NY Health Under Attack in Budget Negotiations

Last week, we saw the debate over the federal budget reach a fever pitch. The Republican Party demanded budget cuts, including cuts in areas that help keep our communities healthy.

Health Funding Under Attack While Health Declines

Lost in last week’s debate in Washington about increasing the debt ceiling was the impact of potentially massive public sector cuts on average Americans, especially lower income households and middle-class families.  One area that can ill-afford more spending cuts is the public health sector.

In a recent ground-breaking report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2011, from Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced that adult obesity rates increased in 16 states over the last year and did not decrease in any states.  Furthermore, twenty years ago, no state had an obesity rate above 15 percent; today, 38 states have obesity rates over 25 percent and just one has a rate lower than 20 percent.  Overall, two-thirds of all Americans are obese or overweight.

While NY State ranks 9^th out of 50 states with a 24.7% obesity rate, the situation is more alarming among NYS’ African-American and Latino communities where 31% of African-Americans are obese (vs. 27% of Latinos and 24% of Whites) including 37% of African-American women and 24% of African-American men are obese.

The Report also describes the strong relationship between income, education, obesity, diabetes and hypertension which is often a predictor of heart disease.  As one might expect, lower income and less educated households have higher obesity rates which result in higher rates of diabetes and hypertension. In Upper Manhattan, we face some of the worst levels of education, some of the highest levels of hypertension and diabetes, and high obesity rates to go along with our problem of "food deserts."

The health threat posed by the rising rates of obesity and other noncommunicable diseases has become so severe that the United Nations General Assembly is convening its first-ever High-level Meeting on noncommunicable disease prevention and control in NYC on September 19-20.  The four main noncommunicable diseases - cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung diseases and diabetes - kill three in five people worldwide. 

The good news is that while funding for education, afterschool programs and non-profits remains under assault, several private and public sector organizations are filling the void by providing a wide-range of free fitness programs for New Yorkers including those listed below.

LUNA Free Yoga Series

YogaLocal and LUNA are providing 500 free guest passes for yoga classes at 24 yoga studios throughout NYC including Yoga for Bliss in Riverdale, MindBodyHealth in Washington Heights and Harlem Yoga.  The passes are available on a first-come first-served basis at www.lunafreeyogaseries.com  

BeFitNYC

Created by the NYC Parks Dept, BeFitNYC BeFitNYC is a search engine for free and low-cost fitness activities in New York City and it lists programs, classes, facilities, and leagues in the Parks Department's properties as well as those of a number of partner groups.  Visit www.befitnyc.com

City Parks Foundation

The City Parks Foundation provides free Golf, Tennis and Track & Field lessons for NYC youth under age 18 in each borough.   These FREE sports programs help promote physical fitness and build self-esteem in a fun, relaxed environment.  Visit http://www.cityparksfoundation.org/sports/sports.html

Derek Jeter Provides a Day of Joy

Last week, Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter established a new standard for heroics, leading the Yankees to victory on Saturday afternoon while becoming the first player ever to achieve his 3,000th hit as a Yankee.

Already a Hero

Derek Jeter had established himself as a future Hall of Famer long before last week's magical moment. He became the all-time Yankee leader in hits in 2009. He's helped lead the Yankees to five World Championships. He's won five Gold Gloves, four Silver Sluggers, and he's been the MVP of both the World Series and the All-Star Game.

We wrote in 2009 that Jeter should be the American League MVP for that year, and while he didn't receive the award, his performance was worthy of MVP recognition. The same was true in 2006, when he did not receive the award but was indeed the most valuable player in the American League.

Jeter has been a hero off the field as well. He's provided many millions of dollars of charitable donations to worthy causes focused on helping children live healthy, safe lives while they demonstrate to their peers how to thrive as youth. He founded the Turn 2 Foundation when he was a rookie in the Major Leagues and had not yet become a multi-million dollar per year fixture in the Bronx. Derek Jeter has consistently done the right things and said the right things as a leader and as a man. His exemplary character and his extraordinary work ethic reflect the values of the household created by Jeter's parents.

