Dear John,

With COVID-19 cases on the rise around the country, there are now more than 40 states on the list for mandatory quarantine if you travel back to New York. Health officials are strongly discouraging “non-essential” travel even to our neighboring states of New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

At the beginning of this pandemic, we created a framework for approaching risk in our activities through the lens of what is “essential.” We honored the essential workers, not only in our hospitals, but also in grocery stores, sanitation, power, and transit systems – the activities necessary to keep society functioning.

It’s not an easy framework. If you work on Broadway, and you need your income to pay your rent, then it sure feels essential to you (really, wherever you work does). With hindsight, I think we got some things pretty clearly wrong: day-care and schools are more essential than gyms, or restaurants, or retail, as important as those all are. But we did not make them nearly high enough priorities.

Still: the general principle of diminishing non-essential risk, especially in areas where Covid-19 cases are rising, is a good one to follow. That’s why I broadly supported the decision by Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio to institute “hot zone” closures that shut down businesses and schools in parts of southern Brooklyn two weeks ago (despite very real frustration at how sloppily they were implemented).

The “micro clusters” as we are now calling them, have seen a surge in dedicated testing and contact-tracing, along with increased public health outreach. The influx of targeted resources and closures seems to have helped to reduce the positivity rates and begin turning the tide in those areas.

Here’s what the Governor announced yesterday:

Red Zone - Remain Red, with schools and non-essential businesses closed.
Orange Zone - Become Yellow, with businesses allowed to open as soon as tomorrow, and schools to reopen for hybrid learning on Monday.
Yellow Zone - Stay Yellow, with businesses and schools open, including schools that had been closed under the Mayor’s zip code plan initially.

This means non-essential businesses in Kensington and Windsor Terrace that had been closed, will be able to reopen, and hybrid learning students in schools in the 11218 zip code will go back to classes starting on Monday. They will continue to receive extra testing and public health outreach.

While I support targeted closures, the approach remains puzzling and maddening. The designation of the borders of the zones was confusing and haphazard, with lines drawn through blocks with little communication or reasoning. We don’t know what geographies are being evaluated, or what measures used. There’s no easy way to look at a map of your block or neighborhood (but there is now a place to look up the rules for your address). Principals, teachers, students, parents, business owners, and employees have to wait for dueling press conferences, with rules that can change daily.

Still, as hard as it is, and as frustrated as we are with the lack of clear leadership, we all have to stay very vigilant. Cases are rising outside of the hot zones. So our job must be to do everything possible with social distancing, mask wearing, testing and tracing, quarantining and isolation after (potential) exposure. I’m getting tested about once-a-week at this point -- and I’m encouraged by the fact that it’s gotten easier and faster.

Unfortunately, we are collectively failing to meet the essential needs of many. An estimated 1.5 million New Yorkers are facing hunger, more than 13% are out of work, an unknown number of children have not connected with remote schooling, and more than 75,000 are still waiting for devices. We have not stopped the rent from piling up, we have not passed legislation to give protections to essential workers, and we have not done enough to provide relief for small businesses. This week Congress is once again discussing a federal relief package, which partisan fighting has put on the back burner even as families struggle. The legislature in Albany has not met since July, and here in NYC our ability to act independently is limited, especially without a different approach to the budget.

We desperately need efforts at all levels of government to help families get the essentials of what they need to get through this crisis and live healthy, dignified lives. With a little good luck, and a lot of ongoing effort, hopefully some big things will start to change soon, in the direction of solidarity.

I’m grateful to everyone who is providing mutual aid, supporting neighbors, demanding better of your representatives, and organizing for justice. We need all of it.

Brad

In this email:
Updates and Resources
Upcoming Events

Updates and Resources

Latest Virus Data: In NYC, there were 436 new cases identified yesterday. We have lost 23,949 people in NYC from the virus, including sadly 7 in the last few days, and 260,762 total cases have been identified in the city since the start of the pandemic. The citywide 7-day rolling average of positive test rates was 1.68% and rates are still high in the red zones.
Parental Consent for Testing: If your child is attending in person blended learning school, please fill out the consent form to enable them to be tested for COVID-19 at school so that we can have an accurate picture of how schools are doing at keeping everyone safe and the virus at bay.
Get Tested: You can make an appointment for a free rapid COVID-19 virus test at multiple COVID Express sites throughout the city.
Get a Flu Shot: Getting the seasonal flu shot this year is more important than ever to protect each other. Flu shots are available at most drug stores or Health and Hospitals sites, more info here.
Donate Laptops to Students: Parent leaders at M.S. 88 are collecting laptops for students. Devices are backordered and hard to come by, so they are asking community members to ask their IT departments if they have extra devices to donate. If you have access to extra devices, contact us at [email protected].
Dial a Teacher Program: UFT Dial a Teacher is up & running for the school year. K-12 students and their parents or caregivers are invited to call 212-777-3380 or visit the Dial-A-Teacher website Mondays through Thursdays between 4 and 7 p.m. to get free homework help from a licensed teacher. Many of the teachers are bilingual, so Dial-A-Teacher can assist students and families in 10 languages, including Armenian, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, Haitian-Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Tagalog.
Make a Plan to Vote: If you haven’t already, you can request an absentee ballot here. Early voting starts this weekend on October 24, and is a great option for those who are able and comfortable going in person. You can look up your early voting poll site here.
Evictions Update: On Monday Governor Cuomo announced that the state moratorium on commercial evictions will be extended until January 1. NY courts last week allowed residential evictions to move forward, upending and complicating even further the patchwork of moratoriums that continue to protect some tenants. More details here.
Participatory Budgeting: Submit your ideas for how to help our neighborhoods recover and rebuild from this crisis.
Tell DOT where new CitiBike stations are needed: The DOT is taking suggestions about where new CitiBike stations should be placed in South Slope, Windsor Terrace and Sunset Park. Take a look at the map and submit ideas here.

Upcoming Events

Thursday, October 22 at 6 PM: CB6 Land Use and Landmarks Committee Meeting on the Gowanus Neighborhood Rezoning. Register here.

The Department of City Planning will present about the Gowanus Neighborhood Plan and the plan for public engagement as they get ready to start the public review process in the coming months. You can read more about how I’m thinking about the proposed Gowanus Neighborhood Rezoning here. Community Board 6 is collecting written feedback here and you can sign up to offer public comment at tomorrow’s meeting here.

Friday, October 23 from 2:30 to 4 PM: Participatory Budgeting Pop-Up in the Park Slope Library Reading Garden. [Rescheduled from last Friday due to rain]

Drop by to discuss and submit participatory budgeting ideas in the Park Slope Library Reading Garden (a PB-funded project!) on 6th Avenue and 9th Street.