It always strikes me as morbidly ironic that every year this country celebrates a holiday that allegedly began when some indigenous people rescued a group of foreigners from the brink of death.
By today’s standards, these people who were rescued would probably be classified as being among first illegal aliens to land on the shores of what would become the United States. History calls them Pilgrims.
Now, the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock would certainly have not survived had it not been for the Native American people who lived in the area now known as Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Indeed, half of these newcomers did not survive the first winter.
Yet, Native Americans like Squanto, from the Patuxet tribe, helped these Englishmen who were living in squalid huts, hungry, sick and waiting for their impending deaths. They showed them how the local Native Americans cultivated the land, how to catch fish, and how to collect other seafood.
These Pilgrims survived, multiplied and spread themselves across the land. Squanto, however, and millions of Native Americans died of diseases introduced by the Europeans, were enslaved or placed in barren reservations. In other words, they nearly became extinct in what may well be one of history’s greatest instances of genocide.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I don’t mean to ruin your appetite or spoil your celebration. I plan on feasting with my wife and her family on what is called Thanksgiving Day like millions of other families across this country. Yet this year, I would ask you to be thankful for those people who work seven days a week to put food on your table.
I’m thankful for the millions of farmworkers who, while working for low wages and often no benefits, are planting seeds and picking and packing the fruits and vegetables that will land in our produce departments. These farmworkers are often separated from their families, are exposed to dangerous pesticides and chemicals and are prohibited by law from a forming a union that can fight for their rights.
I’m thankful for the thousands of workers who work in the meatpacking and poultry industry like those who have been struggling for dignity and respect at a company called Smithfield in North Carolina, the world's largest hog producer and pork processor. Workers at Smithfield slaughter 32,000 hogs every day. It’s dangerous and dirty work yet the company continues to harass, fire, threaten and intimidate the hundreds of mostly Latino and African American workers who are trying to secure the protection of a union contract.
I’m thankful for the thousands of underpaid, over worked, and usually invisible army of bakers, cooks, waiters, busboys and dishwashers who prepare and deliver wonderful meals to thousands of customers at eating establishments and stores across the country.
On this occasion I simply wish to give thanks to the millions of workers throughout this country and the world who are starving for dignity and justice while also making sure that we don’t starve. I hope you thank them too.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Healthcare For All: The Time is Now!
Over the weekend, I was privileged to attend a national strategy meeting in Chicago regarding the future of healthcare in the United States as a member of Latinos for National Health Insurance, a volunteer group that’s been working with the national Healthcare NOW! coalition.
Just days after the historic electoral tsunami that wiped out Republican control of both the Senate and Congress, the air was filled with an aura of excitement and optimism that was best summed up by Congressman John Conyers of Michigan when he said, “the time is now!”
Conyers was referring to a bill he had introduced in Congress, H.R. 676. The bill will provide healthcare for everyone in the United States by eliminating the profits of the insurance companies and negotiating drug and other treatment costs. It will be paid for on a sliding scale by all of us together. We will have no bills, co-payments, deductibles, denials, or bankruptcies. And, get this, we will be paying less than we are now.
Currently, there are close to 46 million uninsured (at least 26 percent of the people in Sunset Park), and many more underinsured, people in the U.S. An increasing number of Americans are paying more out-of-pocket or tragically neglecting their health. Millions more declare bankruptcy every year unable to pay mounting medical bills.
Despite being the richest and most powerful country on Earth, The U.S. ranks 33rd in infant mortality rates, ranks 25th in male life expectancy, and 26th in female life expectancy. All other industrialized nations, like those in the European Union, Canada, and even poorer countries like Cuba have universal health care for their citizens.
Universal healthcare does not exist in the U.S. right for one simple reason: GREED. Insurance companies make billions in profits. At least 15 to 30 percent of private insurance companies premiums are wasted on marketing, excessive CEO salaries, profits, bureaucracy and paper work, rather than being spent on healthcare services. But, there is a viable alternative to this immoral dilemma by way of H.R. 676.
H.R. 676 would:
· For the first time, provide an effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing healthcare costs while covering everyone.
· Cover every person in the U.S. for all necessary medical care, including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary care and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care.
· End deductibles and copay’s that take a chunk out of workers’ take home pay.
· Make every employer contribute a fair share toward the cost of the system. Employers like cities and municipalities would spend less, since they would no longer be paying for the uninsured and under-insured.
· Save billions of dollars annually by eliminating the excessive administrative costs of private insurance, as well as the unnecessary billing expenses of hospitals and doctors offices.
H.R. 676 will be re-introduced early next year. Our local Congress member, Nydia Velazquez, and many of her colleagues from New York, signed on last year and we’re hopeful they’ll do the same this year.
If you believe that we desperately need to change healthcare in this country, now is the time to act! Call your local elected officials, ask your unions to get on board, talk to your pastors and spread the word among your neighbors.
For more information visit: www.healthcare-now.org or call 212-475-8350 or 800-453-1305.
Just days after the historic electoral tsunami that wiped out Republican control of both the Senate and Congress, the air was filled with an aura of excitement and optimism that was best summed up by Congressman John Conyers of Michigan when he said, “the time is now!”
Conyers was referring to a bill he had introduced in Congress, H.R. 676. The bill will provide healthcare for everyone in the United States by eliminating the profits of the insurance companies and negotiating drug and other treatment costs. It will be paid for on a sliding scale by all of us together. We will have no bills, co-payments, deductibles, denials, or bankruptcies. And, get this, we will be paying less than we are now.
