Dear John,

I find that I’m losing track of time a lot these days. One Zoom call fades into the next. The weather changes a little, but each day looks basically the same. February feels like years ago. Our daughter Rosa learned yesterday that camp (where she was set to be a counselor-in-training) is cancelled, so summer will lose much of what defines it. The future can feel so uncertain that it’s hard to make plans.

But as we work to design and implement plans to reopen our state and city, we can’t afford to be short-sighted. The steps we take to get ready for reopening, slowly and responsibly in the near term, have to align with the solutions we need for the long term.

On testing and tracing, it’s clear that we need to quickly scale up our capacity to address new spikes in infection, isolate the spread of the virus, and make people feel safe as they reenter society. Many of us are concerned that moving this responsibility out of the Health Department, which has handled testing, tracing, and public health outreach for past outbreaks, is a short-sighted decision.

The Council will hold an oversight hearing on Friday morning at 10 am, chaired by Council Members Mark Levine and Carlina Rivera, to ensure that we are pursuing the most effective path forward on testing and tracing (you can watch it here). I’ll also be asking about the NYC Public Health Corps idea I wrote about last week, not only for testing and tracing, but also supporting people in isolation, social distancing compliance, and other key aspects of the recovery.

We also need the right mix of short-term action and long-term planning for mass transit. As I wrote in CityLab today, this is not the time for NYC to give up on the subway. We won’t survive without it. The city’s growth, development, economy, and psyche are built around the subways. Transit is how we get to work, to school, to our friends, to Broadway, to the beach. There’s no other way to re-open our city’s economy.

In the article, I sketch out a four-part plan for saving mass transit, for the short and longer term. Right now, our subways and buses are almost exclusively used by essential workers, who are still making 1 million trips a way to hospitals, nursing homes, warehouses, and grocery stores. But the subway is one of the few public systems shared by New Yorkers across lines of race and class, where janitors and home health-aides ride side-by-side with bankers and lawyers. That’s what makes it so quintessentially New York, and why we have to do the work to make sure it can succeed in the months and decades to come.

I know many people are beginning to get pandemic fatigue. Staying home is financially unfeasible for many, and makes almost all of us stir-crazy. And that’s made worse here in NYC with the sense that there’s a long road ahead to opening back up.

One thing I found helpful was this article in The Atlantic by infectious disease epidemiologist Julia Marcus about taking a “harm reduction” approach to the next phase of this crisis. We cannot eliminate all the risk, but we can take short-term steps that reduce the likelihood of transmission now and set us up for a more healthy, equitable and sustainable society in the long term.

What does harm reduction look like for the coronavirus? First, policy makers and health experts can help the public differentiate between lower-risk and higher-risk activities; these authorities can also offer support for the lower-risk ones when sustained abstinence isn’t an option…

Second, health experts can also acknowledge the contextual factors that affect both a person’s decisions and their risk of coronavirus transmission. Some people are seeking human contact outside of their households because of intense loneliness or anxiety. We can also acknowledge that some people can’t comply with public-health guidance because of structural factors, including systemic racism, that render physical distancing a privilege.

I’ll bring Dr. Marcus’ harm reduction framing to my questions for the NYC Health Department at Friday morning’s hearing. And also to my conversation with Rosa about what she’s going to do this summer, now that camp is cancelled. Hope it’s a little bit helpful to you as well.

