Black Drivers Pay More (Insurance)

Chau Lam from We The Commuters reports on the cost of (Black) insurance in NYC:

New York City drivers living in predominantly Black and low-income communities pay hundreds and thousands of dollars more for auto insurance than drivers living in predominantly white and wealthy neighborhoods, according to a new report from the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America.

The group’s analysis found that insurance companies offer the lowest prices to drivers living in five Manhattan ZIP codes along the Upper East Side, Upper West Side and Midtown East, which are majority white areas that are home to residents who are high-income earners.

Meanwhile, drivers living in Brownsville, Canarsie, East Flatbush and Crown Heights, which are predominantly Black neighborhoods with low median incomes, paid the highest auto insurance premiums, according to the ZIP code analysis done by the Consumer Federation of America.

Consumer advocates and some New York state lawmakers are trying to stop auto insurance companies from using credit scores to set rates, arguing that the practice results in low-income drivers and people of color paying higher premiums even when their driving records are flawless.

About 95% of auto insurers in New York use credit scores to set prices, according to the CFA. But the group argues that drivers with low credit scores may have experienced a job loss or an unexpected medical bill, adding that insurance companies have not demonstrated how non-driving factors are connected to driving risks.

Juneteenth Community Celebration

Juneteenth March/Run/Walk/Roll

JuneteenthMarch.org

Engineering the Next Generation: Students Wanted

Sector Charlie – Build the Block

Residents & Business Owners of Sector Charlie! Join Neighborhood Coordination Officers Lau & Hackeling for their Build the Block on Mar. 16 at 5pm, @ 85 East 125 Street. Not sure this is your sector? Visit http://ow.ly/iUc250MZFC2 & type in your address to find out.

Set Out Times

Dear Fellow New Yorker,

As part of our commitment to keeping our streets clean, the NYC Department of Sanitation is implementing:

  • A new rule to reduce the time that trash, recycling, and curbside composting will sit on sidewalks. The new rule goes into effect April 1, 2023.
  • Citywide curbside composting service for all New Yorkers by the end of 2024

We invite you to join us for an upcoming Info Session to learn more about these exciting changes! Please register at the link below. If you are unable to attend, you can learn more at nyc.gov/SetoutTimes and nyc.gov/curbsidecomposting.

Meeting DateMeeting TimeRegistration Link
3/15/20231:00 PMhttps://teams.microsoft.com/registration/x2_1MoFfIk6pWxXaZlE77w,rYmh4LvA10CJA3mwZT0llA,vPW-k9nXBU63wY1_0IMYKw,xsKSk2Y7oEiVt5-HEEOdBA,jb7qgevsukyAFwXbVdzVfA,lQJFP6E2x063r0OVMFcn2A?mode=read&tenantId=32f56fc7-5f81-4e22-a95b-15da66513bef&webinarRing=gcc
3/21/20231:00 PMhttps://teams.microsoft.com/registration/x2_1MoFfIk6pWxXaZlE77w,rYmh4LvA10CJA3mwZT0llA,vPW-k9nXBU63wY1_0IMYKw,z2ZlKputvEWZ4dlNvV4qpg,fs6yXau58UiImT2Ds6tYrQ,gG-g05TdpUGk5xGfC-Pdng?mode=read&tenantId=32f56fc7-5f81-4e22-a95b-15da66513bef&webinarRing=gcc
3/23/20231:00 PMhttps://teams.microsoft.com/registration/x2_1MoFfIk6pWxXaZlE77w,rYmh4LvA10CJA3mwZT0llA,vPW-k9nXBU63wY1_0IMYKw,eP04DUy9GEOR768A0HTfew,yKWPJp8Xd0uhkgOz0KUltw,gIECFdpq6ESQCSnwGclZwg?mode=read&tenantId=32f56fc7-5f81-4e22-a95b-15da66513bef&webinarRing=gcc

We look forward to seeing you at one of our info sessions!

Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in 21st Century America

Residential segregation manages to color just about every facet of US life. It fuels the country’s sprawling suburban development and the massive carbon footprint that lifestyle demands. It underpins struggling public schools and the increasingly toxic politics around them. It turns would-be neighbors into feared strangers by politicians like Kristin Jordan who oppose the vision of a multiracial community.  

Sheryll Cashin, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and former White House urban policy advisor, has devoted much of her career to documenting how segregation poisons America. Her new book, White Space, Black Hood, examines how radicals work to maintain racial enclaves.

Profesor Cashin, writes that she believes that integration “is the best route to equal opportunity for everyone.” She continues that in a moment when the topic had largely fallen from the national political discourse, she has “…become convinced of this — even as I recognize the nurturing benefits of a racial enclave — because of the virulent inequality that our separation is begetting.”

White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality explores how the Great Recession and the orgy of predatory lending that preceded it wreaked enduring havoc on household wealth in Black and Latino communities, while a national shortage of affordable housing and stubborn patterns of inequality have locked non-white renters into low-opportunity neighborhoods and America’s Public schools have largely resegregated.

