Guest op-eds, City Limits bloggers and reaction from readers
‘The right to shelter provides unshakeable protections for those who would otherwise have no choice but to sleep on the street. Threats to the right to shelter by New York mayors aren’t new—Both Giuliani and Bloomberg mounted strident challenges to modify and undo it.’
‘As we start to pick up the pieces from the last 15 months, we have the opportunity to build back better. We refuse to go back to normal, because normal was broken. We cannot continue to warehouse people in overcrowded shelters or police people in the streets with no plan to move them into permanent housing.’
‘In spite of its reputation as a progressive liberal bastion, New York City has failed to adopt a comprehensive and deliberate approach to end its own segregation.’
Issues of public health, infrastructure and the environment are inseparable from one another. The Bronx has long been victimized by infrastructure projects that benefit the rich at the expense of marginalized communities, and the Cross Bronx Expressway is the quintessential example.’
‘Investing in mentorship is not just a moral imperative. It is a wise business decision. Bringing in young people disrupts group think, provides a diversity of opinions, develops our future workforce, and yields economic benefits.’
‘The bills that make up the SOS Act, introduced by Council Members Francisco Moya and Diana Ayala, would raise the standards for workers like me to ensure that privately-run shelters are providing decent wages, benefits and training opportunities to security workers.’
‘The next mayor will inherit this crisis but has a tremendous opportunity with incoming federal funds and a wealth of experienced and committed providers, developers, and advocacy and philanthropic organizations to work with, to transform the city’s housing and homelessness policies and meet the needs of our struggling families.’
‘We can address poverty and public health concerns by providing people the housing, social services and care they actually need—and by divesting from policing and incarceration.’
‘Without more information regarding the communities that experience hate crimes and those that are accused of committing them, we cannot take meaningful steps to improve the mechanisms that we currently rely on to keep vulnerable New Yorkers safe.’
‘I’m beyond thrilled some inkling of normalcy may return to this gorgeous mosaic of a city by summer. But city and state officials are going to have to step up their game on how to best address vaccine coronavirus hesitancy or otherwise, we may be setting ourselves up for problems down the road.’
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
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