NY1 Noticias: Más de 60 inquilinos vivían ilegalmente en edificio incendiado

Por personal de NY1 Noticias

Publicado por NY1 Noticias el 22 de diciembre de 2020

Fuentes oficiales le confirmaron a NY1 Noticias que se descubrió un accelerante de fuego en el lugar del incendio que dejó a tres muertos y varios heridos en el edificio 90-31 de la avenida 48, en Elmhurst, este fin de semana.

La noticia dejó a algunos vecinos indignados ante la situación: “Pues que está muy mal, las autoridades, pero yo creo que las autoridades tendrían que mirar más a fondo esos detalles para que no se pierdan vidas como se perdieron ahora”.

  • Encuentran acelerante en escena de incendio en Queens que dejó tres muertos

Las autoridades también recuperaron un video que captó a un hombre entrando al edificio antes del incendio y saliendo justo antes de que la propiedad estallara en llamas.

Además, datos del Departamento de Edificios muestran que -desde el 2001- el gobierno de la ciudad ha estado recibiendo quejas sobre la división ilegal de los apartamentos en esta propiedad.

  • FDNY: incendio en Elmhurst deja 3 muertos y varios heridos

Desde entonces, las denuncias por la alteración y el alquiler del inmueble han sido constantes.

La más reciente fue presentada este año, donde denuncian que en el edificio de tres pisos vivían más de 60 personas.

Sofía Salas, es residente de Elmhurst y comenta al respecto: “Porque se aprovechan, se aprovechan de la situación, de la necesidad del ser humano que no hay dónde vivir, no hay”.

Una portavoz del Departamento de Edificios aseguró que la agencia había emitido una orden de desalojo parcial en febrero de 2018 después de encontrar 6 unidades de habitación individual convertidas ilegalmente en el sótano.

El edificio acumuló más de $217,000 en multas.

Daniel Dromm, el concejal por Elmhurst, nos dijo que para evitar la alteración de edificios presentará un nuevo proyecto de ley.

La legislación buscará que el Departamento de Edificios pueda acceder a los apartamentos que hayan acumulado varias quejas y miles de dólares en violaciones sin la necesidad de una orden judicialpara entrar al inmueble.

“El Departamento de Edificios es difícil para ellos para entrar a un apartamento. El problema es que ellos, aunque ellos saben que la situación existe, ellos tienen un tiempo difícil para entrar o para reinspect”, comena Dromm.

El concejal Dromm agregó que introducirá esta legislación a principios del año entrante.

Leer más aquí.

Queens Daily Eagle: Council formally calls on state to repeal ‘walking while trans’ ban

THE CITY COUNCIL PASSED A RESOLUTION TO REPEAL A LAW KNOWN AS THE WALKING WHILE TRANS BAN ON THURSDAY.
EAGLE FILE PHOTO BY ANDY KATZ

By Rachel Vick

Originally published in the Queens Daily Eagle on December 11, 2020

The New York City Council passed two resolutions Thursday formally calling on state lawmakers to repeal a prostitution-related loitering misdemeanor dubbed the “walking while trans” ban and to seal the records of people convicted of the offense.

The section of state penal law related to “loitering for the purposes of engaging in prostitution” gives police officers the power to arrest a person for allegedly stopping, talking to or beckoning at others in a public place. In practice, officers have used observations like a defendant’s clothing, gender identity or gender expression as grounds to make an arrest — in essence, profiling trans women as sex workers.

The movement to repeal the law has gained momentum in recent years, fueling the Council’s vote Thursday.

Queens Councilmember Daniel Dromm recalled his own experience with profiling related to the law.

“I was arrested when I was 16 years old and charged with prostitution, something that has gone on as a tool to use against the LGBT community for many, many years, and it’s about time that we ended it,” Dromm said.

Manhattan Councilmember Carlina Rivera, the repeal bill’s sponsor, celebrated the vote in a tweet Thursday.

“Whether you’re a survivor who has shared your story, an organization working to bring justice, or an ally in this fight, thank you,” she said. “It passed and we are grateful to so many! It’s time to repeal the #WalkingWhileTrans ban in NYS.

Six conservative councilmembers voted against the repeal resolution. They were Councilmembers Robert Holden, Chaim Deutsch, Kalman Yeger, Joe Borelli, Steven Matteo and Ruben Diaz, Sr.

