Creating The Chemical Rule Book
With every substance that a cell encounters it has to decide which to eliminate and which to let in. UC San Diego's Amro Hamdoun explains how you can think of cells like nightclubs. Since humans have generated over 80,000 synthetic compounds, it's now ever more important to understand both what these substances are doing to our bodies, but to also create a rule book for making these chemicals safer.
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is promoting reparations in a bid to curb health and wealth disparities of black New Yorkers — but the effort is being met with accusations that it’s “sowing racial divisiveness,” The Post has learned.
The proposal for federal reparations is spelled out in a bombshell report from the city’s Department of Health and the Federal Reserve Bank entitled “Analyzing the Racial Wealth Gap and Implications for Health Equity.”
“The goal of a [federal] reparations program would be to seek acknowledgment, redress, and closure for America’s complicity in federal, state, and local policies … that have deprived black Americans of equitable access to wealth and wealth-building opportunities,” the report said.
The city’s Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan and his team offered three key recommendations including: a fresh approach to public health policy, how to improve data collections on wealth and health outcomes and getting the community more involved with health care decisions.
But moderate and conservative politicians opposed to reparations accused Adams’ health minions of turning into ideologues and social justice activists instead of doing their jobs.
“Add reparations and sowing racial divisiveness to the list of greatest policy hits by Commissioner Vasan’s and his health department, right alongside the crack pipe vending machine, heroin ‘empowerment’ signs on subways, firing unvaccinated city workers, supporting government drug dens; and banning unvaccinated kids from sports,” fumed Council Republican Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island).
The New York legislature approved a commission to address economic, political and educational disparities by black people in June and follows the lead of California, which became the first state to form a reparations task force in 2020.
New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, the first black person to hold the position, called the legislation “historic.”
Adams has previously expressed support for the commission which is awaiting Hochul’s signature.
“We have consistently brought together experts to discuss a variety of ideas to promote equity in our city and we will continue to do so,” said the Health Department’s spokesman.
“We have an obligation to help New Yorkers lead longer, healthier lives.”
As with most progress in this system, we have to first inspect its ongoing involvement in pro enslavement systems. Not only did the historical ties to the Trans-Atlantic-slave trade leave on going structural residual connections that linger in our society today, it continues to exist in the 13th amendment's clause: slavery illegal unless a crime was found on you. That "unless" aspect made it essentially persist as is under the guise of hyper-criminalization at a system level. This has had adverse, negative effect on everyone including the environment. These are facts that can be proven. Not just social justice counter points. Besides, we are literally (regardless of what we say about it) immersed in politics and social justice through our lived social experiences. Claiming "the social justice advocates are the issue for pointing out what exists" is not helpful and adds to the lack of communal education required to understand these things. We need problack proindigenx reperations and restituion.
Tiny gaming (2021.04.08) Photoshoot by me
Bills provide solutions to record homelessness and worsening eviction crisis
In response to Mayor Adams’ executive order suspending the rule that requires individuals to stay in a homeless shelter for 90 consecutive days before qualifying for a CityFHEPS housing voucher, the New York City Council, homeless services providers and advocates called on the Mayor to sign all of the recently-passed Council bills into law. The four bills were passed by the Council on May 25 with votes of 41 to 7, far more than a veto-proof majority.
First heard in January, the bills were overwhelmingly approved by the Council after nearly one year of inaction by the Administration to eliminate the 90-day rule, despite first pledging to end it in June 2022. As the city continued to welcome tens of thousands of people seeking asylum in the U.S. throughout the past year, the Council continued to call for the Administration to eliminate the rule in statements, hearings, and reports, as a solution to better assist New Yorkers in transitioning out of the shelter system to permanent housing.
According to data for the first four months of Fiscal Year 2023 in the most recent Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report, the average length of stay in shelter was 802 days for adult families, 485 days for families with children, and 441 days for single adults. The Mayor’s Housing Blueprint estimates that it cost the city nearly $8,773 per month to house a family of two in the shelter system in 2022. A CityFHEPS voucher for the same family would cost a maximum of $2,387, and likely less, resulting in a lower total annual expense.
