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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‘For a whole year, this place has been like a graveyard,’ one Bronx worker told El Diario of the area around Yankee Stadium. The venue reopened to fans last week for the first time since the pandemic struck.
Faulting Mayor de Blasio’s expansion of the city payroll during his tenure, Andrew Yang says the city ought to spread the money coming from Washington out over several years. But should the city save for a rainy day when it’s pouring now?
‘With my savings gone and just working one day a week, I’m standing in food pantry lines for hours just to get enough to eat. I have to constantly borrow money because I am afraid that if I do not pay my rent, I could lose my home. Each day I worry, how will I ever be able to pay back the money I owe?’
Advocates have been calling for vaccine access in the state’s prisons and jails since December. A Supreme Court Judge ruled Monday that the state’s decision to expand eligibility to others in congregate settings but exclude incarcerated people was “arbitrary and capricious.”
‘Our state and federal governments have a moral responsibility to go beyond emergency measures and implement systemic, long-term solutions that will direct more public resources to preventing eviction and homelessness.’
An estimated 5,000 restaurants across the city were predicted to shutter by February 2021 due to the pandemic. While there’s no officially tally, the loss of Latino-led businesses in New York was already a worrisome trend prior to the crisis.
The state urged local school districts last year to allow students to continue their studies even after they turn 21, to make up for academic losses during the pandemic. The same policy should be made for this year’s students ‘aging’ out, advocates say.
A top nutrition advocate says the pandemic exacerbated a significant hunger crisis in the city. And a year later, it is still exacerbating it—although the federal stimulus package will deliver help.
If there were no barriers to accessing the vaccine, then there would be no need to be creative in reaching people of color, Native Americans, African Americans, or immigrant communities, advocates say.
‘To reach those currently experiencing homelessness, it is essential for organizations with longstanding visibility to be empowered and unrestricted to vaccinate in non-traditional settings. Imagine a popup clinic under the GW Bridge, inside Port Authority or inside the MTA terminals at Barclay Center or Grand Central.’