Holden, Deutsch, Borelli, Matteo, Diaz and Queens Councilmember Eric Ulrich opposed he sealing resolution, Gay City News reported.
The walking while trans ban has had a disproportionate impact on trans women of color in Queens.

More than half of the 121 arrests for the offense in New York City in 2018 took place in Queens, concentrated in Jackson Heights and Corona, according to an analysis by the website Documented.

That year, 49 percent of people charged with Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution were Black and 42 percent were Latino.

“As a trans, Latinx woman in Jackson Heights, for over 14 years I have lived the violence that exists, between the police intimidation and patriarchy that impacts our community,” Make the Road organizer Bianey Garcia said at a virtual rally in September. “[Trans community members] tell us they are afraid to express their gender, to wear anything sexy or put heels on for fear of being arrested.”

Though the repeal was not included in the State’s 2020 legislative agenda, Gov. Andrew Cuomo would likely be open to the amendment, a spokesperson told the Eagle in January.

“We would have to review the final bill, but the Governor has been a champion for the transgender community … and strongly opposes the unequal enforcement of any law as a means to target a specific community,” said spokesperson Caitlin Girouard.

Read more here.

WSJ: New York City Council Eyes Bill to End Solitary Confinement 

A solitary confinement cell at New York City’s Rikers Island jail. The city council is set to begin fast-tracking legislation this week to end the practice. PHOTO: BEBETO MATTHEWS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Rich Calder

Originally published on December 8, 2020 in the Wall Street Journal.

Nearly six months after Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to end solitary confinement as a means of punishment in New York City’s jail system, the city council this week is set to begin fast-tracking the process by reviewing new legislation to halt the controversial practice.

Councilman Daniel Dromm, a Queens Democrat, is introducing a bill at Thursday’s council meeting that would prohibit inmates from being locked in an isolated cell for violent offenses—except for up to four hours whenever it is necessary to “de-escalate immediate conflict,” according to a review of the legislation.

Under current city law, solitary confinement, also known as punitive segregation, allows inmates to be locked in cells up to 20 hours a day for serious offenses.

“Solitary confinement is torture in the truer sense of the word,” Mr. Dromm said in an interview Tuesday. “Depriving people of human contact for long periods of time is un-American, and we shouldn’t be engaging in it.”

The city’s Department of Correction referred requests for comment to the mayor’s office.

Mr. De Blasio in June pledged to have New York become the first major city in the country to halt solitary confinement, and he set up a panel to come up with a plan, but it has yet to announce any recommendations.

Since he took office in 2014, the city’s jail system has significantly reduced its use of solitary confinement and the overall inmate population. As of Monday, there were 65 people in punitive segregation, compared with a daily average of 567 in 2014, according to the Department of Correction.

Mayoral spokeswoman Avery Cohen said in a statement that the mayor’s office is committed to ending punitive segregation and would “continue working with stakeholders in government and those with lived experience to create a system that ensures the safety and well-being of staff and people in custody.”

Punitive segregation has come under fire from criminal-justice advocates who say it’s inhumane. But law-enforcement advocates, including the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, the union representing city correction staff, say it is a necessary deterrent to keep violent inmates in line and jails safe.

On Friday, the council’s committee on criminal justice will hold a hearing on the bill, which Mr. Dromm believes has enough support to become law.

The prompt scheduling of the hearing by Council Speaker Corey Johnson, a Democrat, only a day after the bill’s scheduled introduction has raised concerns among some council members and the correction officers union. They say the legislation is being rushed into law for political reasons at the risk of endangering jail staff.

Historically, bills usually sit for weeks or months—and sometimes more than a year—before the council speaker’s office schedules a hearing to field testimony from city agencies and other affected parties.

Both Mr. Johnson and Councilman Keith Powers, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the criminal justice committee, said they support ending solitary confinement.

“This bill is being heard because it’s ready and will continue to go through the legislative process,” a spokeswoman for Mr. Johnson said. “There’s nothing unusual about that.”

The legislation would still allow the city to keep detainees in other types of restrictive housing separated from a prison’s general population. Under the proposal, inmates in restrictive housing could leave their cells at least 10 hours a day, compared with 14 hours for a jail’s general population.