At a time of record homelessness, the Administration has also left thousands of apartments vacant. It has failed to place homeless New Yorkers into over 2,000 vacant supportive housing apartments, while cutting funds from and understaffing the agencies responsible for making the placements. It has also cut funding from NYCHA to help fill vacant apartments, when over 6,500 remain empty and unavailable for tenants. Meanwhile, the Mayor’s administration has failed to intervene as the number of evictions has skyrocketed, surpassing 100,000 cases in the courts.
“Passing legislation to reform city policies that have blocked New Yorkers’ access to CityFHEPS housing vouchers was a critical and long overdue step to help people move out of shelters, find and maintain stable housing, and reduce homelessness,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “The 90-day rule is just one of several counterproductive barriers that the Administration failed to take action to eliminate, leaving too many New Yorkers stuck in shelters far longer than necessary. The efforts to transition people from homeless shelters to permanent housing have been inadequate, straining the City’s shelter capacity under additional pressures. While we welcome the Administration finally seeming to drop its opposition to end the 90-day rule, the Council’s legislation importantly codifies the change and provides a more comprehensive approach to remove other obstacles to housing vouchers that can help protect New Yorkers. The only reliable path forward to truly confront the city’s eviction and homelessness crises is for the Mayor to sign the entire package of legislation.”
“The policies and systems we have in place right now to address homelessness within our city do not work,” said Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala. “Rather than reforming the system to prevent families from becoming homeless, our current policy is to force New Yorkers into the shelter system before we agree to help them. It doesn’t make sense and the City Council acknowledged that. We collectively took a stand and passed a package of bills aimed at addressing the issue. I ask the Mayor to join the City Council in putting the needs of New Yorkers first.”
“We are at a critical juncture in our city’s housing and homelessness crisis, with record levels of individuals and families affected, especially as we welcome new New Yorkers,” said Council Member Pierina Sanchez. “My district knows the heartbreaking consequences firsthand. One in ten households of Bronx community district 5 faced eviction last year. This has meant more children forced to commute over 90 minutes from shelters in Queens or Brooklyn to the Bronx, severing vital social bonds and support networks that are crucial for their development. As we welcome new New Yorkers, we need solutions that ease our over-burdened systems and stabilize our communities. This is why our Council passed Int 893 and Int 894, which position CityFHEPS as an upstream eviction prevention tool. Int. 893 would end the requirement that a family become homeless before they are eligible for a voucher, keeping families in their homes and out of shelter. Int. 894 will ease work and income requirements, again, preventing folks from entering shelter in the first place. These bills are fiscally prudent. Per the Mayor’s Housing Blueprint, it cost the city nearly $8,773 per month to house a family of two in the shelter system in 2022. A CityFHEPS voucher for the same family would cost a maximum of $2,387, and probably less, resulting in a lower total annual expense. Signing these bills would represent commitment to fighting for housing and against homelessness. I urge the Mayor to sign these bills into law.”
“A comfortable, reliable home is the essential pillar of a dignified life, and a key foundation of true public safety, not to mention public health,” said Council Member Tiffany Cabán. “The bills recently passed by Council, taken together, constitute an important step toward a city where the purpose of the housing system is guaranteeing all New Yorkers housing, not maximizing profits for corporate landlords and billionaire developers. In the interest of safety, health, and dignity, the Mayor must move swiftly to sign this critical package of bills into law.”
The bills, which include elimination of the rule that requires individuals to stay in a homeless shelter for 90 consecutive days before qualifying for a CityFHEPS housing voucher, also help ensure vouchers can prevent evictions, do not undermine economic advancement, and are adequately valued to include utility costs.
