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Pope Francis' Green New York


pope francis

Pope Francis (photo via The Vatican on flickr)


Nothing Pope Francis does is by accident.

Read the schedule of the Pope's visit here and you'll see Pope Francis' view of New York City as a home to millions and a seat of international influence. In addition to connecting personally with New Yorkers, he'll leverage New York's status as an iconic global city to reinforce his papal priorities: climate change and poverty.

The People's Pontiff will visit an East Harlem grade school that is teaching students to be stewards of the earth. He'll greet thousands of New Yorkers in a drive through Central Park, New York's green heart where 400,000 people took their first steps in the largest-ever march for climate action. And he'll deliver the opening speech at the United Nations' Summit on Sustainable Development Goals, where world leaders will try to ramp-up global efforts to ensure that poor nations are lifted up and our resources and planet are protected through investing in renewable energy.

The Pope's visit to New York comes almost exactly on the anniversary of the historic 2014 People's Climate March, which transformed the way the American public, lawmakers, and world leaders understand climate change. No longer an abstract scientific phenomenon, climate change became an immediate threat to our people and our children.

World leaders jolted to action. In the year since the march, countries have been working diligently to reach an international climate agreement curbing the planet's dangerous warming. The United States and China agreed to reduce the carbon emissions that are driving climate change. President Obama announced limits on pollution from power plants and drilling. New York State mapped out a plan to get halve our energy from renewable sources within 15 years, and New York City committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent in the next 15 years.

We've continued the momentum of the march by organizing the People's Climate Movement. Strengthening the ties between labor, faith, indigenous, and green groups, we're holding a National Day of Action on October 14. It will be an opportunity for those who have heard the Pope's call to push for big, meaningful solutions - like a global climate deal in Paris in December.

Pope Francis deepened the global climate policy discussion, penning an Encyclical articulating the moral crisis of climate change - that the poorest countries and communities who have contributed the least to climate change are the most vulnerable to its most dangerous effects.

The evidence is in the communities that have yet to recover from Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, the high rates of asthma in the South Bronx, the Native Alaskan villages that are sinking into the once-frozen Arctic Ocean, and the farmers in California's Central Valley whose fields are parched to the point of cracking, to name only a few.

Pope Francis speaks about interconnectedness and brotherhood. Seemingly divided by political boundaries, we are connected by the natural world. We are not separated by oceans - there is no greater unifying challenge than rising seas.

Pope Francis is using the world's brightest spotlight to lift up the lives of people threatened by climate change, and to hold institutions accountable to their responsibilities. Long after His Holiness' visit, we'll be working to realize the changes he calls for here in New York, and across the country. We can get it done, but it won't be a walk in the park.

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Eddie Bautista is the Executive Director of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance and an organizer of the People's Climate Movement.

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Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? E-mail editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Latest Prison Sentencing Recalls History of Legislative Corruption and Achievement


bharara poster

US Attorney Preet Bharara prosecutes corruption (photo via justice.gov)


Ex-Queens Assemblymember William Scarborough is the latest New York State legislator to be convicted of corruption. Scarborough, a lawmaker for two decades, filed 174 phony travel vouchers between 2009 and 2012 to receive more than $54,000 in unwarranted per diems. He put in for travel reimbursements on some days when he was at home in his district, not in or in transit to Albany.

Scarborough resigned his Assembly seat after being indicted last spring. He was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison for his crimes. He also received a year on state charges for misuse of campaign funds, which will be served at the same time as his federal incarceration.

But at his sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas A. McAvoy was almost apologetic for imposing the prison term. "I think essentially you're a good, decent human being who just made a mistake...a good representative of the people," he told Scarborough.

Since 1999, more than 30 state lawmakers have been forced from office due to ethical misconduct or conviction for crimes. Earlier this year, the Speaker of the Assembly and the Majority Leader of the Senate were both indicted and forced from their leadership posts.

But Judge McAvoy's comments remind us of how complicated New York politics can be. Scarborough was both a good representative of the people in his district and also a crook. New York is a politically complicated place. Appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes, legislative corruption and progressive legislation exist side by side.

Albany politics from a century or so ago provides some useful comparisons and insights.

History books often focus on corruption in the legislature in the last years of the 19th century and the opening years of the 20th, including corporations influencing legislators to secure beneficial legislation and political "bosses" unresponsive to the people heading both parties.

Senate Majority Leader Jotham Allds resigned in disgrace in 1910 after it was revealed that he had taken a bribe to kill a legislative proposal when he had been in the Assembly years earlier.

Governor William Sulzer was impeached and removed from office in 1913 for misuse of campaign funds. Legislative investigations and newspaper revelations turned out other instances of influence peddling, misuse of state funds, or other misconduct.

But during the same time period, from the late 1890s to about 1914, under governors, legislative leaders, and political bosses from both parties, the state legislature passed progressive legislation that surpassed any other state.

On the Republican side, governor Charles Evans Hughes (1907-1910) was one of the most progressive governors in the nation. He set a high tone for ethical government, reminding his fellow New Yorkers in his inaugural address that "We subordinate individual caprice to defined duty."