I remember sitting in the old Yankee Stadium and cheering wildly as Jeter eclipsed Lou Gehrig to become the all-time Yankee hit leader. Afterward, when asked about the fans' excitement regarding his new record, Jeter said, "I didn't expect that many people to be out there after the rain delay considering how hard it was raining when we started the game, but the fans were incredible. It says a lot about how they feel about their team and more importantly how they feel about the history of their team. I appreciate each and every one that was there."
His special mix of humility, maturity, and talent make him the best Yankee and the most beloved Yankee of his era. He has defined some or all of three different decades for the world's most famous and most accomplished baseball team with three contemporaries, Mariano Rivera (the most accomplished closer in Major League history), Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada.

While Jeter will likely play for the Yankees until 2014 or later (and will give us many more special moments), we should pause today to celebrate his record of success and dedication to excellence.

DJ3K

This latest achievement makes Jeter the 28th player to achieve at least 3,000 hits. Millions of people around the world strive to be Major League baseball players.
Since the Major Leagues began in the 19th Century, approximately 17,000 players have participated. Only 27 players had achieved 3,000 hits prior to last week. On the Yankees, Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio, Berra, and all of the other legends ended their careers with less than 3,000 hits as Yankees. Though there are players who have achieved 3,000 hits and have played portions of their careers with the Yankees, no one in a Yankee uniform has ever passed that milestone.

Gehrig's career was cut short by illness, and DiMaggio's career was shortened by service in the military during WWII. But, nonetheless, DiMaggio finished with 2,214 hits, and Gehrig finished with 2,721. Derek Jeter stands alone amongst all Yankees in history.

To add some emphasis to the achievement, his 3,000th hit was a home run. Only one other player has ever hit a home run as his 3,000th hit. As amazingly, Jeter was five-for-five during the game that included the 3,000th hit. Only one other player has ever had five hits in the game that included the 3,000th hit. In so many ways, Derek Jeter stands alone amongst all players in Major League history.
As of this morning, Jeter has 3,004 hits. May he have many more hits and a long, happy life after baseball.

Prison Closing Praise and Criticism while Cy Vance Struggles

While Manhattan DA Cy Vance seems to be developing a losing streak and facing criticism, our state has decided to close prisons. The losing streak is not leading to fewer prisons, but it does highlight our challenges in criminal justice.

Cy Vance

We endorsed Cy Vance in his 2009 campaign for Manhattan District Attorney, and we continue to expect him to be a very successful leader in Manhattan and beyond. However, he has been surprisingly unsuccessful thus far.  Let us hope and pray that he can fix the problems in his office in short order.

Prison Closings

The Correctional Association of New York, our state's leading voice on prison conditions, is led by a dynamic new Executive Director, Soffiyah Elijah. Her statement regrading our state's decision to close prisons and the state's highly questionable choice of prisons presents a complete and balanced picture. We reprint it below in its entirety:

The Correctional Association of New York applauds Governor Cuomo for his announcement yesterday to close seven prisons, the most significant commitment to prison reduction since the prison building boom of the 1980s. The plan includes four minimum-security facilities for men: Buffalo Work Release; Camp Georgetown; Summit Shock; and Fulton Work Release, in addition to three medium-security facilities for men: Arthur Kill; Mid-Orange; and Oneida. 

Closing prisons is long overdue: New York's prison population has dropped by over 15,500 people in the past decade and the state system has nearly 8,000 empty beds maintained at enormous cost. These closures will eliminate 3,800 empty prison beds and save taxpayers $72 million in 2011-12 and $112 million in 2012-13. 

While we commend the Governor for his commitment to eliminating excess prison beds, we are concerned that approximately 50% of these beds are located in or near New York City, even though New York City prisons only house 25% of the total state prison population. Therefore, the closures affect downstate prisons at a rate three times greater than prisons upstate. More than 60% of the state's prison population is from New York City and its suburbs. Closing downstate prisons will result in incarcerating even more people far from their homes and prevent them from maintaining family and community ties, which lessen the trauma of parental incarceration on children and lead to greater success post-release. The closure of Arthur Kill, an effectively run prison with numerous programs and one of the few facilities where lifers and long termers from New York City can be housed close to their loved ones, is particularly troubling. 

It is also significant that these prison closures will eliminate one-third of the state's work release beds - an already underutilized program. Work release helps people in prison gain critical employment skills to prepare them for a smooth transition back to their communities; however, the number of participants in New York's work release programs has already dropped by over 25,000 over the course of 12 years to only 1,900 in 2010. 