Introduction 878-A, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, would remove shelter stay as a precondition to CityFHEPS eligibility. This would remove eligibility barriers, reduce lengths of stay in the shelter system and prevent new shelter entrants. [1]
Introduction 893-A, sponsored by Council Member Pierina Sanchez, would remove certain eligibility restrictions for CityFHEPS to allow applicants at risk of eviction or experiencing homelessness access to vouchers. [2]
Introduction 894-A, sponsored by Council Member Pierina Sanchez, would change the eligibility for a CityFHEPS voucher from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 50 percent of the area median income and remove work and source of income requirements that make it difficult for individuals to pursue employment and housing concurrently. [3]
Introduction 229-A, sponsored by Council Member Tiffany Cabán, would prohibit the Department of Social Services from deducting a utility allowance from the maximum amount of a CityFHEPS voucher, except in limited circumstances. [4]
Alongside the CityFHEPS bills, the Council has pushed for increased funding for the city’s affordable housing capital budget, right-to-counsel program, and agencies responsible for homelessness and housing, like the Department of Homeless Services, Human Resources Administration, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and New York City Housing Authority.
“Low-income and immigrant New Yorkers are struggling to deal with the increasingly drastic affordability and shelter crises – but with the bold action taken by the City Council, there is a path forward to permanent housing and self-sufficiency,” said Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director of New York Immigration Coalition. “Mayor Adams is rightfully ending the 90-day rule for the CityFHEPS voucher program, but this step is not enough to address the magnitude of our current situation. If we continue putting forward half-measures and band-aid fixes, we are destined to perpetuate the longstanding problems of our City’s overburdened shelter system. Mayor Adams must sign the entire City Council package, to expand eligibility to vouchers and help New Yorkers skip entering the shelter system altogether. With these cost-effective policies in place, New York families will be able to move out of the shelters and streets, and into permanent housing where they can begin to build the lives they deserve.”
“We must remain focused on implementing solutions that prevent homelessness, rapidly rehouse homeless New Yorkers, and avoid petty distractions in the form of a Mayoral veto,” said Celina Trowell, Homelessness Union Organizer at VOCAL-NY. “If we had a real partner at Gracie Mansion, the administration would have ended the abhorrent 90-day rule unilaterally instead of the Council having to force the Mayor’s hand by passing Int. 878-A. We hope this executive action honors the full scope of Int. 878-A and strongly urge the Mayor to sign the CityFHEPS reforms passed by the Council, including Int. 229-A, Int. 894-A and Int. 893-A.”
“Temporary suspension of a bad policy is fine, but permanent legislation to end it is much better,” said Jose Lopez, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York. “We urge the Mayor to immediately sign the Council’s strong CityFHEPS package, which includes several measures that will help get New Yorkers out of the streets and shelter system, and into permanent housing.”
“We welcome this decision by the Adams Administration to suspend the arbitrary and punitive ‘90-day rule,’ an overhaul we have long advocated for,” said Judith Goldiner, attorney-in-charge of the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society. “However, this should not supplant enacting the package of comprehensive CityFHEPS reforms recently passed by the Council that would improve housing stability for the thousands of New Yorkers who are experiencing or on the verge of homelessness. Following Albany’s failure to advance any significant housing policy this session to address the state’s unprecedented housing crisis, it’s now incumbent on Mayor Adams to sign these crucial bills into law immediately.”
“While we applaud the Mayor’s decision to take quick executive action to eliminate the 90-day rule, this reform alone is not enough, said Catherine Trapani, Executive Director of Homeless Services United. “Our City is facing an enormous crisis and we need the response of our government to match the magnitude of the need. The package of bills passed by the City Council not only addresses the 90-day rule but also makes several other critical changes to streamline eligibility for housing assistance for those living in shelter while also improving our ability to prevent people from having to enter shelter in the first place. Taken together, once enacted, these reforms will greatly reduce pressure on our overburdened shelter system. We urge the mayor to sign the Council’s bills and move to implement all of them as quickly as possible.”
“Housing vouchers are one of the best tools we have to support homeless families, but we all know they can be more effective. This crisis requires creative solutions and I was proud to work with the City Council on historic legislation to improve CityFHEPS vouchers — especially repealing the 90-Day Rule — so we can help homeless New Yorkers move out of shelter faster, creating more capacity for those seeking asylum and saving the city millions of dollars,” said Christine C. Quinn, President & CEO of Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive services for homeless families with children in New York City & the nation. “While I applaud Mayor Adams for repealing the outdated, illogical 90-Day Rule more must be done to break the cycle of homelessness — and I stand with the Council in urging him to sign the entire package of housing voucher reforms.”
