OP-ED
Delivering for America
Hope for could, should, would
COURIER LIFE, NOV. 6-12, 2020 19
OPINION
This column is something
of a time capsule as the
earliest you’ll be reading
it is Friday, Nov. 6, and I’m
starting it on the afternoon of
Tuesday, Nov. 3, Election Day.
Like millions across
the city, I am nervous that,
thanks to the electoral college,
and other quirks in our
system, New York will be
taken for granted. Unfortunately,
the federal government
may continue to throw
us shade.
The previous sentence is
when I stopped writing and
started compulsively refreshing
my browser and fl ipping
between the boards and analysis
of King & Kornacki.
Since that time, the results
have been up and down but
overall, slowly, heading in a
direction that secures democracy
rather than autocracy
and may provide a path for a
New York recovery.
But it isn’t over until the
orangeman squeals. Metaphorically
I will be holding my
breath until we escape the sty.
If President Donald Trump
wins, then “it’s over” for more
than just the election.
So I’m not going to waste
your time and have you read
as I wonder glumly about a
city that would come to resemble
the world of “Mad Max” or
“Escape from New York”. Instead,
let’s look at one thing
that a Biden Administration
could and should do as part of
a broader plan.
We would be in a position to
redefi ne “public” or “social”
housing. Of course, the details
are what’s most important,
but in the simplest terms, it
needs to be green with mixed
incomes of all kinds while offering
both rental and cooperative
housing.
Providing opportunities
for ownership would be a powerful
tool in eliminating poverty
for people who now work
without any prospect of developing
equity. Think in terms
of an expansive renewal of the
Mitchell Lama program. This
requires ending the cap on
public housing units that were
signed by President Clinton
in 1998. It also requires people
to see public housing as a potentially
great tool for a better
and more progressive city.
By “green,” it means not
only building in energy-effi -
cient ways, but also building in
proximity to effi cient means of
mass transportation. The goal
would be to have public transport
that’s so good it makes it
irrational to get about by car.
I mean, who better to develop
excellent train systems than
a president who is famous for
Amtrak ridership?
It also means having mixed
uses that allow for economic
development for good jobs,
and services such as childcare
to be provided locally. A
Brooklyn example would be a
smart expansion of the Industrial
Business Zones in tandem
with any Gowanus rezoning.
Our federal government
is lobbied to prop up and support
success for all sorts of industries
when they need help.
This time we’ll cultivate housing
security. When stocks
crash, the federal reserve and
usually slow senate are laserfocused.
As we live through a housing
crisis, millions are on the
brink of eviction. We must
help tenants while making
sure the landlords who provide
shelter aren’t bankrupted.
Remember, too, owners are
the source of income for maintenance
employees, supers,
and contractors and tax revenue
s for the city.
Anyway, I will stop here
and hope by the time you read
this, the world knows former
Vice President Biden as President
Elect Biden.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of CB 6.
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
BY CAROLYN MALONEY
The Postal Service is a critical
component of our national
infrastructure, providing a lifeline
of medications, supplies,
and mail for all Americans—no
matter where they live. The
Postal Service has become even
more important as our nation
contends with the COVID-19
pandemic and the November
election in which more Americans
will cast mail-in ballots
than ever before.
So, alarm bells went off this
summer when newly installed
Postmaster General Louis De-
Joy oversaw sweeping changes
to the Postal Service without
fi rst consulting with Congress
or stakeholders.
Last week, the Postal Service
Inspector General released
a report on these disastrous operational
changes, confi rming
they were hastily implemented
without analysis of their potential
impact. This, of course,
played a major role in the serious
delays we are still witnessing
across the country.
The report found: “The
collective results of these initiatives,
combined with the
ongoing employee availability
challenges resulting from
the pandemic, negatively impacted
the quality and timeliness
of mail delivery nationally.
The Postal Service’s mail
service performance signifi -
cantly dropped beginning
in July 2020, directly corresponding
to implementation
of the operational changes
and initiatives.”
As the nation began to see
this drop off in performance,
the Committee on Oversight
and Reform, which I chair, began
working to hold the Postmaster
General accountable
for these operational changes
and to fi nd out how these
changes were implemented,
and why.
On Aug. 24, I held a hearing
during which the Postmaster
General and the Chairman of
the Postal Service Board of Governors
both failed to provide adequate
answers as to why these
changes were made without any
consultation or analysis.
In last week’s report, the
Inspector General also found
that the Postal Service was
not fully forthcoming with
Congress and the American
people, calling into question
whether the Postmaster General
is continuing to mislead
Congress and the American
people to this day.
On Sept. 2, the Committee
issued a subpoena to Postmaster
General DeJoy for documents
related to these delays.
Millions of people rely on
the Postal Service every day to
communicate, to receive critical
medications, and to vote.
At this juncture in our nation’s
history, when the number
of Americans voting by
mail for this Presidential election
is expected to more than
double from the last election,
it is up to Congress to protect
the right of all eligible citizens
to have their vote counted. A
once-in-a-century pandemic
is no time to enact changes
that threaten service reliability
and transparency.
Our Postal Service should
not be an instrument of partisan
politics, but instead must
be protected as an independent
agency that focuses on
delivering the mail.
And the courts agree. Multiple
federal judges have ordered
the Postal Service to halt
these changes. Unfortunately,
as the Inspector General’s report
shows, service levels have
not yet been fully restored.
This is why the Senate
needs to pass my Delivering
for America Act immediately.
My bill, which the House
passed with bipartisan support
in August, will restore
service to pre-DeJoy levels,
return service standards to
where they were on January
1, 2020, and keep them in place
until this pandemic ends.
As Americans continue
to rely on their mail for lifesaving
services, we know
that “neither snow, nor rain,
nor heat, nor gloom of night”
will stop our postal employees
from doing their jobs. It’s
up to Congress to ensure that
the Postmaster General does
not stop them either.
Carolyn Maloney is a member
of the House of Representatives
serving Brooklyn and
Queens. She is also the Chairwoman
of the Committee on
Oversight and Reform