We are hopeful that yesterday's announcement is merely the beginning, and that the Governor will build on these positive steps by further downsizing prison beds in New York State. We urge the Governor to consider the following critical criteria in making future downsizing decisions: (1) the existence and quality of rehabilitative programs and specialized services in the facility; (2) the existence and quality of medical and mental health services in the facility; (3) the proximity of the facility to the geographic area in which the majority of incarcerated people lived prior to their incarceration and where they will likely return; and (4) the ability of the facility to keep incarcerated people and staff safe. We also expect that maximum-security and women's prisons will be included in future closures. 

The Governor can take additional measures to further reduce the prison population without sacrificing public safety, including: diverting some individuals from prison into alternative to incarceration programs; releasing inmates earlier in their sentences after participation in prison programs that have better prepared them for successful reintegration into their communities; and reducing the number of formerly incarcerated individuals who are returned to prison for technical parole violations. 

We commend Governor Cuomo for his dedication to eliminating excess prison capacity, moving away from an unjust overreliance on prisons as fuel for economic growth and ensuring more efficient use of taxpayer funds. We urge the Governor, along with New York State policymakers, to build on these significant steps and further reduce the state's prison population and capacity. By doing so, we can reduce the state's continued costly and misguided overuse of incarceration and free up much-needed funds to support in-prison programs, alternative to incarceration programs and other community-based services that build healthy, safe and productive individuals, families and communities.

Marriage Equality Comes to NY State

Last week, New York became the largest and latest state to embrace marriage for same-sex couples. All New Yorkers should be proud.

Marriage Equality's Economic and Moral Imperative

Denying marriage's legal benefits to those who's life partner is of the same gender as themselves was always morally indefensible. Inheritance rights alone represent a sufficiently powerful benefit to married couples that refusing to allow an entire class of couples to marry has been the practical equivalent of shifting wealth away from the would-be spouses in same-sex couples to other people.

As we stated in 2009:

Legalizing same sex marriage makes us all better. It continues the march to greater personal equality and freedom that our country has undertaken - from slavery to Jim Crow, women's suffrage, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, to today. 

Beyond the moral imperative of marriage equality, New York State and New York City will benefit enormously from the economic opportunity created by embracing marriage equality.

Once again, we addresses this thought in 2009:

City Comptroller Bill Thompson produced a report in 2007 that attempted to estimate the economic impact of legalizing same sex marriage. His analysis suggested that New York State would benefit from approximately $250 million of economic activity over three years simply from the weddings that would take place in the state after the legalization of same sex marriage. He also estimated that $175 million of the $250 million would be economic activity benefiting New York City.

Many couples living in New York City would take advantage of the new law and begin planning weddings, while both New York City and New York State would benefit from out-of-state couples coming to New York for their weddings. New York's hotels and banquet halls would see increased activity. The sooner New York State acts, the greater the benefit, as the lack of equivalent opportunities in neighboring states will increased the economic activity in New York State in the near term. Longer term, we'd expect neighboring states to follow our lead and provide equal rights to their residents irrespective of sexual orientation.

The economic opportunity is likely larger now than (now former) Comptroller Thompson estimated in 2007, and our city and our state both need the economic boost. The decision to end the discrimination against same-sex couples will make us not only happier but also wealthier.

NYPD Attack the Celebrants

Unfortunately, our city's police department chose the time of the celebration of the great victory of marriage equality over discrimination to raid a gay bar.

Mayor Bloomberg lobbied for marriage equality, but the NYPD seems unable to allow the historic celebrations to move forward without interference. The Mayor needs to tell the NYPD that, though he and they agree that people of color should be harassed aggressively in their neighborhoods, the Mayor, as the boss, is not seeking to have homosexual New Yorkers targeted by the NYPD, especially during the celebration of a major legislative victory.

The Proponents and the Opponents

We congratulate Governor Cuomo on leading a disciplined and street smart battle for marriage equality. We congratulate the New York Civil Liberties Union and all of the parts of the successful coalition.

We have noticed that our city's Archbishop was disheartened by the success of the marriage equality coalition, and we re-emphasize that there is no excuse for our city's religious leaders to promote discrimination. The religious community opposed equal rights for non-white residents of our country, opposed women's suffrage, and continues to view its support for discrimination against homosexuals as an important part of its identity.

