Nonprofits prep for their closeup
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Astoria: Re Errol Louis’ June 11 column, “After we defund the NYPD”: Like communities of color and advocates, New York’s nonprofits know that social services can and do solve many problems better than police are able to. Someone facing homelessness and a mental health crisis needs a bed, not a cell. Our city budget should reflect that.
Nonprofits are ready — they have been for years. They have been in our communities through 9/11, the Great Recession, and Hurricane Sandy, all while being underfunded by the government. Nonprofit workers are 80% people of color, and yet 60% of them qualify for public assistance. That is systemic racial injustice.
The Human Services Council sent a plan to the mayor and City Council for redistributing $1 billion from the NYPD operating budget to human services for New Yorkers. That money could fund summer youth programs, proper behavioral health emergency responses, and many other programs to address systemic racism and support communities of color.
Social service agencies are ready for their closeup. Give them a chance. Michelle Jackson, executive director
The Human Services Council
Reallocate
New City, N.Y.: To Voicer Thomas Urban: You seem to have no concern for the police, although your fear-mongering words appear, on the surface, to say the opposite. Besides taking rogue cops who kill unarmed Americans off the force, don’t you think the police would appreciate being relieved of certain patrols, which social workers could better handle, like mental health breakdowns, domestic violence, and homelessness, to name a few? Do you think the police should have to check the licenses of street vendors? Taking duties like these away from police departments — aka defunding them — and reallocating the same money to communities, mental health services, social service programs, youth services, drug counseling, etc. would help improve communities and their inhabitants. Sometimes improving people’s lives can lead to a reduction in crime. Isn’t that interesting? You say that defunding “is a sure road to the quick ruination of our country” and that “we will be left with a country in chaos.” Let me ask you, do you have any idea of the state of this country for the last three and a half years? Or are you blind to the degradation of our institutions, rule of law, and constitution under the auspices of the current president? I’d bet you’re perfectly
happy with the state of our union. Maybe you should read a little, instead of mouthing off at changes that could be so beneficial for so many. Christine Ierardi
Black and blue
Brooklyn: The black people who turn out to vote would never consent to the lack of a police presence. They tend to be older, more vulnerable, more law-abiding and typically just don’t give a naive assent to their younger brethren, who are good for showing up at protests but don’t show up at the polls.
William Cullen Jr.
Corporate interests
Manhattan: I am responding to the article published on June 10 about the Citizens Budget Commission’s proposal to balance the city budget. The Daily News describes the CBC as a “good government group.” In fact, they promote the viewpoint of corporations and big businesses. Their proposal calling for the city to lose 9,000 jobs over the next three years is counterproductive. It will reduce services and jobs in the poorer communities of color in this city. It will mean there will be 9,000 fewer city taxpayers and people able to support small businesses in their neighborhoods. Raising property taxes is a regressive tax that will hurt all homeowners, as well as small landlords.
The CBC should be joining other New Yorkers to call for a new federal stimulus package of aid for the city and state. They also should be calling on the state to raise taxes on the very rich. After all, if the owner of Amazon can purchase a three-story penthouse in Manhattan for $80 million and buy two more floors for $18 million while his company pays no taxes, I think he and others like him could afford it.
Ralph Palladino
The landlord’s prayer
White Plains, N.Y.: The current COVID-19 relief programs (PPP, EIDL, PUA,) exclude building-owners who are individuals, and who derive their livelihood from their rental property, such as an apartment building. They’re not self-employed, and thus not eligible for any type of unemployment, or any of the above loans. How are they supposed to survive?
Jeffrey Gold
White elephant
Scarborough, N.Y.: In their June 11 op-ed, “The Port Authority needs a rescue,” the agency executive director and board chairman state that they need a multi-billion dollar bailout “to deliver 21st-century airports, bus terminals, bridges and commuter rail transportation.” After the Port Authority wasted $4 billion on a luxury shopping center at the World Trade Center, I wouldn’t give them a dime.
Thomas F. Comiskey
Veepin’ in
Port Jefferson Station, L.I.: The reason the leftist liberals want to keep Joe Biden in the running, and the reason that all the elites are putting mega-money behind him is because, wait for it…if he wins, he will maybe last a month, and then his vice president will be sworn in as president. The veep is the most important thing right now, not Biden. If Biden wins, the 25th Amendment will kick in ASAP, the biggest left-wing liberal will become president, and the country will be over. God save us all.
Grace Fornatora
Pardon me
Staten Island: Get ready for the 46th president of the United States…Mike Pence! What, you say? How can that be? It’s not 2024 yet. You’re right, but here’s the scenario: Trump loses badly in November. After brooding for weeks and trying unsuccessfully to incite an insurrection, he leaves the White House in the
SHUTTERSTOCK dead of night — in late November. In his pocket, he has a copy of his resignation letter. He also has a letter from the newly sworn-in president, Pence, pardoning him and his three children from all the federal crimes they committed during his now-shortened presidency. But there’s a twist ending: Son-in-law Jared doesn’t make the pardon list.
John D. Hogan
Spinning a web
Wellfleet, Mass.: President Trump holding a massive indoor campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., on June 19, as the death toll from the coronavirus continues to climb nationwide, is reminiscent of the poem, “The Spider and the Fly.” Just so Trump can satisfy his gargantuan ego. Pathetic. Mike Rice
The dotted line
Manhattan: So, let me get this straight. Trump supporters who attend the Republican National Convention, a superspreader event, will have to sign a waiver saying that they won’t sue Trump if they get the coronavirus, an infection that doesn’t exist and is only a ploy developed by Democrats to damage Trump’s re-election campaign?
Edward Drossman