Mikel Bragham
Members of the Vote in NYC Jails Coalition rallying for a Rikers Island-based poll site February.
Voter education is one hurdle. But a bigger one, advocates say, is the cumbersome voting process itself for people behind bars. “There are impediments and obstacles that create real and serious concerns about the viability of an absentee ballot,” said Cesar Ruiz, associate counsel at LatinoJustice.
According to the New York State Board of Elections, 329 candidates registered for the first state-level public campaign finance program, which aims to curb the influence of big money in politics by matching small, local donations with public funds.
Dozens of other states have embraced some version of an Equal Rights Amendment in their constitutions. New Yorkers will get a chance to vote in November on whether to expand the class of people protected against discrimination in the Equal Protection Clause of the state constitution.
Community-based organizations are primed and ready to help New Yorkers deal with extreme weather events but say they need more robust communication, engagement, and financial resources from the city. “This is about long-term cultivation of capacity at the street level,” said Rebecca Bratspies, director of CUNY Law’s Center for Urban Environmental Reform. “And we need it because we’re going to be facing this over and over again.”
A plan to transform the Ravenswood Generating Station into a clean energy center is in the works, with a vote on an offshore wind proposal expected this fall. Queens community members say that the stakes could not be higher.
Gathering data from satellites and sensors placed on trees, the network measured temperatures across different types of urban green spaces in 12 U.S. cities, including New York. It found that the air temperature was cooler in forests compared to landscaped trees at over 90 percent of locations.
Nearly two years after the Gowanus rezoning’s passage, signs of change are all around: demolition projects and new builds are transforming the neighborhood. According to the Department of City Planning, roughly half of the expected 8,500 apartments along the canal are in planning or construction stages.
“It’s an issue that seems to be within DOC’s control, something they can anticipate, and yet they’re really not able to make sure that the conditions are humane for the people that are forced to be there,” one civil rights attorney said.
“In fairness, this was an unprecedented challenge the city agencies had not ever confronted before,” said Councilmember Gale Brewer. “Some would say it was, however, foreseeable. For years scientists have warned us that rising global temperatures will lead to change in weather patterns, climate disasters, and direct harms to our health.”
With three large-scale waterfront industrial properties—Arthur Kill Terminal, Staten Island Marine Terminal, and Rossville Municipal Site—under consideration for offshore wind development, thousands of jobs could soon be washing up on Staten Island’s shores.
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