“The groundbreaking CityFHEPS bill package passed by the New York City Council on May 25th provides critical improvements to the efficacy of the voucher program for New Yorkers in need of housing and at risk of eviction. These four pieces of legislation will together expand eligibility, eliminate requirements that currently hinder efficient access to assistance, and ensure that the full value of the voucher can be utilized. While we appreciate the administration’s move to eliminate the 90-day waiting period for those in DHS shelters to apply for CityFHEPS, this is just one of several critical changes these bills would enact. We urge Mayor Adams to sign the entire package into law and implement it as quickly as possible. Multiple tools are needed to successfully combat homelessness, and effective vouchers that allow households to both obtain and maintain housing in the community is an essential one of those tools. As we celebrate the City Council’s bold move to alleviate homelessness, we recognize that the City cannot do this work alone. The State and Federal governments must provide support to ensure these efforts can be sustained into the future,” said Frederick Shack, Chief Executive Officer of Urban Pathways. - - City Hall NY
Blog Admin K, notes: [1] Imagine seeing your financial situation clearly spell next unhoused crisis entry, having the proof of this and still not be able to be approved for a housing voucher because the city requires that you go through homelessness for that approval. I went through this myself and I'm currently in over $20k in rent debt since I can't afford to pay because I had to stay in this apartment. There wasn't a lot of legal help and still isn't around this. This is literally abusive and torturous. This measure can help against this. Governments shouldn't be legalizing forcing others to experience being unhoused for housing resources. [2] This is great because it opens eligibility standards to include people who are in such debt that they clearly need financial assistance with housing before legally allowing them to be sent to the streets only to overpolice them and provide them with fucked up medical care. [3] Again, the less requirements for people to receive housing help because the government and city can account for people by providing and not ask about income the better since most of the housing provided are still beyond "affordable" housing. [4] So would this then prevent people who are receiving help with utilities from the city to have this remove how much that can receive for overall housing assistance? If so, awesome. If not, feel free to add your comments and opinions on these posts.
Official U.S PlayStation Magazine #47, Aug 2001 - ‘Final Fantasy’ cover.
what a time
if anyone’s interested, here’s a direct link to the most recently passed n.y. bill on reparations titled 2619–A: ‘Establishes the New York state community commission on reparations remedies‘. it now needs signage from the governer for approval.
The split personalities of an AI consciousness can result in strikingly different visual manifestations
New York would create a commission to consider reparations to address the lingering, negative effects of slavery under a bill passed by the state Legislature on Thursday.
"We want to make sure we are looking at slavery and its legacies," said state Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages before the floor debate. "This is about beginning the process of healing our communities. There still is generational trauma that people are experiencing. This is just one step forward."
The state Assembly passed the bill about three hours after spirited debate on Thursday. The state Senate passed the measure hours later, and the bill will be sent to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for consideration.
New York would be following the lead of California, which became the first state to form a reparations task force in 2020. That group recommended a formal apology from the state on its legacy of racism and discriminatory policies and the creation of an agency to provide a wide range of services for Black residents. They did not recommend specific payments amounts for reparations.[1]
The New York legislation would create a commission that would examine the extent to which the federal and state governments supported the institution of slavery.[2] It would also address persistent economic, political and educational disparities experienced by Black people in the state today.
According to the New York bill, the first enslaved Africans arrived at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, then a Dutch settlement, around the 1620s and helped build the infrastructure of New York City. While the state Legislature enacted a statute that gave freedom to enslaved Africans in New York in 1817, it wasn't implemented until 10 years later.[3]
"I'm concerned we're opening a door that was closed in New York State almost 200 years ago,"[4] said Republican state Assemblymember Andy Gooddell during floor debates on the bill. Gooddell, who voted against the measure, said he supports existing efforts to bring equal opportunity to all and would like to "continue on that path rather than focus on reparations."[5]
In California, the reparations task force said in their report that the state is estimated to be responsible for more than $500 billion due to decades of over-policing, mass incarceration and redlining that kept Black families from receiving loans and living in certain neighborhoods. California's state budget last year was $308 billion.[6] Reparations in New York could also come with a hefty price tag.