Currently, there are close to 46 million uninsured (at least 26 percent of the people in Sunset Park), and many more underinsured, people in the U.S. An increasing number of Americans are paying more out-of-pocket or tragically neglecting their health. Millions more declare bankruptcy every year unable to pay mounting medical bills.
Despite being the richest and most powerful country on Earth, The U.S. ranks 33rd in infant mortality rates, ranks 25th in male life expectancy, and 26th in female life expectancy. All other industrialized nations, like those in the European Union, Canada, and even poorer countries like Cuba have universal health care for their citizens.
Universal healthcare does not exist in the U.S. right for one simple reason: GREED. Insurance companies make billions in profits. At least 15 to 30 percent of private insurance companies premiums are wasted on marketing, excessive CEO salaries, profits, bureaucracy and paper work, rather than being spent on healthcare services. But, there is a viable alternative to this immoral dilemma by way of H.R. 676.
H.R. 676 would:
· For the first time, provide an effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing healthcare costs while covering everyone.
· Cover every person in the U.S. for all necessary medical care, including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary care and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care.
· End deductibles and copay’s that take a chunk out of workers’ take home pay.
· Make every employer contribute a fair share toward the cost of the system. Employers like cities and municipalities would spend less, since they would no longer be paying for the uninsured and under-insured.
· Save billions of dollars annually by eliminating the excessive administrative costs of private insurance, as well as the unnecessary billing expenses of hospitals and doctors offices.
H.R. 676 will be re-introduced early next year. Our local Congress member, Nydia Velazquez, and many of her colleagues from New York, signed on last year and we’re hopeful they’ll do the same this year.
If you believe that we desperately need to change healthcare in this country, now is the time to act! Call your local elected officials, ask your unions to get on board, talk to your pastors and spread the word among your neighbors.
For more information visit: www.healthcare-now.org or call 212-475-8350 or 800-453-1305.
No Praise for City Council Raise
On a day when voters were deciding the future direction of this nation, members of the New York City Council Government Operations Committee were deciding whether to give themselves and their colleagues a raise.
Not content with the $90,000 they earn annually for their part-time public service position (plus many thousands more in bonuses they simply call lulus), members of the City Council are now considering a 25 percent raise – to $112,500!
When was the last time you got a raise like that?
Many of these council members already hold other jobs as lawyers, accountants and other professions in the private sector. Those who don’t should consider themselves fortunate to earn a nearly six figure salary, especially when some of them barely function on a part-time basis.
You know who I’m talking about.
To his credit, only one council member has opposed this raise, Queens Council Member Tony Avella who said, “I’m fine with $90,000. I think that is enough.”
Currently, the median annual income for a city resident working full-time is $40,000 dollars. In Sunset Park, the median income is significantly less with nearly 30 percent living below the poverty line.
Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of this pay raise is the fact that it’s the council members themselves who will vote on it. And, of course, they will want to implement immediately.
One can easily predict that a term limits law, passed twice by voters, will become their next target since most of these council members will be headed out the door in a couple of years.
Last year, when I ran for City Council, I didn’t run because it paid $90,000 a year. I ran because I truly felt that the hardworking families in our neighborhood and City, needed and deserved public servants who truly appreciated and worked overtime, not just part or full-time, for every single one of their tax dollars.
There are many fine City Council members who work hard and truly deliver for their districts, but they should not try to violate the public trust by offering themselves a raise and possibly trying to extend their own terms. After all, the public is the boss.
Despite a chorus of calls against this pay raise by many good government groups and the city’s editorial boards, including the New York Times, I’m sure the City Council will try to pass this salary increase in time for the holidays.
And when the vote comes, I’m sure that even those members often cited for their abysmal attendance records at City Council meetings will be seated early and voting with a hearty “YES!”
(If you want to voice your opinion on this pay raise call the New York City Council at 212-788-7210.)
Not content with the $90,000 they earn annually for their part-time public service position (plus many thousands more in bonuses they simply call lulus), members of the City Council are now considering a 25 percent raise – to $112,500!
When was the last time you got a raise like that?
Many of these council members already hold other jobs as lawyers, accountants and other professions in the private sector. Those who don’t should consider themselves fortunate to earn a nearly six figure salary, especially when some of them barely function on a part-time basis.
You know who I’m talking about.
To his credit, only one council member has opposed this raise, Queens Council Member Tony Avella who said, “I’m fine with $90,000. I think that is enough.”
Currently, the median annual income for a city resident working full-time is $40,000 dollars. In Sunset Park, the median income is significantly less with nearly 30 percent living below the poverty line.
Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of this pay raise is the fact that it’s the council members themselves who will vote on it. And, of course, they will want to implement immediately.
One can easily predict that a term limits law, passed twice by voters, will become their next target since most of these council members will be headed out the door in a couple of years.
Last year, when I ran for City Council, I didn’t run because it paid $90,000 a year. I ran because I truly felt that the hardworking families in our neighborhood and City, needed and deserved public servants who truly appreciated and worked overtime, not just part or full-time, for every single one of their tax dollars.
There are many fine City Council members who work hard and truly deliver for their districts, but they should not try to violate the public trust by offering themselves a raise and possibly trying to extend their own terms. After all, the public is the boss.
Despite a chorus of calls against this pay raise by many good government groups and the city’s editorial boards, including the New York Times, I’m sure the City Council will try to pass this salary increase in time for the holidays.
And when the vote comes, I’m sure that even those members often cited for their abysmal attendance records at City Council meetings will be seated early and voting with a hearty “YES!”
(If you want to voice your opinion on this pay raise call the New York City Council at 212-788-7210.)
That’s Crazy to Call Us Lazy!