The city’s Rikers Island jail complex currently allows inmates in restrictive housing to leave cells for seven hours.

Six council members sent a letter to Johnson on Monday expressing “great concern regarding how quickly” the bill is getting a public hearing. The letter cited a series of recent attacks by inmates on correction officers.

“We firmly believe that rushing to pass a bill of this magnitude would have serious implications for the safety of our jails and could actually result in increased violence,” said the letter written by Robert Holden, a Queens Democrat, and cosigned by three Republicans and two other Democrats.

COBA President Benny Boscio Jr. accused Mr. Johnson of fast-tracking the bill into law in order to eclipse Mr. de Blasio politically on the issue.

“Speaker Corey Johnson is once again trying to beat the mayor in a race to ban punitive segregation entirely, which will only increase violent assaults on correction officers and non-violent inmates,” he said.

Read more here.

The City: De Blasio Promised Nearly Six Months Ago to End Solitary Confinement. So Where’s the Plan?

Surveillance video shows Layleen Polanco being escorted to her solitary cell on Rikers Island before her death in 2019. Source: The City

By Rosa Goldensohn and Reuven Blau

Originally published in The City on December 6, 2020.

In June, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would end solitary confinement in city-run jails, he said he expected a working group to give him recommendations on how to do it “in the fall.”

The chair of the Board of Correction, which makes the rules for city lockups, said on Oct. 21 that the plan would be presented “literally in the next several days” and then voted on by board members.

Now, with the new year approaching, details of the proposal have yet to be unveiled. The Board of Correction promises a plan will be released before the end of the month.

“The City of New York and the Board of Correction, after hearing from persons with lived experience, understand that it is time to end solitary confinement in the New York City jail system,” Board Chair Jennifer Jones Austin said in a statement late last week.

“Such a complex undertaking requires meaningful planning and collaboration with the Department of Correction, the union and those with lived experience to ensure the result is a system that ensures the safety and well being of staff and people in custody,” she added.

A so-called punitive segregation unit inside the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island.

Meanwhile, the City Council could pass its own bill to end the practice of punishing people in jails for rule-breaking by imposing isolation for most of the day and night. Some 95 people were in so-called punitive segregation in city jails as of Thursday.

Bill sponsor Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) told THE CITY he believes there is enough support in the Council to approve the measure.

“I think that there are enough people have been educated on this at this point to understand that solitary is torture,” he said.

The City Council is scheduled to hold a hearing on the subject Dec. 11.

Spurred by Polanco Death

Despite a growing consensus on the psychological harms of such confinement, New York would appear to be the first major city in the country to officially ban punitive segregation outright.

De Blasio announced the change in June, citing the case of 27-year-old Layleen Polanco, who died in a solitary cell on Rikers Island just over a year earlier.

Hundreds of people packed into Foley Square to hold a vigil for Layleen Polanco, a 27-year-old transgender woman who died in solitary confinement on Rikers Island, June 10, 2019. Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill last year limiting solitary stays to 20 days at a time, and no more than 30 days in a 60-day period.

In Chicago, Cook County Jail eliminated solitary and created a “special management unit” in its place. De Blasio previously ended solitary in the city for those under the age of 22.

In the five boroughs, solitary confinement is only allowed as a punitive measure in response to an infraction of jail rules.

A DOC captain in charge of adjudicating jailhouse infractions can dole out a sentence of up to 30 days “in the box.”

Administrative segregation, the isolation of inmates to smooth the running of the jail, is not allowed under a 2010 court ruling. But functionally, the punishments remove people who have done something violent from the general population for a period of time.

The correction officers’ union has long opposed limits on solitary, saying the tactic is needed to help keep the peace.

The city proposal will include an end to punitive segregation and an alternative way to deal with acts of violence in the jail, according to the Board of Correction.

The Council bill would also put time limits on other forms of what jailers call “restrictive housing.”

The challenge, Dromm said, is to eliminate solitary without allowing for loopholes.

Wary of Name Game

Incarceration reform efforts elsewhere have spawned replacements for solitary confinement units that critics say are merely solitary by another name.