Until the religious leadership in our city moves away from its focus on finding ways to support and promote discrimination, that leadership will continue to lose these defining battles of our time. If those leaders will begin to oppose discrimination, they will be embraced, and they will improve lives here on earth.

NYC Cuts Teachers But Adds Technology

Our city is reducing its financial commitment to education and laying off teachers, but New York City is also increasing its level of financial investment in technology for classrooms.

Teacher Layoffs

In an era of increasing unwillingness to accept poor classroom performance of students, New York City is making the counter-intuitive step of demanding teacher lay offs. The total reduction is more than six thousand teachers, with more than four thousand of them coming from lay offs.

At first, one might be shocked that a Mayor who ran for election to a third term based on his argument that he had improved the school system would use that term to reduce the number of professionals in the classrooms of our city teaching our city's children. But, there are some uncharitable explanations:
1) The Mayor may have given up on building a legacy of achievement in education. He chose Cathie Black as the Chancellorof NYC public schools, and her selection highlighted how little the Mayor values the educational mission of our city.
2) Test scores, once believed to have improved under the Mayor's leadership, have been shown to have failed to improve.
3) Success is elusive. Only 28% of Black males in NYC graduate from high school. The Mayor may be feeling that he is stuck with the legacy of that performance and should focus on a legacy of cutting government spending.

There is also a reason to be optimistic. The new Chancellor is Dennis Walcott, and Chancellor Walcott's desire to see our city's children receive a high quality education is largely unchallenged. The Chancellor's influence over the Mayor's decisions is often called into question.

No matter how one looks at the upcoming school year, the loss of more than six thousand teachers will not improve the quality of education in our city. Let us pray that our optimism regarding Chancellor Walcott is not misplaced.

Perhaps his commitment to technological advancement in schools is a reason to hold onto our optimism.

Technology Spending

The NYC Department of Education is seeking to spend nearly $1 billion on technology in the next fiscal year for classrooms in our city.

Some of those dollars will go to consultants on technologies issues. Some of the dollars will go to lap tops in classrooms. Perhaps those dollars will be a part of upgrading the level of internet connectivity in the classrooms around our city.

Interestingly, for the 2014-2015 school year, the high stakes New York State Assessment Tests will be given online, and some of the increased capital spending in New York City is being explained as preparation for that online assessment test challenge. New York State has stated that the 2014-2015 tests will be available in a more traditional format in addition to the online format, but  New York City is preparing for 2014-2015 as if there will not be an accommodation for school systems whose technology is insufficient for the online test.

Our city needs to lead the way in the US for investing in technology and for investing in high quality teaching. We may be moving toward a willingness to lead on technology, but we're moving in the wrong direction on teaching.

UBS Considers Returning to NYC as Pressure on Weiner Mounts

Financial powerhouse UBS is considering returning to NYC from Connecticut, and Congressman Anthony Weiner faces increasing opposition to his continuing in office.

UBS to NYC

As has been widely reported, UBS, the Swiss investment bank, is considering moving its North American headquarters to New York City. Such a move would reverse the move from New York City to the Connecticut suburbs that occurred fifteen years ago, and move three thousand jobs from Connecticut to New York City. The firm has faced difficulty recruiting the best talent because of its distance from New York City, and, while having several years left on its lease, the leadership of UBS is actively investigating multiple NYC properties.

As we discussed recently, New York City is by far the leader in corporate headquarters for the Fortune 500. New York City is also a leader in the role of North American or US headquarters for foreign companies. Maintaining that lead and increasing the economic success of our city will require us to attract headquarters from other locations while also preventing the departure of our large employers. If New York City can add a major international financial firm and its 3,000 employees in the next few years, the impact will be meaningful. Such a move might also inspire other firms located outside of our city to relocate in order to compete for talent. UBS could be the beginning of a new trend that helps save the New York City economy and solidify our position as the corporate headquarters location of choice for large companies.

Let us encourage our elected and business leaders to be aggressive, creative, and thoughtful in finding solutions for companies who seek to come to or stay in our city.

Anthony Weiner

As pressure mounts on Congressman Weiner to resign, we point out that he was elected by his constituents and not by the other members of Congress. Moreover, polls show that his constituents continue to want him to serve in Congress on their behalf. He undoubtedly has a great deal of work to do to repair his relationships with his family and his supporters, and he should not be asked to focus on gaining the support of other members of Congress while he has so many other people to engage in the humbling process of seeking forgiveness. Because of the recent scandal, it is unlikely that he will be a serious candidate for Mayor in 2013, and he may find that the State Legislature and the Governor take advantaged of his weakened political position to eliminate his district before the 2012 elections (New York State must eliminate two Congressional districts in preparation for next year's national elections). But, another election will come soon enough, and voters in Weiner's district can decide whether he should continue to serve them.

If he decides to leave Congress to focus on his family, we will understand why such a decision might be wise. If he decides to remain in office to attempt to fulfill his duties to his constituents, we will respect that choice and wish him success.

NYPD Sets New Stop-and-Frisk Record

The NYPD stopped more people in the first three months of 2011 than in any three-month period ever recorded. Given the grotesque level of racial discrimination exhibited by the NYPD in their stop-and-frisk activity, ending that activity must be our focus.

Stop-and-Frisk and Manhattan Viewpoint

More than any other issue we have highlighted, we have focused on Mayor Bloomberg's and the NYPD's obsession with stopping innocent people of color in our city.

In March of this year, we focused on the payments that our city has made using our tax dollars to the victims of stop-and-frisk activity.

In September of last year, we expressed frustration with the quotas imposed on NYPD officers by their superiors and how those quotas drive the stop-and-frisk abuses.

In July of last year, we praised Governor Paterson for ending the NYPD practice of indefinite retention of data collected from the innocent victims of the stop-and-frisk reign of terror that the NYPD brings on a consistent basis to communities of color in our city.

In May of last year, we summarized all of our previous blogs regarding the stop-and-frisk outrage and noted, with alarm, that the often cited "fit the description" excuse for the stop-and-frisk abuses were not even the excuses that the NYPD actually lists for the horrible racism that drives their policing philosophy. The NYPD's own excuse for stopping hundreds of thousands of innocent people of color each year is that the stopped individuals were behaving suspiciously. There is no crime reported in the area and no description to fit. The act of being a person of color makes one suspicious to the NYPD, and the NYPD's race-based suspicions turn into stops.

The Mayor and the NYPD continue to increase their racist tactics and intensify their abuse of communities of color, and non-racist people must stand up and oppose these abuses. If the Mayor will not end these practices, we must demand that the Mayor resign. No police force in our country should be permitted to abuse its citizens of color with such ferocious and racist dedication. We, as residents of the greatest city on our planet, must put an end to it.

A Disgusting New Record

We learned last week that the Mayor and the NYPD have now set a disgusting new record.

The Village Voice said it well:

Recent investigations into the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy, which is ostensibly to find firearms but doesn't usually work out that way, show that not only are the searches illegal in many cases, but they overwhelmingly target men of color in poor areas. These stops result in tens of thousands of arrests every year for small-scale weed possession, some of which would be thrown out if a judge ever saw them. But because most people don't know their rights, the cycle spins on: through the end of March, the NYPD has 183,326 stop-and-frisks on record this year, the highest number since they started keeping track in 2004. Of those, 11,925 people were arrested and 10,292 were issued tickets. Unsurprisingly, a majority of those stopped were black.

Others focused on the innocence of those stopped:

There have been 183,326 stop-and-frisk encounters recorded from January through March in NYC, according to NYPD records obtained by the NYCLU. About 88 percent of those stops resulted in neither an arrest nor a summons, and it probably won't surprise you that about 84 percent of those stopped by police were black or Latino. (In 2010, only about 9 percent of people stopped were white.) So far, stop-and-frisk incidents are up 22 percent over the same time period last year . . .

The Wall Street Journal's report on this tragedy ended with a quotation from the leader of the NYCLU, and her quotation is an appropriate ending for this blog entry:

Critics of stop-and-frisk point out that suspect descriptions make up only a small percentage of the reasons officers list for making stops. Over the first quarter of this year, suspect descriptions accounted for just under 15% of the reason stops were made, according to NYPD statistics.

Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said, the stop and frisk numbers “are going in the absolutely wrong direction.”

“Stop and frisk has a place in law enforcement but the abuse of this tactic to target absolutely innocent people is bad for all New Yorkers,” she said. “This practice seriously undermines the quality of life for people of color in New York City, particularly in the poorest, most vulnerable neighborhoods.”