After the very difficult experience with the coronavirus, with the creation of the vaccine, in keeping with the hopeful message from the authorities, that we are before a light at the end of the tunnel, New Yorkers hope that the slow recovery is building reactivation of the economy.
The COVID pandemic – 19 continues to hit the state and city hard. Statewide, through Wednesday 29, the Governor’s office reported 29, 756 deaths, of which, according to the Mayor’s Office, 27, 008 correspond to New York City.
Trump, his failed reelection and immigrants
New York suffered like no other state the attacks of the Trump Administration that, mired in the political race and to ingratiate itself with its electoral base, targeted the sanctuary cities and states that protect the immigrant community. Perhaps the action that would definitively mark the course of the contest by the Republican was his intention to exclude undocumented immigrants from the Census 2020 by means of a question about citizenship, which he had to withdraw before the decision of the Supreme Court.
This and the harsh anti-immigrant policies that he promoted from the beginning of his administration contributed to creating a movement of commitment to participation in the electoral process that was decisive in leading to the triumph of Democrat Joe Biden.
Both Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Attorney General General of the State, Letitia James, were forced to initiate several actions to stop executive orders and immigration restrictions such as the “public charge” rule, aimed at reducing access to health services, to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP ) and other social benefits.
In defense that hi zo the New York City Mayor’s Office on the SNAP program said its removal would deny access to food assistance to more than 50, 01 people in the Big Apple and would put tens of thousands of vulnerable people across New York State at risk of starvation.
Rezonings and affordable housing midway
One of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s workhorses since 2014 was his housing plan to preserve and create 244. 000 affordable housing units citywide for 2026, promoting the rezoning of neighborhoods in the city’s counties.
The objective through the Housing New York plan, has taken most of the De Blasio administration, which is about to end in 2021. To date, it has managed to fulfill the rezoning in East New York, Downtown Far Rockaway, East Harlem, Jerome Avenue, Bay Street and Inwood, but not before going through tortuous battles as it was in this last neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, whose final approval is gave in court. Others, such as Sunset Park in Brooklyn, ended up being dismissed by the opposition of the community and leaders, in this case, Councilor Carlos Menchaca, who believe that the rezoning would generate a “supergentrification” and displacement of residents in this area of The city where many Latinos live.
Currently Bushwick and Gowanus, in Brooklyn, Southern Boulevard, in The Bronx and in the coastal area of Flushing, in Queens are facing pending proposals.
Although the Mayor proposed to rezone until 15 neighborhoods during his administration, attempting to cover the deficit of The city’s affordable housing will have to be retaken by his successor to mayor. According to figures from the New York City Housing Preservation and Development Department (HPD), 145, 933 affordable housing representing a city investment of $ 6.6 billion.
The expected moratorium on tenant evictions
The main tenant advocacy organizations were relieved by the new extension of the moratorium, approved on Monday 29 December by the Legislature and signed into law by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo imposed a moratorium on home evictions at the start of the COVID pandemic- 20 to prevent New Yorkers from having to overburden the housing courts, as well as widespread homelessness, as e a number of industries stood still in the interest of stopping the spread.
The COVID Foreclosure Prevention and Emergency Evictions Act – 20 (S. 9114 / A. 11181) prevents residential evictions, foreclosure proceedings, credit discrimination, and negative credit reports related to the COVID pandemic- 19. It also extends the exemption for senior homeowners and the exemption for disabled homeowners.
The National Council of State Housing Agencies commissioned a report earlier this year estimating that New York could face a rent deficit of up to $ 3.4 billion in January.
Hispanics who seek to replace De Blasio
A large list of candidates is preparing to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio, including at least two candidates of Hispanic origin: current councilor Carlos Menchaca and activist Dianne Morales. Rubén Diaz Jr., the county president of the Bronx, withdrew from the race in the middle of the year while also announcing that he will leave the political arena.
Menchaca, of 46 years old, the son of Mexican immigrants and the first in his family to go to university, he could be the first Latino and the first openly homosexual mayor if elected.
“Without a doubt, These are tough times, but we must rise to that challenge with a bold progressive plan and not regress to the status quo that has failed us. We need a mayor who stands up to the rich and powerful and puts our communities first, ”he declared in a video in Spanish, released simultaneously with the announcement of his application,” Menchaca, who represents the District 40 in the Council.
Menchaca was the mentor of the IDNYC program of the city, the largest municipal identification program in the country and was among the councilors this year who voted against budget of 2021 amid a struggle to withdraw funds and reinvest $ 1 billion of the NYPD. The axes of his campaign, which he claims to seek “New Days for New York City”, will be focused on: improving police surveillance, climate change, traffic, housing and development.
For his part, Morales, of Puerto Rican descent, was the executive director of Phipps Neighborhoods, a non-profit organization that promotes social services in the Bronx. He resigned from that position earlier this year to run for mayor.
