Beep refl ects on city’s response to outbreak
BY MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
In the weeks following 9-11,
Brooklyn Borough President
Eric Adams — a retired NYPD
lieutenant — slept at the 88th Police
Precinct on Classon Avenue.
“I wanted to be able to spring
into action,” said Adams, who
was in his 17th year as a cop.
For the last forty or so days,
the Beep said he’s called Brooklyn
Borough Hall home. From
inside the Joralemon Street
building’s hallowed halls, Adams
has set up shop with staffers
who want to be on the front
lines of the novel coronavirus
outbreak, helped organize relief
efforts, and even live-streamed
his favorite at-home workouts.
Since Gov. Andrew Cuomo
called for a citywide shelter-inplace
to stem the spread of the
outbreak in mid-March, Adams
said, he’s seen COVID-19 — the
respiratory illness caused by
the novel coronavirus — infl ict
a terror like that of 9-11.
“After 9-11, you saw everyday
people in this borough who
were afraid. America had never
really been attacked on its soil,”
Adams said. “This virus has attacked
us at our core. It’s not an
act of terrorism, but people are
in terror.”
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On the other side of the coin,
the virus has also inspired similar
acts of kindness throughout
the city, he said. Restaurants
have been feeding the city’s front
line workers and those who are
food insecure. Residents have
pooled funds to provide personal
protective equipment for those
in need. A celebration of heroes
is brought to life as cheers, and
the banging of pots and pans,
ring out across the city nightly.
“Many of us who were cops
or fi refi ghters or fi rst responders,
we will tell you that 9-11 took
something out of us, but it also
put something in us,” he said. “It
put in us that we can get through
it if we remain committed, and if
we have each other’s backs.”
The pandemic has similarly
placed an importance on the
work of fi rst responders and
front line workers — including
police offi cers, fi refi ghters,
emergency medical technicians,
healthcare professionals, group
home staffers, and all other essential
workers.
The virus has also earmarked
the signifi cance of local
lawmakers — those with the
power to make change during a
crisis — to be on the front lines,
in whatever capacity that they
can, Adams said.
“Just like 9-11, this virus has
shown me the importance of being
among the people and leading
them and letting them know
that they are going to be alright,”
the borough president said.
On April 20, Gov. Cuomo
announced that state offi cials
would supply the city’s public
housing residents with 10,000
gallons of hand sanitizers and
500,000 cloth masks — something,
Adams said, his offi ce had
been doing for NYCHA since the
beginning of the outbreak.
“I knew we had to fi ght this
virus on two fronts — intervention
for those who had it and prevention
to prevent people from
getting it,” said Adams, who
earlier this month joined other
Brooklyn lawmakers in blaming
a maze of red tape for the lack of
access for those workers.
“Where we went wrong, if
you look at it on the city and state
and federal level, you did not
hear any proven plan outside of
sheltering in place and keeping
six feet apart — that was the only
prevention plan you saw,” Adams
said. “But, because I was on the
ground every day, I saw nurses
wearing the same mask for a
week, soiled with saliva. I saw
people struggling, and the only
way that you would know that is
if you were on the ground.”
Since the outbreak began,
Adams — with the help of what
he called “sister-cities,” like
China, who he has fostered relationships
with — has been able
to supply almost 80,000 masks to
city workers.
He’s also had some larger
scale victories. Adams has
called on the state to waive costs
for setting up a telemedicine appointment,
to place a moratorium
on residential and commercial
evictions, to move the
tax fi ling deadline and to allow
social adult daycares to have
teleconferencing — all of which
have been implemented.
Late last month, he asked the
city to provide one video conferencing
platform for community
boards and agency work, so as to
avoid confusion — and the city
implemented WebEx. He’s asked
for more outreach to communities
of color, greater access to
COVID-19 testing and pre-screening,
and for the city to address
price-gouging — all of which, he
said, has since been addressed or
is starting to be put in place.
But, there is still more to be
done, the Beep said.
Adams told Brooklyn Paper
he would still like to see the city
utilize a new system that would
dramatically cut down response
time for emergency medical services,
police and fi refi ghters, as
well as testing and greater protective
gear for seniors in nursing
homes, which have been hit
hard by the virus. He’s also calling
for the offi ce of the medical
examiner to be open around the
clock to recover bodies that may
be piling up at nursing homes
and other senior care centers
— and, for the governor and the
mayor to quit bickering and start
working together.
First and foremost, Adams
said, “every essential worker
needs to have personal protective
gear. Plain and simple.”
Borough President Eric Adams
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