Dear John,

The COVID-19 curve is bending, as the rate of New Yorkers coming into our hospitals slows. That is some much-needed good news, especially since it has been brought about by our collective action through physical distancing.

Let’s be clear: Tens of thousands of our neighbors remain in the hospital. Yesterday alone, a staggering 671 COVID-related deaths were reported in New York State (and we know the real number is much higher). We have many weeks ahead before we can really call things “better,” many more weeks of staying in our homes.

Still, it is time to start thinking together about “what comes next.” The next phase of this crisis will not be a rosy picture either. Fewer people will die (so long as we are diligent), and we will be able to ease some restrictions. But we need to be prepared for how long -- likely 12-18 months -- how challenging, and how economically catastrophic it is likely to be.

Since we can’t count on federal leadership, the next phase must involve a regional approach, which I was glad to hear Governor Cuomo announce today, along with the governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Rhode Island. Here’s some of what that coordinated approach must include.

First, we must put in place a coordinated plan for testing and tracing, or we will not be ready to move beyond the current phase, even if cases continue to decline. Currently, we are nowhere close to where we need to be on testing. To begin reopening, we'll need either a super-massive scale of testing (Paul Romer has called for testing everyone every 14 days), or we'll need to combine large-scale testing with invasive contract-tracing technology, which raises hard questions about feasibility, surveillance, and enforcement.

Next, we need a lot more space to quarantine people who test positive or have been in contact with someone who has. People living in crowded apartments, homeless shelters, and in our city’s jails need places to safely isolate. The City has begun making some hotel rooms available for that, but we are going to need more, on the order of tens of thousands of hotel rooms, and rapid efforts to get affordable housing ready as soon as possible to accomodate the need.

We’ll then be able to ease some restrictions, but only in a gradual and thoughtful way. Gatherings of over 50 people will still be prohibited (no sporting events, concerts, or movies). Telework will still be strongly encouraged. And we’ll need clear guidelines for a wide array of other activities, hopefully through common rules across the region, balancing public health, racial and economic equity, and civil liberties. If cases start to tick up, we’ll need to quickly ramp restrictions back up.

Regional coordination will also be needed to implement economic relief and recovery plans that do right by our frontline workers (who we now acknowledge are essential but still to do too little to pay and protect), provide assistance to those who are unemployed (including freelance and gig workers), help to bring back our small businesses, and pay extra attention to those low-income communities of color that have been hardest hit by this crisis already.

In particular, our region has benefitted massively from the work, creativity, and economic activity of millions of immigrant families -- and we continue to depend on many of these same people to harvest our food, deliver our meals, clean our workplaces, and much more. But the federal government has unconscionably excluded them from stimulus payments and unemployment insurance. So we must find a way to provide emergency cash assistance, rather than these families to lose their homes and become destitute.

In the absence of federal funds for this, we should use a regional effort here too. In the past, Governor Cuomo has objected to measures that would raise revenue from the wealthiest New Yorkers (like closing the “carried interest” loophole) out of fear that people will just move across state lines. A coordinated regional effort to implement progressive revenue approaches will be needed to address these concerns and fill in the gaps.

Finally, many seniors and people who are immunocompromised will likely need to continue to isolate for this very long time. It will take a huge and creative effort to provide not only food and medicine and supplies, but also social contact and activities to make it livable and tolerable. We’re continuing to work on this effort with Heights & Hills and Greenwich House; we’ll have more to report on that soon.

It’s a long and hard road ahead, and we will only make it through shared sacrifice, effective governance, and social solidarity. But the work we’ve done together to bend the curve shows we’re capable of it.

For me, thinking about “what comes next” is one way of committing to our shared future, and it makes it just a little bit easier to stick with the truly hard work of physical distancing. I hope it’s helpful to you as well.

Brad

In this email:
City and State Updates
Federal Updates
Upcoming Calls

City and State Updates:

Testing: New York City is expanding COVID-19 testing, opening five new testing sites in hard hit communities of color, one in each of the boroughs (in East New York, Morrisania, Harlem, Jamaica, and Clifton), and continuing to ask the federal government for increased testing capacity. New York State has also opened up five new testing sites in New York City located near communities of color—in Flatbush, Brownsville, Jamaica, the South Bronx, and at the Aqueduct Race Track near Ozone Park.
Homeless New Yorkers: Recognizing that crowded shelters are unsafe places for many vulnerable New Yorkers, the Mayor is opening up 2,500 hotel rooms for single adults without homes. This is a step in a good direction, but far less than the 30,000 rooms that homeless New Yorkers and advocates have been asking for.
Schools will remain closed: NYC students will not be going back to their physical schools for the remainder of this academic year. This is the right decision (even if the announcement was overshadowed by bickering between the Mayor and the Governor). But it’s also a really sad one (speaking as both an elected official and a public school dad). It poses so many hardships, for working parents, and for families without access to technology or educational support at home. The City is continuing to work on getting tablets to students who need them (they have distributed 66,000 and have 250,000 more to go), and are working to set up more support systems for parents and planning how to make up for learning loss next year. My office will continue working to come up with new ways to provide resources and support for parents. Please reach out with questions or ideas for what you would find helpful.
Food security: The City Council worked with the Mayor to allocate $25 million in emergency funding to support emergency food providers across New York City, including food pantries, mobile pantries, soup kitchens and non-profit organizations to increase their capacity to meet increased food costs, additional staffing needs, new safety supplies, and the ability to deliver food items directly to seniors who are now home-bound.
Blood Plasma Donations: The New York Blood Center is collecting blood plasma donations from people who have recovered from COVID-19 to treat other patients. Find out more and sign up here.
Alternate Side-Parking will be suspended for an additional two weeks through April 28.

Federal Updates

The federal stimulus funds are beginning to be dispersed this week. The IRS will be sending $1200 to people who make under $75,000 annually, with an additional $500 per child, and smaller checks for people who make up to an annual income of $99,000. Direct deposits for people whose bank information is on file with the IRS will begin this week, and the IRS plans to launch an online tool where people can track their stimulus check in the coming days. It will take weeks longer to get a check in the mail, and many millions of immigrants who pay taxes with an ITIN number rather than a social security number are excluded from the checks.
Congress continues to debate a fourth relief package. Last week, a Republican proposal to add $250 billion for small businesses was blocked by Democrats pushing for a relief program that provides more funds from hospitals, frontline workers, food assistance, and states and cities. Advocates, community organizations, unions and policymakers around the country have outlined a 5-part “People’s Bailout” with principles for what just recovery efforts must include, learn more about it here.

Upcoming Calls

Thursday, April 16 from 6:30 to 7:45 PM: Organizing for Justice During COVID-19 with Brad Lander, Get Organized BK, and Persist Brooklyn

Join us to learn about and get plugged into advocacy efforts for vulnerable populations during COVID-19 and a just recovery from the economic effects of the crisis. We will hear from organizers working on worker's rights, supporting immigrants, climate justice, decarceration, housing rights, and safeguarding democracy and learn about ongoing campaigns and how to get involved. Register here.

Friday, April 17 from 3:00 to 4:00 PM: Resources for Parents Webinar in Mandarin

The next iteration of our webinar to provide information about remote learning, DOE resources, and other information and support for parents of schoolchildren during COVID-19 will be in Mandarin next Friday. Details in Mandarin are on the registration page here.

As always, our regularly updated resource page is available here.