“We’ve had 109 mayors in New York. We had a black mayor. No woman. None Latino. None indigenous. None Asian. I am not a traditional candidate because I have not spent my life competing for work, ”she said at the launch of her campaign, which seeks to become the first Latina mayor of the city, proposing a progressive platform in the midst of several long-standing politicians.
Morales supports that the budget for the Police has been reduced. He argues that the policemen have served as soldiers for the mass incarceration of minorities. NYPD money must be reallocated to youth programs, parks, and transportation. The applicant will seek to create a Community First Aid Department to take over some public safety functions, including calls to 911 for mental illness and substance abuse. He has also proposed providing all city residents with a guaranteed minimum income.
The Democratic primary is scheduled for June. The other candidates are: Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, former Mayor Advisor Maya Wiley, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Shaun Donovan, and former Sanitation Commissioner from New York, Kathryn Garcia. Council Vice President Corey Johnson, decided to withdraw from the race.
Hispanics, the hardest hit by COVID – 20
Figures from the New York City Department of Health established that at least the 38% of deaths registered by Covid – 18 are Hispanics, who represent the 30% of the population in that city.
The data establish that fewer deaths occur among white and Asian people, since the former constitute the 33% of the inhabitants and the 27% of deaths, while Asian women account for 15% of the population and 7% of the fatalities. Also, the black community is affected with the 29% of deaths from the virus, despite representing the 25% of the population.
The Health Commissioner, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, commented at the time that the data confirm the inequalities in places and populations that historically have had underlying rates of chronic disease, which has put them at higher risk for worse health outcomes.
“I am very concerned when I see the large percentage of Latinos who have died of COVID 20. The overlapping of anti-immigrant rhetoric in this country, in addition to the inequalities in chronic disease rates, has real implications for the health of our community and is contributing to this result ”, highlighted Chokshi.
That devastating impact that COVID has had – 19 among Hispanics, as in other minority groups such as blacks, was again demonstrated by a study that reveals the extraordinary damage that the pandemic has had among immigrants and the working class.
In the report, ‘Excluded in the Epicenter’, prepared by the organization Make the Road New York ( MRNY) in conjunction with Hester Street, it is shown that one in six members of the most vulnerable communities has lost a member of their family, nine out of ten have lost their job or household income, and nine out of ten worry about not being able to pay the rent.
The sample, which was conducted by surveying 244 people, mostly Hispanic immigrants , shows that even though the impact of the coronavirus crisis has been concentrated in these communities, these New Yorkers have been “overwhelmingly excluded from government solutions.”
The numbers specify that while the 85% of those who participated in the survey older than 18 years reported having lost their jobs (88% due to COVID – 20), less than 5% had received unemployment insurance in the last month, and only the 15% of the participants reported having obtained some type of government support during the crisis.
Until 50% of residents of low-income immigrant neighborhoods in New York already have antibodies, confirming that the pandemic has hit the poorest in the “capital of the world.”
Corona, the neighborhood of Queens registered the highest level of incidence of the virus in the entire city. In that area, mostly Hispanic and low-income, a 51, 6% of people subjected to antibody tests were positive, a rate well above the average for the Big Apple, which stands at 27%.
The second most affected neighborhood is Borough Park, Brooklyn, with a 46, 8% positive, in an area where most of the population belongs to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community characterized by large families and, in general, also with few resources.
In general, poor neighborhoods of the city are those that have been particularly affected, while in the more affluent the rates are much lower. Thus, in areas of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, for example, the incidence is just one 12%.
Of the five counties in the Big Apple, The Bronx – the poorest – is where the most people have antibodies (a 33%), while Manhattan -the richest- is where the least positive have been registered (19 percent).
George Floyd’s death generates police reform
After a wave of protests that convulsed the country, New York State took an important step to end controversial policing practices by signing legislation that outlawed the use of strangles and ex pande for police transparency.
Social protests and calls for racial justice began after the assassination of African-American George Floyd, in Minneapolis, on 22 May at the hands of a white policeman.
“The truth is this: police reform is overdue. Cases similar to Floyd’s have happened many, many times before, ”Governor Andrew Cuomo said, signing the legislation in the presence of Valeria Bell and Gwen Carr, the mothers of Sean Bell and Eric Garner, two New Yorkers who also died in incidents. where the police were involved.
The law prohibits the police from making suffocation hooks on suspects, a controversial tactic linked to the death of several people, including Garner.
The law also ended a law known as 50 – A, which protects police disciplinary records from being scrutinized. Defenders of the law said it would shed light on the records of “bad” cops, while helping good cops defend themselves if they have a no-claim record and were charged with a crime or acting inappropriately.
In addition, the legislation empowers the state attorney general to become the independent prosecutor in the killings of unarmed civilians by the police.