A few days ago I awoke to a news headline about a city health report that labeled Sunset Park, in the words of a city tabloid, “The lazy-bones nabe.”
In addition to the immediate anger that I felt at this unfair characterization of the neighborhood I grew up in and love, I also found myself getting nostalgic.
I recalled early weekday mornings as a child living on 54th Street. At times I would wake up to the sound of the 1010 WINS news ticker and an announcer promising to give you the world in 22 minutes. It was my father’s alarm.
I rarely stayed up long enough to get the world, but by 3 a.m. my father was already sipping his coffee and getting ready for his hour-long commute to a midtown delicatessen where he would prepare breakfast for workers who wake up at 7 or 8 a.m.
These are perhaps the kind of workers who write reports and new stories about lazy-bones neighborhoods.
After making breakfast and lunch for hundreds of customers, my father was back on the train again at about 4 p.m. Finding a seat in a crowded train was a real treat after standing next to a hot oven all day.
There were no gyms or tennis courts or indoor swimming pools after work. Besides, even if any of these luxuries existed in Sunset Park, he was usually too tired.
After dinner, we would sit and talk about school, my dreams and his reality. By 7 p.m. he was usually back in bed which meant we had to do our best to tip-toe around the house on old, creaky floors.
My story is not unique. In fact, I know there are thousands of men and women in Sunset Park who toil at two maybe even three jobs to make ends meet in a city that is becoming increasingly hostile to the working poor.
Reports like these, that describe Sunset Park residents as lazy, do nothing to make our lives any better, even if that’s their intent.
In fact, given the stereotypes often used to describe the latest wave of immigrants to call Sunset Park home, Mexicans and other Latin Americans, it may very well perpetuate these racist notions.
The report said the residents of Sunset Park “are least likely to exercise of all New Yorkers. In fact, 57% admitted they are sedentary, while residents of Greenwich Village and SoHo hit the gym on a regular basis.”
Sedentary, that quite literally means sitting on your ass. It’s something bureaucrats who write these kinds of report are quite adept at doing – then they got to the gym. It’s too bad these experts don’t take so many other important factors into account before they stigmatize an entire neighborhood.
Can we really be called lazy if we work at several jobs and often for long hours? If we had time to exercise, could we afford childcare or the price of a gym like those in neighborhoods like SoHo or Greenwich Village? If we live in a neighborhood that has the lowest percentage of open space in the city, where can we go to exercise even if we had the time and energy?
Ironically, perhaps in an effort to make the next generation even lazier, Mayor Bloomberg’s Park’s Commissioner Adrian Benepe recently announced that he was shutting down the boxing program in Sunset Park.
In the meantime, Bloomberg is making sure children in elite private schools, like Regis and Dalton in Manhattan, have nearly exclusive access to the playing fields in Randall’s Island, just a stone’s throw away from East Harlem, another poor minority community the report cites as the most obese.
We all know that unemployment, obesity, asthma, diabetes, poverty and immigration issues,
among other daily concerns, are preventing many in our neighborhood from gainful employment, educational opportunities and even leisurely exercise.
But until we can address those concerns with increased funds for sports and athletic programs, additional recreational facilities, and comprehensive immigration, housing, employment, medical, and nutritional services, the city and the tabloids can shove their reports and labels.
In addition to the immediate anger that I felt at this unfair characterization of the neighborhood I grew up in and love, I also found myself getting nostalgic.
I recalled early weekday mornings as a child living on 54th Street. At times I would wake up to the sound of the 1010 WINS news ticker and an announcer promising to give you the world in 22 minutes. It was my father’s alarm.
I rarely stayed up long enough to get the world, but by 3 a.m. my father was already sipping his coffee and getting ready for his hour-long commute to a midtown delicatessen where he would prepare breakfast for workers who wake up at 7 or 8 a.m.
These are perhaps the kind of workers who write reports and new stories about lazy-bones neighborhoods.
After making breakfast and lunch for hundreds of customers, my father was back on the train again at about 4 p.m. Finding a seat in a crowded train was a real treat after standing next to a hot oven all day.
There were no gyms or tennis courts or indoor swimming pools after work. Besides, even if any of these luxuries existed in Sunset Park, he was usually too tired.
After dinner, we would sit and talk about school, my dreams and his reality. By 7 p.m. he was usually back in bed which meant we had to do our best to tip-toe around the house on old, creaky floors.
My story is not unique. In fact, I know there are thousands of men and women in Sunset Park who toil at two maybe even three jobs to make ends meet in a city that is becoming increasingly hostile to the working poor.
Reports like these, that describe Sunset Park residents as lazy, do nothing to make our lives any better, even if that’s their intent.
In fact, given the stereotypes often used to describe the latest wave of immigrants to call Sunset Park home, Mexicans and other Latin Americans, it may very well perpetuate these racist notions.
The report said the residents of Sunset Park “are least likely to exercise of all New Yorkers. In fact, 57% admitted they are sedentary, while residents of Greenwich Village and SoHo hit the gym on a regular basis.”
Sedentary, that quite literally means sitting on your ass. It’s something bureaucrats who write these kinds of report are quite adept at doing – then they got to the gym. It’s too bad these experts don’t take so many other important factors into account before they stigmatize an entire neighborhood.
Can we really be called lazy if we work at several jobs and often for long hours? If we had time to exercise, could we afford childcare or the price of a gym like those in neighborhoods like SoHo or Greenwich Village? If we live in a neighborhood that has the lowest percentage of open space in the city, where can we go to exercise even if we had the time and energy?
Ironically, perhaps in an effort to make the next generation even lazier, Mayor Bloomberg’s Park’s Commissioner Adrian Benepe recently announced that he was shutting down the boxing program in Sunset Park.
