Where It All Started • Harlem, NYC November 2017. Harlem Brew Fest was the first festival in the world to connect all brewers, artists, chefs and DJs in celebration of Black Brewing culture and featured: Sankofa Beer, Black Frog Brewery, Island to Island Beer, 1947 Beer, Harlem Brewing and Rams & Parrot Distillery.
Our new council member talks about her goal to preserve the Black plurality of Harlem, her concern that Eric Adams is trying to be a one-man show, and sanitation issues:
HNBA will host Kristin Richardson Jordan this THURSDAY at 7:00 PM to talk about her historic upset of the Harlem machine, her plans for City Council District 9, the upcoming November election, and what she means by Radical Love for Harlem.
To join in, reach out to Shawn, Hallia, Cecile, Saiyda, or Kat for the link, or email: [email protected]
Health Insurance
How Calculated: Estimated number of adults who reported having any kind of health insurance coverage, including private health insurance, prepaid plans such as H-M-Os or government plans such as Medicare or Medicaid; expressed as percent.
Source: New York City Community Health Survey (CHS)
Each year, one in three older adults (65 years and older) falls. Among New York City’s older adults, there are approximately 30,500 emergency department (ED) visits, 16,600 hospitalizations, and 300 deaths each year. Falls are not a normal part of aging, and research shows that many falls can be prevented.
Falls and the environment
Although falls can occur anywhere, falls among older adults frequently happen at home. More than one-half of fall-related hospitalizations among older adults were due to falls in the home. There are many risk factors for falls among older adults including previous falls, gait or balance problems, and use of multiple medications that interact with one another or cause side effects. Physical features of the environment can also put seniors at risk. Common fall risks hazards in homes include slippery surfaces, inadequate lighting, and tripping hazards, such as clutter, loose rugs, or uneven flooring.
About the data and indicators
Falls indicators presented on this site are derived from administrative emergency department (ED) and hospitalization billing records from the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS). Fall-related ED visits and hospitalizations are identified using diagnostic codes from the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, Clinical Modification, as defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s external cause-of-injury matrix and using diagnostic information from any diagnosis field. Place of injury codes for these ED visits and hospitalizations allow for identification of falls that have occurred in the home. Data are based on address of the patient, not the address where the fall occurred. Only falls resulting in outcomes severe enough to require treatment in the hospital ED or an inpatient stay are included; falls resulting in no health outcomes or outcomes treated outside of a NYC hospital are not captured. ED visit counts include treated and released visits, and hospitalization counts include only live discharges. ED visits and hospitalizations include NYC residents aged 65 years and older discharged from a NYC hospital.
Prevention
To help prevent falls, older adults should:
Stay physically active to strengthen muscles and improve balance
Remove slip and trip hazards in the home, such as throw rugs, electrical cords or other clutter
Improve lighting in and around the home
Ask building owner, landlord, or super to make all necessary home repairs, and install grab bars in the shower and near the toilet
Ask doctor, nurse, and/or pharmacist to review all medicines
Talk with doctors about previous falls and prevention strategies
Kristin Jordan
We’ve all seen her posters for the election. Now a new variation has come out where you can schedule a listening time with the Democratic candidate for City Council 9, Kristin Jordan:
Walking on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd the other day I spotted three brass plaques put onto a corner building, facing a side street.
The plaques commemorated various individuals and were sponsored by the Migdol Foundation, which I’d never heard of.
According to their website:
The Migdol Organization, lead by principals Jerry and Aaron Migdol, is a Harlem based company that provides specialized services in housing, development, social work and law. Through its subsidiaries, the Migdol Organization develops, manages, brokers and owns various types of real estate throughout New York City.
Migdol & Migdol LLP provides legal services, specializing in pro-bono legal services for shelter residents and community based organizations. The Migdol Family Foundation and the Daniel Migdol Memorial Fund are dedicated to providing educational and housing resources to residents and community based organizations throughout Harlem.
They are located at: 223 West 138th Street, Ground Floor, New York, NY 10030 | 212.283.4423
Council members are responsible for proposing and voting on bills relating to all aspects of civic life, for example: policing, housing, street safety and environmental issues like the plastic bag ban.
Bills passed by the Council go to the mayor for to be signed into law. The Council can override a veto from the mayor with a vote of at least two-thirds of the members.
The Council also negotiates with the mayor to pass the city budget every year. Each Council member has his or her own discretionary budget to fund local projects and groups. The Council holds oversight hearings through its many committees. And, critically, the body votes to approve or reject development projects that need public approval.
You can think of the Council as like Congress for the City of New York, as this guide from the Council puts it. The city’s Campaign Finance Board created the below video outlining some of the duties and responsibilities of the City Council:
Sumptuous Gifts from a Black Women-Owned Harlem Business
If you want a gift from Harlem to take to a friend’s (now that you’re both fully vaccinated), the Harlem Chocolate Factory on ACP at 139, is a great place to consider.
And yes, some of the candidates seem to be fuzzy on this as well…
Earlier in March, The City had a great breakdown of what City Council members do, and why you should care about their election. Here is part of The City’s email on the issue:
City Council is kind of like Congress, but for the city. It may seem like a small office, but since New York has 8.4 million people living here, a local office like the City Council has more influence than you may think.
Klein pointed out that some leaders — Mayor Bill de Blasio and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, to name two — have used the City Council as a stepping stone to higher office.
