Manhattan Borough President see biggest
COVID-19 problems in NYCHA
BY TODD MAISEL
Manhattan Borough
President Gale Brewer
knows full well the
danger COVID-19 represents to
her constituents and her and her
husband, who is in his 70s.
It hits older New Yorkers the
hardest. She has three friends
who have already died, and others
that she worked within community
boards, a political club
leader; a co-op board leader.
She also knew Comptroller
Scott Stringer’s mother, Arlene
Stringer-Cuevas, who died on
Friday from the coronavirus.
One might see Brewer out on
her bicycle that she says is safer
than walking on the street near
people – besides, there’s very little
vehicle traffi c, a small benefi t of
the contagion. She still needs to
get to the grocery store or pharmacy
– mask at the ready.
But despite having to social
distance and be wary of catching
the virus because she’s 69 – and
age considered dangerous for COVID
19 – she’s busy. COVID-19
is destroying her borough and the
poor in NYCHA housing are getting
his worst according to a ZIPcode
map released that shows the
extent and spread of the infection.
Brewer says her borough is
(l. – r.) Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Comptroller
Scott Stringer, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Susan Lerner of Common
Cause New York.
made of many older people than
the others, making her constituents
even more vulnerable to
COVID-19.
Manhattan has the most of
the older population of the city,
thousands who are cut off and are
sheltering in place at home. Her
staff is constantly on the phone
making sure that Meals ON
Wheels are making deliveries.
She helped a non-profi t purchase
a truck so that they can make
deliveries to a NYCHA complex
serving those seniors and Section
8 residents.
In some cases, Doordash deliveries
of food if they cannot enter
buildings where intercoms are
not working, so she is working to
create “building ambassadors” to
facilitate deliveries to the elderly.
“Seniors are afraid to go out,
and some can’t afford to buy
food,” Brewer said.
She like all of the Borough
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
presidents complimented Fresh
Direct for bringing food to the
poor and unemployed going to
NYCHA fi ve days a week. She is
also trying to make sure people
can get to a hospital if they are
ill and making sure the hospital
staffs at Harlem and Metropolitan
and others beleaguered hospital
have food as “the restaurants are
closed so fi nding local restaurants
to deliver food to workers is
important.”
Brewer said her offi ce was
receiving numerous calls of
construction sites still in full
operation without any social
distancing or PPE. “People were
calling and saying ‘close it down,
close it down.’ We dealt with that
fast.” She didn’t want to, but the
dangers outweighed the economic
benefi t.
She is not only working to
make sure hospitals and nursing
homes have enough PPEs, and
residents having enough hospital
beds and ventilators, but she is
also concerned about the many
thousands of businesses that are
shut down. On top of that, many
large and small cultural centers
are hurting, so she is going to
bat for them with philanthropic
organizations to keep them alive.
Brewer said she is trying to
get businesses to work with the
crisis, so she has garment workers
making face shields and masks –
both in Manhattan and Brooklyn
factories “here in this city.”
The borough president is also
calling on the state to suspend
luxury commercial rental taxes,
especially at a time when most
businesses that pay in excess of
$500,000 a month, no longer can
pay their rent on closed restaurants
and other establishments.
Read more at amny.com.
City comptroller asks courts to beef up domestic violence protections
BY GRANT LANCASTER
New York City’s comptroller wrote
to the state’s Family Court system
requesting that they take further
precautions to protect people who may
be trapped inside with domestic abusers
during the stay-at-home order.
Comptroller Scott Stringer wants the
courts to strengthen the coronavirus hotline,
post guidance in multiple languages,
and generally better implement and enforce
orders of protection, according to a Friday
press release.
The court system’s 24/7 hotline should
offer more information about orders of
protection outside of regular court hours
and offer support for a range of languages,
Singer said.
Additionally, courts that are posting
signs in front of courthouses with a phone
number for people to call for information
instead of coming in person should
FILE PHOTO
be available in the 10 citywide languages
— Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali,
Haitian Creole, Korean, Arabic, French,
Urdu, and Polish.
For those who cannot safely make a
phone call while in close proximity to an
abuser, Stringer wants the courts to make
a dedicated email address that people can
use to get information about orders of
protection.
Stringer thinks that drawing on private
attorneys who work in domestic violence
cases to beef up staffi ng and hear more
cases quickly, he said.
Finally, Stringer wants the courts to
work with sheriffs to prevent any delays
with serving protection orders and ensure
that law enforcement is fully aware
of Deputy Chief Administrative Judge
George J. Silver’s order to renew all temporary
orders of protection on March 16
so that they can continue to enforce them
properly.
4 April 9, 2020 Schneps Media
/amny.com
