As New York confronts a deadly pandemic, City Limits brings you coverage about how the disease—and the response—will affect the most vulnerable.
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City Limits utilizó la Ley de Libertad de Información (Freedom of Information Law o FOIL por sus siglas en inglés) para obtener datos del Departamento de Salud e Higiene Mental de la ciudad de Nueva York sobre las muertes semanales de COVID-19 por raza/etnia desde septiembre de 2020 -cuando acababa de pasar la primera oleada- hasta finales de julio de 2022.
City Limits used the Freedom of Information Law to obtain data from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on weekly COVID-19 deaths by race/ethnicity from September 2020—after the first wave had just passed—to the end of July of 2022.
“This program was a lifeline for New York City during the pandemic, and now it needs more resources and structural support to reach its full potential.”
Citywide, workers at nonprofits under contract to provide support and essential services to New Yorkers at a time of unprecedented crisis say they feel overworked, overwhelmed and burnt out. As costs continue to increase around them, many have said their low wages make it difficult to justify staying in the sector, even with a recent pay bump from the city and state.
At a virtual rally on Sunday, parents, young people and advocates in the city and across the state shared stories about the impact of the pandemic and renewed calls for elected officials to invest more in behavioral health programs and services for children and teens, which experts say have been underfunded for years and are now at a breaking point, with increased demand spurred by the coronavirus crisis.
So far this year, city marshals have executed at least 1,527 residential evictions, according to statistics maintained by the Department of Investigation (DOI). The true number of legal evictions is likely higher because DOI updates its database only after a marshal reports an eviction, which can take days or weeks.
“I am deeply concerned that New York City is taking the foot off the brakes at the exact wrong moment.”
“It’s known as the summer slide, or summer setback. That period of just over two months when our children are out of school, when learning diminishes—and often disproportionately impacts youth from historically disadvantaged groups. This summer is a chance to reverse that trend.”
“The arts are a form of embodied play that surpasses verbal processing and allows us to explore, connect with ourselves and others, and ultimately build or rebuild the muscles of imagination when life circumstances or the experience of trauma has taken them away.”
When COVID-19 hit, policymakers saw an opportunity: The city had interconnected affordable housing and homelessness crises; the city also had hundreds of empty hotels hemorrhaging cash. But a year after the state passed a law funding the conversion of hotels to affordable housing, not a single one has happened. The experience of the Paramount Hotel on West 46th Street illustrates why.
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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