Kathryn Garcia Dianne Morales Shaun Donovan Paperboy Love Prince Ray McGuire
Family members organized a tribute to those who died from COVID-19 in nursing homes
outside Cobble Hill Health Center on March 21. Photo by Caroline Ourso
COURIER LIFE, MAR. 26-APR. 1, 2021 5
BENJAMINS
in the 2021 mayoral race?
Stringer recently announced
that his campaign
boasts $9.14 million in the
proverbial bank, while Adams
has about $9.3 million in
his coffers.
Former CitiBank executive
Ray McGuire also brings
signifi cant fundraising prowess,
raising $2.5 million from
6,000 contributions since January,
coming atop the $5 million
he raised after announcing
his bid.
The funds raised by individual
contributors are
of particular importance to
city politicians, as New York
City’s Campaign Finance
Board provides candidates
with “matching funds” that
allows would-be electeds to
receive an 8-to-1 math for the
fi rst $250 of contributions
coming from city residents —
provided they raise $250,000
from at least 1,000 qualifying
donors. Another, less popular
system of matching funds allows
for greater contribution
limits, with lower matching
funds.
Thus far, only Adams,
Stringer, and Wiley had qualifi
ed for matching funds, although
a slew of candidates
— including Yang, Garcia,
Morales, and Donovan — will
likely cross the necessary
threshold and get the monetary
boost.
“The map shows how the
city’s matching funds program
incentivizes candidates
to seek support from New
Yorkers living on virtually
every block across the city,”
said Amy Loprest executive
director of the Campaign Finance
Board in a statement.
Families honor
nursing home dead
with new memorial
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Mourners erected a
memorial wall outside
the Cobble Hill Health
Center on Henry Street
Sunday, paying tribute to
the thousands of nursing
home residents who died
of COVID-19, while slamming
the governor for issuing
the state order that
sent sick elders back into
the care facilities nearly
one year ago.
“A third grader
would know not to send
COVID patients in with
grandma,” said Dawn
Best, whose mother died
of the virus at a nursing
home on Long Island.
“Gov. Andrew Cuomo
basically infl icted an unimaginable
horror on the
most vulnerable amongst
us. He did so knowingly
and after it happened he
hid the numbers so that
he would look good for
his book that was coming
out.”
The March 21 protest
and unveiling of the “We
Care Memorial Wall”
came days ahead of the
anniversary of the Department
of Health’s notorious
March 25 directive
to send senior New
Yorkers infected with
COVID-19 back into
nursing homes, exposing
the state’s most vulnerable
population to the
deadly disease.
Family members
and activists installed
the collection of photos,
messages, and fl owers
outside the long-term
care facility between
Congress and Warren
streets to remember the
more than 15,000 nursing
home residents who
died of the coronavirus.
The relatives demanded
accountability
from Cuomo, who faces
a probe by the Federal
Bureau of Investigations
over his administration’s
handling of the pandemic
within nursing homes,
along with separate inquiries
by state Attorney
General Letitia James
and the Assembly about
sexual harassment allegations
by several former
staffers.
“We lost thousands of
our loved ones, I lost four
of my family members
in one week,” said Daniel
Arbeeny at the gathering.
“Justice is just as
important as forgiving
and we as family members
need to see justice.”
Arbeeny’s 89-yearold
father Norman died
just days after being released
from the Cobble
Hill home, a 300-bed facility
which in April had
55 COVID deaths, at the
time the highest known
death count of all nursing
homes in the state.
The Cuomo administration
withheld the
full coronavirus death
toll for nursing home
residents for months
by only including those
who died inside the longterm
care facilities, not
the patients who passed
away after being transferred
to a hospital. Following
a court order and
a report by James’ offi ce
in January, the Department
of Health included
those outside deaths in
the toll, which jumped
from about 8,700 to 15,000
as a result.
Additional reporting
by Caroline Ourso