Rivera: COVID-19 Stats Show Racial Inequality
In a Wednesday appearance on WBAI’s Max & Murphy Show, City Councilmember Carlina Rivera (D-East Village, Gramercy Park) and State Senator Jessica Ramos (D-Queens) discussed the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on black and Latino New Yorkers.
Factors behind this discrepancy include housing situations that do not permit social distancing as well as access to health care.
“It’s very clear what is happening in our immigrant communities of color,” Rivera said. “We have 3.1 million immigrants, over 150 languages spoken in New York City, over 2 million immigrants in Brooklyn and Queens which is where we’re seeing some of the highest cases, and those statistics that exist around who has diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and obesity. We know where those underlying conditions are. We know where comorbidity is most prevalent and they’re really around our public system.”
Rosenthal Fears Drop in Domestic Violence Hotline Calls
City Council Women and Gender Equity Committee Chair Helen Rosenthal (D-Central Park, Lincoln Square) spoke to NY1 in a Monday report about the reduced number of calls to domestic violence hotlines since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
“Three weeks into a quarantine and all signs point to survivors not seeking help,” said Rosenthal. “This is worrisome. I hope the administration is coming up with an aggressive messaging plan to address this issue.”
Maloney, Nadler, Espaillat, Et. Al. Blast NYCHA Amid Coronavirus
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens) led ten other members of the city’s House Delegation in a letter to NYCHA Chair Gregory Russ blasting his handling of the city’s public housing amid the coronavirus pandemic, indicated that they were “disturbed,” the Daily News reported Tuesday.
U.S. Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn), Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan, Bronx), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx, Queens), Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn), Eliot Engel (D-Bronx, Westchester), Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn), Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), and Grace Meng (D-Queens) co-signed the letter. Grievances it highlighted include inadequate cleaning of NYCHA apartments and a failure to enforce social distancing, even though their tenants are particularly vulnerable to catching COVID-19.