Cuomo said he understands the message of the protesters: that there is a lack of trust between the community and the police. The governor noted that the police must work with their communities to address issues such as the use of force by officers, community policing, and prejudice.
The governor acknowledged that much remains to be done do, and that the law is a first step, and he hopes that New York’s action will be an example for other states of the country to follow.
The school closure due to coronavirus
One of the headaches that has the most impact among New Yorkers is the closure of its school system with 1.1 million of students in total, it is the largest in the country. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the school year has been interrupted several times and depending on the circumstances, it has been fully and partially reactivated or vice versa, depending on the behavior of the virus.
The closure of the schools has put the De Blasio Administration to the test and in particular the Chancellor of Education, the Mexican-American Richard Carranza, who has considered at every opportunity all the options to return to normality.
On the one hand, De Blasio has had the pressure of the powerful United Federation of Teachers (UFT), who have demanded all the measures that guarantee their health when they return to the classrooms, and on the other, the parents who seek that their children are not left behind academically because, with remote study they say, the results are precarious and additionally, having the children at home adds to the impediments to join their activities by 100%.
In summary, parents are committed to the closure of the school system, while the authorities face a second wave of the pandemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio made the decision to shut down the public school system on the grounds that the average COVID positivity rate – 19 in the city reached Number 3%. Parents were outraged and calling the measure “outdated and arbitrary.”
On December 7, the City made the final attempt to partially open schools. 145, 01 primary level students returned to classes and others 147, 01 of middle and high schools will do it in January, if conditions allow it.
The hybrid option, which consists of taking face-to-face and remote classes has not been the best Meanwhile, in an effort to somehow recover the academic gap left by the irregular operation of the system, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the ‘2020 Student Achievement Plan ‘, which aims for students to recover the time lost in their learning as a result of the pandemic.
The initiative plante seek first to identify the areas in which the student is lagging, and then develop a different curriculum gital, creating a unique place for online learning and expanding the resources available to parents, and, above all, treating the traumas that students face caused by this crisis, as well as their mental health problems.
“It is time to really deal with this challenge that we are seeing very, very clearly, which is the way that COVID has gotten in the way of educating our children,” De Blasio said.
The long-awaited COVID vaccine – 19
After the absurd threat that President Trump made at some point that the vaccine would not be delivered to New York due to its differences with Governor Cuomo, not only that it arrived on time but Also, New York was the first city in the country to apply it to a nurse, in Queens. The milestone did justice because the city and the state were the epicenter of the pandemic and remain the worst hit by the virus so far.
According to the Department of Health of the city of New York, through Tuesday 30 December, more than 70, 01 New Yorkers had been vaccinated. Meanwhile, at the state level, according to figures from the governor’s office, until that day the total number of immunized residents exceeded 140, 01.
The concern continued to lie in reaching the most vulnerable, the poorest, immigrants, Hispanics, blacks and all minorities quickly, which, according to data from the Department of Health, they were the most prone to contagion and dying from COVID – 19.
Mayor Bill De Blasio ordered the creation of a COVID Vaccine Command Center – 20 to ensure that the vaccine is distributed fairly and transparently, as well as Reach as many New Yorkers as possible. Immunization with the first dose started on Monday 14 December kicked off with frontline healthcare workers, older adults who they live in nursing homes and the staff of those institutions. In this last week of the year, the city firefighters were also immunized.
The process with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that require two doses continues at a good pace and according to schedule, confirmed Governor Cuomo, who noted that experts suggest that the 70 to 85% of the population must be vaccinated so that the economy returns to an apparent normality.
Cuomo anticipated that his strategy will be be vigilant with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to urge the vaccination process to be “inclusive.”
The black, Hispanic and poor community have paid the highest price by COVID. The pandemic revealed inherent discrimination in the health care system of people living in communities with less access to health care. Consequently, Cuomo said, it will not enhance and aggravate the discrimination that has already manifested itself by excluding or discriminating against them now in the vaccination process.
A firm step for the ‘Dreamers’
In New York the lawsuit was forged to reverse the suspension of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on which more than a million young people who seek to regularize their status in the country depend. Finally, the 18, a federal judge ruled in favor of reinstating that immigration relief that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suspended in July.
Javier H. Valdés, co-executive director of Make the Road New York, the organization that led the lawsuit, commented that while they await the start of the Biden Administration, they recognize that this victory is only the beginning.
“The new administration should not only promote Immediately protect DACA and TPS holders and reverse all of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, it should also provide quick relief and a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented families across this country, ”Valdés noted.
Now, all eyes are on Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joe Biden’s chosen to preside over the Department of Homeland Security. Mayorkas, a Cuban by birth, is expected to reverse the Trump Administration’s tough immigration policies.
There is good hope for that to happen. In 2009, Mayorkas was director of the Obama administration’s Immigration Service and oversaw the implementation of DACA, later becoming Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security between 2013 – 2016.