In the meantime, Bloomberg is making sure children in elite private schools, like Regis and Dalton in Manhattan, have nearly exclusive access to the playing fields in Randall’s Island, just a stone’s throw away from East Harlem, another poor minority community the report cites as the most obese.
We all know that unemployment, obesity, asthma, diabetes, poverty and immigration issues,
among other daily concerns, are preventing many in our neighborhood from gainful employment, educational opportunities and even leisurely exercise.
But until we can address those concerns with increased funds for sports and athletic programs, additional recreational facilities, and comprehensive immigration, housing, employment, medical, and nutritional services, the city and the tabloids can shove their reports and labels.
Parents, Students: Tell Recruiters NO on Oct. 26th
If you have a child in a public high school, this Thursday’s parent teacher meeting may provide you with an opportunity to protect your child and send a clear message to those who fight illegal and unpopular wars with children that are not their own.
After three years, three hundred billion dollars and nearly three thousand U.S. soldiers killed, there’s still no end in site to the war in Iraq. Osama bin Laden still hasn’t been found and the situation in the Middle East is getting worse by the day.
Yet, every single day, during the busy afternoon rush especially, commuters can witness the shameful spectacle of grown men in uniform preying on young, impressionable youth returning home from public high schools across the city.
These men, although they sometimes use women as well, are military recruiters and there is no honor in the trickery, lies and deception that they use to try and scam our young people into signing up for military service.
These vultures are trained to make all kinds of promises for signing away their lives: thousands of dollars in bonuses, a college education, and a chance to travel the world. They use hip hop lingo, go around in pimped out Hummers and play rap or popular music supportive of war and military culture.
One important fact they fail to mention however, is how Bush and his administration has repeatedly lied to the American people and the international community in order to invade and start a war with a country that did not have weapons of mass destruction or ties to bin Laden.
On top of the U.S. military casualties, recruiters also fail to mention that over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the U.S. invasion. Gunfire and bombs caused the majority of these deaths but thousands of people have died from worsening health and environmental conditions directly related to the conflict.
Recruiters avoid telling our children that after they sign on the dotted line, they may face the same fate or be injured and later ignored back in the U.S. if they survive.
These same recruiters have instant access to private information about your child thanks to a clause in Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act.”
However, the Act also states that “a secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student’s name, address and telephone number ... not be released without prior written parental consent.” And it requires that parents be informed of this option.
On Thursday evening, October 26, all the New York City high schools will have parent/teacher conferences. There are many parents who are not aware that their child’s name will be turned over to the military unless they fill out an “opt out” form.
Several organizations, including United for Peace and Justice and the YaYa Network, are sponsoring a coordinated day of action at many high schools, prioritizing schools with the most recruiter activity, mostly those with low income students, students of color and students from immigrant families.
After three years, three hundred billion dollars and nearly three thousand U.S. soldiers killed, there’s still no end in site to the war in Iraq. Osama bin Laden still hasn’t been found and the situation in the Middle East is getting worse by the day.
Yet, every single day, during the busy afternoon rush especially, commuters can witness the shameful spectacle of grown men in uniform preying on young, impressionable youth returning home from public high schools across the city.
These men, although they sometimes use women as well, are military recruiters and there is no honor in the trickery, lies and deception that they use to try and scam our young people into signing up for military service.
These vultures are trained to make all kinds of promises for signing away their lives: thousands of dollars in bonuses, a college education, and a chance to travel the world. They use hip hop lingo, go around in pimped out Hummers and play rap or popular music supportive of war and military culture.
One important fact they fail to mention however, is how Bush and his administration has repeatedly lied to the American people and the international community in order to invade and start a war with a country that did not have weapons of mass destruction or ties to bin Laden.
On top of the U.S. military casualties, recruiters also fail to mention that over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the U.S. invasion. Gunfire and bombs caused the majority of these deaths but thousands of people have died from worsening health and environmental conditions directly related to the conflict.
Recruiters avoid telling our children that after they sign on the dotted line, they may face the same fate or be injured and later ignored back in the U.S. if they survive.
These same recruiters have instant access to private information about your child thanks to a clause in Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act.”
However, the Act also states that “a secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student’s name, address and telephone number ... not be released without prior written parental consent.” And it requires that parents be informed of this option.
On Thursday evening, October 26, all the New York City high schools will have parent/teacher conferences. There are many parents who are not aware that their child’s name will be turned over to the military unless they fill out an “opt out” form.
Several organizations, including United for Peace and Justice and the YaYa Network, are sponsoring a coordinated day of action at many high schools, prioritizing schools with the most recruiter activity, mostly those with low income students, students of color and students from immigrant families.
CB 7 Set to Build a Wall of Shame
Former Community Board 7 chairman and now vice chairman Joseph Longobardi may be one of the richest and biggest landlord’s in Windsor Terrace but he’s certainly no air quality expert.
He was recently quoted saying that a one million dollar wall approved by the community board, to surround the New York Power Authority (NYPA) power plant on Third Avenue, “was essential to the health of the community.”
I say we start a fund to pay for the mental health needs of the community board. One million dollars for a wall is a colossal waste of money and will not, I repeat WILL NOT, improve the quality of air for the residents of Sunset Park.
As a gesture of good will, some may call it hush money or a kick back, NYPA agreed to provide the community with a grant for one million dollars in exchange for allowing the plant to be built here in the first place (like we had a choice).
But, instead of using the money to do something useful for the community, several members of the community board decided that a one million dollar wall would be a nice way to shield the community from a noxious power plant we never wanted or needed. See no evil, smell no evil.