In Canada, courts deemed prolonged solitary confinement unconstitutional. But in the “structured intervention” units meant to replace solitary, according to outside observers, prisoners often did not receive the time outside of their cell or “meaningful social contact” as promised.

Under New York State rules, local jails must allow those held in segregation four hours out of their cells daily.

But that time is not necessarily spent interacting with others. The State Commission allows showering time to count, for instance.

The city Department of Correction has also counted showering in its tally, as well as trips to the doctor and visiting time, though those do not necessarily reflect the actual daily schedule of people in segregation.

State prisons, which regularly hold people in solitary for months at a time, are not subject to the four-hour rule. Some prisoners are held alone 24 hours a day, with an hour out in a solo cage attached to their cell.

As of Dec. 1, some 1,173 inmates were serving a “Special Housing Unit” (SHU) disciplinary sanction in solitary cells across New York State prisons, officials said.

‘Meaningful Human Engagement’

A bill to restrict solitary in state prisons failed last year even though it had enough co-sponsors to pass on their votes alone. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart-Cousins quashed the measure in favor of a set of looser requirements that were then delayed.

The Dec. 11 hearing will include discussions of the de Blasio administration’s proposal and the City Council’s legislation to end solitary, according to Councilmember Keith Powers (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Criminal Justice committee.

“There’s a groundswell of support to end harmful solitary confinement policies in New York City jails,” he said in a statement. “This is a long-overdue conversation.”

Advocates against solitary, who put out their own plan to end the practice in city jails last year, said the Council action was “positive,” but that it should make sure to avoid “carve-outs.”

“The basic minimum standards in the city jails of 14 hours out-of-cell per day with access to meaningful human engagement and programming should apply to everyone,” Anisah Sabur of the #HALTsolitary Campaign said in a statement.

The union representing frontline city correction officers opposes scrapping solitary.

“With jail violence soaring in our jails year after year, it’s time for our elected officials to put safety and security first and empower us to separate violent offenders from non-violent offenders,” said Benny Boscio Jr., president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association.

Read more here.

NY1 – City Council Moves to End Solitary Confinement

By Courtney Gross

Originally published by NY1 News on November 30, 2020.

“Let’s end solitary confinement all together,” Mayor de Blasio declared at the end of June from City Hall.

It’s been five months, and last week there were about 102 inmates locked in their cells for much of the day.

Now, the City Council is taking up the proposal.

“Solitary confinement as we know it will come to an end as we see it on Rikers island,” Queens Councilman Daniel Dromm told NY1 in an interview on Monday.

He introduced legislation to end the use of solitary confinement in city jails. The bill would allow correction officers to isolate inmates, but only for four hours to de-escalate immediate conflicts.

Currently, solitary confinement, sometimes called punitive segregation, keeps inmates locked in their cells for the vast majority of the day.

The new City Council proposal still allows the city to keep inmates in other types of restrictive housing. Under the City Council proposal, inmates in restrictive housing could leave their cells for 10 hours a day. Currently in similar housing units on Rikers, those inmates leave their cells for seven hours.

Supporters of the push, like Dromm, say there are other ways to punish detainees on Rikers.

“They need to come up with those alternatives: taking away commissary, restricting phone calls, whatever it may be,” Dromm said. “They have other things they can use to deal with that.”

Not surprisingly, the correction officers union disagrees.

“We have to have a mechanism in place to be able to segregate those inmates who are violent towards correction officers and towards nonviolent inmates,” said Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio.

Boscio says officers need to use solitary confinement to punish unruly detainees on Rikers Island. Otherwise, his team gets hurt.

The union started a new social media campaign last week to try to convince City Council to reverse course, detailing horrible violence against its members and targeting the council speaker.

“Our legislature has sacrificed us,” Boscio said. “Name a bill that Corey Johnson has put forth that benefits correction officers?”

Boscio had been a part of a working group created by the de Blasio administration this summer to come up with recommendations on how solitary confinement could be eliminated. Boscio left the group, unhappy with where it was going.

The city’s jail oversight and regulatory board, the Board of Correction, has received recommendations from that group and is working on new rules to end solitary confinement. Those rules could be approved while the council moves forward its legislation as well.

No matter what, it appears to be something Mayor de Blasio now wants to happen. A spokesperson for de Blasio said his office looked forward to working with City Council on how to put an end to solitary confinement.

