Doctors and UFT offer reassurance
amidst return to school in Harlem
BY DEAN MOSES
The kids are alright!
As New York City schools reopened
for pre-K through six grade
on Monday morning, pediatricians and
school nurses stood with United Federation
of Teachers (UFT) offi cials to reassure
parents of education safety.
A host of individuals in the healthcare
fi eld — including SOMOS doctors — and
UFT President Michael Mulgrew gathered
across the street from Thurgood Marshall
Academy on West 151st Street in Harlem
to both soothe safety concerns and emphasize
the need for continued testing as
COVID-19 cases rise in what has become
a second wave.
“We know our family members, our
kids, our teachers are worried about what
is going on, but today together with our
partner the United Federation of School
Teachers, we want to tell kids and their
families that we are here to help. SOMOS
Community Care Network, is going to continue
testing in our schools, trying to fi nd
the best possible environment where our
kids can feel safe and where our teachers
feel safe,” said Dr. Ramon Tallaj, physician
Physician and member of vaccine distribution task force Dr. Ramon Talla
speaks school safety.
and chairman of SOMOS US.
After extending his thanks to Schools’
Chancellor Richard Carranza, Mayor Bill
de Blasio, and Governor Andrew Cuomo,
Dr. Tallaj made the effort to ensure families
throughout the city that he does not represent
large hospitals but instead community
physicians who serve almost one million
patients.
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
“Vaccinations are coming. I am a part of
the distribution task force created by the
Governor, and we’ll make sure the community
will get the vaccine that they need
in order to start trying to come back to
what was normal daily life in 2019,” Dr.
Tallaj ensured the public.
Mulgrew proudly credited SOMOS
for their help in providing testing and
ensuring everyone’s safety within the
school buildings.
“We are here to make sure that every
school community knows that testing is a
major priority and the early warning system
for the safety of every school that is open in
New York City. SOMOS reached out with
helping hands at a time when we didn’t
have the capacity to do the testing that we
needed to ensure our schools would be safe.
They have delivered on every promise they
made to us,” Mulgrew said.
SOMOS members assured parents that
PPE and social distancing are important,
but testing allows tracking to see if the
virus is spiking in certain areas.
“The families trust us. The families come
to us for education, questions they have,
and we partnered with the teachers to not
only test outside but come to the schools
and make sure under the leadership of Dr.
Ramon Tullaj and SOMOS Community
Care Network, that we make sure all our
students are safe because if we have a safe
school, we have a safe community. We will
be able to decrease the spread,” said Dr.
Denise Nunez, a pediatrician practicing
in the Bronx SOMOS Community Care
Network.
Lower Manhattanites appealing court ruling
to prevent transfer of Lucerne residents
BY MARK HALLUM
Manhattanites are playing
hot potato with
the homeless residents
of the Lucerne Hotel with a Financial
District coalition fi ling
litigation in appellate court to
cancel the displacement of over
230 individuals from the Lucerne
Hotel in the Upper West Side to
the Radisson at 52 William St.
A 53-page emergency action
to stop the relocation by the
city Department of Homeless
Services was fi led by Downtown
New Yorkers, who believe City
Hall has been dishonest in their
dealings with Manhattan Community
Board 1 and are arguing
that switch up would negatively
impact the lives of Lucerne Hotel
residents.
“In addition to rebutting the
Supreme Court’s standing error,
the motion establishes that
Neighbors of the Lucerne Hotel and from Vocal New York
showed their support for the homeless living at the Lucerne
despite the mayor seeking to move them to another hotel in
downtown Manhattan.
Downtown New Yorkers is likely
to succeed on the merits and that
the Lower Manhattan community
will be irreparably harmed if the
City is able to disrupt a stable situation
at the Lucerne and move the
men to the Radisson for improper
purposes,” a release from the
group said.
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
This is not fi rst time the city has
been sued by community groups
opposed to the use of hotels to
relieve congestion in congregate
shelters for the duration of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Over the
summer, West Side Community
Organization led by attorney
Randy Mastro was able to twist
the de Blasio administration’s
arm into a decision of relocating
the men taking cover in the upper
crust section of Manhattan,
mostly based on quality of life
complaints.
The city soon announced a decision
to remove the residents to a
downtown location, but the other
shoe has yet to drop. Friction in
the Upper West Side continued
and eventually led to Mastro’s
own residence being vandalized.
The Downtown New Yorkers’
legal action comes a week after
New York Supreme Court Judge
Debra James ruled on Nov. 25
in favor of the city in stating
that they had the right to move
forward with the relocation which
was scheduled to take place sometime
after Thanksgiving.
“The City has behaved horribly
from the very start of this
situation, playing with people’s
lives for political expediency and
lying to Community Board 1 by
claiming there is not a permanent
shelter in the district when there
is,” Downtown New Yorkers
member Theresa Vitug said in a
statement. “We will continue to
fi ght this issue and we demand
that the Department of Homeless
Services engages with the community
in good faith.”
Manhattan’s CB1 one did not
respond to a request for comment.
The Raddison’s proximity to
four different schools – a perennial
argument used against
sheltering of homeless residents
by community members over the
years (see here, here and here) –
as well as citing the psychiatric
and substance abuse by the DHS
clients was another reason for
opposition to their relocation
framed by the potential it would
destabilize their recovery.
The residents themselves at
the hotel have spoken out against
being moved by the city in several
rallies as they have come to rely on
services in the neighborhood such
as nearby primary care doctors as
well as employment in the area.
4 December 10, 2020 Schneps Media