In Spanish there’s an expression, “no se puede tapar el cielo con la mano.” You can’t block the sun with your hand. Nor can you stop noxious fumes and particulate matter with a wall. This doesn’t require a Ph.D. folks.
This wasteful wall building effort would almost be funny if the lives and lungs of so many weren’t at stake.
As a member of the community board, I voted against this stupid idea and proposed that we spend the money on revolutionary things.
How many trees could we buy and plant along our congested avenues and streets with one million dollars? How many garbage cans can we place on corners throughout the neighborhood? How many HEPA filters can we purchase for nearby homes, schools, churches and businesses?
I’m sure the readers of El Barrio News and other members of the community could come up with even more creative and useful ways to spend one million dollars too. Community input … now that would have been revolutionary!
Given the screwed up priorities of certain officials, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one million dollar wall were built before the new high school we’ve been promised for decades. While other communities across the city are getting community centers, schools, affordable homes and parks, we’re building walls.
One million dollars that our working poor community critically needs are being wasted, squandered, thrown away on this NYPA/community board wall of shame.
He was recently quoted saying that a one million dollar wall approved by the community board, to surround the New York Power Authority (NYPA) power plant on Third Avenue, “was essential to the health of the community.”
I say we start a fund to pay for the mental health needs of the community board. One million dollars for a wall is a colossal waste of money and will not, I repeat WILL NOT, improve the quality of air for the residents of Sunset Park.
As a gesture of good will, some may call it hush money or a kick back, NYPA agreed to provide the community with a grant for one million dollars in exchange for allowing the plant to be built here in the first place (like we had a choice).
But, instead of using the money to do something useful for the community, several members of the community board decided that a one million dollar wall would be a nice way to shield the community from a noxious power plant we never wanted or needed. See no evil, smell no evil.
In Spanish there’s an expression, “no se puede tapar el cielo con la mano.” You can’t block the sun with your hand. Nor can you stop noxious fumes and particulate matter with a wall. This doesn’t require a Ph.D. folks.
This wasteful wall building effort would almost be funny if the lives and lungs of so many weren’t at stake.
As a member of the community board, I voted against this stupid idea and proposed that we spend the money on revolutionary things.
How many trees could we buy and plant along our congested avenues and streets with one million dollars? How many garbage cans can we place on corners throughout the neighborhood? How many HEPA filters can we purchase for nearby homes, schools, churches and businesses?
I’m sure the readers of El Barrio News and other members of the community could come up with even more creative and useful ways to spend one million dollars too. Community input … now that would have been revolutionary!
Given the screwed up priorities of certain officials, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one million dollar wall were built before the new high school we’ve been promised for decades. While other communities across the city are getting community centers, schools, affordable homes and parks, we’re building walls.
One million dollars that our working poor community critically needs are being wasted, squandered, thrown away on this NYPA/community board wall of shame.
Red Hook Death Should Serve as an Urgent Sign for Action
To all my neighbors and friends who have read this column, I offer my sincerest apologies for not writing these past few weeks. It’s not due to a lack of stories or concerns. God knows there are plenty here in Southwest Brooklyn.
Indeed, there are plenty of sad, senseless stories like the one involving Janet Ramos, 45, a Sunset Park resident who was struck by a van coming from the new Fairway supermarket in Red Hook several weeks ago. She eventually died of her injuries and left behind two children, Cristina, 16, and Jason, 20.
Her tragic death came as no surprise to longtime Red Hook resident and civic activist John McGettrick. He’s been battling money hungry developers and out-of-touch public officials and agencies for years.
McGettrick constantly warned city agencies and officials about the many detrimental effects big box stores would have in this once quiet, hard working, waterfront community.
In the midst of a high-powered public relations campaign launched by IKEA to exploit the legitimate needs of the residents of public housing, McGettrick and others who supported more sensible development of the precious waterfront were marginalized at best, accused of being racists at worst.
Still, traffic remained a major concern of his, especially with the recent opening of the Fairway supermarket. Ramos was hit on a block with no traffic lights or signs.
“This is a tragedy that could have been avoided,” McGettrick, co-chairman of the Red Hook Civic Association, told the Daily News.
In fact, the 16-block stretch of Van Brunt in Red Hook, where Ramos was struck, has just one light. It was installed at Bowne St. when the cruise terminal opened in April with the assistance of Mayor Bloomberg and Borough President “Party” Marty Markowitz.
Despite repeated requests to investigate and act on Ramos’ untimely and unnecessary death, officials from the city’s Department of Transportation still have no plans to expedite a traffic study of the neighborhood until, perhaps, the fall.
Once again I have to ask, why is it so hard for poor, hardworking communities of color to be treated with some respect and dignity by the public agencies that are supposed to serve us?
Why is it so difficult to install a traffic light, erect a stop sign or draw some white lines on the asphalt? Isn’t one tragic death enough to spur this City to act?
One can only wonder not if, but how quickly the City would have acted if this tragedy had occurred in Brooklyn Heights or the Upper East Side.
Last year, when I spoke with McGettrick about the ruthless assault on Red Hook by big box stores like IKEA and other irresponsible developers, he shared his concern about his mostly African American and Latino neighbors in public housing and the many families who flock to the soccer and baseball fields in warm weather and who also form huge lines to buy arepas, pupusa, and tamales at one of the most vibrant, outdoor markets in the city.
He predicted an increase in traffic would be a recipe for disaster.
His greatest fears have now been realized with the death of Janet Ramos. How many more will have to die until this city acts to protect our families?
