oped letters & comments
BY PRESTON HIGH SCHOOL
PRESTON HIGH SCHOOL ITALIAN HONOR SOCIETY DONATES
TO COVENANT HOUSE
In honor of “National Homeless Youth Awareness Month” celebrated in November, the Italian
Honor Society students at Preston High School wrote inspirational signs in Italian and in English
for the homeless teenagers helped by Covenant House located in New York, New York.
Top NYC Workplaces contest
Business persons with protective masks meet in a coworking
area
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,BTR NOVVEMBER 6-12, 2020 13
BY COUNCIL MEMBER
FERNANDO CABRERA
Calling the more than 1
million votes cast in New
York City’s early voting period
a victory for democracy,
Council Member Fernando
Cabrera praised the
“As Chair of the Council’s
Governmental Operations
Committee, overseeing
the New York City Board
of Elections, I’m extremely
proud of voter turnout,” said
Cabrera. “With over a million
voting early, we shattered
all previous records.
Last year, we launched early
voting and electronic poll
books in New York City for
greater effi ciency and convenience
for voters, resulting
in 63,000 early votes cast
in the November election
and 52,000 in the June primary.
This year’s early voting
turnout proves we are
on the right track. Investing
in new technology and starting
early voting the year before
a presidential election
has truly paid off.”
By allowing nine additional
days to vote, early
voting takes the stress out of
the voting experience. Electronic
poll books allow poll
workers to verify a voter’s
registration from a tablet,
using only the fi rst three
letters of the fi rst and last
name, a major time saver
compared to traditional,
printed poll books.
“In a time when we have
seen numerous threats to
democracy, including voter
suppression and intimidation,
our investments in the
city’s elections processes
have protected and advanced
the rights of New Yorkers to
exercise their right to vote,
the most important right of
citizenship,” said Cabrera,
who also serves as the City
Council’s Majority Whip.
LET US HEAR FROM YOU
results.
Letters to the editor are welcome from all readers. They should be addressed
care of this newspaper to Laura Guerriero, Publisher, the Bronx Times Reporter,
3604 E. Tremont Ave., Bronx, NY 10465, or e-mail to bronxtimes@cnglocal.com.
All letters, including those submitted via e-mail, MUST be signed and with a
verifi able address and telephone number included.
Note that the address and telephone number will NOT be published and the
name will be published or withheld upon request.
No unsigned letters can be accepted for publication. The editor reserves the
right to edit all submissions.
Dear readers,
While it is a hopeful sign
that the BTR editor fi nally
fact checked one obvious misstatement
in last week’s COMACTA
propaganda column,
I cannot help but wonder why
many other falsehoods were
not addressed. For example,
why was the allusion to the
Biden “scandal” which has
been discredited by every
reputable news organization,
not fl agged by the editor? Another
falsehood that went unaddressed
was the contention
that the investigations into
Trump were “false and baseless,”
despite the fi ndings of
the CIA, FBI, NSA, DHS and
Justice Department, which all
agreed that Russian interference
on Trump’s behalf in the
2016 election was indeed real.
The columnist also invoked
the tired trope that
poor, harassed conservatives
are victims of discrimination
perpetrated by the social media
companies, while offering
zero evidence to support this
absurdity. Why are the BTR
readers subjected to this misinformation
campaign on a
weekly basis?
– Pasqual Pelosi
Councilman Fernando Cabrera. Photo courtesy of John McCarten
BY COMMUNITY BOARD 10
NOTICE OF PUBLIC
HEARING –11/19/2020
Bronx Community Board
10 will be having a virtual public
hearing on N210095 ZRY, a
Citywide Zoning Text Amendment
for Zoning for Coastal
Flood Resiliency on Thursday,
Nov. 19, 2020 at 7 p.m.
Login information – Meeting
Dial In: 646-992-2010, Meeting
Access Key: 1736307272.
Email bx10@cb.nyc.gov to request
a copy of the project description.
The Department of City
Planning (DCP) is proposing a
zoning text amendment, Zoning
for Coastal Flood Resiliency
(ZCFR), to update the
Special Regulations Applying
in Flood Hazard Areas
(ArticleVI, Chapter 4). The
current zoning rules were
adopted on an emergency basis
to remove zoning barriers
that were hindering the
reconstruction and retrofi tting
of buildings affected by
Hurricane Sandy and to help
ensure that new construction
there would be more resilient.
ZCFR would improve
upon and make permanent
the relevant provisions of
the current temporary zoning
rules and provide homeowners,
business owners and
practitioners who live and
work in the city’s fl oodplain
the option to design or otherwise
retrofi t buildings to: (a)
reduce damage from future
coastal fl ood events, (b) be resilient
in the long-term by accounting
for climate change
and (c) potentially save on
long-term fl ood insurance
costs. In addition, it would allow
resiliency improvements
to be more easily incorporated
on waterfront sites at
the water’s edge and in public
spaces, as well as provide
zoning regulations to help
facilitate the city’s longterm
recovery from the COVID-19
pandemic and other future
disasters.
Cabrera praises
early voter turnout
BY BRONX TIMES
The deadline for the fi rst-ever AMNY Top
Workplaces competition has been extended to
Jan. 22, 2021.
That’s good news if you own a business
in the fi ve boroughs of New York City with 50
or more employees. You’re eligible to nominate
yourself, and your employees can too.
The deadline extension refl ects the fact
that so many workplaces are still adjusting to
profound changes in the way they operate remotely
during the pandemic.
Has your workplace successfully embraced
the challenges of going remote? Has communication
improved? Are employees feeling valued
and more productive? Workplaces will be evaluated
by their employees using a short 24-question
survey.
Energage, our research partner, conducts
Top Workplaces surveys in more than 50
markets and has surveyed more than 22 million
employees at more than 66,000 organizations.
The survey provides detailed feedback that
companies can use to improve their organizations,
and the insights we collect will prove
helpful to all businesses, regardless of worker
headcount. We’ll highlight some of the more
innovative ideas and exceptional outcomes.
Good luck!
The Details:
What: AMNY Top Workplaces
When: Nomination deadline has been EXTENDED
to Jan. 22, 2021 and we’ll publish the
winners in 2021
Who: Businesses with 50+ employees in the
fi ve boroughs are eligible.
How: To nominate a business, call (917) 722-
6928 or go to amny.com/nominate
/nominate
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