Cuomo endorses Seawright for re-election to
Manhattan Assembly seat
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
At the height of the spring
coronavirus crisis in New
York, three-term Democratic
State Assemblymember
Rebecca Seawright came in for
a rude shock in her effort for
another term in Albany.
Her campaign’s failure to fi le
cover sheets for the voter signatures
required to put her on the
June primary ballot on the Democratic
and Working Families
Party lines led the state’s highest
bench, the Court of Appeals, to
deny the Upper East Sider what
otherwise would have routinely
been her ballot spots in the Nov.
3 election.
Suddenly, Republican Lou Puliafi
to, who works as residential
doorman in the neighborhood,
seemed headed for Albany to join
the decidedly minority GOP caucus
— 43 seats out of 150 — from
an overwhelming Democratic district
that runs from Third Avenue
to the East River, between the
East 60s and East 90s, and also
includes Roosevelt Island.
Though he’s the Republican
candidate, Puliafi to would not say
if he is supporting the reelection
of his party’s leader, President
Donald Trump — even when
speaking with the Trump-friendly
New York Post.
But Seawright, who said she
suffered COVID-type symptoms
during the spring voter signature
petitioning period, did not let the
matter rest with the high court’s
ruling. The former New York
State director of the National
Women’s Political Caucus got to
work, making good use of a COVID
inspired extension through
July 31 of the signature collection
period for candidates hoping to
run on an independent line.
So on the Nov. 3 ballot, for
which early in-person voting
began Oct. 24, Seawright is the
candidate of the Rise and Unite
Party.
And last week, Governor
Andrew Cuomo endorsed that
party’s candidate in the 76th Assembly
District — Rebecca
Seawright.
Among the issues the governor
singled out for praise in his
endorsement was Seawright’s
successful advocacy of a law
requiring insurance companies
to pay for 3-D mammograms,
which are vital to early detection
of breast cancer.
“I was proud to sign her lifesaving
bill into law,” Cuomo said,
adding other states have followed
New York’s lead with similar
legislation.
A graduate of the City University
of New York School of
Law, where she is on the Board
of Visitors, Seawright, with
her background at the National
Women’s Political Caucus, is unsurprisingly
a strong champion of
feminist issues.
With her fellow Upper East
Side Democrat, Senator Liz
Krueger, Seawright is leading
the effort to have New York State
adopt an equal rights amendment.
COURTESY OF REBECCA SEAWRIGHT’S OFFICE
Assemblywoman Rebecca Seawright with Governor Andrew
Cuomo.
That effort — which would add
to existing state constitutional
protections based on race and
religion — has occasioned debate
in the Legislature over whether it
should include protections based
solely on sex or whether it should
also include protections based on
sexual orientation, gender identity,
national origin, ethnicity, age,
and disability.
The Senate has approved
the broader measure, but so
far the Assembly has only approved
a measure adding sex
discrimination protections to the
Constitution, though Seawright
also sponsors the more inclusive
measure that tracks the Senate approach.
The effort by Seawright
and Krueger to move a broader
amendment got a boost in January
when Cuomo embraced that
approach.
NYCHA developments ill-prepared for
winter amid COVID-19: Stringer
BY MARK HALLUM
City Comptroller Scott
Stringer says NYCHA
residents are facing a
COVID-19 nightmare this winter
with the expected spread of the
disease paired with the usual fare
in their developments: poor heating,
gas service and lead paint.
With residents likely to spend
the winter indoors to protect their
health, they may be exposed to the
elements of living conditions in
decline which Stringer claimed
in a Monday press conference has
not been addressed with funding
NYCHA already possesses but
that the agency does not see a
need to change their maintenance
practices.
“We came to them over the
summer about the boilers, we
continued to ask them for an
action plan and the hour grows
late. We are seeing an uptick in
some of the data that’s coming
out of the mayor’s offi ce and the
NYCHA buildings WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/JIM HENDERSON
governor’s offi ce, but this is what
we know; COVID does not hit
communities equally, COVID is
the great discriminator and that
is why we have an urgency of now
to address these issues,” Stringer
said. “They know what they have
to do, it’s time for them to do it.”
Stringer has audited 15 times
recording varieties of poor living
conditions, including one in
particular issued over the summer
regarding heating systems. In the
audit, the comptroller claimed
that the housing agency had not
been keeping adequate records
on boiler inventory or repair and
heating complaints were longstanding
before being addressed.
Between October and December
of 2019, up to 134,000
NYCHA tenants fi led heating
related complaints, according to
the comptroller.
“I want to tell you what
NYCHA said. They said their
current practices don’t need to be
improved. They said they didn’t
need to be improved and because
we released the audit purposely
in the summer, it didn’t seem
very urgent at the time,” Stringer
said.
But according to NYCHA,
improvements have already been
seen along the way in terms of
restoring heat for tenants. Between
October 2019 and May
2020, outages had decreased
by 35% and in the same period
NYCHA had shaved an hour off
the average repair time for heat: a
decrease of eight hours compare
to nine in the same period of the
previous year. NYCHA has also
created a 24/7 Heat Desk and can
deploy 70 additional technicians
at any time, they said.
“NYCHA disagrees with the
Comptroller’s assessment, as it
entirely dismisses the improved
processes, increased resources,
and demonstrable improvements
the Authority has made over the
past two years,” a statement read.
Stringer wants NYCHA to
form a plan to replace up to
10,000 roof fans that will improve
the air quality and fi ltration
as well as elevator fi xes, all that
would prevent a super spreader
event. Stringer is demanding
that the agency come up with a
winter plan to prevent the spread
of COVID-19 that will include
providing personal protective
equipment to tenants who made
up one in 15 New Yorkers.
NYCHA has seen much better
days since Superstorm Sandy
as the decrepitude of developments
spiraled out of control. In
2018, the Trump administration
installed a federal monitor to
oversee improvements in NYCHA
developments.
But the problems persist.
Astoria Houses in Queens has
been without gas service for a
month while in June, NYCHA
was awarded with $3.1 billion in
FEMA grants and has only spent
about 59% of the funds. About
$300 million in community development
block grants has also
been given to NYCHA, of which
only 79% has been spent.
4 October 29, 2020 Schneps Media