P.S. Once again, Boricuas and people all over the city will be marching or, should I say, dancing all the way to Prospect Park to check out some of the very best in Latin music during the this year’s Boricua Festival and once again I am forced to ask: Whatever happened to the Latino community based organization that formerly played a major role in sponsoring this event, HYPA (the Hispanic Young People’s Alternatives)? Sara Gonzalez, the Council Member who has so “generously” helped to sponsor this event (with our tax dollars) and who once headed this organization still hasn’t accounted for her role in HYPA’s destruction.
It’s great that her office is being so”generous” with this festival. I love la Sonora Poncena and Yerba Buena as much as the next salsero. Nevertheless, it’s too bad this generosity was never extended to all the children and families who were cheated out of jobs and vital programs while also suffering through all those years of mismanagement and neglect.
Perhaps it’s time for some former employees to start singing themselves.
Indeed, there are plenty of sad, senseless stories like the one involving Janet Ramos, 45, a Sunset Park resident who was struck by a van coming from the new Fairway supermarket in Red Hook several weeks ago. She eventually died of her injuries and left behind two children, Cristina, 16, and Jason, 20.
Her tragic death came as no surprise to longtime Red Hook resident and civic activist John McGettrick. He’s been battling money hungry developers and out-of-touch public officials and agencies for years.
McGettrick constantly warned city agencies and officials about the many detrimental effects big box stores would have in this once quiet, hard working, waterfront community.
In the midst of a high-powered public relations campaign launched by IKEA to exploit the legitimate needs of the residents of public housing, McGettrick and others who supported more sensible development of the precious waterfront were marginalized at best, accused of being racists at worst.
Still, traffic remained a major concern of his, especially with the recent opening of the Fairway supermarket. Ramos was hit on a block with no traffic lights or signs.
“This is a tragedy that could have been avoided,” McGettrick, co-chairman of the Red Hook Civic Association, told the Daily News.
In fact, the 16-block stretch of Van Brunt in Red Hook, where Ramos was struck, has just one light. It was installed at Bowne St. when the cruise terminal opened in April with the assistance of Mayor Bloomberg and Borough President “Party” Marty Markowitz.
Despite repeated requests to investigate and act on Ramos’ untimely and unnecessary death, officials from the city’s Department of Transportation still have no plans to expedite a traffic study of the neighborhood until, perhaps, the fall.
Once again I have to ask, why is it so hard for poor, hardworking communities of color to be treated with some respect and dignity by the public agencies that are supposed to serve us?
Why is it so difficult to install a traffic light, erect a stop sign or draw some white lines on the asphalt? Isn’t one tragic death enough to spur this City to act?
One can only wonder not if, but how quickly the City would have acted if this tragedy had occurred in Brooklyn Heights or the Upper East Side.
Last year, when I spoke with McGettrick about the ruthless assault on Red Hook by big box stores like IKEA and other irresponsible developers, he shared his concern about his mostly African American and Latino neighbors in public housing and the many families who flock to the soccer and baseball fields in warm weather and who also form huge lines to buy arepas, pupusa, and tamales at one of the most vibrant, outdoor markets in the city.
He predicted an increase in traffic would be a recipe for disaster.
His greatest fears have now been realized with the death of Janet Ramos. How many more will have to die until this city acts to protect our families?
P.S. Once again, Boricuas and people all over the city will be marching or, should I say, dancing all the way to Prospect Park to check out some of the very best in Latin music during the this year’s Boricua Festival and once again I am forced to ask: Whatever happened to the Latino community based organization that formerly played a major role in sponsoring this event, HYPA (the Hispanic Young People’s Alternatives)? Sara Gonzalez, the Council Member who has so “generously” helped to sponsor this event (with our tax dollars) and who once headed this organization still hasn’t accounted for her role in HYPA’s destruction.
It’s great that her office is being so”generous” with this festival. I love la Sonora Poncena and Yerba Buena as much as the next salsero. Nevertheless, it’s too bad this generosity was never extended to all the children and families who were cheated out of jobs and vital programs while also suffering through all those years of mismanagement and neglect.
Perhaps it’s time for some former employees to start singing themselves.
Sunset Park Needs CPR After Parade
Several weeks ago in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, just a few blocks away from Sunset Park’s Fifth Avenue, hundreds if not thousands of Hasidic residents came to the defense of a 75-year-old Hasidic gentleman who was apparently being roughed up by several police officers in front of the business he started.
In the aftermath, several cops were injured, police vehicles were trashed, bon fires were set throughout the avenue and the borough’s top cop, Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, resorted to using language that certainly didn’t comply with the NYPD creed of “Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect.”
Miraculously, only a handful of demonstrators were arrested and charged with minor offenses. Esposito was forced by local elected officials and leaders to apologize for his racist comments, and the elderly gentleman behind the whole affair was released.
Watching the incident unfold on television, I couldn’t help but to be reminded of the last two summers in Sunset Park when, after watching the Puerto Rican Parade in Manhattan, hundreds of residents come back to Sunset Park and continue to celebrate their ethnic pride and heritage. Granted, it may not be an organized affair, but I have never witnessed a police car getting trashed, officers getting attacked, bon fires on the streets or property getting vandalized.
Yet, it has become routine for police officers from 72nd Precinct, Brooklyn South and other commands to come into Sunset Park following the parade with riot gear, sticks, mace and other hardware. They chase our youth up and down the avenue like madmen, beat them to a pulp and then hold them at the Precinct until a parent or a guardian can pick them up. Over a dozen youth have been arrested each year. Most have never had any trouble with the law yet they must then spend months if not a year or more trying to clear their names.