To read a Bloomberg interview with Professor Cashin on the collapse of racial integration, see:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-11/tracking-the-disastrous-collapse-of-u-s-racial-integration

Juneteenth Events Next Weekend in Harlem’s Historic Parks

JUNE 17 2nd ANNUAL HISTORIC HARLEM PARKS JUNETEENTH FESTIVAL KICKOFF @ MARCUS GARVEY PARK – FREE! 

12-3PM on NW lawn –  NYPL Harlem and Studio Museum with children’s storytime, giveaways and tour/talk about the Thomas J. Price sculpture. 

3-6PM on NW lawn – Say Their Namesarts performance project gives (2) dream workshops and recognizes the lives of Americans taken by racism. Presented by NYC Parks and Marcus Garvey Park Alliance. 

730PM at Richard Rodgers Amphitheater – NYC Parks and Marcus Garvey Park Alliance present Say Their Names in an opening song and short film prior to the screening of Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” documentary presented by City Parks Foundation.  

JUNE 18 2nd Annual Historic Harlem Parks Juneteenth Festival – FREE! 

MARCUS GARVEY PARK

12-3pm at NW lawn:  NYPL Harlem and Studio Museum with children’s storytime, giveaways and tour/talk about the Thomas J. Price sculpture. 

630PM at Richard Rodgers amphitheater:  pre-show conversation with the Federation of Black Cowboys 

7PM at Richard Rodgers amphitheater: CROSS THAT RIVER – Join the Federation of Black Cowboys and then Harlem’s own star Allan Harris – globally-renowned for his jazz vocals, guitar and songwriting – in the music & theatrical storytelling of Blu, who runs away from slavery to become a cowboy out west. Did you know that 1 in 4 cowboys were Black men? Presented by NYC Parks, City College Center for the Arts, Jazzmobile and Love Productions.

JACKIE ROBINSON PARK 

2-5:30pm at bandshell:  National Jazz Museum in Harlem brings world music and dance – including dance classes! – and the global star Wunmi to Jackie Robinson Park’s bandshell in partnership with NYC Parks for the 2nd annual Historic Harlem Parks Juneteenth Festival. 

ST NICHOLAS PARK

1-8PM at 135th Street Plaza – Ayo and Friends of St Nicholas Park bring back last year’s favorite Black health and wellness and arts event GoodVibesInThePark on the James Baldwin lawn and at the 135th Street plaza in partnership with NYC Parks as part of the 2nd annual Historic Harlem Parks Juneteenth Festival. 

MORNINGSIDE PARK

12-3PM at 114th Street lawn across from the pond – Harlem Wellness brings yoga, African dance classes and drumming to Morningside Park’s lawn across from the pond in partnership with NYC Parks and Friends of Morningside Park as part of the 2nd annual Historic Harlem Parks Juneteenth Festival.

Juneteenth Block Party

Saturday, June 18th, Noon to 6pm, join a free block party at 131st Street and FDB.

All Welcome!

HBCU College Fair Tomorrow!

Join the 28th Precinct at an HBCU college fair.

2271 8th Avenue (St. Nicholas between 122/123), Noon to 4PM.

All welcome. Free.

Loans, Mortgages, and Insurance

Learn more about loans, mortgages, and insurance on Monday June 13th, 6:30 PM at El Barrio’s Artspace 109:

Another (East Harlem) Juneteenth Block Party

Sunday, June 19th. 11:00 – 7:00 PM

111 Between 3rd and Lexington.

Decriminalize Nature New York will have a table at this 2nd Annual East Harlem Juneteenth Block Party and coordinators with the group will be there to discuss their campaign to decriminalize naturally occurring entheogenic plants and fungi on a Grow, Gather, Gift model that prioritizes community based cultivation, access, research, and treatment.

DN resolutions have passed in over 10 municipalities including Oakland, CA, Washington DC, and Ann Arbor, MI.

DN members will also be seeking support for a Land Back & Reparations platform which specifically applies to Harlem and New York’s cannabis legalization and Social Equity funding.

Who’s Going To Represent You/Harlem In Albany?

The New York State 68th Assembly District primary is coming up.

Whoever wins the primary will likely be your representative in Albany. If you live in the area shown on the map below, make sure to register for the candidates’ forum tomorrow (Thursday, June 9th, at 7:00 PM) using this link:

https://fordham.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIocuGtqD0oEtXpPxQTWfT54jA20YivmtWL

Click to see a larger view

Junteenth!

GothamToGo has a great compilation of Junteenth events:

Make sure to check out the listings for scores of events near you (and sign-up for her amazing blog).

Poop and Harlem’s Hidden COVID Numbers

In September 2020, New York began to sample and test wastewater at New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) wastewater plants for COVID-19.

If you recall an earlier post on wastewater and New York – https://hnba.nyc/where-does-my-sewage-go/ – you may remember that virtually all of Harlem’s wastewater (basically anything that goes down your drain or toilet) ends up at Wards’ Island’s DEP complex. New York Open Data has made the wastewater sampling data available, so I decided to plot COVID-19 as detected in our (Harlem’s) poop.

