Powerful to be @NationalAction Network on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre.
“Accounting for racial justice” starts with telling the truth about our history, looking squarely at our present — and then demanding racial equity in our budgets, investments & public policy.
Thanks to @NationalAction’s Derek Perkinson and @NANYouthHuddle’s Follyvi Dossa for moderating tonight’s forum with the NYC Comptroller candidates.
Thank you @BrooklynCB6 for hosting today’s public hearing on the Gowanus rezoning & providing many ways for community members to engage in the planning process over the past decade.
I’m joining today’s hearing both on zoom & in person.
Links below to watch and/or testify.
There’s a lot of distrust of rezonings, and with good reason. It so often feels like communities aren’t given a real voice, like developers get whatever they want, like the affordable housing isn’t really affordable, like City Hall doesn’t care about the neighborhoods we live in.
But we also know that we need to find smart, sustainable ways to strengthen & preserve the neighborhoods we love -- while doing more to make them inclusive and affordable.
I committed to vote no on the City's FY21 budget if it did not cut at least $1B from the NYPD. Not moving budget lines around. But real, meaningful cuts.
The budget being voted on tonight does NOT cut $1B from the NYPD.
So I will be voting NO.
THREAD
I approached this year’s budget with these principles in mind:
🔹Divest from policing to preserve the social safety net.
🔹Prioritize public health.
🔹Invest in a just recovery.
🔹Take a smart, long-term approach to our city’s economic health.
Reducing NYPD spending is BOTH:
🔹a necessary first step toward transforming our approach to public safety (so we stop using policing to confront every problem from homelessness to mental health to DV to school safety)
The march, like others around the city last night, had been proceeding peacefully for hours around downtown Bklyn. A diverse group of about 1000 young people, crying out for justice for #GeorgeFloyd, to defund the police, to insist that #BlackLivesMatter.
The starting place for this moment, in general, but especially for white people, is to listen as honestly as we can to Black people about the anger and pain they are feeling, and the system of white supremacy and systemic racism it reflects.
The police have to deescalate. In NYC & elsewhere, we've seen officers violently shoving people, indiscriminately spraying pepper-spray, in one case removing a man’s mask before spraying him, and even police violently driving their cars into a crowd
⚙️Many people will understandably fear & avoid subways & buses.
⚙️Many essential workers are taking subways & buses right now.
⚙️We need a wide range of options for the medium term.
⚙️We must save mass transit for the long term.
One thing all New Yorkers can agree on: We must have more federal emergency funding for the @MTA. MTA is 39% of US transit ridership, but only 14% of CARES transit funding.
Congressional delegation is pushing hard, but we need a stronger mass outcry.