A double standard clearly exists in the way law enforcement treats members of our overwhelmingly Latino community and other communities like the communities of Borough Park and Bay Ridge. There are many reasons for this. For starters, the folks in Borough Park have political clout. That was evident when several elected officials held a news conference the day after the riot to denounce the police action.
Additionally, other communities and their leaders would demand an immediate overhaul of their local precinct if it was run the way the 72nd Precinct has been run these past few years. For instance, the command at the 72nd Precinct has changed at least five times in as many years. Here are some of their CO’s.
In the aftermath, several cops were injured, police vehicles were trashed, bon fires were set throughout the avenue and the borough’s top cop, Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, resorted to using language that certainly didn’t comply with the NYPD creed of “Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect.”
Miraculously, only a handful of demonstrators were arrested and charged with minor offenses. Esposito was forced by local elected officials and leaders to apologize for his racist comments, and the elderly gentleman behind the whole affair was released.
Watching the incident unfold on television, I couldn’t help but to be reminded of the last two summers in Sunset Park when, after watching the Puerto Rican Parade in Manhattan, hundreds of residents come back to Sunset Park and continue to celebrate their ethnic pride and heritage. Granted, it may not be an organized affair, but I have never witnessed a police car getting trashed, officers getting attacked, bon fires on the streets or property getting vandalized.
Yet, it has become routine for police officers from 72nd Precinct, Brooklyn South and other commands to come into Sunset Park following the parade with riot gear, sticks, mace and other hardware. They chase our youth up and down the avenue like madmen, beat them to a pulp and then hold them at the Precinct until a parent or a guardian can pick them up. Over a dozen youth have been arrested each year. Most have never had any trouble with the law yet they must then spend months if not a year or more trying to clear their names.
A double standard clearly exists in the way law enforcement treats members of our overwhelmingly Latino community and other communities like the communities of Borough Park and Bay Ridge. There are many reasons for this. For starters, the folks in Borough Park have political clout. That was evident when several elected officials held a news conference the day after the riot to denounce the police action.
Additionally, other communities and their leaders would demand an immediate overhaul of their local precinct if it was run the way the 72nd Precinct has been run these past few years. For instance, the command at the 72nd Precinct has changed at least five times in as many years. Here are some of their CO’s.
- CO DePrisco -- Reassigned after his underling, the disgraced officer Joseph Gray killed four members of a Sunset Park family after drinking with his buddies in a lot next to the precinct and cavorting with a stripper at the Wild Wild West.
- CO Quinn -- Brought in to clean house but could hardly afford to get his hands dirty during his meteoric rise to One Police Plaza.
- CO Gentile – He was already under investigation for cooking the books at a Chelsea precinct to make it look like crime was decreasing. He came in and personally brutalized an elderly Latina grandmother and her siblings one warm Fourth of July evening (several members of this family were arrested and charged with a laundry list of crimes. They were all cleared of any wrong doing).
- CO Vega -- Presided over both post Puerto Rican day Parade incidents on Fifth Avenue where he personally chased dozens of youth and bystanders who were also assaulted and arrested.
- CO Simonetti -- Just came on board, has been rarely seen at Community Board meetings. One can only hope that he’s trashed any advice he may have gotten from any of his predecessors.
I am also compelled to mention that the two Community Affairs officers at the 72nd Precinct, PO Robledo and PO Fusco, have been utter failures at improving community/police relations. One personally vented his contempt for the community during one of these incidents and the other I saw in court one day in Officer’s Gray’s cheerleading section just before he was convicted of manslaughter. They need to go. Now!
Now it looks like the local City official of Sunset Park, in her infinitesimal wisdom, is once again throwing taxpayer money (our money) at her cronies on the community board to organize an event on the P.S. 314 playing field located at Fourth Avenue and 60th Street the day of the parade.
HELLLLLOOOOOO!!!! IS THERE ANY LIFE THERE!!!
She held a similar event last year on 46th Street and Fifth Avenue and was totally oblivious to the brutal arrests of youth just a few blocks away. It’s not about an event. It’s about RESPECT. The kind of RESPECT that the NYPD (at least in this neighborhood) does not seem to have for a good number of our young people, immigrants and hard working families.
How do we get that RESPECT? Not with a Reggaeton, Hip Hop or Bachata concert. We get it by meeting with the NYPD and DEMANDING that our people get treated with Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect. They may still be seething at the NYPD but the community of Sunset Park could learn a think or two from members of the Borough Park community.
I have recently been informed that members of our community and organizations like UPROSE have already started meeting in order to plan around this year’s post Puerto Rican parade. I applaud them for their efforts, I plan to join them and I would urge more folks in the community to get involved as well.
Here are a few of my very own humble suggestions for avoiding a repeat of the past and perhaps advancing a better relationship between police and the community.
1. Let us police ourselves – Parents, clergy, community leaders let’s step up and talk to our youth and neighbors and serve as buffers between the police and the community.
2. If an arrest has to be made let’s avoid the brutality – ‘nuf said.
3. If arrested, let’s quickly process and release – no need to hold people for hours or days.
Please forward any other ideas you may have to this newspaper. Thank you and I look forward to working with all of you and a peaceful, fun-filled Puerto Rican Day Parade.
The Beginning of El Grito
The great writer H.L. Menken once said that the role of the journalist was to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” On the anniversary of El Barrio News, I want to offer my thanks and congratulations to El Barrio News for honoring that tradition.
Weekly, your pages are filled with the faces and stories that don’t get noticed by the mainstream media. Your writing is crisp and colorful. Your dedication to community journalism is unquestionable.
