A tale of two school systems in crisis
Sunset Park still needs help after IC
COURIER LIFE, OCT. 16-22, 2020 25
OP-ED
BY ROBERT CARROLL &
MICAH SEIGEL
New York City has two of
the largest school systems in
the country: our public schools,
which serve 1.2 million K-12
students, and the CUNY system,
which serves over 275,000
undergraduate and graduate
students. Today, both are in
crisis and students suffer.
If you are a college student
right now, your education
hardly resembles your
experience one year ago, with
most classes online, libraries
closed, few opportunities
for social growth, and worries
about your future professional
prospects. You have almost
certainly heard peers struggling
over whether matriculating
this year is even worth the
time and tuition.
Micah Seigel, a co-author
of this op-ed, is one of the students
who made the decision to
defer. But with the unemployment
rate at over 16 percent
in New York City, the options
seem to be between a troubling
semester or doing nothing.
The situation for children
in New York City’s public
schools is even worse. Under
the current optimistic plan,
students who opt for in-person
learning will only see teachers
for a few hours each week. The
rest of their interactions will
be virtual, or will consist of
“independent learning.” Early
childhood education is critical
for creating and building
foundational skills. Without
meaningful in-person learning,
this will be a lost year for
many children’s education. To
supplement, wealthier parents
are turning to private tutors
to work with their children individually
or in small groups.
But for most families, this is
impossible. The education gap
widens, and the effect will be
disastrous.
As New York City begins to
recover from the pandemic, it
will be stymied if parents are
expected to work as assistant
teachers, children’s minds are
under stimulated, and college
students are idle. But in New
York City, we can do something
to recover some ground.
The key to getting our schoolchildren
the instruction and
supervision they need while
giving eager college students
meaningful real-world experience
is plain — match them
up. Connect the massive group
of smart, driven young adults
with too much time on their
hands with the over 1.2 million
public school students who
need them.
The mayor and the governor
should partner with Department
of Education Chancellor
Richard Carranza,
SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras
and CUNY Chancellor Félix
Matos Rodríguez to offer
free course credits and future
tuition rebates to SUNY and
CUNY students who volunteer
their time to help educate New
York City’s rudderless K-12 students.
This program should
match college students, based
on their areas of skill and expertise,
with younger students
who need face-to-face interaction
with positive role models.
In addition to basic tutoring
and mentoring, we should
make use of New York City’s
many cultural resources, like
our botanic gardens, zoos, museums,
and galleries. Younger
children will be educated experientially,
while their older
counterparts also gain valuable
experience.
Our K-12 children are yearning
for more attention from instructors
and mentors, while
their teachers and parents are
overdrawn. Young adults who
feel a need to devote their time
to helping our community are
in search of alternatives that
will make their days worthwhile
during this unique time.
Let’s give them a way to make a
real difference now.
The health and growth of
our students of all ages and the
sanity of New York City parents
are reason enough to warrant
our investment in this
program. The cost is no more
than the low price of what used
to be and should be free- a public
higher education.
Robert Caroll is a New
York State Assemblyman, representing
the 44th District that
includes Park Slope, Windsor
Terrace and Kensington. Micah
Seigel is a college student
that has opted to take a gap
year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
BY MICHELLE DE LA UZ
As the city grapples with
the impact of COVID-19, the
systemic inequalities that
have existed in our city for
generations have become particularly
acute. This has become
even more evident in
Sunset Park, with its signifi -
cant immigrant population.
These inequalities are particularly
apparent in our city’s
housing market. While the
current COVID-19 crisis has
played out in neighborhoods
across the city at all income
levels, it is painfully visible in
working-class and immigrant
enclaves like Sunset Park.
Fears of gentrifi cation and
displacement aren’t new for
Sunset Park, but they have
become more pronounced in
light of the proposed Industry
City rezoning and ongoing
growth. And while the Industry
City proposal has been
pulled, we need to be clear
about one thing: Sunset Park
has faced a severe housing crisis
for years.
For decades, little to no
investment in new housing
development, much less affordable
housing at the scale
needed, occurred in Sunset
Park, even while the population
continued to grow and
welcome new immigrants,
particularly from Latinx and
Chinese communities.
This has contributed to
severe overcrowding in the
neighborhood, placing Sunset
Park in the top 10% citywide.
While we may not know the
lasting effects of the pandemic,
there is already evidence that
overcrowded conditions and
the inability to self-isolate —
rather than density — played
a role in spreading the virus.
While the 2009 rezoning of
much of Fourth Avenue provided
enough density incentives
for developers to invest
in multi-family housing construction
along this critical
thoroughfare, mandates for
affordable housing construction
were not included. As
a result, the housing supply
that has been increased in the
community does not serve the
low- to moderate-income families
that need it the most.
According to the New
York City Department of City
Planning and recent census
numbers, the population of
Community Board 7, which
encompasses Sunset Park, has
grown considerably between
2010 and 2018, from 126,230 to
143,847 residents. However,
there has been a net loss of
units of housing and most of
the housing units that exist
were constructed before 1939
and are in poor condition. Further
compounding the issue,
only 1,000 new housing units
have been created since 2014,
and only 80 of those units are
affordable through the City’s
voluntary inclusionary housing
program.
Nearly 32% of households
in Sunset Park are severely
rent burdened, spending more
than 50% of their income on
rent. More troubling still,
nearly 50% of low-income families
in the community are
spending more than 50% of
their income on rent.
This case is clear: The
neighborhood simply does not
have enough apartments – especially
those affordable to local
families – to support the
infl ux of new residents and
recent immigrants and to alleviate
overcrowding. New solutions
are required to address
the current housing pressures
and combat the threat of displacement.
In order to increase access
to affordable housing in Sunset
Park, we need to start by
preserving the current housing
stock already in the community.
To ensure housing accessibility
for all Sunset Park residents,
we must go beyond the
134 units of affordable housing
that Fifth Avenue Committee
currently has in construction
and create a pipeline of
100% permanently affordable
housing projects on underutilized
land, such as remediated
brownfi eld and publicly
owned parcels that can
be rebuilt to accommodate
greater density.
Of course, Sunset Park residents
can’t wait. They need
new affordable housing options
right now. We need to
be open to limited rezoning
actions that include truly affordable
housing and address
other community needs. Especially
given the outlook on
government resources over
the next few years due to
COVID, we need to be open
to targeted land use actions
that result in the expedient
creation of affordable housing
units through the Mandatory
Inclusionary Housing program,
which does not require
additional taxpayer subsidies
and can provide permanently
affordable housing immediately.
The time to address this
challenge is now – before the
area’s growth and changes
cause even more displacement.
Industry City will grow
and change even without their
proposed rezoning. The campus
will continue to attract
more jobs and more residents.
We cannot pretend these
changes aren’t occurring.
Sunset Park must vigorously
preserve the affordable units
it has, better protect tenants
and begin to support development
without displacement
that creates truly and permanently
affordable housing.
Michelle de la Uz, Executive
Director of Fifth Avenue Committee
& Neighbors Helping
Neighbors; 2020 Sunset Park
Housing Conditions: Recommendations
for Development
without Displacement.