Editorial Op-ed
Supervising to save lives
New York City made history Tuesday
when it announced the opening of
the very fi rst “supervised drug consumption”
sites in Upper Manhattan.
The quoted term is an euphemism for
“supervised injection sites,” meaning that
at these facilities, drug users can get their
fi x under the watchful eye of professionals
trained to prevent overdoses. It sounds dubious
to those who don’t care about the city’s
drug problems, but in reality, facilities such as
these have been needed for quite some time.
Approximately 596 people died of drug
overdoses in the Five Boroughs between
January and March 2021 alone — the most
of any quarter in New York City since they’ve
been tracking such deaths. In 2020, more
than 2,000 New Yorkers fatally overdosed,
up 37% from the previous year.
These numbers aren’t mere statistics;
they’re people. They’re sons and daughters,
relatives, friends, co-workers and neighbors.
We imagine some New Yorkers would
cringe at the idea of a supervised injection site
in their communities. “Not in my backyard,”
some of them would ultimately think.
But the problem of drug addiction is already
in our backyard — and has been for
too long, aggravated by the proliferation of
opioids and fentanyl-laced heroin.
Merely outlawing drugs, or wishing away
addicts to far away corners of the city, isn’t
going to stop the cycle of death from drug
addiction. Neither will supervised injection
sites by themselves.
Yet these sites can and will make a dramatic
difference.
City offi cials estimate that supervised injection
sites will save up to 130 lives a year.
The nonprofi t centers which operate them can
also connect visitors with resources needed
to break free from their cycle of addiction.
The supervised drug consumption center
program has the chance to have a similar
impact as the needle exchange initiative had
in combating the spread of HIV and other
diseases.
In the end, if this new program saved just
one life and prevented just one family from
mourning the loss of a beloved overdose victim,
it would have truly been worth the effort.
Meanwhile, if you or a loved one is suffering
from drug addiction, it’s not too late
to get help.
You can call the city’s 24-hour drug abuse
helpline at 888-NYC-WELL (888-692-9355).
Counselors are available to talk at any time
of the day, whenever you need to speak with
them, with services available in more than
200 languages.
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Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
ROBERT POZARYCKI
EMILY DAVENPORT
KEVIN DUGGAN
DEAN MOSES
ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
BOB KRASNER
TEQUILA MINSKY
MARCOS RAMOS
CLIFFORD LUSTER
(718) 260-2504
CLUSTER@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
GAYLE GREENBURG
JULIO TUMBACO
ELIZABETH POLLY
New York Press Association
Member of the National
Newspaper Association
Member of the
Member of the
Minority Women Business Enterprise
2022: The year of diversity
contracting and opportunity
BY MANNY BURGOS
As the current year ends there is much
to be excited about in the world of
diversity in government-subsidized
development and construction. The new governor
has positioned herself to be a champion
of diversity, and the incoming mayor has
made clear his intent to prioritize this cause.
Best of all, it appears that the state and city
will work together to promote diversity.
Equally exciting is that developers are
certainly doing more to meet diversity goals.
The days are ending when a developer simply
passed on diversity goals to its project’s builder
and washed its hands of this responsibility.
Looking at the past fi ve years alone, there
is strong data showing that developers and
builders have moved in the right direction,
with some projects achieving over 200% of
assigned goals. Back in 2020, I wrote about
the disproportionate impact that the pandemic
had on MWBE fi rms. 18 months later, many of
these contractors and suppliers have regained
their footing and are back in business.
There’s more. Government agencies that
award subsidies are better at understanding
the vital role they play in supporting projects
with diversity requirements. Just last week our
fi rm reached out to one, requesting help identifying
fi rms for a specifi c trade. We received
a list within an hour! And elected offi cials are
doing more than just demanding diversity on
projects in their districts, with many using
their deep community reach to broadcast
contracting opportunities.
Even lenders are taking up the cause; some
are requesting diversity contracting plans
upfront as a condition of fi nancing.
With so many factors now in place, the time
is right for government’s diversity contracting
concept of “good faith efforts” (truly a dreaded
industry term) to be redefi ned, realigned, and
reimagined, moved away from the post-buyout
checklist (hoping that a project did “enough”)
and instead started robustly during the earliest
stages of planning. It’s time for diversity to
become an integral part of the development
process. Instead of a patchwork of diversity
tactics stitched together with varied participation
by each project player, it needs to be tied
together into a holistic coordinated strategy.
Simply put, this “new and improved” good
faith efforts concept only works if everyone
involved—developers, lenders, builders, government
agencies, and elected offi cials—plays
its role to the fullest, not with an attitude based
on forced participation (“Ugh, we gotta do
this!”), but instead one that wholly embraces
diversity with panache and aplomb (“Yeah,
we got this!”). The time is now to organize
diversity achievement (“Go team!”).
Our fi rm is proud to have contributed to
hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to
MWBE fi rms working in new and existing
housing and commercial developments. Our
compliance work puts the emphasis rightly
where it belongs—in early outreach, hired to
start our work sometimes years before shovels
are in the ground. We’ve learned much about
what works and what doesn’t.
So, in the hopes of starting a discussion
on organized and holistic diversity, we
documented our experiences and put them in
a free publication, Diversity Contracting: A
Guide for Developers, Builders, and Contractors.
Don’t let the title fool you! Stakeholders
like elected offi cials, government agencies,
community leaders, neighborhood residents,
even lenders, can benefi t greatly from it by
learning the process of diversity contracting
from many sides, and the critical importance
of intent throughout it all. Click here to get
the free guide from BTN Consulting’s website.
In one year’s time, I plan to write a followup
to this opinion piece, hoping that my
optimism in 2022 was well placed. I’m happy
to say that I think it will be.
Manny Burgos is CEO of By the Numbers
Consulting Services Corp., a leading
provider of outreach, compliance, advisory,
and data gathering services. BTN Consulting
serves the tristate area with offi ces in New
York and Puerto Rico.
88 December 2, 2021 SScchhnneeppss MMeeddiiaa
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