Indeed, you provide a valuable public service and I would urge everyone in our community to support the efforts of this newspaper so that it will continue to grow in pages and increase in circulation. If we don’t, we always run the risk of losing a beacon that serves to unite and inform us all.
Personally, as a former candidate, I was very impressed with the balanced coverage El Barrio News provided during last years City Council race. I met with El Barrio’s writer Hector Sermeno and publisher Pedro Ortega several times throughout the course of the race. In several issues, they ran features about the candidates with pictures and news stories that were balanced and fair.
I can’t say the same about the other weekly paper that supposedly covers our community. It had already been virtually bought out by an opponent. They never made an effort to reach out to my campaign, even after we sent them several press releases. The only time they ever bothered to show up at our campaign, rather suspiciously, was during the last week of the election when they wanted us to buy an ad!
Nevertheless, El Barrio News continued to cover key aspects of this important race to unseat an incumbent with the worst attendance record at City Hall. An incumbent that also had amassed a local record of failing our community in times of need as was the case when a grandmother and her family were attacked and beaten by local police. As was also the case when through nepotism and fiscal shenanigans, an important educational program, the Hispanic Young People’s Alternatives (HYPA), was single-handedly destroyed.
During the race, El Barrio News also provided members of the public with behind the scenes coverage of political campaigns. For instance, they didn’t shy away from writing about one candidate’s attempt to use tens of thousands of dollars from corporate donors and special interests to try and knock me off the ballot, not just once, but four times! And he failed every time.
Interestingly enough, my opponent’s biggest corporate backer, the multinational advertising firm Van Wagner Communications, also failed to win a billion dollar contract with the City to outfit bus shelters with ads. His lawyer also tried for several weeks to keep Margarita Lopez Torres from becoming our first Latina Surrogate Judge. He also failed.
On Primary Day, El Barrio News provided round the clock coverage of all the campaigns. Unfortunately, with a third candidate with lot of money but no community roots in the race, beating an incumbent who has the support of the corrupt local Democratic Party is difficult.
At the end of the day, however, the incumbent still failed to capture even 50 % of the vote and my other opponent instant became a two-time loser. The biggest loser, however, will be the community if the incumbent fails to act on the unsolicited, but very valuable advice El barrio News provided in an editorial after the elections.
There is much work to be done in this great community of ours. Police and community relations remain tense; gentrifications is happening at lightning speed and is displacing many of our longtime residents; our schools are falling apart and many are failing for lack of resources, space and equipment; a park seems destined for our waterfront but the community needs to be more involved in its planning; porno shops continue to open along Third Avenue, many next to our churches and schools; our huge immigrant community is in dire need of adequate social service programs and facilities; the health needs of families, especially in the areas of diabetes and asthma, require extraordinary attention; and our elderly are in great need affordable housing.
Weekly, your pages are filled with the faces and stories that don’t get noticed by the mainstream media. Your writing is crisp and colorful. Your dedication to community journalism is unquestionable.
Indeed, you provide a valuable public service and I would urge everyone in our community to support the efforts of this newspaper so that it will continue to grow in pages and increase in circulation. If we don’t, we always run the risk of losing a beacon that serves to unite and inform us all.
Personally, as a former candidate, I was very impressed with the balanced coverage El Barrio News provided during last years City Council race. I met with El Barrio’s writer Hector Sermeno and publisher Pedro Ortega several times throughout the course of the race. In several issues, they ran features about the candidates with pictures and news stories that were balanced and fair.
I can’t say the same about the other weekly paper that supposedly covers our community. It had already been virtually bought out by an opponent. They never made an effort to reach out to my campaign, even after we sent them several press releases. The only time they ever bothered to show up at our campaign, rather suspiciously, was during the last week of the election when they wanted us to buy an ad!
Nevertheless, El Barrio News continued to cover key aspects of this important race to unseat an incumbent with the worst attendance record at City Hall. An incumbent that also had amassed a local record of failing our community in times of need as was the case when a grandmother and her family were attacked and beaten by local police. As was also the case when through nepotism and fiscal shenanigans, an important educational program, the Hispanic Young People’s Alternatives (HYPA), was single-handedly destroyed.
During the race, El Barrio News also provided members of the public with behind the scenes coverage of political campaigns. For instance, they didn’t shy away from writing about one candidate’s attempt to use tens of thousands of dollars from corporate donors and special interests to try and knock me off the ballot, not just once, but four times! And he failed every time.
Interestingly enough, my opponent’s biggest corporate backer, the multinational advertising firm Van Wagner Communications, also failed to win a billion dollar contract with the City to outfit bus shelters with ads. His lawyer also tried for several weeks to keep Margarita Lopez Torres from becoming our first Latina Surrogate Judge. He also failed.
On Primary Day, El Barrio News provided round the clock coverage of all the campaigns. Unfortunately, with a third candidate with lot of money but no community roots in the race, beating an incumbent who has the support of the corrupt local Democratic Party is difficult.
At the end of the day, however, the incumbent still failed to capture even 50 % of the vote and my other opponent instant became a two-time loser. The biggest loser, however, will be the community if the incumbent fails to act on the unsolicited, but very valuable advice El barrio News provided in an editorial after the elections.
There is much work to be done in this great community of ours. Police and community relations remain tense; gentrifications is happening at lightning speed and is displacing many of our longtime residents; our schools are falling apart and many are failing for lack of resources, space and equipment; a park seems destined for our waterfront but the community needs to be more involved in its planning; porno shops continue to open along Third Avenue, many next to our churches and schools; our huge immigrant community is in dire need of adequate social service programs and facilities; the health needs of families, especially in the areas of diabetes and asthma, require extraordinary attention; and our elderly are in great need affordable housing.
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