See more here.

Gay City News: City Council Legislation Would Require Intersex Education, Outreach

Out gay City Councilmember Daniel Dromm has proposed legislation aimed at informing doctors and parents or guardians of intersex children about medically-unnecessary interventions.
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL/ WILLIAM ALATRISTE

By Matt Tracy

Originally published in Gay City News on October 27, 2020.

The New York City Council will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on October 28 on legislation that would require the city’s health department to create an intersex-inclusive outreach campaign intended to educate doctors, parents, and guardians about best medical practices regarding a child born with intersex traits.

The educational information would address medically-unnecessary treatments and interventions that are often performed on children who are intersex, or born with reproductive systems or anatomy not fitting the standard definition of male or female. There is a long history of intersex individuals being forced to undergo surgeries intended to align their bodies with male or female anatomy, but most of those surgeries are deemed unnecessary — and many intersex folks, when they are older, have said the surgeries did not align their bodies with their gender identity.

A summary of the bill, which was first proposed last October by out gay Councilmember Daniel Dromm of Queens and has 10 co-sponsors, states that the material would explain whether medical interventions could be “delayed until the infant is older and can voice thoughts about the procedure.”

In addition to educating parents and doctors, the bill also calls on the health department to “identify outreach partners and opportunities,” though the bill’s language did not elaborate further on that point.

In June of last year, then-City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot and Human Rights Commissioner Carmelyn P . Malalis penned an op-ed for ozy.com calling on doctors to respect the rights of intersex folks “and only perform surgery when the health of a child is at imminent risk or it is consensual.”

At the state level, out gay State Senator Brad Hoylman of Manhattan announced legislation last November requiring informed consent from an intersex minor before doctors can proceed with any non-medically necessary treatment or intervention.

Dromm posted a tweet about the hearing on October 26, Intersex Awareness Day, which he said is “a time to center Intersex people across the globe.”

“It is also a time to commit ourselves to advocating for this community wherever and however we can,” Dromm said in his tweet. “I introduced Intro 1478, legislation that will equip parents of infants born with intersex traits with the knowledge they need to protect their babies from unnecessary and harmful surgeries. Parents of infants with intersex traits are often forced to rely on quackery masquerading as medical science, leading them to make decisions that inflict life-long physical and psychological trauma on their children. When enacted, my bill will provide these parents with the sound medical info they need to make healthy choices for their babies.”

On Twitter, activist Cecilia Gentili brought up Dromm’s legislation and posted a series of tweets featuring testimonials collected by interACT, a policy and media organization that encouraged Hoylman to propose his legislation last year.

One of those testimonials came from an individual named Hanne Gaby, who said, “I was born as a perfectly healthy intersex child, and yet the medical establishment used fear tactics to convince my parents that I needed to be altered… this led to unimaginably traumatic surgeries and experiences as well as irreversible complications that have broken my trust in the medical establishment.”

The bill’s co-sponsors are out gay Councilmembers Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens and Carlos Menchaca of Brooklyn as well as their colleagues Carlina Rivera, Helen Rosenthal, Ben Kallos, and Margaret Chin of Manhattan; Diana Ayala of the Bronx and Manhattan; Farah Louis of Brooklyn; and Costa Constantinides and Donovan Richards of Queens.

The bill is one of several pieces of legislation on the agenda during a joint hearing between the Committee on Health and the Committee on Women and Gender Equity. The committees will also hear proposals to establish a committee on female genital mutilation and cutting, to create an advisory board for gender equity in hospitals, and to require multiple city agencies to conduct culturally competent training on recognizing the signs of female genital mutilation and cutting.

Read more here.

NY1 Noticias: Destina Concejo $28.4 mdd a programas de asis­tencia mi­gra­toria

By Joaquin Torres

Originally published by NY1 Noticias on October 4, 2020.

Nercy Cruz se hizo ciudadana hace cinco años y dice que, en aquel entonces, le costó trabajo juntar el dinero para los abogados y el trámite.

Tambien asegura que no se imagina cómo lo haría si fuese hoy que tuviera que realizar ese trámite.

“Eso me costó dinero en ese tiempo. Imagínese ahora en este tiempo, es más duro y sobretodo sin trabajo que estamos”, detalla Cruz.

