAUSE; Health officials have issued stay-at-home and social distancing directives; schools, playgrounds, and non-essential

    ...
  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Coronavirus in Queens & the New State Budget

    1 jessica ramos senwbai

    (photo: NY Senate Media Services)


    April 08, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Coronavirus in Queens & the New State Budget

    jessica ramos wbaiState Senator Jessica Ramos represents a Queens district hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic; she joined the show to discuss its impact on her constituents, how the city and state have responded, and the

    ...
  • Max & Murphy Podcast: City Council Member Carlina Rivera on Hospital Oversight Amid Coronavirus

    2 city council ant carwbai

    Council Member Rivera visits a hospital (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    April 08, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: City Council Member Carlina Rivera on Hospital Oversight Amid Coronavirus

    carlina rivera 150wbaiCity Council Member Carlina Rivera, chair of the Council's hospitals committee, joined the show to discuss her oversight of the city's response to the

    ...
  • Coronavirus Threatens to Perpetuate Generational Inequality, Leaving Young People Behind Yet Again

    17 sots address

    Young people are again in highly precarious positions as the economy crumbles (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    If we have learned anything from the Great Recession just a decade ago, it’s that young adult generations that enter the labor market in an economic downturn are at a serious disadvantage, impacting their ability to successfully launch a career and reach financial security and self-sufficiency like the generations before

    ...
  • The Coronavirus is Contributing to Environmental Unconsciousness, But Could Set the Stage for a Just Transition

    mayor exec reliiance

    Coronavirus presents an additional challenge & opportunity (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Our atmosphere is getting a breath of fresh air, but it’s not because of the Paris Agreement or any political awakening to the climate crisis. It’s because of the new coronavirus, COVID-19. Yet even as emissions fall and we put our highly-carbonized business-as-usual on pause (from fewer people and planes flying to less driving and overall

    ...
  • A 'Human Rights Tragedy' Unfolding - Part I: Racial Bias and Life-Saving Care During the Coronavirus Pandemic

    5 mbdb management

    Mayor de Blasio, a ventilator, and two doctors (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    As government officials anticipate a wave of coronavirus patients overwhelming the New York City hospital system within days or weeks, the question of how racial disparities in health care will impact who dies of COVID-19 and the disaster's long-term public health fallout loom large and, as yet, unaddressed.

    Differences in access to quality care for African-Americans and other people of color are ...

  • Coronavirus Crisis Worsens Challenges Faced by Women and Reaffirms Need to Elect More Women to Office

    covid exacerbate

    Most members of the New York City Council Women's Caucus (photo: @vanessalgibson)


    The coronavirus pandemic amplifies many of society's systemic gender inequalities, magnified by race, class, and immigration status. Women, who have continued to carry the burdens of “women’s work” into the 21st century, are disproportionately impacted by this crisis, and women of color in New York City will fare the worst. 

    As nearly 50 women candidates running in the 2021 city election cycle and other women leaders, we have joined together to call attention to these

    ...
  • Resources: How New Yorkers Can Access Help with Food, Unemployment, Health Care, Domestic Violence, Small Businesses, & More

    1 cm carlina rivera baruch

    (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    As the coronavirus outbreak causes more and more health, social, and economic damage, many New Yorkers need help. Below is a guide to some available resources (please let us know if there’s something we should add).

    For updates from New York City about the pandemic, you can text the word “COVID” to 692-692, or “COVIDESP” to 692-692 for the same notifications in Spanish. 

    Unemployment Insurance
    If you lost your job due to the coronavirus outbreak and its fallout,

    ...
  • How 2021 Mayoral Candidates Have Initially Responded to Coronavirus Crisis One Will Inherit

    how mayoral

    Three of the leading 2021 mayoral candidates (photo: Gotham Gazette)


    It took merely three weeks from the first case of the coronavirus being confirmed in the city to thousands of New Yorkers testing positive for the virus. The scale of the outbreak has presented an emergency of a scope that the city has perhaps never before faced. The aftermath of the crisis will be felt well into the future and in 2022, the effects it will have on the city’s people, its economy, and its politics will be inherited by whoever takes the helm at City Hall.

    Next year, Mayor Bill de Blasio will in

    ...