While Mobilization for Justice’s staff union has particular grievances—they say their employer has failed to stay competitive with its peers—many members are experiencing a strain familiar to tenant lawyers citywide.
“Parece un coro de tos en esa carpa”, dijo Luis Zambrano, de 62 años, quien contrajo neumonía este invierno mientras se alojaba en el complejo de carpas del refugio en Randall’s Island, donde la ciudad ha alojado a miles de inmigrantes recién llegados. “El frío que pasa a través y debajo del catre no se va ni con varias cobijas, así que siempre tienes frío durmiendo”.
“It looks like a coughing choir in that tent,” said Luis Zambrano, 62, who came down with pneumonia this winter while staying at the shelter complex on Randall’s Island, where the city has been housing thousands of newly arrived immigrants. “The cold that passes through and under the cot doesn’t go away with several blankets, so you are always cold sleeping.”
A company launched last year is introducing a new fracking technique that uses carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of water to extract gas from underground—and it hopes to do business in New York. But environmental advocates see the plans as an attempt to circumvent the state’s prohibition on fracking.
The plan would tear down and rebuild all 2,056 NYCHA apartments at the aging Manhattan campuses, and construct an additional 3,450 mixed-income units there. The public has a chance to weigh in by writing or at three public meetings in February.
“When neighbors have the chance to connect across housing status, it makes all of us and our neighborhoods kinder and stronger. It allows us all to learn from each other and imagine a better world. Every one of us has something to offer in building a city where everyone feels welcome.”
While New York City must propose a balanced budget in January for the coming fiscal year, some say Adams’ approach to closing the gap—multiple rounds of budget cuts across most agencies—is a blunt instrument, and not the only option.
“This is a once-in-a-century opportunity to raise New York and the entire region to new heights of greatness by getting Penn Station right. We can and must do better.”
La reciente apertura de un centro dedicado a dar pasajes gratuitos de un sólo trayecto (Reticketing Center) ha sembrado la confusión, ya que se perfila como una de las únicas opciones —junto con las nuevas “zonas de espera”— para los inmigrantes recién llegados que se ven obligados a abandonar sus centros de acogida cuando llega el frío.
“It’s easy to pretend to be colorblind when your head is buried in the sand. It’s easy to say you know what the community wants when your ‘community’ is meticulously curated.”
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