Este recuerdo cobra relevancia ahora que el Concejo de la ciudad anunció que destinará $28.4 millones de dólares para los programas de asistencia migratoria.

Esto a pesar de los recortes presupuestales que han tenido que realizar debido a la pandemia.

El concejal de Brooklyn, Carlos Menchaca, compartió su opinión al respecto: “Estoy orgulloso que la ciudad de Nueva York esté comprometida a financiar los servicios críticos que necesitan nuestros vecinos inmigrantes”.

Cerca de $16 millones serán destinados al programa para ayudar legalmente a personas que enfrentan procesos de deportación; mientras que $4 millones irán para menores que llegaron a este país sin la compañía de un adulto.

Poco más de $3 millones se asignarán al programa Citizenship Now, que ayuda a migrantes a convertirse en ciudadanos, mientras que más de $2.5 para el pago de la cuota de aplicación para migrantes que no tengan recursos.

Esta es ayuda necesaria, especialmente, ante el intento del gobierno federal de aumentar la cuota de aplicación de la ciudadanía en más de $500 dólares.

Mientras que el concejal de Queens, Daniel Dromm compartió al respecto: “Nosotros queremos ahora ayudarlos porque los fees ahora son muy altos, siempre están levantando los fees. Tienen que hacer un choice entre comprar alimento para la familia o pagar los fees para inmigración”.

Por su parte, el senador Schumer anunció que se destinarán $750,000 dólares de fondos federales a esta misma causa.

Este dinero llegará a organizaciones pro-inmigrantes como The Legal Aid Society, Caridades Católicas y Brooklyn Defender Services, entre otros.

Esta ha dado algo de esperanza a algunos migrantes en Brooklyn: “Como estamos con esto del coronavirus está bueno porque varias familias les beneficia, les beneficia porque ahorita todos estamos sin trabajo”, expresó un vecino.

Visite la página de NY1 Noticias con nuestra cobertura especial sobre el coronavirus: Brote del Coronavirus

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Queens County Politics – Showdown Over Tax Lien Sale Continues

By Clarissa Sosin

Originally published in Queens County Politics on September 11, 2020

Mayor Bill de Blasio blew off a New York City Council Finance Committee hearing on Thursday discussing the city’s tax lien sale, a sign of the administration’s frustration over attempts to stall the sale.

The no-show by the mayor comes after local lawmakers spent weeks pressuring him to not go forward with the tax lien sale.

“This would have been an excellent opportunity for the administration to explain the rationale behind this policies and clear up any confusion that may have arisen as a result of the shifting plans,” said City Councilmember Daniel Dromm (D-Elmhurst, Jackson Heights), Chair of the Finance Committee, at the start of the hearing. “Unfortunately the administration has chosen not to send anyone to provide testimony or answer any of our questions.”

The hearing was about a resolution supporting legislation in the Assembly and Senate that, if passed, would postpone the city’s tax lien sale until after the coronavirus pandemic ends.

The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment for why they did not send a representative to the hearing.

The effort to delay was led by a contingent of elected officials from Southeast, Queens, which has three of the five city council districts with the most properties listed for the sale. The sale would disproportionately affect homeowners of color at the time when they are already struggling because of the pandemic, the lawmakers said. Their concern is primarily for small homeowners with one to three family homes, who make up around half of the list.

The mayor stood firmly by the sale date, which was supposed to take place last Friday, Sept 4. But, Governor Andrew Cuomo swooped in last minute with an executive orderpostponing it until after Oct. 4 with the option to postpone it longer. Minutes later, the mayor issued his own statement announcing that the sale was rescheduled for September 25, more than a week before the executive order allows.

The local resolution supporting the state level legislation was introduced by City Councilmember Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Rochdale Village, South Ozone Park), one of the lawmakers who led the push to get the sale postponed past the Sept. 4 date.

“Are we left to believe that the administration intends to move forward in violation of the governor’s order?” Adams said in her testimony during the hearing.

In response to questions about when the tax lien sale would be taking place, and whether or not the administration thought there was ample time to do outreach to property owners and purge the list of properties that shouldn’t be on it, a representative from the Department of Finance said that the executive order was being carefully examined.

