Elevator, budgets and billionares
As was reported by this
On mass shootings, local and national
This is my first column
about mass shootings,
even though
I’ve been writing a weekly
opinion column for this
paper for over a year.
This is, of course, only
plausible because our country
has been in lockdown
for almost the entirety of
my tenure here. Now that
we are slowly, perhaps prematurely
emerging, the old
American pastime of the
mass shooting once again
rears its head in Georgia
and Colorado.
Brooklyn is not immune
to mass shooting — frankly,
we have them all the time —
but for a couple key reasons
our mass shootings tend to
be less lethal and draw less
attention than the ones that
provoke national outpourings
of grief.
The major factor is that
New York City’s mass shootings
COURIER L 30 IFE, MAR. 26-APR. 1, 2021
are almost always carried
out with handguns, not
“long guns” or assault rif
les. People still get shot in
handgun mass shootings,
but most of the victims survive.
This is not the case for
the mass shootings that get
the most attention, as one
could tell by perusing the
reports in the Gun Violence
Archive.
For instance, the archive
shows that ten were murdered
and one wounded in
the Boulder supermarket
shooting and eight murdered
and one wounded in
the Acworth, Georgia day
spa shootings.
Three days before the
Georgia shootings, five
people were wounded in a
late-night shooting in East
Williamsburg. Two days
after that, two people were
wounded in an early evening
Brownsville seafood
restaurant shooting.
We cover these stories
along with a few other news
organizations but frankly
most people forget about
them within a day or two.
The really fatal mass shootings
stick with people for
much longer. There is,
frankly, a lot more trauma
associated with them.
My major takeaway is
that an assault weapons
ban works. For a while this
country had a federal one,
but it lapsed during the second
Bush administration.
Several years after that,
New York instituted its own
SAFE Act that bans high-capacity
magazines.
Clearly, we are not paying
enough attention to what
besides guns causes these
shootings. Mental health
is a factor. Almost every
shooter is also extremely socially
isolated.
Many are single but the
ones who are partnered
overwhelmingly commit domestic
abuse. So those convicted
of domestic abuse
should lose their right to
have guns.
Racism and misogyny
tend to play key roles here
as well. The mass shooter
(almost invariably male)
often targets a space where
they have experienced great
shame.
Often they target a type of
person. Frequently they’ve
applied for the military or
police and been rejected.
These crimes are horribly
familiar but doesn’t
this whole analysis feel a
bit unfamiliar? We’re 21
years into this century but
this country still hasn’t adopted
21st century methods
of crime analysis.
Nick Rizzo is a former Democratic
District Leader and a
political consultant who lives
in Greenpoint. Follow him
on Twitter @NickRizzo.
paper and other publications,
Park Slope’s
Seventh Avenue F/G subway
station will be getting an
Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA)-compliant elevator.
In my day job, I was happy
to announce that Brooklyn
Community Board 6’s April
15 Transportation meeting
will feature the MTA presenting
its plans for the elevator
and other improvements.
This announcement follows
years of community advocacy,
and it’s great to see it
coming to fruition.
However, we shouldn’t
have to advocate and wait
years to have a green light for
such improvements at various
stations across the city.
As one headline, when the announcement
was fi rst made
read, “Some Subway Stations
Getting Elevators While Others
Get the Shaft.”
Passengers at non-compliant
stations shouldn’t have to
endlessly hope that their station
becomes ADA accessible
— it should be funded and
done ASAP. We’ve got plenty
of billionaires who live in
New York who have gotten
much richer during this pandemic
and, as such, should
be taxed to make things like
ADA accessible subway stations
the standard across our
city’s subway system.
Yes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
administration has said that
tax increases aren’t necessary,
since we can avoid cuts
thanks to the federal stimulus
and higher than projected
tax revenue. However, building
back better and fairer
means we should fund New
York State government to expand
services to make them
match our aspirations.
There are lots of aspects of
government services, each of
which speaks to the quality
of life and possible improvement,
but I’ll stick with the
subway, specifi cally the F/G
line, for now.
Heading towards Manhattan,
two stations away from
the Seventh Avenue stop mentioned
in the fi rst paragraph,
sits the highest commuter
train stop in the world, Smith
and Ninth Streets.
Despite this height, there
is no elevator, and escalators
don’t go to the top when
they go at all. So, if you aren’t
able to walk up stairs, this is
not the station for you. Nevermind
the fact it’s the closest
station to the subwayless,
transit-deprived Red Hook
neighborhood.
There are many other examples
of limiting access and
services, in all government
policy and services, across
our state. Such shortcomings
have been treated as an
acceptable grin-and-bear-it
norm.We shouldn’t continue
down that path, and the state’s
budget should, despite the
governor’s objection, include
signifi cant tax increases on
those with the wealth to absorb
the increases without
pain and for the greater good.
With that, announcements
like ADA improvements for
subway stations and fully
funded schools could be the
acceptable norm.
I’m sure some folks reading
this immediately think
that these billionaires will
just pick up and leave. Lots
of history and data highlight
how that isn’t what happens
and, to quote a hedge manager
on the matter of billionaires
fl eeing the state,” the
problem with moving to Florida
is that you have to live in
Florida”. So, they can solve
this problem, and avoid alligators,
by moving back and
paying taxes that will help
their fellow New Yorkers.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of Community
Board 6. Follow him on Twitter
@RacioppoMike.
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo
OPINION
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