Dear John,

I’ll be honest: I don’t really know how to write to you today. More than ever, it feels like we are living inside a fictional world. On top of the grim pandemic, toxic politics, and widening economic depression, the level of macabre uncertainty is really too much to take.

But still, at the end of this week when many students went back into NYC classrooms, I wanted to make sure to say a word of deep gratitude -- something I believe we all feel, but that the times have rendered us less able to express -- to our principals, teachers, custodians, and school staff.

After two delays, lots of anxiety, too many leadership failures, and massive amounts of work, hundreds of thousands of students went back into NYC classrooms this week. The usual first day of school mix of excitement and apprehension is magnified many times over this year.

Many schools still don’t have the staffing they really need to make this work (my daughter Rosa’s first day of in-person classes for her senior year in high school was postponed to next week due to lack of teachers, although her school has been doing a truly amazing job). Much anxiety remains about safety precautions and the efficacy of the test and trace program. And rising case rates in some neighborhoods threaten to undo the progress we’ve made.

We will be closely watching the case rates over the next few weeks anxiously, urging caution and social distancing, and my office will be working to make sure that targeted testing and tracing resources are helping address the upticks in Borough Park, Kensington and Windsor Terrace. The city’s health officials have been out in those neighborhoods in big numbers over the past few days, community leaders have started speaking up louder, and the NYC Health Dept has issued a new order giving City agencies the power to close businesses for repeat non-compliance with COVID-19 safety requirements.

However things go over the next few weeks, we are so grateful for the educators and families working so hard to support students to process the traumas of this year and get excited about learning again.

This article about PS 9 in Clinton Hill, where students are returning to a school where a beloved third-grade teacher died of COVID-19 in April, moved me deeply this week. The principal and teachers are working so hard to support the social and emotional well-being of their students, and to build community with their hybrid and remote students, teachers, and families.

I’m hearing stories like this from schools across our district. Our principals, teachers, custodians, and school staff are truly heroes right now. Where too many government officials have failed us, these public sector workers are doing the work (both in the classrooms and from home) that our kids, our families, our democracy, and our future depend on.

If you’re at a school in our district that has particular needs we could help address, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. And we won’t stop demanding answers and improvements from City Hall and the DOE (and the resources that are necessary from Albany and Washington).

The learning our children do this year cannot be measured by standardized tests (and we still have work to do to cancel them), but I really am hopeful that they will get a lesson in caring for one another and policies that keep all of us safe.

So, as we anxiously navigate the next few uncertain weeks, let's stay focused and not let up on the care that has gotten us this far. Get tested, keep your (physical) distance, wear a mask, and take care of each other. You can get a free test at a Health and Hospitals site, the turn around times are much faster now and there are mobile sites in cluster case areas.

Best of luck to your kids as they navigate the bumpy start of this unprecedented year. Strength and solidarity to the educators and parents trying hard to make things work.

Brad

Updates and Resources

Latest Virus Data: In NYC, there were 451 new cases identified yesterday. We have lost 23,829 people in NYC from the virus, including sadly 9 in the last few days, and 249,272 total cases have been identified in the city since the start of the pandemic. The citywide 7-day rolling average of positive test rates ticked up this week, it was 1.52% citywide today.
Local Uptick: There has been an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in several NYC neighborhoods, including very high rates in Borough Park and worrisome increases in Kensington and Windsor Terrace. We are reaching out to City Hall to make sure that increased testing, tracing, and public education are targeted here. We all have to be vigilant with our mask-wearing and social-distancing, and get tested.
Absentee Ballot Error Update: The NYC Board of Elections and their mail vendor incorrectly mailed absentee ballots to many voters who requested them (at least in Brooklyn), mixing up the ballot return envelopes of different voters. This is very distressing, at a time when our anxiety about democracy is already so high. All voters who received the ballots with errors will be mailed new ballots and should use the new ones to vote. You can also vote in person, early, starting October 24.
Eviction Confusion: Despite headlines declaring that Governor Cuomo extended the eviction moratorium until January, the moratorium that expired on October 1 was far broader than the patchwork of hardship defenses that tenants facing eviction are left to navigate. Here’s a good explanation of where things are now.
Participatory Budgeting: Submit your ideas for how to help our neighborhoods recover and rebuild from this crisis. The projects that feel most urgent this year may be different, but we are glad to still have the opportunity to work together on this most democratic of processes to make collective decisions about how to invest in our neighborhoods.
Indoor Dining at 25%: This week restaurants were allowed to open for indoor dining at 25% capacity. Indoor dining will require patrons to leave their information for contract tracing if needed. The Open Restaurants program has been made permanent and year-round, and 5th Avenue between 5th and 9th Streets was added to program this weekend.
Census Extension: Federal courts have blocked the Trump administration’s effort to cut short the Census enumeration. Counting will continue until October 31. If you have not yet, please complete the Census at my2020census.gov and tell your friends and family. If you want to volunteer to call or text New Yorkers to encourage them to fill it out, visit here.
Register to Vote: You have until October 9 to register or update your registration if you’ve moved. Visit voting.nyc for guidance on how to register. If you think you are registered, check your registration to make sure nothing has changed. Absentee ballots are being mailed out, you can request yours here.