September 2020 December 2020 December 2021 April 2022

As you likely know, wastewater sampling can only give a community average of sorts, but what it does (that swab sampling of individual New Yorkers can’t do) is integrates information on the people who never or rarely test.

The chart above is amazing and terrifying at the same time. The left-hand side is September 2020, and the right hand side is April 2022.

That crazy spike is from 12/27/2021 – after Thanksgiving 2021, around Christmas – when Omicron converged in the US. Holiday travel, family gatherings, shopping, and the shift to socializing indoors, all combined with a more contagious COVID variant.

Juneteenth Celebration on East 111st Street

(between Lex/3rd)

Stoop Sale Tomorrow at 10:00

Tomorrow, May 1st is Stoop Sale Day

Come bargain hunting for antiques, toys, clothes, furniture, household items, and wonderful things that residents in the Mount Morris Historic District Community are selling or giving away. Spread the word in your community.

Where: Mount Morris Park Historic District (116th – 125th Street from Madison to Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.)

Time: 10 am – 3 pm
Link to updated map of houses/buildings hosting a sale: https://rebrand.ly/6re

Juneteenth Celebration

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN for the 3rd Annual Juneteenth 5K Run/Walk/Roll this year in Central Park. The event will end with tours of Seneca Village.

Register: https://events.elitefeats.com/22juneteenth

Can’t join us in person? Sign up to participate VIRTUALLY!

This event is a joyful reclaiming of space and history. We hope you will join us!

All proceeds from the Juneteenth March go towards the building fund of the Harlem Center. The center is a 10-year effort started by a coalition of New York-centered community-based organizations (CBOs).

Let’s continue to evolve the 21st Century towards #Inclusionism.

WeOweUS

Juneteenth!

8598/A. 10628) designating Juneteenth as an official public holiday in New York State. … “I am incredibly proud to sign into law this legislation declaring Juneteenth an official holiday in New York State, a day which commemorates the end to slavery in the United States,” Governor Cuomo said.

Harlem Juneteenth Walk/Run/Barbecue

Juneteenth Events Today in Marcus Garvey Park

MARCUS GARVEY PARK
East lawn

11AM     Commemorative dance by Jamel Gaines’ Creative Outlet
Presented by Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage

12-3PM  Faces of Harlem Pop Up Photo Booth * free digital portraits *
                With Freedom Allah – Presented by MMPCIA & Historic Harlem Parks

1230PM Kaydence Music Presents Commander Flame

1PM        Storytime with Harlem Grown & Founder/CEO Tony Hillery

Presented by Historic Harlem Parks

1-3PM    Historic Fire Watchtower Tours with NYC Parks Urban Park Rangers

2PM        Kaydence Music Presents Olivia K / iamchelseaiam / Kristen Joselle
3PM        Seating begins for ticketed guests for Summer of Soul @amphitheater (show 5PM)

Presented by Target in association with Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage, JazzMobile & Historic Harlem Parks

Renée Watson

I recently came across a profoundly powerful statement wrapped in a simple sentence, on a Harlem bus stop ad box.

It turned out that I had met Renée at the Langston Hughes house when it was operating with the IToo Collective managing the space. For anyone who doesn’t know Renée, here’s the blurb from her site:

Renée Watson is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and community activist. Her young adult novel, Piecing Me Together (Bloomsbury, 2017) received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. Her children’s picture books and novels for teens have received several awards and international recognition. She has given readings and lectures at many renown places including the United Nations, the Library of Congress, and the U.S. Embassy in Japan and New Zealand. Her poetry and fiction centers around the experiences of Black girls and women, and explores themes of home, identity, and the intersections of race, class, and gender.

Risk of Crime

(The risk of crime being indicated by red on the map below)

The map of white-collar crime is a telling one. Most of the criminals commit their crime in midtown or the financial district.

Harlem has a relatively low crime rate by this measure.

To explore where you are most at risk for this form of crime, see:

https://whitecollar.thenewinquiry.com/

Hurricane Season is Upon Us

As the 2021 hurricane season unfolds we should all know what our evacuation ‘zone’ is, so we’re ready to evacuate if necessary. Enter your address below to learn more about your zone and to see if your building is on flood-prone land:

http://maps.nyc.gov/hurricane/

Then make sure to note the location of your local shelters (in the side bar of the map) because we know that electricity, cell phone coverage, and the internet may go down before you have a chance to look these up:

To learn more about what you should be doing and thinking about now, to prepare, see:

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/em/html/know-your-zone/knowyourzone.html

Tupac Would Have Been 50, Today

Tupac Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks, on June 16, 1971 in East Halrem. He died on September 13, 1996 and would have been 50, today.

Amazing Digital Workforce Bootcamp for Teens and Veterans

Click Here Now
Please Respond ASAP
For More Info:
email: [email protected]

Juneteenth Block Party