Messaging online about the date of the tax lien sale is unclear.

As of Friday afternoon, the 311 portal about the tax lien sale said that debts must be paid off by Sept. 24, indicating that the sale will take place on Sept. 25. The Department of Finance’s website also says that debts must be paid by Sept. 24 but it also acknowledges the governor’s executive order prohibiting tax lien sales before Oct. 4.

“I think the governor’s executive order takes precedent,” said Assemblymember David Weprin (D-Richmond Hill, Fresh Meadows), the sponsor of the Assembly bill, in an interview before the hearing. “It just seems unfair during the pandemic at all that we should be having any tax lien sale.”

The city needs funds but the amount the sale will raise is minimal compared to the damage it will cause the small property owners who’s liens are on the list, he said later in the hearing.

Attorney General Letitia James said that she saw the way tax lien sales destroy communities during her time in the city council. If the sale goes on before the Oct. 4 deadline, she’ll stop it.

“If any city moves to sell liens before that date, my office will take immediate legal action to enforce the executive order,” she said.

In the meantime, Senator Leroy Comrie’s (D-Briarwood, Cambria Heights, Hollis, Hollis Hills, Hillcrest, Jamaica, Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Kew Gardens, Laurelton, Queens Village, Rosedale, South Jamaica, Springfield Gardens, St. Albans) office planning for what they said is the worst case scenario –– that the sale happens on Sept. 25. They and the other electeds are doing as much outreach as they can so property owners can settle their debt with the city or enter payment plans before the sale date.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to inform as many people as we can,” Comrie said.

Read more here.

ITV Gold: Interview with Council Member Daniel Dromm – COVID-19 & Systemic Racism – Elmhurst & Jackson Heights

Originally published by ITV Gold on September 2, 2020

Council Member Daniel Dromm Addresses South Asian & Indo-Caribbean Communities – COVID-19 & Systemic Racism – District 25th, New York City Council.

ITV Gold is the longest running South Asian TV station in the U.S. and is part of the largest Indian American media house, Parikh Worldwide Media.

Read more here.

NY1 Noticias: Funcionarios electos critican respuesta -y falta de preparación de Con Edison- ante daños tormenta Isaías

By Spectrum Noticias NY1

Originally published by NY1 Noticias on August 11, 2020.

Desastrosa. Así calificaron algunos funcionarios electos la respuesta de Con Edison a la reparación de los daños causados por la tormenta tropical Isaias en Queens.

Las demoras han dejado a vecinos vulnerables sin electricidad por días.

“Estamos hablando de que Con Ed le ha hecho daño a personas, familias. Son 74 mil clientes que no tienen electricidad y están a oscuras con esta humedad y calor”, dijo Sharon Lee, presidenta interina del condado de Queens.

Por eso, exigen a la compañía que reembolse a sus clientes afectados la factura eléctrica correspondiente al mes de agosto.

Sobre todo si se tiene en cuenta que las tarifas han subido un 13.5 por ciento en los últimos tres años y el contexto de crisis económica actual.

“Las cuentas son muy altas y la gente tiene que pagar mucho dinero para la electricidad yo creo que es la responsable de Con Ed para ‘refund’”, dijo por su lado el conejal Daniel Dromm.

En calles de Jackson Heights y East Elmhurst, árboles y cables continúan caídos y los daños son visibles en casas y vehículos.

Estos legisladores piden a Con Edison más preparación en caso de tormentas. Denuncian que los retrasos en las reparaciones han puesto en riesgo la salud de neoyorquinos en plena ola de calor y con la pandemia del coronavirus de fondo.

“Fue una situación de vida o muerte porque mucha gente está dependiendo en la electricidad para sobrevivir”, agregó el concejal.

Es que dos días después de la tormenta tropical Isaias solo el 59 por ciento de electricidad había sido restaurada cuando lugares como Brooklyn y Staten Island tenían más del 80 por ciento.

“Usualmente Queens es el último condado para tener ayuda cuando nosotros necesitamos ayuda especialmente en un emergencia como esta”, dijo Dromm.

Por su parte Con Edison asegura que está trabajando las 24 horas para restaurar el servicio a sus clientes y que están analizando su gestión de las incidencias de estos días para mejorar su respuesta en el futuro.

Leer más aquí.