The commission would be required to deliver a report one year after its first meeting. The panel's recommendations, which could potentially include monetary compensation for Black people,[7] would be non-binding. The legislature would not be required to take the recommendations up for a vote.
New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who is the first Black person to hold the position, called the legislation "historic."[8]
Heastie, the governor and the legislative leader in the state Senate would each appoint three members to the commission.[9]
Other state legislatures that have considered studying reparations include New Jersey and Vermont, but none have passed legislation yet.[10] The Chicago suburb in Evanston, Illinois, became the first city to make reparations available to Black residents through a $10 million housing project in 2021.[11]
On the federal level, a decades-old proposal to create a commission studying reparations has stalled in Congress.[12]
Some critics of reparations by states say that while the idea is well-intentioned, it can be misguided.[13]
William Darity, a professor of public policy and African and African American Studies at Duke University said even calling them reparations is "presumptuous," since it's virtually impossible for states to meet the potentially hefty payouts.[14]
He said the federal government has the financial capacity to pay true reparations and that it should be the party that is responsible.[15]
"My deeper fear with all of these piecemeal projects is that they actually will become a block against federal action because there will be a number of people who will say there's no need for a federal program," Darity said. "If you end up settling for state and local initiatives, you settle for much less than what is owed."[16] K, Blog Admin notes: [1] This is useful because it's attempting institutionalization of the divestment in needing money to solve the issue of slavery reparations and instead aims to provide a means to account for such a system by way of adhering to necessities. This seems like a legislative path to that. A formal apology is well overdue so the creation of these institutions, paired with divestment in money (which are literal enslavement notes) makes for said apology more effective and honest.
[2] Correct, slavery is handled and supported to this day at a state and federal level. Any strategies aimed at changing this enslavement system requires changes at both state and federal levels, otherwise what's the point? [3] Legislature like the one in 1817 what it did was make enslavement go covert while continuing to operate with the same engine. Which is why we need to correct any semblance of it existing by abolishing institutions that were created from slavery and repurpose ones sabotaged by past and existing pro slavery legislature. Reparations fixes itself to do just that.
[4] Read [3] because slavery's door was never shut. There's never been enough evidence, something I hope this legislature corrects, with regards to presenting when this "end of slavery" ever occurred. As far as everyone experiencing this god awful system is concerned slavery continued just fine.
[5] Slavery as a system created such a historical inequivalence for all involved that a path has never honestly been formed to claim we're all equal. How can we "continue" on something we've never even established?
[6] Translation: The enslavers who own this system over us and invested so much in slavery can't put their money where their labor is. This is our issue how? Legislature like this will help correct that.
[7] I would hope that this conversation around monetary compensation and reparations from enslavement systems involves a divestment plan from a currency note that has factual connections to and will continue to be looked at as an enslaver note to those who study slavery historically. So this might look like an institution that can help communities divest from ever even needing to use money due to their systemic connections to slavery.
[8] This legislature is needed and overdue, I wouldn't call it historic yet. People within government tend to have a low bar for what's historic and epic.
[9] Not enough people. 3 is not enough. This is a ridiculously low amount considering how easy it can be to sabotage this work as they have in the past, this increases that chance. They need more community input. Otherwise, what's the point?
[10] Further implicating these states with systemic slavery.
[11] Not enough for similar reasons that a slaver creating their own paper and telling you to live off of it is not enough to stop slavery.
[12] So the one thing that did have a semblance of working, you let it rock there, doing nothing? Seems like an institutional trend.
[13] How? Explain using evidence in the same way we abolitionists use evidence to prove slavery is not needed.
[14] Agreed, and they don't have the capacity to make their enslaver dollars mean much into the future. Money temporarily becomes pay outs which are like the apology letter you include system changes with otherwise its just enslavers recycling their image.. AGAIN.
[15] Agreed, but I hope this doesn't mean shift in focus from what needs to structurally change at a state level and what these types of legislature can do. I think federal changes should come with state strategizing as well.
[16] see [14] and [15]
13th | Full Feature
Jens enjoys his Dinner Treatie and Voigt helps with Excellent Gnawing and a Face-Hug!
lmao that hop
