BP Adams, New Yorkers Rally Against BOE Banning Translators From Polling Sites
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams alongside Let NY Vote Advocates and others today will rally against the NYC Board of Elections’ (NYCBOE) recent lawsuit preventing city interpreters from being inside polling locations.
Last Friday, the NYCBOE sued the City to prevent language translators hired by the de Blasio administration from entering poll sites to assist voters. Currently, the BOE provides interpreters in four languages – Chinese, Spanish, Korean, and Bengali – as mandated by Section 203 of the Federal Voting Rights Act.
However, de Blasio administration officials alongside local electeds like City Council member Mark Treyger (D-Bath Beach, Bensonhurst, Coney Island, Gravesend, Sea Gate) claim the services need to be expanded. As a result, the City hired additional translators for Russian, Haitian Creole, Yiddish and Polish speakers at 48 poll sites in Brooklyn and Queens, but the Board argues these additional translators must remain more than 100 feet away from poll site entrances because these individuals were not trained or vetted by the agency, according to the Gothamist.
For last November’s election, the City Council and Mayor’s office worked together to fund translators at 101 poll sites citywide. At that time, the translators were required to stay more than 100 feet outside the poll sites. Both then and now, the city contracted with Langalo Translations, a city-certified minority or women-owned business, to provide the additional services.
The rally is set to be held right before the hearing on the lawsuit at 9:30 a.m. at Kings County Supreme Court. This is the latest conflict in the ongoing battle between the Board and City Hall over language access at the polls.
The event is slated for 9 a.m., today, Feb. 25, at Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street (North side of the building, on Columbus Park) in Downtown Brooklyn.
Carroll To Host Legislative and Budget Town Hall Series
Assembly member Robert Carroll (D-Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Park Slope) will host a series of town halls starting this month focused on the New York State legislative and budget agendas.
The events will give local residents and constituents an opportunity to hear about the budget, important legislation and to express their opinions.
The first event is slated for 6:30 p.m., today. Feb. 25, at P.S. 139, at 330 Rugby Road in Ditmas Park.
The second event is slated for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 21, at P.S. 10, at 511 7th Avenue in Park Slope.
Treyger To Hold Hearing On Accessibility Services For Special Education Students
City Council member Mark Treyger (D-Bath Beach, Bensonhurst, Coney Island, Gravesend, Sea Gate), Chair of the Committee on Education, will hold a hearing today on the accessibility difficulties of special education students at NYC schools.
On Monday, parents of students with disabilities will share personal stories about the struggles and challenges of receiving special education services for their children. City Council Members will question Department of Education (DOE) officials about noncompliance with federal mandates for providing special education services.
Students with disabilities – who all have Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) – account for more than 220,000 of NYC’s 1.1 million public school students. According to the DOE’s own data, only 78 percent of students with disabilities are receiving all of the programs and services they are entitled to according to the 1990 federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which guarantees a “free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities ensures special education and related services to those children.” The four-year graduation rate among students with disabilities is just 50 percent.
Several pieces of legislation will also be on the agenda, including Treyger’s resolution calling on the DOE to create a special education ‘czar’ position to specifically oversee special education services at public schools. In addition to Treyger’s bill requiring DOE to report annually on the rate of compliance and noncompliance with students’ IEPs will also be heard.
The event is slated for 1 p.m., today, Feb. 25, at City Hall, Committee Room in Lower Manhattan.
CM Williams Denounces Two Shooting Incidents In Brooklyn
City Council member Jumaane Williams (D-Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood), Deputy Leader, denounced two separate shootings Friday evening in Brooklyn that left a 15-year-old and a 23-year-old young man dead.
Samuel Joseph, 15, was shot in the head and torso in front of his apartment building on Flatbush Avenue at around 5:45 p.m., police said. He was later taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In the other shooting, police were responding to a report of a person being assaulted in front of a building on East 94th Street in Canarsie around 5 p.m. when they learned a 23-year-old man had been shot in the torso and arm, the NYPD said. The man was taken to Brookdale Hospital privately, and was pronounced dead, according to News 4 New York.
