Voices of grief raised at Foley Square
BY DEAN MOSES
Voices for Seniors hosted a candlelight
vigil in Foley Square on
March 25, allowing family members
of deceased nursing home residents
to express their grief on what marked the
one-year anniversary of Governor Andrew
Cuomo’s nursing home directive.
A parent is a symbol of love, protection,
and a reminder of childhood. However,
that fuzzy, warm feeling has been tarnished
for the families of 15,000+ New Yorkers
who lost their mothers and fathers to the
COVID-19 pandemic. For many of the individuals
fi ling into Foley Square on March
25th, the word parent evokes vastly different
emotions. For them, when they think
of their parents they hear the dry, rasping
of lungs struggling for air and see the rapid
movement of an exhausted chest inhaling
its last breaths. But above all, they recall
what it was like to say goodbye to a loved
one through a computer screen. This horrifi
c memory has bypassed happier times,
leaving only sorrow.
Still mourning, these sons, daughters,
and grandchildren are clinging onto their
sorrow and weaponizing their grief. Gripping
signs with the faces of their lost family,
they are telling their stories to the world in
Mourners brought photos and signs to the vigil.
hopes of bringing the one they feel responsible
to justice.
Theresa Sari lost her mother, Maria Sachs,
on April 13, 2020, in an Island Park nursing
home. Her mother’s last moments are forever
embedded in her mind. The shrill beeping
noises from machines, labored breathing,
and the feeling of helplessness constantly
invades Sari’s dreams at night.
“This was the last time I saw my mother,”
Sari said, holding up a picture on her
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
phone, “This is what negligence and this
guy signed a book deal for. This is me saying
goodbye with her grandchildren. The
woman could hardly breathe. We didn’t get
to hug her or kiss her. Yet we watched her
suffer!”
Like many others in attendance, Sari
wondered why Cuomo’s family was given
priority in being tested for COVID, and
their families weren’t.
“Why was his mother a priority and not
my mother? Why was his brother tested
on March 31st and not my mother? She
should have gotten priority testing along
with the thousands of others who were
showing COVID symptoms at the same
time,” Sari said.
Feeling that the Governor’s executive
order granting nursing homes immunity
sent their loved ones to an early—and
sometimes a mass—grave, those at the
rally say the time for an apology and mere
accountability has passed, now they are
seeking punishment.
Joann Rodriguez’s father, Anthony Rodriguez,
passed away in a nursing home in
Westchester County. She says that last year,
around the time of Cuomo’s directive, she
had called the nursing home her father was
residing in to see how he was doing. For
two weeks no one at the facility answered
her call. She feared the worse, and then
she fi nally got a call back that her father
had a high fever.
“In the beginning of all of this, I was
just looking for an apology. But now, a year
later, I still haven’t at least got that. So at
this point, it’s beyond an apology. I want
justice and I want to see Governor Cuomo
step down. I want to see him put away and
held accountable for what he did,” Rodriguez
told amNewYork Metro.
MTA agrees to fully restore C and F subway service
BY MARK HALLUM
Acting New York City Transit President
Sarah Feinberg announced
Tuesday morning that controversial
cuts to the C and F trains would corrected
in the coming weeks after contention and
litigation between the agency and Transport
Workers Union Local 100.
Feinberg, during a webinar with the
Citizens Budget Commission, said better
heads prevailed at the MTA during debates
as to whether cuts implemented on both
lines during the pandemic should remain
that way as ridership returns — or if the
need to provide enough service to prevent
overcrowding should take priority.
“I’m glad to be able to say this morning
that we’ve taken that debate off the table
for now, we’ve decided that we’re going
to continue to run full service and in fact
we’re going to restore the two lines that
have been a little off of full service, the C
and the F, we’re now going to bring back to
full service,” Feinberg said. “I think that’s
the right thing to do to make sure that all
of our C and F riders are getting as much
service as they possibly can and as much
Interim NYC Transit President Sarah Feinberg
social distancing as possible.”
Feinberg stressed, however, the change
won’t happen immediately.
“It will take us several weeks to bring the
C and the F back, the F will come back fi rst
and then the C afterwards but that sets us
back at 100% full service and I think that’s
FILE PHOTO/ TODD MAISEL
the right place to be as we do our part to
bring the city back, to bring the economy
back,” she added. “I think the reality is, if
there’s not a transit system that is safe and
running effi cient service and running a lot
of service to greet the city as it comes back,
we’re going to struggle.”
In recent weeks, TWU has launched litigation
to stall the MTA making the reduced
service on the two lines permanent with
attorney Arthur Schwartz getting a stay on
a temporary restraining order against the
agency approved by a judge last week for
an additional two weeks.
“We’re very satisfi ed. As we’ve been saying,
New York needs more subway service,
not less. This is defi nitely the right move,”
said Tony Utano, president of TWU Local
100, in learning of the C and F train service
restorations.
Headways on the C train went from eight
or nine minutes to 12 minutes during peak
hours while on the F line wait times went
from four minutes to eight minutes, according
to the MTA.
About 36 out of over 100 runs on the F
train were cut early in the pandemic leaving
MTA staff assigned to those runs to be
reassigned. Going forward, these cuts will
be unnecessary as there are currently crews
available despite the 154 fatalities in the MTA
workforce due to COVID-19 and considering
those who are out sick as well as new hires,
according to Eric Loegel, the vice president
of Rapid Transit Operations at TWU.
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