Health
City Council passes COVID-19 funding tracker
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Following a push from a cadre of
local lawmakers, the City Council
unanimously agreed to create a public
database that will track spending on
COVID-19 relief — which, the pols say,
will help ensure that funds to combat
the virus are distributed fairly across
racial and socio-economic lines.
“As we learned following Superstorm
Sandy, transparency of emergency
and relief spending is critical,”
said Coney Island Councilman Mark
Treyger in a statement celebrating the
bill’s passage. “We will be judged by our
ability to deliver a fair, just, and equitable
response to this pandemic.”
The COVID-19 Funding Tracker Bill,
which passed on June 25, requires the
mayor’s offi ce to “establish and maintain
a public online searchable and interactive
database” within 90 days that
would track all expenditures exceeding
$100,000 to combat the spread of the virus
and treat infected patients.
Treyger — who co-sponsored the
bill with 19 of his colleagues, including
eight other Brooklyn councilmembers
— said that more transparency would
bring increased accountability to how
and where the money is being allocated,
which would shed light on the lack of
funding for poorer neighborhoods that
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Caribbean L 18 ife, JULY 3-9, 2020
have been disproportionately harmed
by the virus.
“It is absolutely critical that we ensure
resources are delivered to the
hardest-hit communities as well as
those areas that continue to have disparities
that make them more vulnerable,”
he said.
Data maintained by the city’s Department
of Health continues to show a
higher infection rate in neighborhoods
with lower-income populations — including
in Brooklyn, where East New
York, Borough Park, Flatbush, and Canarsie
have the highest number of infections
per 100,000 people.
Alternatively, the three zip codes
covering Park Slope, Cobble Hill, and
Dumbo have the lowest infection rates
in Brooklyn — and populations where
household incomes are more than double
the borough’s average, according to
census data.
Treyger pointed the fi nger at Mayor
Bill de Blasio’s administration for being
partially responsible for the economic
disparities between areas with
differing infection rates, claiming that
City Hall had given more aid to “less
impacted, whiter, wealthier neighborhoods”
— while failing to provide adequate
masks, tests, and other necessities
to less affl uent communities.
“Coney Island didn’t receive a testing
site until much later, but we proactively
found a site. We had to fi ght to get
masks after Southern Brooklyn was
shut out of the distribution while Prospect
Park had three free distribution
sites,” he said. “We are not included on
the list of ‘hardest-hit communities’,
while less impacted, whiter, wealthier
neighborhoods are included, with no
explanation from City Hall.”
Bay Ridge Councilman Justin Brannan,
whose district borders Treyger’s
and has also been critical of the lack of
resources given to southern Brooklyn,
added his approval for the passage of
the recent legislation, saying the measure
will give a renewed ability for New
Yorkers to advocate for equality in the
distribution of resources.
“This tracker will be a powerful
tool for lawmakers and civilians to be
able to hold the city accountable for its
spending, in times when the city budget
is healthy and especially when it is
not.” said Brannan.
The City Council passed the “COVID-19 Funding Tracker Bill” to increase accountability about
how and where funding for COVID-19 relief is being allocated. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
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