No arrest has been made in either of the deadly shootings
“As we learn more about these incidents, we know one thing for certain. Last night, young men lost their lives, families lost their sons. Gun violence is a plague that does not consider age nor any other factor in inflicting pain and despair. The impact of these shootings is not narrow, but ripples to impact a broader community- two young people are lost to these violent acts, and more will be lost to the system. I pray for all who are affected by these tragedies,” said Williams.
This year so far, we have seen a increase in murders in New York City. This comes after several years of historic decline, and the interruption of that trend is deeply distressing. Let us continue to use proven measures to make sure the increase stops here. We stand united with victims of this epidemic and their families, and in our work to reduce these acts and prevent future devastation,” added Williams.
Deutsch Denounces Continued Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes
City Council member Chaim Deutsch (D-Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, Homecrest, Midwood) denounced the most recent anti-Semitic hate crime in Queens last week.
Last Friday, swastikas and Nazi symbols, as well as the term “Heil Hitler” were discovered drawn all over an elementary school playground at P.S. 139 in Rego Park, Queens. This incident is one in a series of anti-semitic attacks across the city including last week’s vandalism of a Bushwick Chabad.
Earlier this month, Deutsch passed hate crime prevention legislation creating a new Mayoral office charged with presiding over hate crimes outreach and education throughout the city. The also law mandates the Hate Crime Prevention Office to work with the Department of Education (DOE) to create guidance for educators within the New York City public school system to address issues relating to hate crimes.
“Yet another act of anti-Semitism in our City brings the total of anti-Semitic Hate Crimes in our city to nearly 50 since the start of the new year. This has gotten completely out of hand,” said Deutsch.
“I urge Mayor de Blasio to immediately implement mine and Councilmember Mark Levine’s bills that recently passed in the City Council, which would require educational outreach to teach about the impact of hate, bias, and anti-Semitism,” added Deutsch.
Schumer Demands Increased Federal Resources, Funding To Public Housing
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) is making a public push for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to put up at least $1.2 billion in new federal investment for large public housing authorities with persistent issues, like the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).
The public demand comes off the heels of a settlement agreement between HUD, NYCHA and the City of New York earlier this month. The agreement aims to address long standing issues at the housing authority’s properties. According to HUD, the agreement establishes specific requirements and milestones to address health and safety hazards at NYCHA properties, including lead-based paint, mold, heat, vermin, among others. NYCHA was not placed into receivership, but the federal government will now have stronger controls to oversee NYCHA.
However, Schumer points out, the agreement does not include any commitment from HUD to dedicate new federal dollars to NYCHA. While the agreement between HUD and NYC prioritizes the well-being of NYCHA residents by requiring significant changes with increased oversight, while maintaining some form of local control; Schumer argued that having a federal monitor and clear benchmarks for NYCHA to hit is only fair if the feds chip in to help address their decades of disinvestment.
Schumer says there needs to be additional federal funding available to supplement this local commitment. The U.S. Senator has requested that HUD include more than $1 billion of additional funding in the Trump Administration’s upcoming budget to address persistent issues with large housing authorities, like NYCHA.
“We have seen the spiraling results of decades of federal disinvestment in public housing at NYCHA, specifically. The recent settlement between NYCHA and HUD was important and a positive step forward, but you cannot address the structural and systemic problems here without the federal government providing its fair share to fix the pipes, the boilers, address lead and more. That is why, as the Trump Administration crafts its upcoming budget, I am urging HUD to add at least $1.2 billion in its request for public housing authorities that NYCHA can immediately tap,” said Schumer.
“The recent settlement gives the feds control over NYCHA, and so, it is only fair they increase funding to help reverse decades of federal disinvestment in New York City public housing,” Schumer added.