On the Democratic side, as historian Terry Golway demonstrates in his book "Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics," Tammany Hall, often pilloried as the embodiment of corruption, quietly backed reform measures that benefitted its urban constituency. Two Tammany Democrats destined for future greatness rose to leadership positions-- Senator Robert Wagner became Majority Leader and Assemblymember Alfred E. Smith became Assembly Majority Leader in 1911 and moved up to Speaker in 1913. Wagner later went on to a distinguished career as U.S. Senator, and Smith later became one of New York's most effective governors.

For instance, the legislature passed the state's first gun control legislation, in 1911, sponsored by a Tammany stalwart and sometime scoundrel, Assemblymember Timothy Sullivan.

It created the first state labor department in the nation.

Legislation placed severe restrictions on child labor in 1903. The legislation was quietly championed by one of New York's least remembered governors, Republican Benjamin B. Odell (1901-1905).

In the wake of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York in 1911, the legislature passed a suite of industrial fire and safety regulations that made New York the model for the rest of the nation. Wagner and Smith headed the legislative commission that investigated factory working conditions after the fire, shaped the legislation, and shepherded it through the legislature.

In 1910, New York passed the nation's first workers' compensation law, guaranteeing partial wages and support for medical expenses to workers injured on the job in a range of occupations.

Another law unified state education oversight through creation of the State Education Department.

A law was passed establishing the Health Department with broad responsibilities for public health.

Legislation was enacted that set standards prohibiting the construction of overcrowded tenement buildings and requiring adequate ventilation and fire safeguards in housing construction.

A law was passed that established the Public Service Commission to regulate railroads and other public utilities.

The legislature created a state highway commission, launching the state's 20th century road building.

The legislature also passed the state's first direct primary law.

Insurance and banking regulations were enacted or substantially strengthened.

Corrupt practices were rampant in the legislature in that era. Sometimes, there was political logrolling and occasionally do-over's. For instance, the worker's compensation law was declared unconstitutional in 1911 by the State Court of Appeals. Within two years, however, the legislature passed and voters ratified an amendment to the constitution which made it acceptable.

These accomplishments reflect the progressive spirit of the times: negotiation and pragmatic compromise between the two political parties, keep government responsive, reform it to meet real problems, use government to keep New York in the forefront of the nation on social and economic reforms. Looking back over New York State's long history, legislative accomplishments and unethical behavior sometimes seem to flourish almost side by side.

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Dr. Bruce W. Dearstyne is the author of the book The Spirit of New York: Defining Events in the Empire State's History, published in 2015 by SUNY Press.

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Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? E-mail editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Charting the Path for Immigrant Advocacy, Together


MTR rally

(photo: Make the Road NY)


Serious moments call for serious discussion, and action. And so it is with immigration politics in our country today.

Three years after President Obama's deferred action for DREAMers, two years after the Senate's passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill, and one year after the President's announcement of deferred action for parents of US citizen children and others, the movement for immigrant justice has clearly won tremendous victories.

At the same time, we continue to confront intransigence in Congress, roadblocks to immigration relief, and now a Republican presidential primary that has fueled a host of cynical anti-immigrant rhetoric.

This moment clearly calls for action—as immigrant groups around the country continue to mobilize against anti-immigrant forces and advocate for sensible federal, state, and local immigration policies—but it also warrants reflection.

And that's why, this year, New Yorkers should be extremely excited that we're hosting the National Immigrant Integration Conference (NIIC, niic2015.org), the country's largest annual conference dedicated to discussions about how to enrich our democracy by welcoming and integrating immigrants into the fabric of our nation.

To be held at the Brooklyn Marriott from December 13-15, the NIIC will bring together immigrant leaders and advocates from across the country to discuss issues like the implementation of deferred action, how to ensure workplace justice and workforce development for immigrant workers, and where our immigrant rights struggles fit into the landscape of other social movements.

And there's simply no better place to have these discussions than New York. With roughly 3 million immigrants representing nearly 40 percent of the population, 45 percent of the workforce, and 49 percent of small business owners, immigrants are an essential part of our city's dynamic economy and culture.

And, in recent years, New York City has been at the forefront of path-breaking immigrant integration policy victories, including guaranteeing language access in the provision of government services, removing immigration enforcement from Rikers Island, crafting a universal public defender program for immigrants facing deportation, and creating a municipal identification program that is open to people regardless of immigration status.

These examples offer important lessons for other parts of our nation, just as New York can continue to learn from developments throughout the country. And that's why immigrant New Yorkers and those working with our communities should be sure to join us for the NIIC, which will be co-hosted by the National Partnership for New Americans and the New York Immigration Coalition, along with Make the Road New York and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

As we move into 2016, when immigration will continue to be at the forefront of our national discussion, it's vital that our communities come together to chart our course forward. But, to do that most effectively, we need everyone in the same room together.

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Javier H. Valdés is the Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York, the largest grassroots community organization in New York offering services and organizing the immigrant community, and a member of the Fairness Coalition of Queens. On Twitter: @maketheroadny.

For more information and to register for NIIC, go to www.niic2015.org

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Have an op-ed idea or submission for Gotham Gazette? E-mail editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



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