Brad

In this email:
City, State and Federal Updates
Upcoming Virtual Events

City and State Updates

Latest impacts: The number of NewYorkers who we have lost to the pandemic is now over 20,000. The City reported 15,101 confirmed deaths and 5,136 likely deaths from the virus. 48,939 have been hospitalized and 184,319 positive cases have been identified. A new study from the CDC shows that the toll may be even worse.
State Budgeting: The State Comptroller is expected to issue a financial report on May 15, which may prompt more proposed cuts from the Governor. State legislative leaders have said they are waiting for the federal government to clarify what next relief may be available to states, but legislators may need to act sooner to stave off deep cuts to education and healthcare. Changes to the state budget will of course affect the ongoing conversations between the City Council and the Administration over the City’s budget, which is due June 30th.
Nursing homes: Governor Cuomo backtracked from a much criticized directive that required nursing homes to admit patients with coronavirus who were discharged from the hospital, after thousands of deaths in centers housing vulnerable New Yorkers. In an attempt to get a handle on the outbreak in nursing homes, staff will also be tested twice a week.
Rent and Evictions: Last week the Rent Guidelines Board took a preliminary vote on a rent freeze for 1 year leases for regulated apartments and a 1% increase for 2 year leases. The final vote, which will only apply to regulated units, is expected on June 17. Meanwhile Governor Cuomo extended eviction protections for some tenants who qualify for unemployment or can otherwise demonstrate financial hardship from COVID-19 from June to August. Tenants will also be able to use their security deposit for rent, but the deposit will need to be repaid within three months.
Pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome: Two more children died over the weekend of an inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the coronavirus, and more cases have been identified in NYC but the symptoms still seem to be extremely rare. The symptoms include prolonged fever, rash, and swelling.
Social distancing ambassadors: After data was released showing that summonses and arrests for social distancing were predictably disproportionately people of color, the de Blasio administration announced it was assigning up to 2300 non-NYPD municipal employees as “social distancing ambassadors.”
Shelter for homeless New Yorkers: Advocates and service providers are worried about the impact on people who seek shelter in the subways, who now are being kicked out between 1 and 5 am. The majority of people removed from subways refused to go to dangerous, congregate shelters, and the administration ended up using buses outside some end-of-line stations to house people overnight as temperatures dropped over the weekend.
Extended health benefits for families: In response to calls for city workers who died from the pandemic to be treated as line of duty deaths, the City is extending health benefits to families of city workers who died for 45 days.
Resources for small businesses: SBS is hosting webinars on resources for small businesses impacted by COVID-19 focused on financial assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration and other private organizations; tax, debt, and utilities relief; marketing and employee support; and regulatory changes. View the full list of webinars here.
Alternate side parking resuming temporarily: Alternate side parking has been suspended for months now, but will be resuming for one week beginning Sunday May 18 for street cleaning. It will be suspended again for the two weeks after that.
New Congressional Relief Proposal: Today House Democrats unveiled the HEROES Act, a $3 trillion relief package that includes some good things, including the fixes we have asked for to the Paycheck Protection Program, more funding for the MTA, funding for election reforms, mortgage relief and rental assistance, and $200 billion for hazard pay for essential workers. The bill includes another round of one-time stimulus payments, rather than the regular payments that some have proposed or Rep. Jayapal’s strong Paycheck Guarantee proposal. Detailed analyses of the 1,800 page bill are still coming out, but House leadership is pushing for a vote as soon as Friday on the legislation.

Upcoming Virtual Events:

Thursday, May 14 at 2 PM: Justice in Action conversation series on educational equity. Register here.

This week’s Justice in Action conversation series that I host with Ruth Messinger in partnership with the Marlene Meyerson JCC will focus on longstanding educational inequities that have been affected by the pandemic. We will be joined by guests Khary Lazarre-White, co-founder of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, an organization that provides comprehensive, holistic, and long-term support services to youth in Harlem, and Jose Luis Vilson, a full-time math teacher in Inwood/Washington Heights and co-founder of EduColor, an organization that seeks to elevate the voices of public school advocates of color on educational equity and justice.

Wednesday, May 13 at 8:45 PM: Community Iftar. Register here.

Hosted by Arts and Democracy and ArtBuilt, the annual iftar is an integral event in Kensington that brings together neighbors from all walks of life to break fast together during Ramadan (we had over 300 guests last year!). This year we will be virtual, but we’ll be joined by an array of fantastic poets and writers as well as musical performances from Yacouba Sissoko and Hadi and Mohamad Eldebek of the Brooklyn Nomads.

Thursday, May 14 at 6:30 PM: Forum for Freelancers on Intro. 1926. Register here.

Join me for a discussion about Intro. 1926, my bill that would extend the New York City Sick & Safe Leave law to certain independent contractors. We will discuss the details of the bill, including who the bill will impact and who is covered by the exemptions, and solicit feedback from the freelance community.