4
OUR TIME PRESS March 19 – 25, 2015 |
Tentative State Budget
Contains $700 Million
for Possible Hospital
in Brownsville/ East
New York
■
By Mary Alice Miller
F
rom the moment Governor Cuomo’s Administration signaled a budget allocation of up to $700 million for
a new hospital for the Brownsville/East New York area, newly
elected Assemblywoman Latrice
Walker was on it. The first fight
was to take that signal and make
the allocation a budgetary reality. After weeks of galvanizing
community stakeholders and
members of the Brooklyn state
legislative delegation, last week
both the Assembly and the Senate included the funds in their
preliminary budgets.
Walker’s successful community campaign to galvanize
support for adding state funding of a new hospital in East
Brooklyn to the budget began
in earnest with the Brookdale
Hospital Advisory Board. The
shock that the governor would
take health care in Brownsville/East New York seriously
enough to initiate funding for a
new hospital facility gave way
to serious questions about the
details.
Meanwhile, Khari Edwards,
Director of Community and
Government Affairs at Brookdale, crafted an open letter calling on community residents to
support construction of a new
hospital near Brookdale or on
its grounds, stating that the proposed new hospital “will not only
provide access to health care, but
also jobs and an improved quality of life for residents of East
Brooklyn”.
Why Brookdale? Because
Brookdale University Hospital
and Medical Center is the only
hospital in Brooklyn that owns
its land. There would be no haggling over land acquisition and
purchase costs would not be a
factor.
Last week, Brookdale Hospital CEO Mark Toney trekked
to Albany for an all-day series of
meetings with the governor and
elected officials to craft a foundational framework for the initiative.
The Brooklyn delegation of state
elected officials also met to discuss the possibility. Community
members have begun to speak up
in support of a potential new 21st
century world-class hospital for
Brownsville/East New York.
Tentatively, the funding is in
the budget which is due to be finalized by April 1. After the budget is
signed, a next phase of community
advocacy will be needed to make
sure the allocated funds are not
diverted from the proposed new
hospital.
In Other Budget News…
Assembly member Walter
Mosley, Budget Chair for the
Black, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, called for fairness
and opportunity in the budget. The
2015-16 People’s Priority Budget
(available online) promotes criminal justice reforms, fully funding education as mandated in the
Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, The DREAM Act and other initiatives to strengthen economic opportunities for families
throughout New York.
NAUW – Brooklyn Branch 60th Anniversary
A Warm and Memorable Celebration
■
By Kiara Perry – Young Affiliate
D
espite the blanketing snowfall of Sunday, March 1, guests
turned out in force at the National Association of University Women – Brooklyn Branch’s
60 th Anniversary celebration
held at Medgar Evers College.
They were greeted by the great
music of the Strobert Trio, and
warmly welcomed by Event
Chairperson Andrea Flateau
and President Deborah Finley-Jackson.
The event opened with congratulations to the branch for
their six decades of unwavering community service by
Rev. Robert Townsley from
the Community Council. Also
issuing accolades, commendations and citations were: the
Borough President’s Office;
NYC Public Advocate Letitia
James, NY State Assemblyman
Walter Mosley and City Council member Laurie Cumbo. Two
members of the NAUW-Manhattan Branch also attended and
offered congratulations.
The
Young
Affiliates
showed a short video that
had excerpts from our interview with Ms. Doris Alexander, 93, a Brooklyn Branch
founder. After the video, the
Young Affiliates talked about
our visit and fielded a Question-and-Answer session with
the audience.
NAUW Young Aﬃliate Kiara Perry
Featured keynote speaker Roxana Walker-Canton, an award-winning filmmaker, screened a
10-minute excerpt of her “Living
Thinkers: An Autobiography of
Black Women in the Ivory Tower”. The documentary presented
interviews with African-American
women, college-level educators
and administrators. They talked
about how important education
was to them and how hard it sometimes was to move up in their jobs.
Ms. Walker-Canton also answered questions from the audience. She told us that even
though she focused on Black
women, there were many others
who face the same issues. Dr.
Walker-Canton also said that we
should pay more attention to our
schools: we should talk more
about them and also compare
how well they may or may not
be doing in getting young people
prepared for the future.
The branch’s next event is
a theatre party for our scholarship fund to take place on May
2, 2015. If you wish to support,
please e-mail: [email protected],
or
find out more information on
NAUW-Brooklyn Branch Facebook page: www.facebook.com/
NAUWBrooklyn.
VOL. 20 NO. 12
The budget should reflect “a
shared opportunity agenda that
will benefit all New Yorkers,”
said Mosley. Despite the onetime
windfall that came from bank
settlements, Mosley is concerned
about the state’s ability to generate revenue and questions the
governor’s Start-Up New York
initiative that “has failed tax revenue expectations”. Mosley suggests a fair and progressive tax
for those who can afford it. The
assemblyman advocates for an
increase in minimum wage with
a provision that local municipalities have the ability to set their
own higher rate based on local
economic conditions.
The Assembly budget expands
access to affordable housing by
allocating funding to a variety
of programs that would prevent
homelessness, fund repairs in
NYCHA and Mitchell-Lama
M L
developments, and assist homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
“Whether you rent or own
your home, economic security
starts with having a safe, affordable place to raise your family,”
said Mosley. “The Assembly’s
budget proposal would help lower
the cost of living for New Yorkers
and assist more families in finding
quality housing.”
For years, Senator Montgomery has advocated for the discontinuance of law enforcement
using condoms as evidence of
prostitution. The governor included the proposal in his budget. The
Assembly adopted and expanded
protections for carrying condoms
but the Senate rejected it in its entirety. Montgomery is concerned
about overall health impacts if law
enforcement is allowed to continue criminalizing New Yorkers for
carrying condoms.