South Ozone Park, after the flood

ast Thanksgiving weekend, raw sewage flooded houses in South Ozone Park. The toxic waters destroyed finished basements, ruined personal property and displaced families, in an estimated 124 homes. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection eventually accepted responsibility for the destruction, after discovering a collapsed pipe had caused the Queens sewage backup.

South Ozone Park neighbors are now staring down financial ruin as bureaucrats in the Office of the New York City Controller exploit racial inequalities generations in the making, so they may pay out the lowest settlements possible on behalf of the city. Affected residents lack the resources to contend with the adversarial claims process characterized by unreasonable delay, lack of transparency and a take-it-or-leave-it approach to settlements.

For 60 years, people of color have moved to this South Ozone Park community, where parents can garden while their children play in the yard. Many of the working-class and middle-class neighbors are members of Black families who fled the Jim Crow South. Others have migrated from the Caribbean and South Asia for economic opportunity and political stability. They have overcome enormous obstacles, including racial discrimination, to live in a community of single- and two-family houses.

The residents’ troubling interactions with the controller’s office began last winter, when agency staff failed to provide clear guidance on how to file a claim for damages. For example, neighbors received conflicting advice on the possibility of amending their claims. The option to amend is especially critical today, as residents now see the need to inspect their homes for dangerous mold and, if necessary, remediate the mold growing there.

And although the controller’s office rushed residents to submit their claims by late February, many have yet to receive offers from the city. When neighbors contact the agency about the status of their claims, they are told “we’re working on it,” or simply to stop calling and writing for status updates.

As they await reimbursement, many residents have exhausted their savings, going into debt to fix their basements and replace their belongings. Others continue to live amidst the wreckage, unable to afford renovations without cash reimbursement.

The delay is all the more unconscionable because the statute of limitations for suing the city expires at the end of February 2021. Residents are running out of time to prepare for litigation if they are ultimately dissatisfied with offers that entail a bewildering acceptance process, one that severely disadvantages people who have little experience negotiating with city agencies.

Many have panicked as they consider the city’s offers under pressure, as each letter states in bold, “This offer will remain open for 30 days; if you do not respond within 30 days, the offer will be deemed rejected,” creating the impression that they must accept within 30 days or forfeit any reimbursement.

Since the city’s initial offers to residents are invariably low, with many falling under 25% of filed claims, the negotiation phase is critical to ensuring just outcomes. Although some neighbors have received a few thousand more dollars after expressing dissatisfaction, others have simply accepted the miserly sums because the controller’s office provides no guidance on settlement negotiation. Most residents lack legal representation, because the office repeatedly discouraged them from seeking counsel.

Residents are further disadvantaged in settlement negotiations because the controller’s office does not explain how they reached each person’s offer. When neighbors inquire about the office’s assessments, staff state the office does not reimburse “dollar for dollar.” When residents have explicitly asked the office to give each claimant access to their individual assessment file, agency representatives ignore them or refuse their requests.

Community members have accepted inadequate offers due to financial distress and personal trauma arising from the sewage backup and the pandemic. In debt from repair costs, one resident accepted an offer that covered less than 20% of her expenses, when her elderly mother and two of her siblings were seriously ill with COVID-19.

The controller’s office still has time to reach just settlements with the victims of the South Ozone Park sewage backup. In fact, under the New York City Administrative Code, the controller has a legal duty to treat claimants equitably. In this case, the office should allow neighbors to amend their claims and, if necessary, file new ones. It should also formally extend the 30-day window for accepting an offer and provide each resident access to her assessment file. Finally, the office should reopen settlements that residents only accepted because of their dire circumstances.

We hope Controller Scott Stringer will draw inspiration from his own mayoral campaign’s promise to take on “systemic racism against people of color,” and use this opportunity to redress a case of racial injustice in his current office.

Vena is an assistant professor of urban studies at Queens College, CUNY. Cook is vice president of the 149th Street South Ozone Park Civic Association.

Heartbreaking

Chicago: I’ve been following the news of Chrissy Teigen and John Legend’s loss of their baby, Jack (“Chrissy Teigen’s mom says ‘heart aches’ after model’s miscarriage,” Oct. 2). Many media outlets are classifying this loss as a miscarriage. All evidence suggests she was around 20 weeks. This is a pivotal date for those of us in the loss community (I experienced miscarriages at five and eight weeks, and also a stillbirth at 39 weeks). A loss before 20 weeks is considered a miscarriage. After 20 weeks, this loss is considered a stillbirth. These are two very different things. With a miscarriage, your body naturally aborts a fetus. With a stillbirth, you literally give birth to a baby that is already dead. No matter how it’s classified, pregnancy loss is devastating. But to give birth to an infant that has died in our womb, it is an unbearable, unfathomable experience.

Kristi Rabska Noonan

Catholic guilt

L.I.: Good for the victims, finally getting their justice from the Roman Catholic Church. Now all of the gross abuser priests, who abused and exploited their high standing and respect in the communities they served, will get their just desserts after terrorizing and sexually abusing young innocent children who looked up to them. This, after the Roman Catholic Church did everything in its power, right up to the Vatican, to first deny it altogether, then to say it was only a very small amount of pervert priests. Then after their disgusting coverup failed, when it turned out how widespread this whole priest sex scandal was — almost worldwide — they tried to lobby the government for favorable treatment, with high-powered lawyers, trying to minimize their financial payouts and the amounts for any and all lawsuits that were filed for the very same people they swore to care about.

Mike Pedano

John Di Leonardo, president Long Island Orchestrating for Nature

Pro-life protein

If Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer care about animal welfare, they should support federal funding for cultured meat research. For those who don’t know, cultured meat is grown from cells, without slaughtering non-humans. It has the potential to save billions of creatures every year who are killed for food. Many people recognize there is something problematic about our relationship with animals, particularly those raised on factory farms. Cultured meat will make it easier for these people to align their values and actions. Legislators should encourage compassionate choices by helping bring this revolutionary protein to market.

Jon Hochschartner

Loose on life

Island: I’m a pro-life Democrat, and other than requiring people from other countries who want to live here to become citizens first, there is no other qualification that comes close to identifying me as a Republican. The pro-life/pro-choice issue sprinted to the forefront of politics in America when Roe v. Wade was ruled on by the Supreme Court. Republicans are correct to say that the SCOTUS justices who decided that case have blood on their hands. But where the hell were they when it was revealed by Trump himself that he downplayed the coronavirus, causing a massive increase in the death toll? The blood of countless victims of the virus is surely on the hands of Trump and his enablers, most notably Republicans, who are nothing more than godless hypocrites in business suits.

Dennis Pascale