“City Council is an entry point into politics — and a way to build a bench for more diverse representation in higher offices years down the line,” she said. “One reason many people are disappointed in the mayoral field is because 15 years ago, the city wasn’t building an exciting and diverse bench of new political talent.”
City Council members represent a district that usually includes two to four neighborhoods, and they have four main responsibilities.
They pass laws
Just like Congress or the state Legislature, the City Council proposes and votes on legislation that makes the rules for all sorts of things ranging from public health, education, housing and transportation. You can see all the different City Council committees here.
After a bill is proposed, the Council holds a public hearing to get feedback from the community and potentially make changes. Then, members vote on the bill.
Bills passed by a majority of the Council go to the mayor to be signed into law. The Council can override a veto from the mayor with a vote of at least two-thirds of the members.
The Council negotiates with the mayor to pass the city budget every year. That means members help decide how your taxes and other revenue will be spent to fund different city agencies and programs — ranging from the public schools to policing to a bunch of social services. The most recent budget was more than $88 billion.
Your Council member can advocate for certain programs or projects to be funded in your neighborhood. And each Council member has their own discretionary budget to fund local projects and groups.
The Council makes sure agencies like the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Preservation, NYCHA and the NYPD are doing their jobs well.
How land is used can affect if housing is affordable, what kind of greenspace is available and how much pollution is likely to affect a neighborhood, among other things.
Klein said: “City Council candidates are extremely accessible in a way that candidates for higher offices aren’t. If you want to get involved in local government, meet with your council candidates, get to know them and ask them questions.”
That means where to build, what to preserve and what to close (like Rikers Island). The Council has a major say in real estate deals for city-owned land and votes on all zoning changes or rezoning.
To read the full torrid tale, click on the Download button, above.
Former Sydenham Hospital (now Mannie Wilson Towers) to be renovated
YIMBY NY is reporting that:
Affordable housing development Mannie Wilson Towers in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood just received $18.2 million for capital improvements and system upgrades from Merchants Capital New York, a mortgage banking company. Located at 565 Manhattan Avenue, the structure originally debuted in 1892 as Sydenham Hospital, which closed in 1980. Owned by West Harlem Group Assistance, Inc., Mannie Wilson Towers currently provides restricted-income housing to senior residents.
There are 102 one- and two-bedroom units of restricted-income housing for seniors 62 years of age and older that earn 50 percent or less of the area median income in Harlem. Residents have access to supportive services including cleaning, cooking, transportation, and more.
Sydenham began as a private hospital in a Harlem brownstone in 1892, serving mostly African American patients. In 1944 the staff doctors were all white despite serving a mostly African American community.Soon after, it was the first hospital to have a full desegregated interracial policy with six African American Trustees and twenty African Americans on staff. It was New York City’s first full-service hospital to hire African-American doctors and later became known for hiring African American doctors and nurses when other nearby hospitals would not.
Because of its relatively small size, Sydenham continually faced more financial problems than most private hospitals, and on March 3, 1949, control of it was taken by New York City and it became part of the municipal hospital system. However, in a new practice for the municipal hospital system, the city continued to allow Sydenham’s private physicians to hospitalize their patients there. In 1971 Florence Gaynor became the first African American woman to head a major teaching hospital, taking over as Executive Director of Sydenham Hospital during a financial crisis. She also developed a Family Care Center that included a sickle cell anemia clinic.
Sydenham Hospital received many of the residents of Harlem who were injured in the 1943 Harlem Riot – many of them beaten (or shot) by police officers brought in to stop the disturbance.
Soon after Mayor Ed Koch took office in 1977, during severe economic troubles for New York City, he announced an additional 10% reduction in funding for municipal hospitals, and Metropolitan Hospital (in East Harlem), and Sydenham were slated for closure. There was community support of both hospitals. In January 1979, the Committee for Interns and Residents staged a one-day walkout of doctors at municipal hospitals to protest the cuts, and were often supported on picket lines by hospital workers from District Council 37 of AFSCME. A “Coalition to Save Sydenham” supported legal efforts to stop the closing, organized public rallies and lobbying of elected officials, and helped publicize research to demonstrate the need for the hospital. (In 1977 the federal government designated Harlem a “medically underserved area, with the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano calling it a “health disaster area.”) While a diminished Metropolitan Hospital was saved as an “Outpatient Demonstration:” project, the city insisted that Sydenham had to be closed. In the spring of 1980, as Sydenham was about to be shut down, angry demonstrators stormed the hospital, and initiated an occupation that lasted 10 days under a so-called “People’s Administration.”
Despite the added publicity, this brought, in 1980 Sydenham’s doors were closed for good and eventually, the Mannie Wilson Towers were built within the hospital’s shell.
As you likely know, the mayoral race in NYC is almost overwhelmin. To help voters navigate options, THE CITY has created Meet Your Mayor, which shows you how the candidates’ stands fit with how you are seeing the race.
Here’s what to do: You answer a few short multiple-choice questions on some of the most pressing matters facing the city — from COVID recovery to public school admissions to NYPD discipline and much more.
The major candidates have already answered the same questions.
Voila: Meet Your Mayor will reveal your best match or matches among the candidates
To get started, click below on any of the 3 topics. Answer questions with how you feel about these issues. Then the candidates that agree most with your answers will be displayed:
You may have heard about the fire last week on Park Avenue between 128/129. Given the presence of the Metro North tracks, the trucks had to extend ladders and evacuation buckets in an odd configuration with one extended a number of storefronts, but essentially parallel to the ground:
